On March 26, 2014, The Association of Employment Professionals (AOEP), held a forum to discuss the impact of the new OFCCP regulations (revising VEVRAA and Section 503), on federal contractors. March 24, 2014 was the D-Day for the regulations to go into effect. These regulations have revised the requirements for employers that receive federal contracts so as to increase employment opportunities for veterans and candidates with disabilities. The frenzy to get things just right in the event of an audit has federal contractors seek out information and guidance on the revisions around VEVRAA and Section 503 from many sources. This event in Waltham was well attended by many employers and federal contractors and there were discussions and lively q&a sessions after each speaker’s presentation.
The event was attended by experts in the field of compliance including the chief speaker, the President of Americas Job Exchange, Rathin Sinha.
“The Times are A’ Changing- in fact it has changed!”, was Rathin Sinha’s introductory comment as he laid out America’s Job Express’ (AJE’s) 10-step comprehensive compliance solution that many employers have come to depend upon. He gave a reality check right away by pointing out that with troops being pulled back from Afghanistan, we can expect about 130,000 veterans returning and seeking jobs in the near future. This, in fact, he noted was a number that could populate a mid-sized city. The need to absorb returning vets to the workforce creates a sense of urgency and the government has proactively, over the last couple of years, and after much deliberation, put forth measures by strengthening laws that allows better job opportunities for veterans and candidates with disabilities. Although affirmative action was always in place, now the OFCCP has focused on specific groups to level the playing field for such individuals by emphasizing laws such as EO11246 (relating to Equal Employment), Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act (relating to candidates with disabilities), and VEVRAA/Section 4212 (relating to protected veterans). The OFCCP conducts corrective action when necessary by issuing Scheduling Letters, on site and off site audits, Conciliation Agreements, penalties and the dreaded debarment.
Rathin outlined the 10-step AJE solution that takes care of outreach, proof of outreach and reporting data. The OFCCP has outlined its expectations but has given federal contractors flexibility to reach that goal. Employers receiving federal grant may hire job boards like AJE to cater to their compliance needs. AJE’s outreach is a three-part approach, namely, general, community and state. General audiences are reached through career sites, job searches on smart phones and social media as well as jobs sent to individual job seeker emails. The community specific outreach connects to job sites for targeted minority groups such as veterans, women and candidates with disabilities. AJE enlists the help of community based organizations and offline partners like high schools, community colleges, military workforce transition programs, Chambers of Commerce and so on. This last piece is mandatory as all employers need to use government infrastructure and post to local 1-Stop centers (DVOP/LVER) and state job banks.
Rathin ended the conference by emphasizing that the there are some key drivers of success employers need to note. He advised employers to hire a service provider who has the capabilities to preserve and protect data. But that is not enough; as the party who is ultimately responsible for compliance, Rathin urged employers to stay in close touch with the service provider’s account manager to track that job postings have all the necessary details, to monitor posting performance and to check that all documentation is being kept according to expectations.
Patricia Shiu, the Director of OFCCP, has often mentioned that “good faith is not good enough’. Employers need to pursue activities that show progress towards goals that need to be measurable and most importantly to carefully evaluate the effectiveness of such efforts towards goals to fill in gaps as necessary and to make improvements.
To understand the need to hire diversity check out this webinar .
The new regulations have made compliance a huge need for federal contractors. Check this webinar to learn about compliance solutions suggested by Rathin Sinha.
