Talent Acquisition and OFCCP Compliance

Talent Acquisition and OFCCP Compliance

Consistency, consistency, consistency! Isn't that always the best caveat to staying compliant? It is if your policies and practices are compliant to begin with. When it comes to recruiting and hiring, there are some important considerations, especially for companies who fall under the government employment discrimination approach of the Office of the Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

The OFCCP and EEOC define systemic discrimination as an employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class (i.e. race, gender, or ethnicity.)

Recruiters are constantly looking for new and creative ways to expand their applicant pool and enhance their competitiveness in attracting top talent. Technological advances, including the use of the internet have given recruiters access to literally millions of job seekers. Without carefully thought out procedures, recruiters and hiring personnel can unintentionally screen out applicants from protected groups, putting up a discrimination red flag.

And this isn't something to be taken lightly. In 2007 OFCCP enforcement resulted in a record $51,680,950 in back pay, salary and benefits of American workers subjected to unlawful employment discrimination (published results on EEOC website). Of that, 98% was collected in systemic discrimination cases.

Pilgrim's Pride Corp. was forced to pay a $1 million dollar settlement to applicants that were found to be victims of systemic discrimination based on gender and ethnicity. Another company, Quietflex was hit with a $2.8 million dollar lawsuit.

So how should you protect yourself? First, analyze your processes. Are you screening out older workers by the key words you use when searching job boards? Are you avoiding pulling from a specific zip code whose population may be largely ethnic?

Some experts contend that a good first step is in statistical analysis of current hiring practices. Matt Halpern, an affirmative action lawyer at the law firm Jackson Lewis says that "you can approach this in a methodical, measurable fashion. It's similar to any kind of auditing process." He advises an 80% rate of hire from a protected applicant group to an unprotected group.

Another consideration is centralizing recruiting sources and standardizing processes. Applicant tracking systems force a specific flow from initial recruitment stages, through screening and on-boarding. Defining these recruitment stages company-wide forces consistency, clearer documentation and usable statistics. An audit-able, track-able system enables a company to improve compliance, submits them to a higher level of accountability and gives the company tangible results to improve efficiencies and further competitiveness.

Since the OFCCP and EEOC will only step up their efforts at combating systemic employment discrimination, companies are wise to re-evaluate their hiring processes and protect themselves from becoming the next million-dollar lawsuit headline.

For more information on applicant tracking systems or to request your personalized demo, contact CIC.