What is Handshake?

Handshake is the UA's online electronic job management system that allows students and alumni to search for and apply to part-time, full-time jobs, internships and co-op positions. Employers use Handshake to specifically search for and potentially hire U of A students and alumni.

Handshake is here!

You can now post your job and internship opportunities. Setup your account and follow the University of Arkansas now.

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Questions?

Have questions on how to setup your account? Follow our step-by-step guide below or contact us at recruit@uark.edu or 479-575-2805.

• Employer Guide

Handshake Posting Approval Policy

A primary objective of the University of Arkansas Offices of Career Connections (OCC) or Walton Career Services (WCS) is to support employers in their efforts to recruit and hire UA students. We consider this a partnership effort with a common goal of achieving the best match between the individual student and the employing organization. The OCC and WCS will act in accordance with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles of Professional Conduct for Career Services, and we expect that employers will abide by these principles in their interactions with us, the University, our students and alumni.

If our professional staff determine that additional information must be collected before approving an employer request and/or job postings, the employer will be placed into pending status and will receive a request for more information.

All employers requesting access to post jobs and internships at the University of Arkansas via our Handshake software must first go through a manual approval process facilitated by professional staff in the OCC and WCS. Employers are typically approved or put into pending status (to gather additional information) within 48 hours (2 business days). The UA Career Center and the Walton Career Services retain the discretion to approve or deny employers' access. The following are some of the criteria considered for employer approval:

• Employers must operate in congruence with the University policy of Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action** and do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex, handicap, national origin, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law. An employer or agency using the services of Career Services understands that compliance with all related federal and state statutes and regulations is required for initiation or continuance of Career Services.
• If there is a Handshake Trust Score associated with the employer, the score must be 80% or above. (If a company is new to Handshake, they will not have a Trust Score, so further investigation will be required.)
• Approvals and denials at other schools utilizing Handshake will also factor into the employer approval decision. (For example, a low number of approvals would require further investigation and potentially a decline.)
• Employers must have valid websites that communicate the function of their business.
• The company/organization must be a legitimate established business located in a commercial space - not a WeWork, shared space, or home address. Full address must be listed in the contact information.
• If an employer contact has a Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail address, rather than a corporate address that matches the corporate domain, the employer will typically be declined unless connected with a regionally-based startup (AR, MO, OK, KS, TX, LA, TN).
• We do not approve any startup that is not based regionally. Startups working with the University of Arkansas Career Center, Directors of Employer Relations at the University of Arkansas, Career Specialists, the Sam M. Walton College of Business or have an existing relationship with Start-up Junkie or Grit Studios are typically approved.
• We do not approve personal 'employers' or 'Personal Ads,' seeking i.e. babysitters, nannies, home care, personal assistants, etc.
• We do not approve employers who require any type of payment or investment - with the organization itself serving as an umbrella or parent corporation. Investments of this type may include, but are not limited to: requirement to attend unpaid orientation or training sessions; direct payment of a fixed fee; direct payment to be placed into a job or internship, requirement to pay an application fee, payment to attend orientation or training sessions; and/or purchase or rental of a starter kit, sales kit, samples, or presentation supplies.
• We do not approve employers who would require our students to make door-to-door sales due to safety concerns even with an acceptable Trust Score.
• We do not approve employers selling class notes/quizzes/tests/textbooks/ etc. - even with an acceptable Trust Score.

UA Marijuana Policy

The Drug Free Schools and Communities Act 1989 (DFSCA) provides, "as a condition of receiving funds or any form of financial assistance under any Federal program, an institution of Higher Education must certify that it has adopted and implemented a program to prevent the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs or alcohol by students and employees." Further, under the DFSCA, institutions of Higher Education must employ "standards of conduct that clearly prohibit, at a minimum, the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs and alcohol by students and employees on its property or as part of its activities."

Dispensaries (i.e. retail shops), cultivators or manufacturers of THC infused edibles are examples of businesses that directly work with marijuana, a federally illicit drug. However, we realize many businesses are ancillary (e.g. a grow-light manufacturer) or work indirectly with marijuana. Businesses that are ancillary include real estate leasing businesses, consumption device and consulting businesses among others. Ancillary businesses that do not work directly with marijuana will most likely be able to recruit here, if the business meets other UA Career Services' standards of employer vetting.

In order to ensure compliance with federal law, Career Services will not promote internships or work opportunities at companies that may possess or come into contact directly or indirectly with marijuana products. Additionally, Career Services will not host internships for credit where a student may come into contact directly or indirectly with marijuana products (including work with a company's clients, attendance at marijuana conventions, ancillary businesses, etc.).

THIRD PARTY RECRUITERS:

1. Third-party recruiters will provide information about their operations and services to OCC and WCS for candidate review.
2. It will be the responsibility of the candidate to contact the third-party recruiter. Candidate names and/or information concerning candidates will not be released to third-party recruiters unless candidates provide a written release, signed and dated by the candidate, for that specific agency. Federal law requires that confidential letters not be shared with candidates.
3. The OCC and WCS will promote the job and pertinent information through our usual job posting media. The third-party recruiters will be listed as the contact and identified as an employment agency.
4. If a third party-recruiter wishes to interview candidates on campus or attend career fairs, that recruiter will agree to abide by the above policies and to identify the represented employer(s) to OCC and WCS potential University interviewees. Third-party recruiters who elect to interview on campus should understand that the candidate information provided by OCC and WCS is to be used exclusively for the employer(s) so identified.

Posting Your Job or Internship

If approved, an employer may post a job or internship* that is targeted to U of A students for free. In order to post and have the position approved by the OCC or WCS staff, it must meet the following standards:

1. The company/organization must first be approved by one of our Career Centers using the process listed above.
2. The job posting accurately describes the responsibilities and requirements of all posted positions.
3. The job posting provides essential information concerning the nature of the position and compensation, including, but not limited to: commission only, job responsibilities, salary, and applicant requirements.
4. The job posting lists in the position description if a position is "commission only" and clearly publicizes this in the "Salary Level" fields.
5. The posted job pays at least the State of Arkansas' minimum wage if the position is indicated as "paid" (calculated over any time scale such as hourly, weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or annually).
6. The job posting does not require information from candidates that could act as an unlawful screening criteria, such as a photo or access to social media, unless it can be proven that it is related to the job.
7. If the position is a paid or unpaid internship, it must meet the following U.S. Department of Labor's "Primary Beneficiary Test"

*An internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting. Internships give students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience and make connections in professional fields they are considering for career paths; and give employers the opportunity to guide and evaluate talent (NACE, 2017).

**The University of Arkansas is an equal opportunity institution committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment, in compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and other federal, state, and local laws. The University is committed to providing equal opportunity for all students and applicants for admission and for all employees and applicants for employment regardless of race, age, gender, sex (including pregnancy), religion, national origin, marital or parental status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law.

Consequently, we will not post any positions that include discriminatory qualifications. If you believe that your job posting meets the "bona fide occupational qualification" standard, please notify our office of this prior to posting the position.

In January 2018, the DOL released new guidelines around unpaid internships, replacing the old six-part test with a new primary beneficiary test to determine if an individual can be classified as an unpaid intern. This test looks at who was the "primary beneficiary" of the internship - the company or the student. If the company is the "primary beneficiary," then the internship must be paid. If, on the other hand, the student is the "primary beneficiary," then the internship may be unpaid.

The primary beneficiary test does not include a rigid set of requirements, but a non-exhaustive list of factors to determine who is the primary beneficiary of the internship. The factors include:

the extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation;

the extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by an educational institution;

the extent to which the internship is tied to the intern's formal education program by integrated coursework or the receipt of academic credit;

the extent to which the internship accommodates the intern's academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar;

the extent to which the internship's duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning;

the extent to which the intern's work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern; and

the extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.

Courts have described the "primary beneficiary test" as a flexible test, and no single factor is determinative. Accordingly, whether an intern or student is an employee under the FLSA necessarily depends on the unique circumstances of each case.

If analysis of these circumstances reveals that an intern or student is actually an employee, then he or she is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA. On the other hand, if the analysis confirms that the intern or student is not an employee, then he or she is not entitled to either minimum wage or overtime pay under the FLSA.

For more information, see https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm.

In order to guide employers and students to create a mutually beneficial internship experience, feel free to use the following Internship Contract as a resource. A pdf document will automatically download when you click the button below.

• Internship
  Contract

Use this Recruiting Best Practices at UA Handbook to define internship criteria, and to create and promote your internship. (Recruiting Best Practices at UA Handbook in MS Word format)

Cooperative Education is an academic program that enables students to gain experience, networking opportunities, and academic credit in addition to earning a competitive wage. Employers have opportunities to evaluate students' skills prior to consideration for a full-time job offer and to develop valuable partnerships with faculty and staff.

Want to learn more about Co-op?

• Fulbright College of Arts and Science
• College of Engineering
• Sam M. Walton College of Business
• Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Extending Offers

We ask that employers convey final hiring decisions to candidates within a reasonable time frame and communicate that time frame to candidates during the interview process.

As a general rule, employers should give students a minimum of two weeks from the date the offer is made to make their decision.

We ask that employers making full-time offers to interns at the conclusion of their internship to give students until at least November 15th so that these students are able to participate in on-campus recruiting during the fall semester. This will allow students to make informed career decisions and will support their acceptance of offers and commitment to employers.

Employers should in no way try to persuade students to renege on employment offers from other companies under any circumstances. This practice would be in direct breach of our recruiter code of conduct and ethics and may result in restrictions to the employer's access to our career services and students, as well as potential consequences to the student.

Exploding Offers

Exploding offers (offers that do not afford a candidate the appropriate time to either accept or decline) are unacceptable. For example, an offer with a 48-hour window would be an exploding offer. Employers are to refrain from exerting any undue pressure on candidates to accept a job offer. Applying pressure to a student to accept a job offer at the conclusion of a summer internship prior to commencement of the fall recruiting season would also be considered an example of an exploding offer.

Rescinded Offers

If conditions change and require your company to rescind an offer made to a student, we ask that you call the University Offices of Career Connections (OCC) or Walton College Career Center (WCS) prior to taking any action. If, after discussions with either Career Center, the offer is rescinded, we ask that you pursue a course of action for the affected candidate that is fair and equitable potentially including, but not limited to, financial assistance and outplacement services.

Contracts

If your organization has a required contract that must be signed in order to be employed with your organization, the student must be allowed to take the contract with them in order to review and seek any needed counsel or advice before signing. The student must also be afforded a reasonable amount of time (general rule is a minimum of two weeks) to consider before making a decision. The OCC and WCS also reserves the right to request to review any contracts being used in campus recruiting.

Breaches of Conduct by Employers

Consistent unfair treatment of students, as defined above, has the potential to result in any/all of the following:

• Restricting access to career services and students
• Placing the name of the employer in our internal database to denote unfair practices

Student Reneges

We encourage students to immediately release offers they do not plan to accept. Additionally, any student reneging on an accepted offer is considered in serious breach of our recruiting policies and a poor reflection on University of Arkansas. If this situation occurs, contact the OCC or WCS prior to taking any action. The student will receive immediate attention. Actions that may be taken include revoking the student's access to career services.