Ask the Experts is an exclusive online forum provided by Circa. Federal contractors and subcontractors are invited to submit questions to industry experts related to OFCCP compliance, affirmative action planning, and equal employment opportunity.
I am wondering about the legality of blocking candidates on Wisconsin Diversity. I know there is a feature in which we can select that a potential applicant is “blocked” so that they do not see the postings for our company without going directly to our company website. Is this legal?
We are thinking of using this only when an individual has been proven to be someone we would not hire based on our company culture. For example, we had a candidate who has applied several times and has since lied and adjusted the uploaded resume to fit what we have mentioned we are looking for. Our company’s “compass” does not allow for this kind of dishonest behavior and we would not consider this candidate in the future.
Please advise whether or not blocking a candidate is legally sound.
Thanks!
We'll start with the infamous "I'm not a lawyer, and can't offer specific advice on whether something is legally sound." With that out of the way, let's explore your question. You asked if you can block specific candidates from expressing interest in positions. The general answer to this question is "Yes, so long as you do so in a non-discriminatory manner." Organizations block specific candidates or specific types of candidates routinely, and agencies such as EEOC or OFCCP will accept...
I have a few questions regarding self-sourcing for temporary contract types of positions. The scenario is that we (federal contractor) would self-source without any job posting for Temp Job Postings up to 72 hours and then if not, successful would turn it over to the approved 9 vendors through our VMS. In the case, we are successful and found someone on our own, through passive searches on Linkedin, associate referrals, school or local agency referrals, etc., we would then payroll the temp through a separate payroll service vendor. Our involvement would be to source and screen the candidate. They wouldn’t be an applicant, since they aren’t applying to a particular job, but would be reached out to for one. Again, it’s a “temp” and not a “perm employee”, that I’m referring to.
That all being said, would we need to have the payroll service vendor post the temp position to the State Unemployment Office even if it’s only for a 3 day time period or have them post the position for the entire 30 days, or do they need to post at all? If we had the payroll service vendor post the temp position, would we then have any resume submissions go directly to them and forwarded along to us the employer. In the case, the position were to go out to an approved vendor after the 3 days, then the staffing firm will be responsible for posting the position to the State Unemployment Office and doing any diversity outreach on their own, since the temp would be on their payroll.
My other question is on the database or resume searches, would we need to collect and retain info when it pertains to “temps”? I’m speaking on documenting the date of the search, the criteria, radius, and the results of your search (#).
Lastly, we do plan on using a Temp Only-Talent Community to collect information on referrals, those that come across our career site, or that we self-source during those 3 days only to not conflict with the approved vendors that the temp position will go out to. Is that alright that we handle the data collection in that manner?
Thank you!
You have raised many, many issues in this post relating to the recruitment and selection of temporary candidates. A complete response would require about 14 pages of looking at all of the intersecting issues here, and I don't think you want a 14 page treatise. Many companies use temporary agencies in order to off-load both recruitment and selection processes. When a federal contractor signs an agreement with a temporary agency to find individuals who remain on the temporary agency's payroll,...
Are we required as a Federal Contractor to post the Reaffirmation of Affirmative Action Policy Statement along with the signed copy of the EEO/AA Policy Statement? It seems that it would be redundant, if doing so, since it shares the same sentiment. I’m not understanding the purpose of the Reaffirmation one and if it’s an optional thing to do on our part or is it required. I can’t seem to find anything out on the OFCCP website regarding this, so if you can kindly shed some light on this subject, it would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Gina. The affirmative action program regulations regarding protected veteran and disability status require that federal contractors and subcontractors have an EEO/AA policy statement. These regulations require that the policy statement is posted for employees to view, and that the policy statement is included in the AAPs for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. (See 41 CFR 60-344.44(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.44(a).) There is nothing that says there must be a separate reaffirmation of the policy. The Executive Order affirmative...
In order to fill jobs more quickly our company prefers to keep an applicant pool that we can refer to when an opening occurs. In the past we accepted general applications once a week at each location. Now that we are working with Local Job Network the applications are attached to a specific job. We don’t want to post a general job to have people apply to. We’ve considered having people fill out an “interest” form on application days with their contact information and general work history and then we contact them when there is an opening and they can apply to the specific opening at that time. What would be the best practice for this so that we aren’t seen as controlling the applicant process but can have quick access to candidates.
What you described here sounds more like creating an internal database of prospective candidates for future positions at your company. In that case, you need to make sure that you are following the record retention requirements under OFCCP’s Internet Applicant Recordkeeping Rule. Federal contractors are required to save records when they search a resume database, whether it is an internal or external database. For internal resume database searches, you will need to keep a record of the following: • A...
Hello, right now we have the following tag line on all of our individual postings:
The National Safety Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities, Females, Protected Veterans, and Individual with Disabilities
In terms of best practices, would you recommend we have this statement on our careers page too?
The regulations require that federal contractors must, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the contractor, state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their protected veteran status. Contractors are also required under VEVRAA and Sec. 503 to notify applicants and employees of their rights and the contractor’s obligation under the law to take affirmative action to employees and advance in employment qualified employees and applicants who are protected...
I’m inquiring about whether or not, we are able to alter the format of the OFCCP Self-ID Disability Form for our mobile capabilities for Indeed sponsored jobs. Unfortunately, the pdf version that OFCCP is requiring is not compatible with Indeed’s quality check for “sponsored jobs”. That being said, they have basically given us a couple options…1) to alter the form, which I know OFCCP isn’t a fan of or 2) that we just don’t purchase sponsored jobs, however, that is where we get the largest amount of hires from, particularly coming with those sponsored Indeed jobs.
Here is the information we had been given by our third party rep on Indeed’s rationale. We were also given an example from another Federal Contractor that had altered the form to meet the quality check. My question for you is whether we would be a risk for being out of compliance or would be dinged during an OFCCP audit, if we go ahead and let the form be altered to meet Indeed’s quality check.
Info that was provided to us:
The way the OFCCP is formatted will not affect organic visibility, but it will affect mobile sponsored visibility (the ability for sponsored jobs to appear on mobile search results). Our Mobile Search Quality team reviews every application submitted for mobile sponsored visibility and disqualifies applications that have non-mobile friendly components. According to their guidelines, the PDF on the US Cellular application would disqualify them. This is because it is not easy to read without pinching and zooming.
Thank You!
Gina, below is the OFCCP new FAQ on non-substantive changes to the Disability Self-ID form. I am not sure what alterations are being suggested, but I would advise not changing it outside of the parameters given by the OFCCP. Also, while I don't have enough information regarding the disqualification of applications that are non-mobile friendly that is something I would investigate further if applicants are being auto rejected based on the type of device they are using to apply. "Some...
We are looking to hire a short term, temporary administrative assistant for a 4 day engagement. Does this type of temporary need require a full recruiting process if we have a candidate in mind?
The process needs to meet the Equal Opportunity Clause requirements since it is a four day engagement (three days or less are exempted). I do not know what your company's "full recruiting process" is, but it is perfectly acceptable for different jobs or different circumstances to lead to different recruiting processes, so long as there is neither actual discrimination, nor the appearance (as the appearance may be defensible, but still lead to trouble with the OFCCP). So long as there...
Hello,
I am new to my company and realized that our company website uses the proper tagline. However, it is not being put onto every open job ad. Does it need to be, or are we covered by having it on the website? Related, when we post positions on social media such as LinkedIn or Facebook, we are not considering them to have applied until they go to our website and fill out the company application. As such, we are not putting the EEO tagline on those postings. I believe we should be. Can you verify that is correct?
Thank you.
According to the regulations enforced by the OFCCP, contractors are required to include language that "all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" (the tagline) in "all solicitations or advertisements." So yes, your instincts are correct. The proper language needs to be in place in every advertisement, whether it is social media or another site, not just upon application on the company's website. One can never go wrong including the...
We are currently posting the following on your site, and have recently starting working towards posting this consistently on all our sites:
“[Our company name] considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, or sexual orientation. All applicants will be considered solely on the basis of their qualifications.”
However, some of the sites we post on require us to pay per word or per character, so our recruiting team, in an effort to save money or use it on the “meat” of the post, are wondering about shortening this for those sites only. I do know that we can shorten it but want to ensure there we are both compliant with the law and consistently post the important portions of it.
Do you happen to have suggestions on wording that is short but still covers it?
Also, shouldn’t we be including gender identity in the list?
I’m working on revising the full statement to be consistent and all-inclusive in all places we list it. Do you have other suggestions of things that would/could be added or otherwise changes?
Yes, you are correct that you need to make some changes to your tagline. The example above is missing two required groups: gender identity and protected veterans. According to the OFCCP FAQs on its website, "Under OFCCP’s regulations, contractors may either state that they do not discriminate on any of the protected bases under Executive Order 11246, and list them all, or they may simply use the phrase “equal opportunity employer.” If electing the first option, contractors are required to...
What is the recommendation for implementation of OFCCP DIR 2008-02?:
FIELD ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE: Compliance Officers should adhere to the following principles when evaluating the use of race and ethnicity categories in the AAPs prepared by federal contractors in accordance with the Executive Order, as amended:
A.Contractor data tracking responsibilities remain the same.(4) Accordingly, self–identification will remain the preferred method for compiling information about the sex, race or ethnicity of applicants and employees. A contractor’s invitation to self–identify race or ethnicity should state that the submission of such information is voluntary. However, contractors may use post–employment records or visual observation when an individual declines to self–identify his or her race or ethnicity.(5)
Specifically, this statement:
However, contractors may use post–employment records or visual observation when an individual declines to self–identify his or her race or ethnicity.(5)
We do want to better understand how applicants are progressing through our process and where they are dropping off. Our ATS does allow us to update race/gender. When someone has opted for “I choose not to disclose” on the electronic application, we can update race/gender in the ATS, and there is an audit trail showing that we did so. This would be valuable for us from a data/analytics perspective, so we can target where we may be losing candidates of various protected statuses and target our efforts accordingly. But is this a good practice? Is it better to leave candidates in an unknown race/gender than to use visual observation to update this information?
As you note, the regulations allow visual observation when an individual declines to self-ID. As you also point out, using visual observation provides the data needed for analysis. So, if you want to have the most accurate assessment of where candidates are falling out of the process, visual observation is going to be helpful. While OFCCP does not require employers to use visual observation, they have been known to cite contractors when the rate of unknowns is extremely high, as...
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