While federal contractors need to review their job descriptions to make sure their basic qualifications are not discriminatory, from an OFCCP compliance perspective, there is no obligation to choose one basic qualification over another. These are entirely at the discretion of the contractor. However, if your objective is to cast as wide of a net as possible, it would be advisable to select the minimum experience and education that would be acceptable for your position. If you don’t require a college degree, a best practice would be to select “high school” for the education requirement and “2 years” for the experience requirement and include additional detail regarding your equivalency (ex. Requires a bachelor’s degree and 2 years of experience or a high school diploma and 8 years of experience) within the body of the posting. By doing so, you are not prohibiting any potential candidates from applying to your position.
You can use this OFCCP audit checklist to ensure you're doing what is required to maintain OFCCP's regulations including VEVRAA, Section 503, and EO 11246. Or request a demo to streamline your compliance and recruiting efforts.