Promotions & Transfers

As an equal opportunity employer, Smith College is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty and staff. It is the college's policy to post and advertise vacancies and to encourage applications from qualified minorities. The college is also committed to retaining valued employees, and encourages internal candidates to apply for open positions.

Promotions and transfers are an important means of developing and expanding the skills and experience of current employees and of achieving the college’s goals of equal employment opportunity.

Internal Postings

In order to ensure that staff members are aware of promotional or transfer opportunities, position vacancies are posted by the Office of Human Resources for five calendar days.

Internal Searches

Staff members who are interested in discussing a specific transfer or promotion opportunity may contact the Office of Human Resources. In order to be considered for an internal position you must be an employee in good standing.  All such inquiries will be held in confidence until the final stage of a search.  As an internal candidate, if you progress to the final round of interviewing it is expected that you inform your direct supervisor of your progress. 

If no eligible internal candidates apply or are qualified and selected for the position, a full external search will then be conducted, and the position will be advertised in various online and media outlets.

Search waiver:

In rare  instances, departments may request a search waiver if there is a qualified candidate within the department. A decision to waive a search must be approved by the Affirmative Action Officer.

Internal Application and Selection Process

Current Smith College employees applying for internal positions should apply through the Career icon in Workday.

Due to the time and effort invested by a department in recruiting and training a new staff member, one year of service in your current position is required before you may transfer to a position in another department. In rare instances when it is in the best interests of both the college and the staff member, exceptions to the one-year-of-service requirement may be made.

Background Checking

Background checks will be conducted on current staff applying for transfers or promotions. After notification of an offer of employment or internal transfer/promotion, the college’s background checking vendor will begin investigative background inquiries. Please see the Background Checking Policy (Section 216).

Notice Period

When a staff member from one office is selected for a vacancy in another office or department, adequate notice will be given to the employee's present department. Three weeks of notice is generally considered reasonable unless some other acceptable arrangement has been agreed upon by the departments in consultation with the Office of Human Resources.

Salary Administration for Internal Transfers

Guidelines on salary administration for promotions, lateral transfers and transfers to lower-level positions are detailed in Section 304 of the Employee Handbook.