Veteran and Disability Unemployment Rates – December 2018
Veteran and disability unemployment have seen an overall decreased from December 2017 to December 2018, with a slight increase in the last two months of 2018. Veteran unemployment is down 0.6%, from 3.8% in 2017 to 3.2% in 2018. Disability unemployment is down 0.5%, from 8.4% in 2017 to 7.9% in 2018. You can view more detailed information about other employment statistics at the Bureau of Labor and Statistic’s Economic News Release website page.
Kairos Launches Compensation Analysis Reports
Tucked away in OFCCP’s regulations, “Additional required elements of affirmative action programs,” is one weighty requirement: “The contractor must evaluate: Compensation system(s) to determine whether there are gender-, race-, or ethnicity-based disparities.” (41 CFR § 60-2.17(b)(3)) In recent years, OFCCP has committed considerable resources into enforcement of this requirement by hiring a team of highly-skilled statisticians and labor economists, which can be intimidating to even the largest of contractors. Those efforts have produced results in the way of significantly larger settlements for compensation discrimination. Compounding the difficulty to comply with this regulation, OFCCP does not provide the criteria it uses in the desk audit to flag compensation for regression by a statistician. While OFCCP recently released some details of its process for conducting compensation reviews, they were hardly a road-map for an initial[1] analysis (the Directive listed some technical explanations of the ways OFCCP runs a regression analysis[2].) The Problem How can contractors run an analysis similar to OFCCP’s initial desk audit compensation analysis and work to resolve indicators prior to an audit to reduce the chance OFCCP will need to run regression analyses if OFCCP does not release its initial analysis methodology? Our Solution Kairos is launching a new Compensation Analysis Report designed to provide your company with the indicators OFCCP would calculate in a desk audit. Designed by our former OFCCP Compliance Officer, the reports highlight any significant differences that exist by job group, job title, and any other pay analysis group (as needed). Compensation can seem too complex to tackle – it is complex. That’s why OFCCP leaves those analyses to PhD-level statisticians when initial desk audits show significant indicators. Kairos’ goal with these analyses is to help your company avoid getting to that point! Take the first step toward compliance today by reaching out to Kairos staff for more information, pricing, and sample compensation reports. [1] The analysis a compliance officer conducts in the desk audit used to determine the need for further analysis. [2] A statistical technique in which more than one variable (e.g. tenure, education, department) is used to predict compensation.
One Month Until the 2018 EEO-1 Survey Launch
Companies are now only four weeks away from the start of the 2018 EEO-1 Survey filing window. Federal contractors are required to file EEO-1 reports if they meet the requirements. In the event of an OFCCP audit you should expect to be asked to provide copies of your reports - so be sure you download or print a copy of your final certified reports. Also remember the closer to the deadline you file the more likely the agency will be unavailable to assist you with technical issues in time to file by the deadline. If you would like Kairos to review your reports and compare them to your AAPs for consistency please let us know before the end of December. Kairos also offers EEO-1 report preparation and filing services. If you would like us to submit your reports please email or call us for a quote today. The Vets-4212 Report deadline was September 30. As of this morning, December 3, the system is still open if you haven't yet filed your reports.
Veteran’s Day 2018
This Veteran’s Day we honor the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Our way of life could not exist without the scars you bear – the price you’ve paid for our freedom. This Veteran’s Day, Kairos encourages you to honor the service of veterans in your workforce and community. For additional outreach and inclusion resources and suggestions please contact our office at 972-369-0015. Veteran’s Day 2018: Sunday, November 11 Observed Date: Monday, November 12
2018 EEO-1 Survey
What a busy time of year! Vets-4212 annual reports were due by September 30, 2018. As of this morning, the system is still open if you haven't yet filed your reports. Now is the time for companies to prepare for the 2018 EEO-1 Survey. Once the survey is open in January 2019 an email will be sent to the email address indicated as the EEO-1 Report Contact on the prior year report. If the person previously listed on the form is no longer with the company you will need to submit a change request. Also, if you company has experienced any mergers, acquisitions or spin-offs now is the time to submit those changes. Who is required to file? All companies that meet the following criteria are required to file the EEO-1 Survey report annually: Subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, with 100 or more employees; or Subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, with fewer than 100 employees if the company is owned by or corporately affiliated with another company and the entire enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees; or Federal government prime contractors or first-tier subcontractors subject to Executive Order 11246,as amended, with 50 or more employees and a prime contract or first-tier subcontract amounting to $50,000 or more. When do you file? Companies need to pull an employee snapshot from one pay period between October 1 - December 31, 2018. Kairos recommends pulling the data now so you have ample time for review before filing. Companies must submit and certify their reports online between January 1 - March 31, 2019. Need some help? If you are interested Kairos can prepare your EEO-1 Survey reports for you. Call or email us with questions or for pricing information.
Jennifer McAlister Presenting at the 2018 ILG National Conference in Anaheim, California
Kairos Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that Jennifer McAlister, Director of Operations, will be presenting at the Industry Liaison Group (ILG) National Conference in Anaheim, California from July 30 – August 3. Please see Jennifer's presentation title and description below. "The Next Step Towards Becoming a Data Wizard" You pulled data from the HRIS and Applicant Tracking System. What now? Ensuring your data’s integrity is a crucial step in preparing your AAP. Do you want to learn some techniques for ensuring all hires are on the Applicant Flow Log? In a pickle because you aren’t able to pull accurate promotion data? Do you have repetitive data formatting, merging, or cleanup tasks you’d like to automate? We’ll demonstrate some examples with Excel’s Power Query tool, PivotTables, Vlookup, and other formulas that will make copy/paste seem primitive. Impress your peers and manager while saving yourself time and headaches by upgrading your data skills! The annual ILG National Conference is dedicated to training and assisting Federal contractors who are required to comply with various regulations enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If you’re interested in attending this year’s conference please visit http://ilgconference.com/2018/ for more information and to view the agenda
Nicolas Paul Presenting at the 2018 ILG National Conference in Anaheim, California
Kairos Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that Nicolas Paul, Director of Compliance, will be presenting at the Industry Liaison Group (ILG) National Conference in Anaheim, California from July 30 – August 3. Nicolas is a frequent presenter at local, regional and national ILG conferences and is the President of the North Texas ILG. The annual ILG National Conference is dedicated to training and assisting Federal contractors who are required to comply with various regulations enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If you’re interested in attending this year’s conference please visit http://ilgconference.com/2018/ for more information and to view the agenda.
OFCCP extends 2014 TRICARE Enforcement Moratorium
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) today issued a two-year extension of its enforcement moratorium relating to the affirmative obligations of TRICARE providers. This moratorium has been in effect for four years, and will now expire on May 7, 2021; it will also now apply to Veterans Affairs Health Benefits Program providers. “By providing greater regulatory certainty to TRICARE providers and Veterans Affairs Health Benefits Program providers, the Administration can help ensure that America’s veterans and their families can access quality health care,” said OFCCP Director Ondray T. Harris. Read more at https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20180518.
Kairos Executive to Lead North Texas Industry Liaison Group (ILG)
Kairos is pleased to announce that our Director of Compliance, Nick Paul, will be leading the North Texas Industry Liaison Group as President for 2018-2019. Other officers who will be installed at the next meeting include: ○ Vice President – Mark Nagel (Southwest Airlines) ○ Secretary – LaShanda Reed-Larry (Essilor) ○ Treasurer – Brenda Sitton (Nokia) Dr Pepper Snapple Group is hosting the May 17 meeting in Plano from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Presenters for the meeting will be Southwest and Rocky Mountain (SWARM) OFCCP Regional Director Melissa Speer and Patrick McNeil of PeopleFluent.
OFCCP’s Methodology for Developing the Scheduling List
Under the leadership of Ondray T. Harris, OFCCP recently released a detailed description of the methodology used for developing their scheduling list of supply and service federal contractors. This process has been summarized in the article below. OFCCP’s audit selection process starts with the agency downloading Federal contract information from archived files of the Federal Procurement Data System–Next Generation (FPDS-NG) for three preceding years (2015, 2016 and 2017). The FPDS is a database of federal contracts maintained by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) that identifies contracting bodies, contractors, the value and term of federal contracts, as well as other relevant information. After a process of removing contractors for various jurisdictionally disqualifying factors, the agency created “Establishment Records” based on physical addresses for single establishment contractors. For contractors with more than one contract at the same physical address, the contract record with the farthest expiration date became the Establishment Record and all contract numbers from other contract records were added to it. These establishments were called “Direct Establishments.” Contract information was then matched and consolidated with the EEO-1 Database to establish a “Parent Record” for single and multi-establishment contractors with one or more contracts. For each parent in the Parent File, OFCCP extracted all establishments with 100 or more employees from the EEO-1 database and added them to the Establishment File. These extracted establishments did not have direct contracts but fell within OFCCP’s jurisdiction because their parent entity had a covered direct contract(s). These additional establishments were called “Associate Establishments.” OFCCP then added contract information from the parent record to the respective Associate Establishment records. After the reduction and consolidation processes summarized above, the remaining records created the “Available Pool” for selection. When all establishments in the Available Pool were identified, they were randomly ordered and uploaded to OFCCP’s Case Management System for processing by its district offices. OFCCP does not purge unscheduled cases from prior lists before releasing the new scheduling lists. If you would like to review OFCCP’s full published methodology, please click here to download the file.
Announcement – New Employee Will Waymel
Kairos is pleased to announce the addition of Will Waymel as a Senior Compliance Specialist. Will brings to Kairos eight years of experience as a Compliance Officer in the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Denver District Office. As an OFCCP Compliance Officer, Will audited companies for compliance with Affirmative Action regulations, analyzed compensation data and reviewed personnel records and Affirmative Action Plans. During his tenure at OFCCP, Will trained employees from the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Region (SWARM) on advanced Microsoft Excel functionality and custom VBA macros to increase data management efficiency. Prior to his time with OFCCP, Will was a Budget & Recruitment Manager for the Metropolitan State University of Colorado in Denver. Will’s primary focus is to provide Kairos clients with audit services, compensation analyses, AAP preparation and training services. He will be available by phone and email to respond to questions along with the rest of the Kairos team. Will can be reached at the main office 972-369-0015 or directly at 720-515-0870. Will, who is bilingual (Spanish), holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and two Master’s degrees from the University of Colorado Denver – one in Business Administration and the second in International Business. Will, his wife Alissa and their five children (with a sixth on the way) returned in mid-December to the United States from a year-long mission trip in the Greek-speaking island of Cypress.
EEO-1 Filing Season has Arrived
The 2017 EEO-1 Survey online filing system is now open for business and the March 31, 2018 deadline will be here before we know it. Website changes made by the Joint Reporting Commission (JRC), the organization responsible for collecting EEO-1 Reports, include additional security protocols. The JRC has published an EEO-1 Survey User Guide with helpful information and step-by-step instructions. Federal contractors are required to file EEO-1 reports if they meet certain thresholds. In the event of an OFCCP audit you should expect to be asked to provide copies of your reports; so be sure you download or print a copy of your final certified reports. Also remember the closer you file to the deadline the more likely technical issues will arise and the agency will be unavailable to assist you in time to file by the deadline. If the person previously listed on the EEO-1 Reports is no longer with the company you will need to submit to the EEOC a signed change request on company letterhead with the company number, name, title, phone number and email address of the new contact person at your company. This change request MUST be signed by an authorized company representative in order for the change request to be processed. Please either scan or email this request to e1.techassistance@eeoc.gov or fax to 1-866-262-0032. Your new contact will receive an email directing you to create your new password once your change request has been submitted. If you would like us to review your reports and compare them to your AAPs for consistency please let us know as soon as possible. Kairos Services also offers EEO-1 report preparation and filing services. If you would like us to submit your reports this year please email or call us for a quote today.
Breaking News: EEO-1 Pay Data Reporting Indefinitely Postponed
On August 29 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) indefinitely postponed the pay data collection aspects (Component 2) of the EEO-1 form that was revised on September 29, 2016. The previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data on race/ethnicity and gender by occupational category will remain in effect. What does this mean? Contractors will not be filing an EEO-1 report in 2017. Contractors will need to pull a workforce snapshot for a pay period between October 1 and December 31. Contractors will file EEO-1 between January 1 and March 31, 2018. If you have any questions please call the Kairos office at 972-369-0015.
Nick Paul Speaking at the 2017 Industry Liaison Group (ILG) National Conference
Kairos' Director of Compliance, Nick Paul, will present at this year's ILG National Conference held August 1-4 in San Antonio. This session is a 'must see' for Federal contractors who have ever struggled through the process of selecting, evaluating and implementing applicant tracking systems. See more at the following link https://lnkd.in/eX_5zib.
Kairos’ Project Manager, Christie Hermann, is presenting at the St. Louis ILG
On Thursday, April 27, Kairos' Project Manager, Christie Hermann, will share her talents in "Taking Your Data Crunching Skills to the Next Level" with the St. Louis ILG. HR professionals and practitioners can enhance their capabilities to track, monitor and analyze their AAP and support data more accurately and efficiently. Techniques will be demonstrated to identify and analyze potential pay disparities before submitting your compensation data for an audit or the Equal Pay Report. The use of pivot tables will teach attendees how to find data inconsistencies and "scrub" data. The use of VLOOKUP will compare two worksheets of data, use filtering for finding small pieces of data in large data files and finding duplicates in your worksheets in seconds. The session will close with how to use mail merge for getting those recruitment and outreach letters out in short order and have documentation available for audits to reflect compliance.
Disability Self-ID Form Update
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the 'new' Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability form (CC-305). There are no changes to this revision other than an updated expiration date of 1/31/2020. Federal Contractors should begin using the new form as soon as possible. The new form can be found in English and Spanish as well as multiple formats on the Kairos Client Portal. It is important to remember that the Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability form (CC-305) cannot be changed or altered in any way. If you have any questions concerning this communication please call Kairos' office at 972-369-0015.
Celebrating the life of Ed Roberts, a Disability Activist
Today we celebrate the life of Ed Roberts, a Disability Activist, who would have turned 78. At the age of 14, Roberts contracted Polio which resulted in paralysis and having to spend his nights sleeping in an iron lung. Roberts not only accepted his disabilities, but he went on to build up a positive image and bright future for disabled people. Roberts went on to become the Director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, proving not only can you work with disabilities, but you can be a shining star that makes the world better for everyone.