Data Dictionary

Data Dictionary for OAE and IHR Dashboards

 

General Definitions

  • Employee Groups:
    • Academic Professional: Regular staff at the university who are exempt from Civil Service
    • Civil Service: Regular staff who are part of the State University Civil Service System (SUCCS) classification structure
    • Faculty: Tenure-system and specialized faculty
    • Staff: Academic Professionals and Civil Service employees
  • Filled (Number of Vacancies filled): A multi-hire search with multiple vacancies can have both filled and unfilled vacancies. Vacancies are only counted when they are part of a search.
  • Hires (Employee Lifecycle Dashboard): Hired in our HRIS and the date the person started work
  • Hired (Recruitment-Focused Dashboard): a candidate has accepted an offer and been marked as hired in Cornerstone (Applicant Tracking System) and the corresponding date
  • Requisition: The container for our search - may be tied to multiple vacancies. Requisitions are only counted in the dashboard if they have been completed - a hire has been made, or the requisition was closed without a hire
  • Time to Fill: The time between the posting going live and a candidate being marked as hired.
  • Time to Hire: Average time between applications being submitted and that applicant accepting an offer (Hired)
  • Vacancy: An opening for a position
    • Vacancy Review (Internal): Review process for a vacancy that occurs at the college and department level, not at the central (campus) level
    • Vacancy Review (External): Review process for a vacancy that occurs as the campus level. Includes offices like IHR, Provost, and OAE

Recruiting-Focused Metrics

Important note on day-based metrics: All metrics expressed as a number of days (e.g., Time to Fill, Time to Hire) are calculated using calendar days, not business or working days. Weekends, holidays, and university closure days are included in these calculations.

Time to Fill

Definition: The elapsed time between when a job posting goes live and when a candidate is marked as Hired in the applicant tracking system.

Calculation / Context:

  • Sourced from Cornerstone data used to power Time to Fill dashboards.
  • Reflects when the department advances an applicant to Hired, which may occur after steps such as background checks.
  • For multi-hire requisitions, Time to Fill is typically anchored to the first hire made on the requisition unless otherwise specified.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • This is a process-based metric, not an indicator of when work actually begins.
  • Best used to understand recruiting duration and potential bottlenecks.

Time to Hire

Definition: The average time between when an application is submitted and when that same applicant accepts an offer (is marked Hired).

Calculation / Context:

  • Drawn from Cornerstone applicant-level data.
  • Calculated only for applicants who are ultimately hired.*
  • Averaged across the selected population and timeframe.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • This is an applicant-centric metric, unlike Time to Fill which is requisition-centric.
  • Particularly useful for evaluating screening, interview, and decision-making efficiency after applications are received.

Recruiting-Focused Definitions

Requisition

Definition: The container for a search in the applicant tracking system.

Calculation / Context:

  • A requisition may be associated with one or multiple vacancies (multi-hire searches).

  • Requisitions are included in dashboards only when they are completed, meaning:

    • At least one hire was made, or

    • The requisition was closed without a hire.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • Requisition IDs serve as a key linkage between applicant, vacancy, and employee data.

Vacancy

Definition: An approved opening for a position.

Calculation / Context:

  • A single requisition may represent one or multiple vacancies.
  • Vacancies are counted only when they are part of an active or completed search.
  • Vacant positions are distinct from vacancies. Not all vacant positions will ever be filled, and are not tracked centrally.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • Vacancies do not inherently imply that a search has been posted or completed.

Filled

Definition: The number of vacancies that have been successfully filled.

Calculation / Context:

  • In multi-hire requisitions, some vacancies may be filled while others remain unfilled.
  • Only vacancies associated with a search are included in the calculation for the total number of vacancies.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • A requisition may be considered complete even if not all associated vacancies are filled.

Employee Groups

Academic Professional

Definition: Regular staff employees at the university who are exempt from Civil Service.

Context:

  • Includes administrative, professional, and specialized roles.
  • Often subject to different hiring and approval workflows than Civil Service positions.

Civil Service

Definition: Regular staff employees who are part of the State Universities Civil Service System (SUCSS) classification structure.

Context:

  • Hiring processes are governed by SUCSS rules and classifications.

Faculty

Definition: Tenure-system faculty and specialized faculty.

Context:

  • Faculty searches typically follow distinct approval paths and timelines.
  • Longer and more variable recruiting cycles are common.

Staff

Definition: A combined grouping of Academic Professionals and Civil Service employees.

Use in Dashboards:

  • Used for high-level reporting where faculty are excluded and staff hiring trends are analyzed collectively.

Vacancy Review Processes

Vacancy Review (Internal)

Definition: The vacancy review process conducted at the college and department level.

Context:

  • Focuses on local approval, funding alignment, and unit-level workforce planning.
  • Occurs prior to, or in parallel with, campus-level review.

Vacancy Review (External)

Definition: The vacancy review process conducted at the campus level.

Includes:

  • Offices such as Illinois Human Resources (IHR), the Provost’s Office, and the Office of Access and Equity (OAE).
  • Ensures institutional alignment, compliance, and equity considerations prior to posting or hiring.

Hiring Statuses and Dates

Current Employee

Definition: Individuals who are actively employed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as of a given snapshot date.

Calculation / Context:

  • Sourced from the HR system of record and reflects employment status rather than recruiting outcomes - e.g. “hired” applicants are not necessarily employees until they’ve begun working.
  • Used for workforce counts, headcount snapshots, and employee movement reporting (e.g., hires, promotions, transfers, terminations).

Notes for Interpretation:

  • Current Employee measures are distinct from recruiting metrics and should not be used to infer search duration or hiring efficiency.

Hires (Employee Lifecycle)

Definition: The count of employees who begin employment with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign during a given time period (typically one year).

Calculation / Context:

  • Calculated based on the employee’s start date in the HR system of record (Banner).
  • This measure is independent of the Hired status date used in recruiting systems.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • Counts may differ from Recruiting - Focused dashboards (Time to Fill and Time to Hire dashboards) that use Hired (Search Process) dates.

Promotion (Employee Lifecycle)

Definition: A change for an existing employee that includes both a change in title and an increase in pay.

Context:

  • Promotions may be competitive (the employee is selected through a search) or non-competitive (no search is conducted).
  • For reporting and compliance purposes, promotions are tracked as internal employee movements rather than new hires.

Transfer (Employee Lifecycle)

Definition: A movement in which an employee experiences any of the following:

  • A change in department
  • A change in title without an increase in salary
  • A change in department AND title without an increase in salary

Context:

Termination (Employee Lifecycle)

Definition: An event in which an employee separates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Context:

  • Includes both voluntary and involuntary separations.

    • Involuntary

      • Discharged (Civil Service)
      • Dismissed
      • Employer Termination
      • Terminated - Never Worked
      • Indefinite Layoff

    • Voluntary

      • Terminated/Expired
      • Deceased
      • Employee Resigned
      • Employment Eligibility Expired
      • End of Job
      • Notice of Non-Reappt Ended
      • Retired

Hired (Recruiting - Focused)

Definition: A candidate has accepted an offer and has been marked as Hired in the applicant tracking system (Cornerstone), along with the corresponding hire date.

Calculation / Context:

  • Represents the formal close of the search workflow in the applicant tracking system.
  • The hire date is used to connect applicant, requisition, and employee records across systems.

Notes for Interpretation:

  • This date typically precedes the employee’s actual start date.

Addendum: Common Misconceptions and Clarifications

Employee Movement vs. Hiring

Recruiting - Focused (Time to Fill and Time to Hire) dashboards and Employee Lifecycle dashboards answer different questions:

  • Recruiting - Focused: How positions are filled through searches and applicant activity.
  • Employee Lifecycle: Focuses on how individuals move into, within, and out of the university workforce over time. As a result, the same action may appear differently depending on the dashboard and data source.

Competitive Promotions

Some competitive promotions may appear in both recruiting and employee movement views:

  • In Recruiting - Focused dashboards, the action appears as a Hired (Recruiting) event tied to a requisition.
  • In Employee Lifecycle dashboards, the same action appears as a Promotion based on changes to title and pay. This is expected behavior and reflects the use of different systems and dates for different analytical purposes.

How to Interpret "Hires" Across Dashboards

  • Recruiting - Focused dashboards count hires based on the date an applicant is marked Hired in the applicant tracking system.
  • Employee Lifecycle dashboards count hires based on the employee’s start date in the HR system of record. Because start dates may occur weeks or months after an offer is accepted, hire counts and trends may differ between recruiting and workforce views for the same time period.

Mapping Actions to Dashboards

Mapping Actions to Dashboards
Action Type Search-Based Appears in Recruiting - Focused Dashboards Appears in Employee Lifecycle Dashboards
Hires (External Candidate) Yes Yes Yes (based on start date)
Competitive Promotion Yes Yes Yes
Non-Competitive Promotion No No Yes
Transfer No No Yes
Termination No No Yes
Vacancy Filled (Search Outcome) Yes Yes No

Common Misconceptions

  • “Time to Fill reflects when someone starts working.”
    Time to Fill ends when a candidate is marked Hired in the applicant tracking system, not when the employee begins work.

  • “Time to Hire and Time to Fill are interchangeable.”
    Time to Hire is applicant-based; Time to Fill is requisition-based. They answer different questions about the recruiting process.

  • “Metrics for days don’t include non-working days.”
    Day-based metrics include calendar days and may include weekends, holidays, and other non-working days.

  • “A filled requisition means all vacancies were filled.”
    Multi-hire requisitions may be considered complete even if some vacancies remain unfilled.

  • “All employee groups follow the same hiring process.”
    Faculty and Staff positions differ significantly in approvals, timelines, and governing rules.

  • “Dashboards show the full lifecycle of employment.”
    Recruiting dashboards focus on hiring process milestones and should be paired with HR workforce data for start-date, movement, and headcount analysis.


Keywords:
data dictionary, dashboard, metrics 
Doc ID:
162049
Owned by:
Andrew H. in University of Illinois Human Resources
Created:
2026-06-18
Updated:
2026-09-14
Sites:
University of Illinois Human Resources