Settlements Involving EEOC Cost Corporations $296.1 Million in 2014

Working with direct hire recruiting agencies means being cognizant of both your own, and your agencies’, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) compliance status.

If you’re not aware of the EEOC compliance regulations that both you and your agencies should be following, you could end up in an EEOC investigation – a part of a total that amounted to $296.1 million for victims supported by the EEOC in 2014.

The EEOC chair released a statement about these discrimination complaints:

“Behind these numbers are individuals who turned to the EEOC because they believe that they have suffered unlawful discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang. “The EEOC remains committed to meaningful resolution of charges and strategic enforcement to eliminate barriers to equal employment opportunity.”

Workplace discrimination and diversity issues are growing, but organizations don’t have the bandwidth to accommodate this growth. A recent report from SHRM showed one-fifth of respondents indicating that their organizations have very informal diversity efforts. Of these respondents, 41 percent said it was because they were too busy.

While organizations have fallen behind in their efforts to recruit a more diverse workplace and reduce discrimination throughout their workplace, the number of settlements from accusations is growing.

EEOC compliance regulations drove 88,788 charges of workplace discrimination in 2014.

In 2014, there were a total of 88,778 charges of workplace discrimination received by the agency. Of those 80-some thousand charges, harassment was a big issue. The issue of harassment on various bases – like race, disability and others – made of 30 percent of the overall complaints.

It’s been such a hot topic for the EEOC as of late – harassment should be a main topic of concern for recruiting leaders thinking about taking a look at their direct hire agency relationships in 2016.

Discharge is the most common issue of the various harassment bases. Race, discriminatory terms and conditions of employment were the second most frequently cited issues (9,332), with general harassment being the third (9,023).

This chart shows a breakdown of EEOC settlement types in 2014.

For those employers and direct hire recruiting agencies that aren’t in alignment with EEOC compliance regulation in 2016, you could be hit with any of the following settlement types:

*These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges allege multiple bases, such as discrimination on the bases of race and color, or sex and retaliation.

Falling into one of these categories can do more than just land you with a investigation from the EEOC – discrimination complaints can lead to bad press and a tarnished employer brand. Becoming EEOC compliant is the first step to ensuring this doesn’t happen to your organization.

Don’t become a statistic – 3 Steps to full EEOC compliance in 2016.

Having to comply with the mass amounts of EEOC compliance regulations can be time consuming – not all of the regulations will immediately apply to your organization, leaving you to wade through a pool of regulations until you understand which apply to you and which don’t.

There is one thing you need to focus on – fighting discrimination in your recruiting process.

Every employer is now responsible for combating discrimination during recruitment, and a simple spreadsheet to keep track of your diversity initiatives might not be cutting it.

Step 1: figure out whether or not you’re an equal opportunity employer.

An equal opportunity employer is an employer who agrees not to discriminate against any candidate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex (this includes pregnancy), physical or mental disability, or age (those above 40).

If you have more than 15 employees that have worked for you for more than 20 calendar weeks, you have no choice – you have to comply with EEOC compliance regulations.

This is easy to control when it comes to internal recruiting efforts, but you need to be cognizant of your direct hire recruiting agencies’ regulations and practices.

Step 2: develop an EEO-1 report.

EEOC and OFCCP requirements require the development of an affirmative action plan, the creation of an internal auditing and reporting system, and the posting of several notices of non-discrimination and employee’s rights.

In addition to these requirements, you have to file an EEO-1 report, probably the most time-consuming of these tasks. This report requires certain companies to provide a count of their candidates and employees by job category, then by ethnicity, race and gender.

You have to file an EEO-1 report if you’re an employer of a federal government contractor of $50,000 or more and have 50 or more employees. You must also file a report if you are not a federal contractor but have 100 or more employees.

If you’re not keeping a close eye on the practices of your direct hire recruiting agencies, this report might land you in the non-compliance range with the EEOC. The good news – you can lean on technology to help with these insights.

Step 3: consider the support of technology.

Some compliance technologies like Workable, Paycore or Newton Software have the ability to track compliance within your organization.

None have the capability to keep tabs on your direct hire recruiting agency activity to ensure their compliance as well as yours. Develop a method to track your compliance in your external recruiting efforts to ensure compliance in every aspect of talent acquisition.

Compliance is a headache. Our marketplace ensures your compliance with EEOC and AA regulations when working with direct hire recruiting agencies. If you’re interested in joining, sign up.

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