As a federal contractor there are some guidelines for posting open positions.
Let’s start by reviewing the basic posting requirement. Under VEVRAA, Federal contractors are required to post “all employment openings” with the appropriate Employment Service Delivery System(s) (ESDS) where the job opening occurs. In this context, “all employment openings” means all job openings with three exceptions:
- Executive and senior management
- Positions filled internally
- Positions lasting three days or less
“Executive and senior management” is defined by OFCCP’s regulations as jobs meeting the executive exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Internally filled positions are exempt from the job listing requirement as long as your organization is ONLY looking internally to fill the position. Once a job is opened to external candidates, it should be posted with the ESDS.
The regulations require that covered contractors must post openings in the “manner and format permitted” by the ESDS. If the ESDS requires the completion of a web form – then you must post jobs using that process. If they allow faxes or email, then those methods would be compliant as well. Keeping copies or screenshots of postings that were made is a best practice. OFCCP will expect documentation of job listing compliance during a compliance review.
Additional information
The VEVRAA regulations require covered contractors to provide additional information to each ESDS where they post jobs. This information includes:
- Notification of your company’s status as a federal contractor. You could meet this requirement by stating “VEVRAA Federal Contractor” on your job postings.
- A statement of your desire for priority referrals of protected veterans.
- The name and location of each hiring location within the state.
- Contact information for the official responsible for hiring at each location.
- Contact information for any external job search organizations used by the company.
This information only needs to be submitted with first posting in each state or when the information changes. If any of the information changes, the next posting should contain the updated details.
The hiring official can be a chief hiring official, a Human Resources contact, a senior management contact, or any other manager that can verify the information in the job listing. If your company uses any job search organizations, such as temporary agencies, it must also provide contact information for that organization. Although OFCCP has not given an exact definition of an “external job search organization”, they intend for the term to be construed as broadly as possible, and includes “any entity not wholly owned and operated by the contractor that assists with its hiring.”
OFCCP says that these changes were included at the request of numerous ESDSs since there is no centralized way for them to know which companies are federal contractors or who to contact with questions about postings.
Use the following template to provide this information to the ESDS
Additional best practices include:
- A description of the basic qualifications/duties must be documented and included in the posting (print ad, electronic posting, etc.). Preferred qualifications need to be listed separately.
- Applicants must be told how to apply. Each posting must expressly state that only persons submitting an application using the method listed will be considered for employment.
- You must invite applicants to submit race/gender/disability/veteran information with the appropriate forms; however, it is not mandatory for the applicant to provide the information. They select the option to “Not self-identify” on the form.
- The race/gender/disability/veteran information provided by the applicants must be kept separately from the application and not shared with any hiring officials.
- All records must be kept for two (2) years