Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Faculty Affairs Office
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Accepted Undifferentiated Track Offer

The offer letter your candidate received indicated that the faculty appointment was contingent on approval by the Dean, APT Committee (if applicable), and Provost.  Now that your finalist has accepted your offer, follow these steps to complete the appointment paperwork needed to obtain those approvals.

Please note that these steps pertain only to approval of the FSM faculty appointment.  If your candidate also needs hospital privileges, contact the Medical Staff Office of the applicable hospital(s) for information on the medical staff appointment process, privileging, and credentialing.

 Step 1: Finalize Offer in Business Plan Database
Update the candidate's acceptance in the business plan database and confirm offer documentation is complete.

Note: This step is not applicable for academic part-time appointments (those fully paid by Lurie Children's, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Stroger, Jesse Brown VA)
  • Notify the Faculty Affairs Office (fao@northwestern.edu) that the candidate has accepted the offer and the business plan will be updated.  If the candidate will be employed by NMG, also notify mdgrowth@nm.org.  This notification triggers NMG to prepare the Employment Agreement. Contact NMG if you have questions about their process. 
  • Confirm the final offer letter (signed by the Department Chair) has been uploaded to the business plan 
    Note: The final letter should be uploaded at the time of sending the offer to the candidate. 
  • Upload the candidate's acceptance of the offer, if written acceptance was provided 

 Step 2: Collect Documents from the Candidate
Obtain these documents from the candidate, which are needed in subsequent appointment steps.

Obtain these documents from the candidate, which are needed in subsequent appointment steps:

 Step 3: Solicit Reference Letters
Use the referee list you collected in Step 2 to solicit reference letters.

Note: At the rank of Instructor, collecting formal reference letters is not required, though checking candidate references is recommended.

Before requesting letters, confirm the appropriateness of the referees:

  • Referee rank must be at least as high as rank candidate will hold at NU
  • Referees must be external to NU 
  • No more than 2 letters from the same institution (geographic range of referees demonstrates the breadth of a candidates reputation)

How to solicit reference letters:

The Department Chair's office should contact the referees on the candidate's referee list to request letters of reference. You may solicit reference letters using one of the following methods:

  • Option 1: Feinberg Faculty Portal
    Follow the steps on the reference letter solicitation page to collect reference letters using the Feinberg Faculty Portal.
  • Option 2: Email
    You may contact referees by email to request letters. Referees can provide their letters by email either as an attachment or typed into the text of the email itself. The letters must remain confidential and not be shared with the candidate or any individuals outside those who are involved in evaluating the candidate for appointment.  

 Step 4: Prepare/Distribute Additional Required Documents
Expedite the appointment and onboarding processes by completing these steps while you wait to receive reference letters.

  • E-mail candidate's completed Prospective Faculty Research Questionnaire to FAO, if candidate will do research 
    This will help FSM anticipate the needs of the candidate as he or she transitions to NU
  • Coordinate Additional Appointments 
    • Secondary Appointments: In the offer letter, was the candidate offered a secondary appointment in another department?  If so, contact the administrators in the secondary department to coordinate paperwork. You can add the secondary appointment paperwork to your appointment packet so that everything is processed together.
    • Endowed Professorships: In the offer letter, was the candidate offered an endowed professorship?  If so, complete the nomination process.
  • Prepare Position Data/Appointment Forms
    • Prepare one set for the primary position, and one set for each additional position the candidate will hold in myHR (e.g., secondary appointment, faculty administrative appointment, "NMG Member" position, etc.)
    • For NMG-employed candidates, the "NMG Member" record should always be Record 1 in myHR
      Note: Effective April 2020, it is no longer necessary to deliver paper copies of the NMG records to NMG for signature. Appointment packets are now submitted online and routed to NMG for electronic approval.

 Step 5: Submit Packet Online via OnBase
Your submission will be routed to NMG (if applicable), FAO, and payroll.

This appointment transaction will be submitted online via OnBase. Once submitted, the transaction is routed for electronic approval to the department approver (unless the submitter is also the department approver), NMG (if applicable), Feinberg (FAO and/or Med-Finance), and payroll.  For more information, including a description of workflow routing and a list of department approvers, visit our OnBase page.
  

For Full-time, Academic Full-time (paid by approved affiliate), and part-time faculty paid by NU

Complete the OnBase submission form and upload the documents listed below:

  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. New Appointment Cover Sheet
    2. Position Data/Appointment Forms, one set for the primary position, and one set for each additional position in myHR (e.g., secondary appointments, faculty administrative appointments, "NMG member" positions). 
    3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable
    4. Reference Letters (except for Instructors) 
    5. Other documents (if applicable)
  • Upload the completed Personal Data Form separately to its respective button
    • If the candidate is an existing faculty with an NU employee ID, the personal data form is not necessary, unless the faculty member needs to update information on it.

For Academic Part-time faculty (fully paid by Lurie Children's, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Stroger, Jesse Brown)

Complete the OnBase submission form and upload the documents listed below:

  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. New Appointment Cover Sheet
    2. Position Data/Appointment Forms, one set for the primary position, and one set for each additional position in myHR (e.g., secondary appointments, faculty administrative appointments, "NMG member" positions). 
    3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable
    4. Chair's Recommendation for Faculty Appointment, you may delete the "Description of Search Process" section since a national search is not required.  However, if you did conduct a search, it is recommended that you document it.
    5. CV
    6. Reference Letters (except for Instructors) 
    7. Other documents (if applicable)
  • Upload the completed Personal Data Form separately to its respective button
    • If the candidate is an existing faculty member with an NU employee ID, the personal data form is not necessary, unless the faculty member needs to update information on it.