The Proactive Employer

The Department of Labor recently released its Five Year Strategic Plan. The plan represents a major shift in the agency's approach. Coupled with the agency's regulatory agenda, there are some important implications for employers. Employers need to take a more proactive approach to compliance efforts. In this installment, we'll talk about some strategies employers can use to take charge of the EEO efforts and stay compliant.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:14:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and The Proactive Employer is presenting a special one-hour round table installment on disability issues. We’ll be discussing the various programs and special events being held throughout the month, as well as providing employers with practical suggestions on topics such as:

• Diversity and inclusion of disabled individuals in your workforce;
• HR best practices;
• Compliance issues;
• Accessibility versus accommodation;
• Employers’ legal responsibilities under the ADAAA;
• Effectively recruiting within the disabled workforce;
• Myths about employing disabled individuals.

We have an all-star panel lined up for the discussion:

Cari Dominguez is the Former Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). She is the co-author of Leading With Your Heart, and the owner of Dominguez & Associates, a management consulting firm providing selective services in the areas of workforce assessments and diversity evaluations. Her public service includes being the former Chair of the EEOC, Director of the OFCCP, and Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for the Employment Standards Administration.

Sheridan Walker is the President of Hire Potential, a national consulting and staffing firm specializing in the Untapped Workforce. She is an expert in the disability field with more than 25 years of broad-based experience, and has lectured across the country on disability issues such as compliance, employment, retention and risk management.

Jonathan Hyman is a partner in the Labor & Employment and Litigation Divisions of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. He counsels and represents employers on a variety of issues ranging from employment discrimination to disability to wage and hour issues to corporate document retention.

Kevin Bradley is the Director of Diversity for McDonald’s. He has been a speaker on Inclusion and Diversity at a number of venues, including the Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy Employer Meeting and the Society for Human Resource Management’s Diversity Conference and HR Conference. He served as the Chair of the Employer Subcommittee of the President’c Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and serves on several Boards of Directors.

James Rodriguez is the Strategic Military Talent Manager for BAE Systems, Inc. Mr. Rodriguez is a retired United States Marine First Sergeant with 21 years of active service. He began his career with BAE Systems in March 2009. He is a member of the caregiver’s leadership team with Operation Home Front and is an active partner with The Wounded Warrior Project. He also serves as a veteran and corporate mentor for the Veterans Coalition and The Wounded Warrior Mentor Program.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:57:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Federal affirmative action regulations require that federal contractors prepare and implement an affirmative action program. In this installment, we'll be discussing affirmative action strategy, program design, and development. We'll also be discussing a recent decision in a case entitled OFCCP v. Frito-Lay that centered around desk audits, what employers should do to prepare for a desk audit, and what they can expect during a desk audit. Our guest for this installment is Carla Irwin. Ms. Irwin is the president of Carla Irwin & Associates, and is a Partner with the HRLink Group. Prior to her consulting career, Ms. Irwin served as the Affirmative Action Compliance Manager at Zurich North America and as the Director of EEO and Diversity at OfficeMax. She has extensive experience with EEO and affirmative action, and brings both an HR perspective as well as a legal perspective, in that she holds a Juris Doctorate degree from DePaul University College of Law.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:23:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Measuring EEO compliance is hard. It's important to have a "bottom line" solution that's easy to calculate, easy to understand, and easy to communicate. In this installment, we discuss why measuring EEO performance is so hard, talk about some practical solutions, and provide some ideas on how to effectively present the metrics to supervisors, managers, and the C Suite.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

An employee handbook is the most important communication tool between an employer and its workforce. It’s a statement of the policies of the business and how the business is to be conducted. A well-written handbook sets forth the expectations for employees and describes what they can expect from the employer. An employee handbook should describe the company’s legal obligations as an employer, and the employees’ rights. It’s important that the handbook is clear and as unambiguous as possible. Misunderstandings or misstatements can create legal liabilities for the employer. In legal disputes, courts have considered an employee handbook to be a contractual obligation, so it’s important to word it carefully. Today, we’ll be talking about employee handbooks with John Bagyi. Mr. Bagyi is an attorney in the Albany, New York office of Bond, Schoeneck and King. He counsels and represents employers of all types and sizes in a variety of labor and employment related context, including workplace investigations, policy development and review, wage and hour and EEO compliance, union issues, proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the Division of Human Rights and the EEOC, and employment litigation in federal and state courts. He also provides a broad range of employment law and human resource training to executives, managers, supervisors and employees. Mr. Bagyi has written extensively on labor and employment law and is a frequent speaker at national, state and local conferences, including the 2008 National SHRM Conference. Since 2005, he has served as General Counsel to the New York State Society for Human Resource Management.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:24:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

At the National Industry Liaison Group conference earlier this month, Patricia Shiu, Director of the OFCCP, announced that the compensation standards and guidelines are going to be rescinded. It’s not clear what will replace these guidelines, or when the replacement will occur. And some employers are feeling what some have called an informational void. Today, we’ll be talking about those guidelines and possible replacements with our guest Leigh Nason. Ms. Nason is a shareholder in the Columbia, South Carolina office of Ogletree Deakins, and she chairs the firm’s Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance Practice Group.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:20:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

As I’ve mentioned many times before, the Department of Labor is taking a far more aggressive stance, increasing enforcement efforts, prosecuting more aggressively, and seeking larger recoveries from employers. Experts are predicting a surge in wage and hour enforcement efforts. I’ve spoken with several employment attorneys about this, and all of them have indicated that wage and hour issues are the nation’s fastest growing type of litigation. One attorney said that “multi-plaintiff wage and hour lawsuits pose the greatest employment litigation threat to American businesses today."

Now more than ever, it’s essential that employers have accurate and precise records of hours worked. Today we’ll be speaking with an expert in time and attendance. Our guest is Jose Gaona, the Executive Vice President of Operations for Qqest. Mr. Gaona has extensive experience in the time and attendance space. He served 16 years with Ceridian Employer Services where he managed their time and attendance product line.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:20:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

Our guest for this installment is Philip Miles, an attorney with McQuaide Blasko. We discuss religious discrimination and the various forms it takes, including employment decisions, harassment, accommodation of beliefs and practices, and grooming and dress code policies. We also discuss a recent court decision involving religious discrimination-EEOC v. GeoGroup. Mr. Miles will also offer some practical suggestions for employers on how to keep their workplaces free from religious discrimination.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:18:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

In this installment, we discuss the OFCCP's recent directives on accessibility issues and what it means for recruiters and employers with our guest Sheridan Walker. Ms. Walker is the President of HirePotential, a leading national consulting and staffing firm delivering end-to-end services to corporations, assisting them with OFCCP compliance, employment, accommodations, recruitment and retention of the untapped workforce. She is an expert in the disability field with 25 years of broad-based experience. Sheridan will provide some tips for employers on OFCCP compliance, give some concrete suggestions on ATS (applicant tracking) and website accessibility, and tell us how to tap into a very talented pool of workers that you may be overlooking.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:20:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)

In this installment, we discuss compliance from an HR perspective with our guest, Steve Browne. Steve will be answering the tough questions on everyone's minds: Does compliance matter all the time? How can I better understand - and work within - the EEOC framework? What's the best way to have a conversation with the C-Suite about compliance? Why is consistency important, and how can I be more consistent in my hiring practices, promotion systems and other development efforts?

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [0:19:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)