Jolene Jefferies DirectEmployers Association

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Nita Beecher Mercer Networks

Leader, Workplace Compliance and ELLG

Pam Gerassimides NASWA

Assistant Executive Director

• Introduction of Facilitators:

Nita Beecher, Mercer Networks

Jolene Jefferies of DirectEmployers Association (DE), Co-Chair of RRCC

Pam Gerassimides of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA)

Today’s Agenda:

1. Find out what’s next for the OFCCP, the predicted timelines for the

proposed regulations for veterans and individuals with disabilities, and

recent recruitment compliance activity

2. Learn how the NLX can help you improve outreach to veterans,

individuals with disabilities, and other diversity groups

3. Understand how to utilize the tools offered by the NLX to help

employers and states track recruitment outreach and effectiveness

4. Discover how your company can take advantage of the no-cost

workforce development and employment services provided to

employers to help you more effectively hire veterans

• OFCCP proposed changes to VEVRAA in April 2011

• Stakeholders filed comments in July 2011 on proposed VEVRRA, now

Section 4212 changes

• OFCCP proposed “game-changing” revisions to Section 503 in December

of 2011

• Stakeholders filed comments in February 2012

• Now that OFCCP has rescinded its 2006 compensation standards it is

expected that final regulations on Section 4212 could issue any day

although as of this week OFCCP has not submitted the final changes to

OMB

• OFCCP was previously told by OMB to respond to stakeholder comments

especially on the cost estimates submitted on both proposals

• Census Bureau just issued occupational data on individuals with

disabilities

Currently OFCCP is requiring contractors to provide the following

information during audits on Section 503

• Leave and accommodation policies

• Job descriptions with medical and physical requirements

• Info on review of medical and physical requirements

• Employees or applicants denied promotion or hire due to medical or

physical job requirements

• Online accessibility

• Accommodation request list (name, date of hire, request, granted and if

not why not

• Disability leave list

• Maternity leave list

• Disabled applicant list

Currently OFCCP is requiring contractors to provide the following

information during audits on Section 4212

• State job postings during review

• 3 years VETS-100/VETS-100A reports

• Self-id forms

• Executed contracts/purchase orders with correct language

• Posting where employees can view AAP

• Invitation to vets to self-id and posting

• List of employees self identifying as vets and accommodations

• List of applicants identified as vets, whose hired and if not why not

OFCCP has added goals to the requirements of both Sections 503 and 4212

similar to those of EO 11246. However, they have taken two different

approaches:

1. Under Section 503 contractors will be required to achieve a 7% goal by

job group

• Additional possible 2% sub-goal for those with significant disabilities

2. Under Section 4212 contractors are required to establish goals based on:

• percentage of vets in civilian labor force;

• number of vets participating in ESDS;

• review of referral, applicant and hiring ratios;

• effectiveness of contractor’s outreach efforts and

• any other factor affecting availability of qualified protected veterans

OFCCP will require additional self identification of both individuals with

disabilities and veterans

• Section 503 would require pre-offer, post-offer and annual survey of

applicants and employees

• Section 4212 would require pre-offer identification of veteran status and

post-offer of the type of protected veteran

Current job posting requirements under VEVRAA would be expanded under

Section 4212 and Section 503

• All job vacancy information must be provided “in manner required by the

service” and contractor retains requirement to comply

• All jobs must be posted for both veterans and individuals with disabilities

• Contractors must establish 3 linkage agreements for both veterans and

individuals with disabilities for each hiring site

OFCCP will require contractors to maintain detailed records on referrals,

applicants, employees for both protected veterans and individuals with

disabilities

Contractors will have to calculate ratios of

• Referrals w/ disabilities from ESDS & other linkage entities and referrals of

protected vets from ESDS & other linkage entities;

• Applicant ratio: apps w/ disabilities to total applicants and vets apps to

total applicants

• Hiring ratio: hires w/ disabilities to total hires and vets hires to total hires

• Job fill ratio of openings to filled openings

The NLX is an electronic job search labor exchange network created in

2007 through a partnership agreement between DirectEmployers

Association (DE) and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies

(NASWA).

The NLX gathers currently available and unduplicated job listings from

verified employers (both DE members and other employers) and pushes

them into state workforce agency job boards and also emails job listings to

One-Stop veteran representatives, including multiple .jobs sites, to reach

a maximum number of job seekers.

Regardless of where job seekers discover NLX job openings, they will be

returned to the point of origination - either the corporate website or the

state workforce agency.

• The NLX began as a response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s

discontinuation of America’s Job Bank (AJB) – announced in 2006 and

shut down in July 2007.

• Mandatory job listing requirements for Federal Contractors would now

be required to be sent to the “appropriate employment service

delivery system” rather than the former national AJB portal.

• Practically, this means jobs must reach either: - One Stop Career Centers (Wagner-Peyser funding). This includes outreach to:

- Employment Services (ES) Staff

- Disabled Veterans Outreach Programs (DVOPs)

- Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVERs)

- State Workforce Agency (SWA) Job Banks

This is NASWA.

• Large, multi-state businesses needed an automated solution to post job

listings to states and to track compliance with mandatory job listings

requirements for Section 4212. This is DirectEmployers Association.

A non-profit organization of state administrators of

unemployment insurance laws, employment services, training

programs, employment statistics and labor market information.

Throughout its more than 75-year history, NASWA has

strengthened the workforce system through information exchange,

liaison, and advocacy.

Represents ALL state workforce agencies, including Puerto Rico,

DC, and Guam that have each signed NLX participation agreements,

making the NLX the “appropriate employment service delivery

system” endorsed by NASWA and the states.

The NLX Operations Committee

The NLX Operations Committee was formed in 2007 to direct the unique public-private

partnership between DE Association and NASWA. The committee is comprised of the following:

• Ten (10) state workforce agency representatives

• Ten (10) employer representatives

• Staff members from NASWA

• Staff members from DirectEmployers Association

Other Committees Work Closely with the NLX Operations Committee

• DE’s Recruitment Regulatory Compliance Committee (Voice of the Employer to Regulatory

Agencies)

• NASWA’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee

• NASWA’s Employment and Training Committee

Who is using the NLX?

• 50 states, DC, Puerto & Guam have signed participation agreements;

all receive email delivery of jobs for compliance with Federal

Contractor Job Listing requirements

• 48 states uploading jobs; 45 states downloading jobs

• US.jobs provides hosted state job banks to states including CT, NY, NV,

Puerto Rico and Guam

• DE’s Members fund the initiative while ALL employers and states can

utilize the NLX recruitment functionality at no cost. DE’s Members

receive additional compliance services and reporting tools.

• About 110,000 employers using the system; NLX contains an

average of 1.1 million jobs per day

US.jobs - Powered by the NLX: How It Works

Employer Applicant Tracking Systems

Or

State Case Management Systems

Non-member Career Sites

indexed/scraped/wrapped every 24 hours

Member Career Sites

indexed/scraped/wrapped every 24 hours

Feed of job listings provided to/from participating state job banks

Not for OFCCP 4212 Compliance

Job listings emailed to Wagner-Peyser funded One-Stop

Career Centers in all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico & Guam

For OFCCP 4212 Compliance

Feed of job listings provided to Syndication Partners

Not for OFCCP 4212 Compliance

OFCCP 4212 COMPLIANCE REPORTING

http://de.nlx.org/pdfs/JobAlliancesList.pdf

* For non-members of DE, employers can sign up for “free indexing” on US.jobs for automated

posting to state job bank(s), OR manually post at the state job bank for free. For proof of

posting, these employers can take a screen print of their job listings from the state job bank.

NLX Reporting Tools for State Workforce Agency Staff

Direct Traffic Analytics & Reporting (For Members & States)

Sites referring candidate traffic to your job opportunities

Heat Map of candidate traffic

Candidate traffic detail broken out by source, job title,

occupation, keywords, location, platform used, etc.

.jobs Diversity Outreach

Access to NLX Tools (For DE Members)

http://voice.directemployers.org/

Access to NLX Tools (For State Workforce Agencies)

http://www.naswa.org/nlx/

The NLX Connects Employers to States, Vet Reps and

Other Key Government, Education & Community Stakeholders

DirectEmployers Association

Partnership Strategy

The NLX Connects Employers to States, Vet Reps and

Other Key Government, Education & Community Stakeholders

DirectEmployers Association, through its Partnership Strategy,

invites its partners to:

1. Meet and have access to the Association’s Members;

2. Provide information to Members about national, regional and local

diversity partnership opportunities to reach and hire diverse

candidates;

3. Educate members about how to create or get involved in various

diversity recruiting initiatives and related events;

4. Lead employers to national, regional and local resources to

support them in their efforts to hire diversity candidates and to

address any employer questions or concerns; and

5. Provide organizational contact information of our government,

community and education partners to members for the purpose of

developing local partnerships with diverse organizations.

The NLX, with NASWA Member Support, Advocates for Employers

• April 2009 - OFFCP affirms NASWA interpretation of VEVRAA/Section

4212 Regulations

NASWA has been working with U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal

Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to clarify the interpretation of

guidance regarding federal contractor compliance with Federal Contractor Job

Listing (FCJL). Read more and view video testimony.

• May 2009 - OFCCP affirms email as a method of Federal Contractor

Job Listing (FCJL) Compliance

In recent communication with NASWA, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of

Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) affirmed that, as stated in -

regulations, emails to the appropriate local employment delivery system do -

qualify as an appropriate means of accomplishing compliance.

• June 2011 – NASWA and DE testify to Congress (House Committee on

Veterans Affairs) in a hearing about “Putting America’s Veterans Back

to Work”

The NLX, with NASWA Member Support, Advocates for Employers

• July 2011 – The RRCC of DE worked closely with DE Members and

NASWA to prepare a comment letter to the proposed §4212

regulations

• February 2012 - The RRCC of DE worked closely with DE Members

and NASWA to prepare a comment letter to the proposed §503

regulations

• August 2012 – OFCCP Compliance Officers are trained by NASWA and

DirectEmployers on the NLX through the OFCCP Training Academy

• March 2013 – At the National Veteran Training Institute (NVTI) in

Denver, DE and NASWA “Train the Trainers” on the NLX, compliance

regulations, and how to understand and work with employers. NVTI

trains the nation’s DVOPs and LVERs.

The NLX Connects Employers to Job Seekers

The NLX Connects Employers to Job Seekers

The NLX Connects Employers to Employers and Teaches Employers

How to Partner More Effectively with Various Partners/Sources

National Association of State Workforce

Agencies (NASWA)

• NASWA founded in 1937 -- based in DC

• Private non-profit organization

• Represents State Workforce agencies in all states & 3 territories (DC, PR and Guam)

• Part of NASWA’s mission statement:

Further the understanding that the core mission of the workforce system is to find good

and stable employment for workers and to meet employers’ needs for a qualified

workforce.

www.naswa.org

Is an organization of state administrators of:

1. unemployment insurance laws,

2. employment services,

3. training programs,

4. employment statistics,

5. labor market information programs,

6. and other programs/services

made available through the publicly-funded workforce system.

NASWA

Through OFCCP regulations implementing the JVA:

“ Listing employment openings with the state workforce

agency job bank or with the local employment service

delivery system where the opening occurs will satisfy the

requirement to list jobs with the appropriate

employment service delivery system.” 41 CFR 60-300.5

“ The employment service delivery systems shall provide

OFCCP, upon request, information pertinent to whether

the contractor is in compliance with the mandatory job

listing requirements of the equal opportunity clause.”

41 CFR 60-300.84

You May Already Know Us

The National Labor Exchange (NLX) is a sophisticated electronic labor-

exchange network, created in 2007 in a partnership agreement between

NASWA and DirectEmployers (DE) Association.

An unprecedented public-private partnership that leverages private non-

profit-owned technology with existing state workforce agency resources.

The NLX collects and distributes job openings exclusively found on over

9,000 corporate career websites and state job banks growing on a daily

basis.

NLX has allowed for the development of a compliance solution for

federal contractors, and further development of relationships between

employers and states.

All state workforce agencies are participating NLX members.

NLX

Basics:

Operates at three government levels:

Federal (USDOL, Employment and Training Administration --

ETA): provides funding & sets program regulations, performance

goals, and oversight.

State (State Workforce Agencies): administers programs;

provides systemic technology framework; and coordinates local

outlets of services.

Local: offers various mixes of program services in American Job

Centers (One Stops).

Publicly-Funded Workforce System

Primary Programs

Unemployment Insurance (UI)

Workforce Investment Act (WIA)

Labor Market Information (LMI)

Employment Service (ES)

Veterans Employment Services

A universal system with requirements to serve special pipelines of jobseekers, e.g. veterans, disabled, older adults, etc. Delivered through self-service technology and in American Job Centers (One Stop Centers).

Publicly-Funded Workforce System

Numbers of Participants served through the

Publicly-funded Workforce System

through September 30, 2012

• Primary function is to serve as a labor exchange intermediary

• Funded by the Wagner-Peyser Act

• In most states integrated with American Job Centers (One Stops)

• Provides jobseekers with core employment and workforce

information services – such as:

job search assistance, workforce and economic information, skills assessments,

career guidance, job matching and referrals, connection to other program

services,

and recruitment services to employers.

Publicly-Funded Workforce System:

Employment Service (ES)

State Workforce Agencies Offer Specialized Services to Businesses:

• Rapid Response

Downsizing Businesses, LMI, Info on tax credits, etc.

• Recruiting and Hiring Connections

Veterans Services, WIA, state job banks, job fairs

Special or personalized account representatives

• Worker Training

Connecting businesses to customized training providers

• Employer Workshops or Presentations

Publicly-Funded Workforce System:

Business Services

Recent Survey

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Free continuing edu credits/units for workshops

Workshops: employment law

Workshops: special/timely topics (e.g., identity theft protection)

Help developing employee handbooks

Workshops: general HR issues

Industry Advisory Councils/Committees

Help establishing apprenticeships

Help with other government agencies (e.g., Labor, Natural…

Employer Advisory Councils/Committees

Help with Unemployment Insurance issues (e.g., tax, appeals)

Assistance working with state or local economic developers

Labor Market Info tailored to specific location, industry

General Labor Market Info

Educating businesses about employment tax credits (e.g., WOTC)

Rapid Response for businesses downsizing, closing

Percent of states responding (n=34)

General services/tools Not offered Some 1-stops

Most / all 1-stops

• LVERs – Local Veterans Employment Representatives

• DVOPs – Disabled Veteran Outreach Program

Representatives

• Priority of Service for Veterans

Publicly-Funded Workforce System:

Veterans Employment Services

Work Opportunity Tax Credits for Veterans

• Extended through December 31, 2013

• Tax credit of up to $5,600 for hiring veterans

who have been looking for a job for more than six months

• Tax credit of up $2,400 for hiring veterans

who are unemployed for more than 4 weeks, but less than 6

months

• Tax credit of up to $9,600 for hiring veterans

with service-connected disabilities who have been looking

for a job for more than six months.

Tax Credits

• Some States provide State Tax Credits for Hiring Veterans

• Some States provide other incentives for employers to hire

veterans

• Check with your State Workforce Agency or Local One-Stop

Career Center

Tax Credits and Hiring Incentives

• Check your State’s Website -- Go to the NASWA Website www.naswa.org

• Work with your Association at DirectEmployers

Who to Contact?

Nita Beecher, Mercer Networks 314-726-1740 Nita.Beecher@Mercer.com

Jolene Jefferies, DirectEmployers Association 317-874-9026 jolene@directemployers.org

Pam Gerassimides, NASWA 202-434-8026 pgerassimides@naswa.org