DirectEmployers Member, Phil Bowen, accepting the award on behalf of UPS for their compliance outreach initiative at DEAM16.
As federal contractors know, the OFCCP’s VEVRAA and Section 503 regulations now require employers to conduct and track outreach efforts to ensure equal employment opportunities for all. To manage and evaluate their outreach activities, many employers are developing unique strategies and implementing new tools that can assist with this measure. For the 3rd Annual DirectEmployers Member Awards Competition, a number of our Member organizations submitted their outstanding initiatives surrounding outreach and one was even named the overall winner of our Compliance category! Let’s take a look at some of these initiatives.
Crown Equipment
To improve their management and tracking efforts, Crown Equipment decided to take full advantage of DirectEmployers outreach tracking tool, the Partner Relationship Manager (PRM). The PRM is used to help Members streamline the outreach process through a web-based platform where users can enter, access and store data, regardless of their device or location. Prior to using PRM, Crown was using an inefficient tracking process, which consisted solely of spreadsheets. Through the use of PRM, they were able to increase the number of recorded partners, store correspondence to be accessible in the future and generate helpful reports to see which partnerships are most active. Crown also saw areas where the platform needed improvement and made recommendations that are currently in production to benefit the Membership as a whole.
Chevron
Also tracking their compliance efforts via an ineffective spreadsheet, Chevron knew they needed a plan for improvement and developed a three-year roadmap that involved outreach efforts, training and education, as well as the use of the PRM. Through their efforts focusing on students, veterans and diverse candidates, Chevron was able to record 400 communications with local community based organizations within the PRM and ultimately provide their weekly job distribution with these organizations and their job seekers. As a result of their interactions, they were also able to move from a less than desirable commitment to candidate disposition to almost 100% disposition for all of 2015.
KPMG
Valuing the importance of outreach, DirectEmployers Member KPMG recognized the need to develop partnerships with veteran and disability organizations within the areas where they actively recruit as well as to create a shared drive where documentation could be accessed throughout the organization. By providing each community partner with a trackable link to their job openings, they are able to follow applicants’ path during the apply process and therefore gauge the effectiveness of each partnership. Through this new initiative, KPMG was able to establish 145 strong relationships in their target markets and the improved documentation system was able to contribute to the success of an OFCCP audit.
UPS
Overall winner of the Compliance category, UPS, took a different approach altogether to master their outreach efforts. Similar to the other employers mentioned, UPS was using spreadsheets and binders which was cumbersome and made branch collaboration nearly impossible. To remedy their dilemma, UPS created their own web-based tool called the ‘AAP Outreach Tracker’, which is located on the UPS portal and easily accessible by HR representatives across all locations. This system not only has the ability to store contacts and log interactions and events, but also gives the ability to index each partner with a unique identifier that is tied to the applicant tracking system as a source code. Within the first year, 1,800 referral sources and 2,800 events were added to the Outreach Tracker and all of the data was used as pertinent documentation during two separate audits in 2015.
Congratulations to UPS and all of the employers who submitted their great initiatives to the 3rd Annual DirectEmployers Member Awards Competition. Their willingness to share internal strategies and best practices demonstrates a strong commitment to advancing the human resources industry and working towards a more inclusive workforce for all.
