Most executives and key managers delegate the issue of OFCC compliance to HR. This decision is easily justified by management’s desire to focus on sales, profits, acquisitions, customers, prospects and product lines. However, as organizations leave compliance issues to HR they often fail to empower HR or provide the investment in management and budgets to allow HR to do anything but merely exist. The results of such decisions can lead to large fines for failing to comply with EEOC of OFCCP guidelines on applicant selection.

To complicate matters, most executives and managers have not invested the time to review the regulations regarding compliance (see www.ofcccomply.com) and thus do not realize that one of the requirements for compliance is being able to prove that the job openings in the organization are posted on America’s Job Bank. As it became clear that many organizations are not aware of what they need to be doing to be in compliance, CRI has implemented the required postings on America’s Job Bank as part of the service provided to clients using the CRI Online Employment Center. Thus, in the event of a compliance review or audit, these clients have proof immediately available that they have made the required job postings.

As to compliance regarding the fair and equal consideration of veterans and other job seekers, most organizations have little overall control or consolidated record keeping of the employee selection processes of their branches. Most organizations give branch managers a great deal of autonomy, including screening, interviewing, and hiring decisions with HR generally operating as a support group.

This management style is smart from an operations and profitability standpoint, but can create difficulties in a compliance audit when records must be provided by branch and for the organization as a whole that show:

• Jobseekers by job, branch and for the organization in total
• Records showing how applicants were fairly differentiated from jobseekers by the five criteria proposed by the EEOC that define the differentiation of an applicant from a jobseeker:
1. An employer must have a job opening
2. The employer makes people aware of the openings
3. The job seeker must express interest in a specific job a specific employer has open
4. The job seeker becomes an applicant if the job seeker meets the minimum requirements for the job
5. The job seeker must follow the employer’s procedures for applying for a job
• Records by job, by branch and for the organization in total on jobseekers, applicants and hires with regard to gender, minority and veteran status.

In a recent compliance audit cased handled by the OFCCP, a Dr. Pepper bottling plant in Texas was fined $ 228,000.00 for failing to hire sufficient numbers of women and minorities. The plant was required to comply with OFCCP selection guidelines since it was selling product to an organization that was a prime contractor even though the plant itself was not a prime contractor. This is typically the situation in which many organizations find themselves as well. It is important to note that this fine covered only one Dr. Pepper bottling plant location. The implication is that one location of an organization that is providing a product or service to a prime contractor could result in a similar compliance issue for the organization.

To address this potential liability that organizations face while meeting the need to attract and hire the best candidates to facilitate continued sales and profit growth, management should invest in a proven online employment process that has been implemented by numerous forward thinking organizations. The CRI Online Employment Center
not only attracts and screens better applicants, but also differentiates qualified applicants from jobseekers while at the same time electronically storing the records for minority and veteran status. These records are immediately available in the event of an OFCCP compliance audit or review, or an EEOC filing. The Online Employment Center will also handle the reporting needed for OFCCP compliance, as well as provide evidence of due diligence in the event of civil litigation. For more information on the Online Employment Center process, visit www.employmentcenter.info. Attached are legal opinions regarding the objectivity and applicability of the Online Employment Center.

Since top management is responsible for decisions to invest in property and the protection of that property through insurance, it only makes sense that management make the decision to invest in a system that will insure against the potential liabilities that an OFCCP compliance audit represents. Delegating this decision to HR when HR likely has not been empowered to make such a decision or provided the resources needed to implement it is a mistake. Investing in an Online Employment Center for the organization that not only makes the organization employment process more effective and efficient but also provides the organization the files, data and protection it needs for compliance is an executive management decision.

Consider the $ 228,000.00 fine recently levied against Dr. Pepper for compliance failures relative to the approximately $20,000.00 investment over a year to implement and operate an Online Employment Center for your organization. And, as a recent McKinsey & Company study noted, “A” performers tend to be 50% to 100% more effective than “C” performers. Realizing that the Online Employment Center can attract more of the people your organization especially needs to hire, that it can help select more “A” performers who produce better sales, customer service and profits, and that it protects the organization from incurring hundreds of thousands dollars in fines or spending thousands of dollars to collect the data and records needed in a compliance audit or review, it is only logical that management should make the decision to invest in an Online Employment Center immediately, or at least explore it more fully with CRI.

Consider the old adage, “An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is better to invest around $20,000.00 per year to be in compliance and hire better people in the process than to face the risks and costs to which many organizations are now exposed.

If you have the authority to make the decision to make an investment in a system that can help you attract and hire better people for the future, and will also provide the protection you need for compliance in your applicant selection and employee record keeping processes, then call David Fenner, Vice President of Client Services at (972) 641-5494 x103 to schedule a teleconference and internet presentation of what this wise decision will mean for your organization.

Milton S. Cotter,
President
(972) 641-5494, ext. 199

CRI brings more than 49 years of experience assisting organizations in a myriad of industries attract and select the right employees. Some of these organizations include