3-hr Virtual Seminar: Affirmative Action and the OFCCP - An In-depth Primer

It’s time to get educated about the constantly evolving obligations of government contractors. This course will explore the history of affirmative action in detail. It will discuss the key principles considered when developing the legislation and regulations that provide its framework and help attendees analyze what affirmative action means for your organization today. During the session, the instructor will highlight many new obligations emerging from President Obama’s recent series of executive orders. He will also examine and explain the OFCCP’s (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’) latest enforcement trends, including the new Scheduling Letter.

Why Should You Attend:

With OFCCP’s latest fiscal year closing September 30, the agency and federal contractors are looking forward to 2017. The message is clear: OFCCP is better funded, more sophisticated, and more motivated than ever to aggressively enforce affirmative action rules under EO 11246. For the contractor, it is extremely important to comply with these laws or face serious repercussions. Yet, now, more than ever, remaining OFCCP compliant can be one of the toughest challenges an organization faces. With federal employment laws and agency regulatory changes evolving at an exponential rate it is vital to stay on top of the sizable body of information.

This in depth analysis will present the history and development of affirmative action and its guiding principles so that your organization can be better positioned. The course will:

• Review the history of affirmative action where the instructor will walk through its key principles and current framework for developing compliant programs.
• Discuss the current OFCCP enforcement strategies and trends so that you are well prepared to move forward and understand your responsibilities as a contractor and how to meet the latest regulatory challenges.
• Prepare attendees in understanding what records to keep, what to watch out for, and how technology is changing the game.
• Prepare attendees for the OFCCP spotlight.

Learning Objectives:

• What is affirmative action and the importance of its guiding principles
• The legal requirements for and the framework that drives affirmative action
• What the OFCCP requires of government contractors in terms of affirmative action efforts - does your current effort pass the smell test
• The focus of the OFCCP’s heightened enforcement efforts and contractor scrutiny
• Whether or not your organization is a government contractor according to the OFCCP - the answer may surprise you
• The most frequent compliance failures, why they happen, and how to avoid them

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Reviewing the history of affirmative action
• Legislative and judicial history and current trends
• The difference between EEO and AA
• The true meaning of affirmative action
• The difference between diversity and affirmative action
• Key principles of affirmative action program design
• OFCCP enforcement mandate
• Key priorities for OFCCP
• OFCCP enforcement trends
• Recent changes in enforcement guidelines including the new Scheduling Letter
• Enforcement tools used by the OFCCP when auditing your workforce program
• What is steering and is your organization at risk for doing so
• Compensation discrimination - the hot button issue for today
• New regulations - what is the OFCCP most interested in right now
• Is your outreach activity truly outreach
• The standard of compliance is good faith and what that means for your program
• Most common compliance failures
• Beware of the inference provision
• Most frequent data collection and data management failures
• Most frequent record keeping failures

Who Will Benefit:

• CFOs
• COOs
• HR professionals
• Recruiters
• All federal contractors including those in the health services industry as recently determined by the ALJ
• Any person within a contracting organization responsible for compliance