Organizations are responsible for the legal and ethical conduct of all authorized representatives throughout the recruiting process.

Employers who recruit at James Madison University must adhere to the Principles for Ethical Professional Practice taken from the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) principles statement.

Organizations should be aware of the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Employment. 

Employers must adhere to the EEOC’s Employment Discrimination Prohibitions throughout the recruiting process.

Employer should maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) throughout the interview and recruitment process; we recommend the Job Accommodation Network (JAN)’s Employer Practical Guide to Reasonable Accommodation.

In compliance with the U.S. Department of Justice,employers are not able to limit student applications for job postings, on-campus interviews, or career fair registrations based on work authorization status.

The Department of Labor has sanctioned the following questions to determine work authorization when reviewing candidates:

• Are you legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer?
• Will you now or in the near future require visa sponsorship?

Employers must also adhere to the Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employers should also be aware of Handshake's Privacy Policy. 

Employers should be aware of the Department of Justice’s Best Practices as it relates to their recruiting activities.

Employers must be an equal opportunity employer, offering employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability or citizenship unless legally required, and provide equal employment opportunity to disabled veterans and veterans of the Vietnam era.

We reserve the right to decline access to our recruiting platform to organizations who have been flagged in Handshake for suspicious or unprofessional activities at our fellow colleges and universities.

Organizations must have a comprehensive website.

Employer representatives must have an employer affiliated email address.

Employers must be an equal opportunity employer, offering employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability or citizenship unless legally required, and provide equal employment opportunity to disabled veterans and veterans of the Vietnam era.

We reserve the right to decline access to our recruiting platform to organizations who have been flagged in Handshake for suspicious or unprofessional activities at our fellow colleges and universities.

Organizations must have a comprehensive website.

Employer representatives must have an employer affiliated email address.

Providing services to third party employers is at our discretion.

Any new or existing third party recruiting organization that fails to identify themselves as third party will be declined by default; contacts are encouraged to correct this information through Handshake Support.

All representatives of organizations who participate in third party recruiting are required to identify themselves as third party recruiters, regardless of the positions they post within the system.

Third party employers, search firms or employment agencies must fully disclose their status and information related to the organization(s) they are representing.

Third party employers must not charge fees to students.

Third party employers must not disclose any student information for any reason without obtaining prior written consent from the student.

Under no circumstances can student information be disclosed for anything other than the original recruiting purposes nor can it be sold or provided to other entities.

In the event that these guidelines are not met, we reserve the right to revoke access to our online recruiting platform.

We reserve the right to decline positions that do not meet our criteria for professional opportunities for our students.

Postings should be submitted to appear on Handshake for no longer than a one-year time period.

Employers may not work from home and request to hire students to work in that location.

Employers may not charge any "up front" fee as a contingency for employment, training and work placement.

We do not approve positions that include or encourage door-to-door sales.

We do not approve positions with multi-level marketing companies.

There will be no solicitation of students, products or services, which includes the hiring of students to solicit for donations, products or services on-campus.

Positions that are 100% commission or require a candidate to pay a fee for training, equipment, application procedure, or other job-related expenses will not be approved on our online recruiting platform. (This does not apply to federal and state licensing requirements such as real estate, securities, etc.)

Positions offering partial commission compensation must clearly state the guaranteed base salary and estimated commission potential as separate figures in the initial posting.

We support the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) guide to internships. Employers must follow the standards established by NACE when bringing on JMU student interns. NACE believes that an internship should include:

• A learning experience with a real-world opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or replace the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.

• Learned skills and knowledge that are transferable to other employment settings.

• A defined beginning and end that is mutually agreed upon and consistent with institutional sponsor guidelines and schedules.

• A position description with clear responsibilities and required/desired qualifications.

• Clearly defined learning objectives/goals supportive of the student’s academic program goals and institutional requirements.

• Direct supervision by a professional(s) with relevant expertise and educational and/or professional experience who provides productive feedback, guidance, and the resources and equipment necessary to successfully complete the assignment.

Interviews facilitated by University Career Center must take place in our Interview Center.

Employers must continually adhere to legal and ethical recruiting conduct expectations throughout the on-campus interview process.

Recruiters are responsible for familiarizing themselves with their on-campus or virtual recruiting model, timeline and deadlines upon approval to ensure a successful recruiting experience. An employer who misses their set deadlines may need to manually schedule their interviews outside of the recruiting platform.

While employers are welcome to make changes to interview schedules should they have last minute updates, we cannot provide follow up communication on your behalf to any students who missed an interview scheduled outside of our recruiting platform.

We encourage employers to consider students’ academic obligations when scheduling next-round interviews with short notice and ask that students not be penalized for being unable to attend for academic reasons.

We ask that employers be mindful of the university’s exam schedule in scheduling recruiting activities with students.

The use of exploding offers and bonuses is discouraged as a high-pressure technique which may not provide students with the opportunity of timely consideration in order to make an informed decision. We ask that employers adhere to the below timelines for students’ offer consideration time frame: 

Full-Time Employment

• Full-time offers made to current interns prior to their graduation year must remain until October 15 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.
• Full-time offers made to graduating students during fall recruiting must remain until October 15 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.
• Full-time offers made to graduating students during spring recruiting must remain until February 25 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.

Internship Employment

• Internship offers to students prior to their graduation year must remain until October 15 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.
• Summer internship offers to students during fall recruiting must remain until October 15 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.
• Summer internship offers to students during spring recruiting must remain until February 25 or 3 weeks after offer date, whichever allows more time.

If a student does accept your employment offer for a full-time position or an internship prior to the stated deadline, that is their prerogative. In the unfortunate instance that your firm has adhered to these guidelines and a student reneges on an offer, please notify us immediately.

On-Campus Events

• We request that employers coordinate on-campus recruiting events through our department to ensure that organizations do not host conflicting events or events that do not comply with university policies.
• All on-campus recruiting activities should take place in areas that are designated for these types of activities, such as common rooms and high student traffic areas reserved through our department. Areas not appropriate for recruiting activities may be dining facilities, academic buildings, libraries, etc., unless prior communication has occurred through our department to ensure adherence to university policy.
• We ask that employers be mindful of their responsibility to communicate any changes or event cancellations to us and their student attendees. 
• We discourage employers from creating an environment promoting undue alcohol consumption at recruiting events and offer acceptance celebrations. We ask employers to be mindful of the CDC’s minimum legal drinking age when interacting with students at these events.
• We ask employers to consider students’ academic requirements as priority when hosting mandatory recruiting events and asking for immediate responses without advanced notice.
• Employers are asked not to penalize students in the recruiting process due to adherence to their academic responsibilities in the event that they are unable to attend an event.

Virtual and Off-Campus Events

• We do not approve off-campus events that require fees for attendance or participation.
• We do not approve off-campus events that do not pertain specifically to recruiting.
• Off-campus events must be submitted with at least 1 week’s notice; we do not approve last-minute, non-local events.
• We ask employers to be clear about the time of their virtual events and not to indicate a required viewing time for prerecorded webinars. Our students often adjust their schedules to accommodate participating in such events, and therefore, we ask for transparency in any required time commitments.
• We reserve the right to decline any off-campus & virtual events that do not meet our criteria for professional opportunities for our students.

Should the university be closed for inclement weather, any recruiting event or activity being held on campus will automatically be canceled.

Our staff will be available to assist with questions about rescheduling your on-campus events once the University reopens.

Please be sure to alert us to any changes regarding the contact information of your recruiting personnel due to inclement weather.

Please note that you are responsible for informing any students you have communicated with outside of our recruiting platform about the cancellation of your recruiting event, as they will not receive communication from our office.

We encourage you to monitor the JMU delay and cancellation information prior to and on the day of your scheduled attendance if there is predicted inclement weather by visiting the university's website or calling 540-433-5300.