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Updating Position Status

When the search committee has identified who will be invited to campus or participating in final interviews, the search committee chair should update the position status to prevent applicants from updating their materials during the applicant review phase of the faculty search process.

Note: Some academic units have processes in which the hiring manager or a Dean’s office designee is responsible for updating the position status. If this is the process in your academic unit, please notify the appropriate person to update the position status to “Interviews in Progress” when you reach this stage.

In Interfolio, after navigating to the Positions page, all open positions will display in a list, including the position name, status, number of applications, and open/close dates. 
Click on the name of the position that needs to be updated. In the position header, click on change next to Status. Select “Interviews In Progress.”

A dialog box will open to confirm this change of status. When the status is changed to “Interviews in Progress”, applicants will not see this position status if they check the progress of their application, applicants cannot update their application materials, and evaluators can continue to review application materials.
By default, applicants are not separately notified about this status change via email. If you would like all applicants to receive an email to alert them that the position status has changed, click the box next to Send a message to all applicants with this change.

Best Practice: It is recommended not to send an email to applicants about this status change within Interfolio.

Updating Applicant Status

At this stage of the process, the applicant status should be updated for all applicants who will be invited for a campus visit. Unless your academic unit has a different process, the search committee chair is responsible for updating the status of the applicants.

Applicant Statuses

To change the applicant status, select all the applicants who should be updated by clicking the check box next to the Applicant Name header. Then, click the Status button in the red toolbar at the top right of the applicant list.  From the drop-down menu, select the applicant status option that best represents the phase of review the applicants are moving into. At this stage of the process, the appropriate applicant status would be “On-Campus Interview.” For a complete list of applicant statuses, please refer to this chart.

When you have applicants that you know will not continue in the faculty search process, you may disposition these applicants and change their applicant status to “Not Selected.”

Continuing Applicants

After reviewing applicants with the search committee and identifying who will be engaging in initial interviews, identify the applicants who will be interviewed by updating their status to “Initial Interview.” 

When you change the status to “Initial Interview”, a dialog box will appear that will inform you that applicants will not be able to see this status when they view their application in Interfolio Dossier and applicants will not be able to update their application materials.
There is a check box in which you can specify if you would like to Send message to selected applicants with this change. If you leave the box unchecked, you can create and send email messages to each of the applicants  individually or to the group to request an interview. Alternatively, you can check the box to Send message to selected applicants with this change and send an email to all applicants whose status is being changed to “Initial Interview.”

To make the email more personal, such as using the applicant’s name, position name, or unit name, you can use the Insert Placeholder option to automatically fill in the associated applicant name, position name, or unit name. Click on the ellipses in the Body section of the email window and select Insert Placeholder.

Noncontinuing Applicants

Applicants who will not be continuing in the search process should have their Applicant Status changed to “Not Selected.”

When you change the status to “Not Selected”, a dialog box will appear that will inform you that applicants will see this status when they view their application in Interfolio Dossier and applicants will not be able to update their application materials.

Check the box to Send message to selected applicants with this change.

This will allow you to create an email to send to the applicants whose Applicant Status is being updated to “Not Selected”. Choose the message template called, “Wake Forest University | Update on Your Application Status”.

Click Save & Send to update the Applicant Status and to immediately send emails to this group of candidates.

Disposition Codes

Wake Forest University has developed disposition codes to identify why an applicant is released from the applicant pool (i.e., rejected from further consideration). These codes are necessary to meet compliance and reporting requirements. 

Disposition codes are only visible internally and are used to support efficient search, labeling, and reporting. These codes are not shared with candidates and are not used as the reason communicated for why they are not moving forward in the process. Disposition codes cannot be deleted or redefined. 

To assign a disposition code to an applicant, go to the applicant list and check one or more boxes next to the applicant name(s). Click the Disposition Code button in the red bar at the top right side of the applicant list.

Select the disposition code that best represents the reason the applicant is being removed for consideration. If you select multiple applicants, the disposition code will be applied to all selected applicants. Repeat this process for all applicants being removed at the current stage of review. Refer to this chart for a description of disposition codes.

Archiving Applicants

Once applicants have been assigned disposition codes and have been assigned an applicant status of “Withdrawn” or “Not Selected”, these applicants can be Archived. Applicants who are archived will no longer appear on the applicant list. This makes the review process easier and more manageable for the search committee, hiring manager, and other administrators. 

To archive applicants, check the box next to the name of one or more applicants. Click Archive in the red bar at the top of the applicant list.
To view archived applicants or to unarchive an applicant, review the Interfolio guide at Archive or Unarchive an Application.


Emailing Applicants to Request an Interview

Depending on the academic unit, the hiring manager, a Dean’s Office designee, or the search committee chair will need to contact applicants to invite them to participate in an interview.

Interfolio Faculty Search offers several ways for users to communicate and collaborate during the review process. Individuals with committee manager or administrator access can email applicants individually or in groups. 

Note: When messaging more than one applicant, recipients will never see the names or email addresses of other applicants being contacted. Administrators can view a report of sent emails and notifications from the System Logs Reports.

To email one or more applicants, navigate to the Positions page and click the position name to view the list of applicants.

Select the checkboxes next to the desired applicants’ names or click the Applicant Name checkbox at the top to select all applicants. Click Email on the red toolbar.

Complete the Email Applicants window that appears. Please note that only one email address can be in the Reply to email address field. By default, it will be the email address of the Interfolio user creating the email, but this can be changed to a different name and email address.

To make the email more personal, such as using the applicant’s name, position name, or unit name, you can use the Insert Placeholder option to automatically fill in the associated applicant name, position name, or unit name. Click on the ellipses in the Body section of the email window and select Insert Placeholder.

Click Send to immediately send the emails to the selected applicants.

Best Practice: Conduct as much email communication as possible with applicants via Interfolio. The system will save a record of the correspondence with the applicant, which will reduce the archival requirements for the search committee at the close of the faculty search process.