Spotlight on Legal Issues in Recruitment: OFCCP and EEOC Making Life More Complex For Recruiters and Companies
There is no doubt that OFCCP and EEOC are going to make life more interesting and challenging for recruiters and employers. In this posting, I recap and highlight comments from three different articles in ERexchange.com on the topic of recruitment and the law. This is not a new topic for our blawg; we have had many postings on OFCCP’s new definition of an Internet applicant (e.g., one posting on criticisms of the new definition, as well as a posting on EEOC’s new compliance manual on race and color, which also addresses recruitment (e.g., this posting, with some notes from a recent EEOC commissioners’ meeting on the subject).
My goal here is to summarize some keypoints from recent articles on this subject of recruitment and the law. Specifically, three interesting articles have recently appeared in ERexchange.com, including two on the OFCCP internet applicant definition and one on the EEOC’s new comments on recruitment.
Kevin Wheeler, a well-respected recruiter, writes what is the most positive article that I have seen on the OFCCP’s new requirements. He asserts that
“The OFCCP ruling should go a long way in bringing about a more quantitative and objective way to define jobs by the skills and performance required” and therefore in the long run, “this will make your job easier and will allow you to provide your clients and hiring managers with the best possible people.” (I don’t disagree with him, but I do believe that companies are at the very least going to spend considerable amounts of time worrying about the new definition and whether they meet them or not).
Lisa Harpe’s recent article on OFCCP requirements focuses on some of the technical issues that have arisen in connection with Internet applicants. One of the more interesting questions she asks is whether “Can I use conceptual search” in recruiting. As opposed to “keyword search,” conceptual search allows one to “enter a search term, string of terms, a resume, or other document as the search criteria…” Lisa argues that conceptual search may be hard to explain what the search criteria really were and therefore suggests that companies NOT use it.
Finally, I just published an article on EEOC’s new comments on recruitment. One issue I highlight is whether a company’s recruiters (whether internal or external recruiters) really understand these laws, and are familiar with EEOC’s new concerns in recruitment and hiring. My advice to companies is make sure that recruiters understand these laws. I also recommend that companies conduct an audit of their current recruitment and hiring practices, in light of EEOC’s areas of concern (e.g., word-of-mouth recruitment is singled out as a potential problem area).
Lots of action on this front and only time will tell how it all shakes out!
