With all the budget cuts proposed at the Federal level you should be aware of one place there has been an increase, the OFCCP enforcement budget. The following will be happening based on the approved FY 2015 OFCCP budget increase of an additional 1.1 million dollars.
OFCCP is to hire 10 new full time OFCCP field enforcement agents, and has mandated that additional surveillance is to take place to determine if potential discrimination in the construction and home health care industries is ongoing. The OFCCP has updated intelligence and increased resources to fund the enforcement of veteran and disability outreach as well as recruitment as mandated with the implementation of the updated to VEVRAA and Section 503 that went into effect 3-24-14.
The D.O.L. through the OFCCP has ordered an increase in the number of annual scheduled audits to more than 4,290 (this is not inclusive of any scheduled audits underway or the more than 450 incomplete that will be finished); this is a 5% increase from last year.
In addition to the above there has been the addition of Executive Order #13672 concerning officially adding the words of sexual orientation and gender identity to the mandated AA tag line on job wanted ads, effective immediately.
In addition to the above, effective 1-1-15 new rules and regulations covering direct care workers will become enforceable. Direct care workers have been defined as; workers who provide home care services, certified nursing assistants, home health aides, personal care aides, caregivers and companions. Also included are the hiring and placement agencies for this category of worker.
What all of this means is fairly simple, it is more important now than ever to be overtly compliant with all aspects of the corporate hiring and retention practices and the rules that govern them, from the job ad placement to the application process, to the talent pools that you are soliciting from and the reportable methods that you use to accomplish your objectives.
To those ends here are some basic yet important ways that you as the person responsible for the company’s hiring practices can make sure that all you are doing all you can to insure that in the event of an OFCCP audit, you are prepared and can weather the inquiry.
- First, have your AAP (Affirmative Action Plan) in a written format, this should be either signed of or acknowledged by you or your department head, or other from the C-suite. This shows that you have created a policy that your company stands behind and is committed to.
- Second, either have at hand or be able to acquire from the vendor(s) that you are using to place job postings, records of all your job post placements. As well as where they were visible. If you are using an outside vendor that doesn’t or cannot do this, switch now!
- Third, be sure that you have not only included a number of targeted minority resources in your AAP but can show that the resources you are using actually have helped in your minority hiring and company Diversity and Inclusion policies.
- Fourth, make sure that your AAP also includes minority community outreach, this will insure that your AAP can also be utilized as part of your company’s Good Faith Efforts (GFE’s) now considered a very important and also required part of your AAP.
Lastly, whenever possible use resources that have been around for a long time as in general these types of resources are already known to the OFCCP and their field case workers and the least work that a field case worker has to do the more they will look favorably on the AAP and resources that you currently use to forward your company’s Minority Recruitment and Diversity & Inclusion and Compliance efforts. One such example of this kind of resource is Equality Magazines and its family of targeted minority recruitment and community information resources.
These are only a few very basic guidelines that can and will be helpful when you or your recruiting team begin the process of putting together the corporate recruiting and AAP. At the same time, most of this information will allow you to be confident that if in the event the OFCCP looks at your efforts with compliance questions, you will not only be prepared but can show both your efforts and your company’s intentions, and it is those intentions which will point to your GFE’s.
About the Author
Mark Cohen has been working since 1995 to promote diversity and equality in the workplace through minority recruitment and community outreach. In his position as EVP and Director of New Business Development at Equality Magazines.com Mark has become recognized as a go to person on questions minority recruitment and compliance.
Equality Magazines.com and its family of Community based Diversity and Targeted Minority Recruitment Vehicles have been at the forefront of Best Practices, minority recruitment and compliance. Since 1995 they have been advocates of promoting diversity in America’s workforce; bringing the vast and talented pools of African-American, Hispanic, Veteran, and Female workers to the companies that need them.
