Related article: Why Do You Need to Be OFCCP Compliant? Find Out.
If you are a Federal contractor, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) mandates that you comply with affirmative action regulations and make job announcements accessible to minorities, veterans, women and persons with disabilities. As part of this compliance, you may be required to participate in an audit. As a result, it’s vital that you prepare your staff for any potential audit request.
Below are areas that you, your executive staff and hiring managers should all be well–versed in to help with the audit process.
- Make diversity hiring part of your business plan. With the government’s commitment to equal employment opportunity, as well as laws and acts springing up to ensure that all job seekers are on an equal playing field in their job search, hiring a diverse workforce should be a core component of your hiring plan, leaving behind any bias or preconceptions. Developing a diversity hiring plan is the best approach to help you meet OFCCP requirements and can ensure that you have all the necessary components in place in the event of an audit.
- Make sure your employees understand OFCCP laws and regulations. Affirmative action and equal opportunity compliance laws were specifically enacted to eliminate discrimination in hiring practices. As it relates to Federal contractors in particular, OFCCP monitors these regulations and how contractors comply in their employment practices specifically in taking measures to hire without regard for race, color, sex, religion or national origin as well as qualified individuals with disabilities and protected veterans. It’s important that HR and other hiring managers understand all elements of OFCCP compliance and the laws they govern, and build these elements into the recruiting process.
- Make sure you abide by the appropriate job posting requirements, including posting jobs on your own website. OFCCP compliance requires that job vacancy announcements (except those below the executive level, positions lasting 3 days or less, or positions that are filled internally) do not discriminate and are open to all qualified candidates, regardless of race, color, sex, religion or national origin. The laws also govern age discrimination, equal pay and sexual harassment.When posting jobs, you should consider the following three elements: 1) write job ads that are not exclusionary, but rather open to all “qualified” candidates; 2) work with local state workforce agencies to make job postings available to a wide network of diversity candidates; and 3) keep up–to–date records of applicants.
- Make sure managers understand data requirements. It is imperative that employers proactively maintain data on job postings and have this data available for submission should they be required to do so during an audit. The collection, storage and reporting of online job applicant data is a key mandate to meet OFCCP compliance, and is at the core of the audit process. Keeping accurate and up–to–date records will ensure that you comply with the reporting requirements of OFCCP as well as during any desk or on–site audit that may occur.
Regularly review OFCCP requirements. Ensuring there is no discrimination in the hiring process, whether you are subject to an audit or not, means you and your managers will be well prepared for an audit.
For more information on OFCCP compliance, visit us today at www.circaworks.com.
