OFCCP Provides Additional Guidance on
Internet Applicant Rules
New guidance is now available on the OFCCP's Internet applicant
regulations. The OFCCP recently published on its website an
additional series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that
answer recurring concerns contractors have raised since the
new requirements went into effect earlier this year. The new
FAQs can be found at:
The original FAQs are organized by category (with a brief
table of contents at the beginning). The recently-added FAQs
are included within each original category but are easily
identified with a "new" designation symbol.
The additional guidance includes whether or not basic qualifications
need to be included in job descriptions, which applicants
are "considered" when a contractor runs a search
in an external database that ranks the candidates on their
qualifications, how many times you must try to contact an
applicant before you can conclude they are no longer interested
in the position, use and obligations of recruiting agencies,
and retaining resumes from job fairs.
While these new FAQs do not respond to all of the questions
we have been getting from our clients, they are a good start
on the OFCCP's part to clarify some of the more confusing
aspects of implementing the new rules.
A word of caution to clients and other contractors: As we
have begun receiving and analyzing the first applicant pools
under these new regulations, we have noticed that in some
organizations there seems to be a disconnect between the folks
who are implementing the regulations (usually the recruiting
staff) and the folks pulling the data for disparate impact
testing. In most cases the queries used by the data folks
need to be examined and possibly re-written to meet your company's
new criteria for "applicant."
If you have any questions or need further information on
this or other EEO/AAP topics please send us an email or give
us a call.