How Lever supports OFCCP compliance efforts

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Please note, all materials below have been prepared for general information purposes only. We provide the information below to help you learn more about Lever’s position on the OFCCP and how we will be supporting your OFCCP compliance. The information presented below is not legal advice. With that in mind, here is how Lever helps its customers meet their new obligations under the OFCCP.


What is OFCCP compliance?

The OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) holds federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for complying with the legal requirement to not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

As part of their compliance, contractors must meet certain EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) requirements, including keeping records on their candidates.

How does Lever help with OFCCP requirements? 

Surveys

As part of their compliance, contractors must meet certain Equal Employment Opportunity requirements, including keeping records on their candidates. Lever automates the solicitation of self-identification for OFCCP compliance purposes including race, gender, disability, and veteran status, depending on the needs and obligations of your organization. This flexibility allows for compliance with OFCCP regulations, and can also support a diversity and inclusion program.

When enabled, candidates that apply to postings via your Lever-hosted job site will be prompted to answer a survey of demographic questions related to their race, gender, and veteran status. 

If you indicate that your organization is under contract with the U.S. federal government, you will be required to include all EEO questions (race, gender, veteran status, disability status) in either short or long form.

 

In late April 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved OFCCP’s revised Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability Form (CC-305) which is updated with the preferred language for disabilities and to include additional examples of disabilities.

Lever has made the necessary changes to the EEO survey form to reflect OFCCP’s updates. If you are a federal contractor who has configured the EEO survey, going forward all your applicants and sourced candidates will encounter the updated version of the OFCCP survey form.

EEO question configuration interface in Lever

If your organization is not under contract with the U.S. federal government, but you still wish to enable EEO questions in order to capture candidate demographic data, you can select which of the EEO questions - race, gender, and/or veteran status - that you wish to include.

EEO question configuration interface in Lever

Note that non-U.S federal contractors can use diversity surveys as an alternative means of collecting candidate demographic data. Learn more about this in our help article on using diversity surveys.

You can also enable EEO questions to be sent via email as a survey to applicants that do not apply through your Lever-hosted job site. For more on this topic, refer to our EEO help article.

EEO Dashboard

The Equal Employment Opportunity dashboard provides you with a complete picture of your candidate demographics as you strive to foster a diverse and inclusive work environment. The EEO dashboard is useful for visualizing the breakdown your pipeline and archive based on candidate responses to the EEO questions on your job postings and surveys.

For example, this chart allows you to see whether the diversity among hired candidates reflects the composition of diversity in the pipeline.

Opportunities versus hires chart on the EEO dashboard in Visual Insights

For more information on visualizing survey data, visit our article on the Equal Opportunity Employment dashboard.

Compliance (EEO/OFCCP) data export

Part of OFCCP compliance is meeting certain EEO requirements, including keeping records on their candidates. You are able to export results from your EEO survey. The export can be configured to only export results from a specific timeframe. This export can generated in anonymized and non-anonymized versions. The anonymized file does not contain any personally identifiable information. 

Best Practices

Standardized procedures

Features like Lever's demographic surveys, Nurture campaigns, Interview plans, and email templates can help create standardization in the candidate journey. For example, establishing an interview plan for a job posting helps ensure each candidate follows the same application and interview stages. 

Using demographic survey data

You cannot use ethnicity or gender survey data to inform a hiring decision - you must hire the most qualified applicant. However, it is appropriate to use survey data to understand your company's hiring behaviour and inform your practices to advance your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. For example, if your diversity report indicates you have a low number of employees of racial minority groups, you might reconsider your internal referral policy as it could be limiting your reach of potential applicants. 

Filtering candidates

Lever enables you to search and improve your candidate pool by filtering candidates for roles. When searching past candidates for potential future roles, it is essential to apply non-discriminatory filters. For example, it would be useful and appropriate to search applications by interview feedback or time since last contact. You can also use Advance search to filter candidate's by average rating. For more details, refer to our help article on searching the database for candidates.

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