Applicant disposition codes are one factor that can potentially “make or break” Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) data. As a best practice, we recommend having detailed disposition codes that include two pieces of information for each candidate – the step and status. The “step” is the “stage” in which an applicant fell out of during your hiring process, such as: “Phone Screen” “First Interview” “Passed to Hiring...

Oh oh, EEOC has just asked you for a list of names and telephone numbers for a large group of your employees. Why? The usual answer is because EEOC wants to interview at least some of them to see if they have evidence supporting the claims in a discrimination charge filed by another employee. The number is usually large, so the employer has difficulty figuring out who might have talked to the Agency and possibly retal...

Lately, my client roster is filling up with new federal contractors and I have been focused on getting them up to speed on all their new requirements. We focus on the elements of an AAP, recordkeeping, self-ID forms, posters, etc. When we are in the midst of making sure we have dotted every “i” and crossed every “t”, sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture. Are we working towards creating an inclusive workforce...

Why I Hired a Workforce Others Overlooked Topic: Disability For 16 years, I led the Logistics Division of Walgreens that included more than 10,000 employees and 17 distribution centers across the country. I am also the father of two daughters and a 28-year-old son with autism. As might be expected, I am more proud of the latter than...

In my last article for the The OFCCP Digest, I wrote about the changing perceptions of race, ethnicity, and gender and how these changes may affect regulatory compliance. For federal contractors and subcontractors, there are two remaining classes that are protected under the federal affirmative action laws: certain classes of veterans and individuals with disabilities. While changes affecting these classes may n...

For 16 years, I led the Logistics Division of Walgreens that included more than 10,000 employees and 17 distribution centers across the country. I am also the father of two daughters and a 28-year-old son with autism. As might be expected, I am more proud of the latter than any business success I’ve enjoyed during my career. Living with Austin gave me an uncensored, unadulterated view of some of the difficulties peo...

How a leader responds to adversity reveals how effective that leader is. Reactions to setbacks or crises not only test leadership character, but define it. Some difficulties are devastating, and unfortunately, they are compounded by leadership responses. There’s no real training for adversity on the leadership ladder, except experience. A leader who doesn’t effectively deal with a trial will succumb to it. T...

The MIT Sloan Expert Series recently presented a webcast with Andrew McAfee ?and ?Erik Brynjolfsson, co-authors of the new book Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future, Beth Comstock, vice chair of GE, and Sandy Pentland, MIT professor and expert of group dynamics in a digital world. A crucial theme of the new book is that unsettling, disruptive change is becoming the status quo. Suddenly, companies we th...

If your organization’s culture sits on either end of two extremes, you don’t need an engagement survey or a high-priced consultant to confirm your reality. You can feel the energy when things are amazing, and you can smell the stench when things are rotting away in your business. But what if things are somewhere in between? What if you’re unsure if things are heading in the right direction? Or what if y...

In today’s complex and dotted-line organizational culture, your job frequently requires buy-in from people outside your direct authority. Influencing people who report to someone else can prove daunting—and an even greater challenge if you confuse the principles of leadership and authority. (They’re not the same.) Contrary to what you may have learned in leadership training, you can effectively guide pe...