Meeting Federal Contractor Job Posting Requirements and the Need for an Employer-Funded National Labor Exchange

Transcription

1 Meeting Federal Contractor Job Posting Requirements and the Need for an Employer-Funded National Labor Exchange by William Warren, Executive Director, DirectEmployers Association David Morman, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA (Retired) White Paper on Employer compliance issues and solutions related to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA), as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002 (JVA) and the OFCCP Regulations implementing that act at 41 CFR , and as impacted by the closing of America s Job Bank (AJB). Executive Summary Discussion of Current Law and Regulations as they relate to Federal Contractor Job Listing (FCJL) Requirements The Impact of Closing America s Job Bank on Meeting those Requirements A Solution from DirectEmployers Association that Complies with FCJL and Reporting Requirements

2 Executive Summary VetCentral, a job distribution program for FCJL jobs, has been created by DirectEmployers Association to help Federal Contractors meet their responsibilities under the Vietnam Era Veterans Era Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act of 1992 and as implemented by Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regulations at 41 CFR 300. The law requires that any employer receiving Federal contracts in the amount of $100,000 or more shall immediately list all of its employment openings with the appropriate employment service delivery system. The law also states that each such employment service delivery system shall give such qualified covered veterans priority in referral to such openings. VetCentral is fully integrated into DirectEmployers JobCentral National Labor Exchange, making it easy for Federal Contractors to comply with the changes to the Federal Contractor Job Listing (FCJL) program! It will eliminate the need for Federal Contractors to identify the appropriate local service delivery system and maintain those contacts for their job listings. FCJL jobs can be indexed directly from employer corporate web sites and automatically passed to VetCentral for distribution. VetCentral will then forward the job listings to the appropriate employment service delivery system, including Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVERs), Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialists (DVOPs), the state job banks, local employment service offices, or local One-Stop Career Centers that include an integrated Wagner- Peyser funded employment service function. DirectEmployers Association has partnered with industry experts to design, develop, and implement VetCentral so Federal Contractors can remain compliant with VEVRAA, JVA, and OFCCP regulations and have an easy transition path from the now closed America s Job Bank. DirectEmployers Association has entered into an alliance with The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) to establish a National Labor Exchange that offers jobseekers, employers, and states a cost-effective replacement for the services previously provided by America s Job Bank. Under terms of this alliance, JobCentral will offer participating state workforce agencies a wide range of labor exchange services at no cost. **************

3 Federal Contractors Statutory and Regulatory Requirements Background The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), enacted in 1974, requires covered federal government contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment specified categories of veterans protected by the Act and prohibits discrimination against such veterans. In addition, VEVRAA requires contractors and subcontractors to list all their employment openings (with a few exceptions for top executives and very short term jobs) with the local employment service office, where covered qualified veterans receive priority in referral to such openings from the employment service. 1 Further, VEVRAA requires federal contractors and subcontractors to compile and submit annually a report on the number of current employees who are covered veterans (the VETS-100 Report). The affirmative action and mandatory job-listing provisions of VEVRAA are enforced by the Employment Standards Administration's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). DOL s Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) administers the veterans employment reporting requirement. In 1998, the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA) was approved by Congress. The VEOA amended VEVRAA to: (1) expand the class of protected veterans to include any other veterans who served on active duty during a war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized; (2) require contractors to include their maximum number and minimum number of employees during a specific period of time on the VETS-100 Report; (3) increase VEVRAA s contract coverage threshold from $10,000 to $25,000; and (4) prohibit the federal government from contracting with or paying contractors who fail to file the VETS-100 Report. Enactment of the Veterans Benefit and Health Care Improvement Act of 2000 (VBHCIA) added recently separated veterans as an additional VETS-100 reporting category. The new category was defined in the VBHCIA amendments as any veteran during the one year period beginning on the date of such veteran s discharge or release from active duty. On December 1, 2005, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced new regulations that made its Veterans Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) requirements consistent with the VEOA and VBHCIA. 1 Note that the mandatory listing requirement of the employer is paired with the priority of referral requirement for the public employment service. This demonstrates the intent of the FCJL program: to make sure that veterans are first in line for federal contractor jobs since those contractors have an affirmative responsibility to consider hiring them, see 41 CFR and

4 Congress revised the veterans compliance and reporting requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors again in 2002 when the Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA) was enacted. The JVA amendments apply only to contracts and subcontracts entered into on or after December 1, The JVA amended VEVRAA s definition of covered veteran by deleting veterans of the Vietnam era, and adding a new category of veterans who receive an Armed Forces Service Medal. It also expanded the definition of recently separated veterans to include any veteran discharged within the last three (3) years. JVA also amended VEVRAA by requiring covered contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative steps to employ qualified disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, Armed Forces Service Medal veterans, and other protected veterans and changed the federal mandatory job listing requirement. Under the JVA, contractors with a federal contract or subcontract of $100,000 or more that was entered into on or after December 1, 2003, are required to list their job openings with an appropriate employment service delivery system. 2 In addition to listing their employment openings with an appropriate employment service delivery system, the JVA provides that contractors may list their employment openings with a one-stop career center, other appropriate service delivery points, or America's Job Bank (or a subsequent system replacing AJB). On August 7, 2007 OFCCP published final rules implementing these new provisions of the Jobs for Veterans Act at 41 CFR Part 300; these new rules became effective September 7, However, the existing regulations, at 41 CFR Part 250, are still in effect for contractors with only pre-december 1, OFCCP clarified in the questions and answers accompanying the new regulations that if a contractor has both pre-and post-december 1, 2003 contracts, only the new regulations apply to mandatory listing requirements. There are several issues raised by the final rule implementing JVA that will be of concern to Direct Employers Association member companies and other federal contractors. They include: The change in the contract size threshold The definition of veterans covered by the provisions How companies with pre-december 1, 2003 contracts and post December 1, 2003 contracts will be treated o In terms of their mandatory listing requirements o In terms of their affirmative action plan requirements The methods by which the mandatory listing requirements can be satisfied 2 An appropriate employment service delivery system is defined in both the JVA and the implementing regulations, 41 CFR (y), as a service delivery system at which or through which labor exchange services, including employment, training, and placement services, are offered in accordance with the Wagner-Peyser Act.

5 The Size Threshold The Jobs for Veterans Act changed the size threshold for coverage under the law from $25,000 to $100,000. The preamble material makes it clear that the threshold applies to a single contract and not to the aggregation of multiple contracts. Definitions of Veterans Covered by the New Rules The Jobs for Veterans Act modified the definition of covered veterans in several ways. Specific reference to Vietnam era veterans was eliminated; however, it is expected that many of these veterans will still be covered under the provisions of the new rule The category of special disabled veteran was eliminated; however, all disabled veterans are covered. A new category of veteran was added Armed Forces service medal veterans to cover those veterans who participated in a significant military action but who were not involved in hostile action or exposed to the imminent threat of hostile action. The category of other protected veterans includes all those who served in action where a campaign medal was authorized. OFCCP noted that it will provide a link to the list of such actions maintained by the Department of Defense. The category of recently separated veterans is expanded to cover veterans discharged within the past three years (up from the one year coverage in the old rules) The definitional changes will impact the coverage of employer affirmative action plans and will impact how they ask veterans to provide information about their veteran status to the employer. The definitional changes will have the most impact on companies covered by both the old and the new rules. However, as OFCCP noted, the bulk of the veterans who are covered under the definition of Vietnam era veterans will be still be covered under one of the other provisions of the new rules. The definitional changes were effective on September 7, There appears to be no requirement for a federal contractor to reassess the veteran status of those who were employed prior to that date. There is no guidance on how veterans who are self-identified as Vietnam era veterans will need to be treated for reporting purposes or affirmative action purposes once the contractor is covered only by the provisions of 41 CFR and no longer by 41 CFR While, in fact, most of those veterans will still be covered under the disabled, campaign, or service medal veteran categories, their original self-identification may not make that clear. Guidance on reporting may be provided once new requirements for the VETS 100 are issued. Guidance on the need to re-classify the Vietnam-era veterans for

6 affirmative action requirements is currently being sought by DirectEmployers Association from OFCCP. Treatment of Pre- and Post-December 1, 2003 Contractors In the commentary on the final rule, OFCCP noted that it expected very few contractors with multiple contracts with the federal government would be required to keep two sets of books. OFCCP noted that any post December 1, 2003 change to a contract converted that contract into a contract for which only the new rules (41 CFR ) applied. Actions that would change the status of the contract include amendments, extensions, and changes in terms and conditions. The specific language used in explaining the final rule coverage is below: OFCCP believes that only a small percentage of contractors will be required to comply with both sets of VEVRAA regulations. The term ``Government contract'' is defined in existing Sec (i) and Sec (i) of the final rule as ``any agreement or modification thereof between any contracting agency and any person for the purchase, sale, or use of personal property or non-personal services (including construction).'' Existing Sec (i)(1) and (i)(1) of the final rule provide that a `modification ' is any alteration in the terms and conditions of a contract, including supplemental agreements, amendments and extensions. The JVA applies to Government contracts entered on or after December 1, Because a contract modification is a Government contract, the JVA applies to modifications of otherwise covered contracts made on or after December 1, Consequently, modification of a contract that would otherwise be covered by part on or after December 1, 2003, but for the date the contract was entered into, would have the effect of modifying the VEVRAA equal opportunity clause; the new requirements of part would be applicable to the modified contract, rather than the old requirements of part Member companies and all federal contractors should review their contracts to determine if they have any contracts that were entered into prior to December 1, 2003 and whether any of those contracts have not been modified after that date. That will make a difference in how JobCentral and VetCentral approach the mandatory listing provision, how the companies need to treat their affirmative hiring obligations and may impact how employers subject to the VETS 100 reporting requirements are treated (the Veterans Employment and Training Service has published proposed rules, but has not issued a final rule on changes to the VETS 100 to implement JVA). As noted in the previous section, nearly all veterans covered under the old rules will be covered under the new rules which generally expanded the definitions. For affirmative action and reporting purposes companies covered by both sets of rules will be expected to keep one set of books but which encompass

7 the old and the expanded definitions. Those companies with only post December 1, 2003 contracts will need to keep one set of books with the new definitions. As noted earlier, it is unclear what actions will be expected to determine which Vietnam era veterans lose coverage under the rules once a dual rule employer transitions to coverage only by the new rules. DirectEmployers Association has asked OFCCP for clarification on this issue. Mandatory Listing Requirements The OFCCP rules codify the Jobs for Veterans Act prohibition against listing employment openings solely with America's Job Bank as an option for complying with the mandatory job listing requirement. However, in recognition that large contractors, which regularly advertise multiple job openings in locations throughout the country, might face significant administrative burdens if they were required to list each job opening only with individual employment service offices, the OFCCP rules allow also posting jobs to state workforce job banks as an alternative to listing those jobs locally. The appropriate state workforce agency job bank is the job bank in which the job opening occurs. Contractors, of course, can always satisfy the posting requirement by listing job openings with the local employment service delivery system where the opening occurs. The regulations further provide that a contractor may submit job listings to the appropriate employment delivery system in a variety of ways, including via mail, facsimile (FAX), electronic mail, or other electronic postings (See Exhibit 1). The vast majority of the state workforce agency job banks accept job postings via the Internet, although in most cases this means entering the jobs one at a time and each state requires different information. The regulations permit contractors to use third parties, such as private or non-profit sector job banks, Internet gateway and portal sites, and recruiting services and directories, to assist them with the transmission of job postings to the appropriate employment delivery system. However, contractors responsible for complying with the requirement to list their jobs with the appropriate employment delivery system. Finally, OFCCP in its published Questions and Answers has indicated that dual coverage employers (those with both pre- and post-december 1, 2003 contracts) can also use posting jobs in the state workforce agency job bank as the means for compliance with both sets of rules. Contractors with only pre- December 1, 2003 contracts must follow the earlier regulations which require posting with the local employment service office. While this modification of the proposed rule does provide some relief, it will still be prudent to continue to send jobs to the local offices for all companies that have not confirmed to DirectEmployers that they have no pre-december 1, 2003 contracts. Even those companies with only post-december 1, 2003 contracts may still wish to have the local offices, including the local veteran representatives, know about their openings as part of their affirmative action plan. Delivery of jobs to local offices provides compliance with both the old and the new rules, and helps employers meet the outreach requirements of their affirmative action plans.

8 Finally, posting jobs to State job banks is not necessarily a simple thing. No state job bank is equipped with the ability to accept a batched stream of jobs. If they have electronic entry systems, they are generally for the posting of a single job at a time. Most States have specific requirements for company registration with the State job bank and many states have very detailed requirements for the format of jobs to be posted with the State job bank which differ from state to state. Virtually no state has the ubiquitous, intrinsic capability to produce a report on job listings for OFCCP compliance purposes, primarily because such reports were (until this past July) provided by America s Job Bank. 3 Moreover, most state job banks do not have a mechanism in place as part of their automated systems for providing veterans priority in referral to federal contractor jobs. This makes FCJL posting with state job banks a passive compliance activity, rather than a means of actively connecting the state s priority of referral responsibility to the federal contractor s affirmative hiring responsibility. While America s Job Bank did have mechanisms such mechanism built into the system icons to identify federal contractor jobs and veteran resumes identified and listed first in resume search results (something that few state systems do)--the Veterans Service Organizations (e.g. American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, etc.) still saw this as a passive activity and were the primary movers behind the effort to eliminate America s Job Bank as a VEVRAA compliance vehicle. While listing with a state job bank will generate compliance with 41 CFR , some of the same issues that stimulated the changes embodied in the Jobs for Veterans Act may arise again even if the States make modifications to their internal systems. Summary All companies should immediately review their federal contracts to determine if they have any pre-december 1, 2003 contracts still in force. Member companies should report that status to JobCentral as soon as possible. Working through the alliance with NASWA, JobCentral will facilitate the registration of member companies with State job banks so that their jobs can be officially listed in participating State job banks. Distribution to the local office level will continue in the near term to ensure compliance, and should continue for the long-term to meet affirmative action requirements and to ensure jobs are being worked by veteran representatives at the local level, although the nature of the distribution may change once local delivery of the physical job order is not necessary for compliance. 3 Note that in one of its Q & A's, OFCCP states that during compliance evaluation, a compliance officer will request documentation from the employment service delivery system to confirm that a contractor is in compliance with the mandatory job listing requirement. Usually, this documentation is a printout of all job listings for the contractor under review received by the employment service delivery system.

9 America s Job Bank (AJB) Shut Down On July 1, 2007, America s Job Bank was shutdown by the United States Department of Labor (DOL). With its demise, a cost-effective means of complying with VEVRAA was lost to employers and the national collection of jobs posted with public workforce system was lost to jobseekers. According to Assistant Secretary of Labor Emily DeRocco, DOL s Employment and Training Administration conducted an extensive two-year review and evaluation of the ongoing viability of maintaining a national job site. Due to a number of factors, it was determined that the benefits of AJB no longer outweighed the costs of operating and maintaining the AJB system. Ms. DeRocco stated, The cost of operating AJB has been as high as $27 million per year, with a current operating budget for maintenance-only of $12 million per year. Even with this sizable investment, AJB has not been able to keep up with private sector job boards or industry standards regarding up-to-date technology. The technology platform on which AJB is built is outdated. The cost to maintain AJB and constantly upgrade the foundational technology and make improvements to the site is no longer justifiable given that AJB duplicates what is already available in the private sector. In this regard, it is important to note that the cost of operating AJB was not drawn from General Revenue, but from employer taxes paid under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA). Through these tax dollars employers bore the cost of running AJB which provided a convenient means for them to comply with the mandatory listing requirements of VEVRAA, and now, without any reduction in those taxes, must bear the cost of finding and supporting a new means to comply with the requirements of VEVRAA and JVA. VEVRAA and JVA Compliance Research DirectEmployers Association has been working on a solution through which employers can meet their federal mandatory job listing requirements since the AJB phase-out was announced over a year-and-a-half ago. After careful research and months of discussions with various stakeholders, we have concluded that the federal government will not finance and operate a national AJB-type job board that distributes their jobs as required by JVA to the appropriate employment service delivery system. Although a prototype of such a system, the Veterans Job Clearinghouse, was built by contractors for USDOL and was reviewed and approved by OFCCP, it was tightly integrated with AJB and will not be made operational. Many employers might be further surprised to learn that AJB, had it continued to exist, would not have served as a vehicle for them to meet their VEVRAA reporting requirements. There are two reasons for this. First, in recent years, various states for various reasons had stopped participating in the AJB system. As many as twenty-five states were not taking a job listing download from AJB when it was shutdown. Those employers who depended upon AJB for

10 distribution of their jobs were thus not getting the distribution they thought they were and as required by VEVRAA. Second, the Jobs for Veterans Act changes the mandatory job listing requirement to require that, before posting with AJB or onestop career centers, jobs must be listed with an appropriate employment service delivery system. AJB did not do this, and the application which might have accomplished this within the AJB structure, the Veterans Jobs Clearinghouse, was never implemented. The passage of the JVA was intended to return the compliance approach back to the pre-ajb way of posting with the local employment service office. The intent was clearly to use the FCJL process in conjunction with the priority of service function of the public employment service as the means to ensure that veteran job seekers were first in line to receive consideration by contractors who have affirmative hiring responsibilities. This implies that one goal of the statute is to make FCJL jobs actionable at the local level to put them in the hands of veterans representatives who can find and refer qualified veteran candidates. To extend this goal to all job seekers, DirectEmployers Association has entered into an alliance with The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) to provide JobCentral labor exchange services to participating states. This alliance provides state workforce agencies the opportunity to choose a wide range of services from taking job listing downloads from JobCentral to having it manage their self-service websites to uploading jobs to JobCentral s National Labor Exchange. Under our agreement with NASWA, jobs from DirectEmployers Association s member companies will be distributed to participating state job banks. More than 40 states, with others expected to follow soon, have entered into data sharing agreements with JobCentral. (FCJL jobs are distributed to the local level in states which cannot accept downloads or do not have data sharing agreements with DirectEmployment Association/JobCentral) The VEVRAA/JVA Compliance Solution As we have indicated, JVA requires that covered contractors and subcontractors list their employment openings with an appropriate employment service delivery system. To achieve this end, DirectEmployers has partnered with industry experts to create VetCentral, a new web-based application. This unique web-based application, which acts as a distribution center for federal contractor jobs by pushing them to the appropriate employment service delivery system and maintains the necessary records on each transaction, is a costeffective compliance solution for DirectEmployers member companies. (See Exhibit 2) VetCentral complies with both the spirit and intent of the mandatory job listing requirement by delivering job listings directly to the nearest of the more than 2,200 Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist (DVOP), Local Veterans Employment Representative (LVER), local employment service office (if it exists), or a One Stop Career Center if it contains an integral employment service component funded under Wagner-Peyser Act where they are actionable. In

11 many states, jobs will also be entered into the state job banks. VetCentral provides required compliance reporting capabilities for participating employers. It also offers an extensive tool set for use by veterans employment representatives, again to make FCJL jobs more actionable. The goal is not just compliance, but to get qualified veteran job applicants in front of federal contractor hiring points. DirectEmployers Association enables federal contractors and subcontractors to distribute their job listings to VetCentral from a single point of access within JobCentral. Jobs from DirectEmployers member companies will continue to be indexed directly from their corporate web site and passed on to VetCentral for distribution. In addition to providing VEVRAA and JVA compliance, the many benefits of the VetCentral program include: 1) elimination of the significant administrative burden facing federal contractors in distributing their job listings to the appropriate veterans delivery system; 2) a single point of job entry through JobCentral s indexing process; 3) required compliance reports for federal contractors through the JobCentral interface; and eventually, 4) assistance in giving covered veterans priority in referral to employment openings. Because of our alliance with NASWA, DirectEmployers is also best positioned to list FCJL jobs in State job banks. JobCentral already delivers a nightly job feed from member companies to some States, and manages the State job banks for several more. And the number of states with which JobCentral shares data electronically is increasing: 40 States have now signed data sharing agreements and more are in the pipeline. Because of how state job banks operate, few will be able to accommodate the flood of federal contractor jobs from multiple sources. We expect that, because of our partnership, many will turn to JobCentral/ VetCentral to help them manage the influx. The overall VetCentral system is also the only vehicle that can assure compliance in all States and for companies with both pre- and post-december 1, 2003 contracts. It delivers jobs now to local offices and will be delivering jobs to an ever expanding number of State job banks. Coverage down to the local office level will continue to be critical for compliance, at least for the next couple of years, because many State job banks are not equipped to handle a bulk stream of job orders. Beyond that time, the linkages developed by VetCentral with the local employment offices and the local staff charged with veteran responsibilities, such as DVOPs and LVERs, can become an integral part of a member company s affirmative action plans. The ability to track and provide reports on the delivery of jobs to the appropriate locations may be one of the enduring values of the JobCentral/ VetCentral system. Maintaining records for a local distribution is a massive task which VetCentral has already mastered. Maintaining records for state level distribution is already in place at VetCentral. Most States, now and in the foreseeable future, are incapable of generating the compliance reports that were regularly provided by America s Job Bank. Even if such reports are generated in the future, they will have multiple formats and require significant manipulation

12 prior to presentation to OFCCP. The single point of contact for reporting provided by VetCentral is a significant advantage to employers. Program Completion and Implementation Software development for the VetCentral job distributing application has been completed and fully tested. It is now fully operational with over 100,000 FCJL jobs already delivered. Use of VetCentral will be free to federal contractors who wish to register on the JobCentral website and post their jobs one at a time. DirectEmployers Association will continue to index the jobs of its member company web sites, and will also process those jobs through VetCentral s distribution system, track them, and maintain for the records needed to demonstrate compliance with VEVRAA and JVA for 5 years our member companies. Need for a Low-Cost National Labor Exchange Funded by Employers America s Job Bank, the only federally-funded job board on the Internet and the first Internet presence for labor exchange for each of the states, has served a very important role for both job seekers and employers since its inception in It most recently listed over two million jobs from employers in all industries and nearly 700,000 job seeker resumes which are available at no charge to employers. The discontinuance of America s Job Bank along with the impending labor shortage caused by baby-boomer retirements and a dwindling workforce provides a formidable challenge for all employers. Because job postings and resume searching have always been provided free-of-charge by AJB, many small to medium-sized employers have relied on AJB as their only Internet recruiting source. AJB has also played a prominent role in helping employers build their workforce and comply with state and federal regulations by serving as the nation s only online cross-state labor exchange and distributing corporate job listings to state employment services. It has been invaluable in helping employers meet federal job posting requirements for Affirmative Action Plans, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and Jobs for Veterans Act compliance. The loss of America s Job Bank is even greater for employers when you consider the labor shortage facing our nation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts a labor shortage of more than 10 million skilled workers by 2010 which heightens employers need to attract difficult to reach groups such as minorities, veterans, seniors and women to the workforce. JobCentral s National Labor Exchange is provided at no charge to job seekers and employers. No job seeker or employer is excluded from using JobCentral because of financial constraints. It helps employers satisfy their compliance requirements and, through new search technology, provide a single place on the Internet where job seekers can find employment opportunities in all industries.

13 Through its affiliation with major Internet employment search engines, it allows job seekers to search over five million (5,000,000) jobs from corporate web sites, newspapers, trade associations, and other Internet sources in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, major metropolitan areas, and all U.S. cities and postal zip code areas. The JobCentral National Labor Exchange helps companies: 1) meet their respective Affirmative Action Program (AAP) objectives, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) obligations and veterans hiring goals and; 2) meet their general recruiting needs at the time of an impending national labor shortage. In addition to general recruiting for all occupations in all industries, the site serves as the primary focal point for recruiting diverse candidates, returning members of the U.S. Armed Forces and specialty groups such as the physically challenged and senior members of the workforce. It also allows companies to work directly with government officials at all levels in responding to national emergency recruiting needs such as we experienced with the Katrina disaster. The JobCentral National Labor Exchange site plays a leading role in helping employers meet their individual affirmative action goals and, as a group, better manage our nation s workforce. It provides an opportunity for companies to meet their compliance and staffing requirements in an environment which is owned, managed and controlled by employers. About the Authors William Warren, Executive Director of DirectEmployers Association, is a former corporate human resource executive with Rockwell International, former President of Monster.com, and is widely recognized as the founder of online recruiting. In 1992, Warren founded Online Career Center (OCC), the first employment site on the Internet. He remained president of OCC after it was sold to TMP Worldwide (now Monster Worldwide) in December OCC was renamed Monster.com and he was named president in December Warren received the Employment Management Association s (EMA) prestigious Pericles Pro Meritus Award, an honor presented by EMA in recognition of being the founder of online recruiting. David Morman is highly respected for his many years of government service at the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) where he managed USDOL/ETA s National Electronic Tools Program which included America s Job Bank. In his position at USDOL, he was deeply involved in the ongoing development, management and direction of AJB and our nation s national labor exchange programs serving veterans. He also previously served as the Executive Director of the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS).

14 About DirectEmployers Association DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit consortium of leading U.S. employers develops and manages Internet-based systems and software to increase labor market efficiency and reduce employment costs. JobCentral National Labor Exchange is a service of DirectEmployers Association. The Association s member companies include an impressive group of industry leaders such as Abbott Laboratories, Analysts International, Allstate, ALLTEL Corporation, Anheuser-Busch, Ashland, Avaya, Baxter, Bell South, The Boeing Company, Cargill, Cingular, Cintas, Cisco, Coca-Cola, General Electric, General Dynamics, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, ManTech International, Mellon Financial Corporation, Merck, Harris Corporation, The Home Depot, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic, Merrill Lynch, National City Corporation, Norfolk Southern, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, Raytheon, Sears Holdings, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, Sprint, Textron, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Union Pacific, UnitedHealth Group, USAA, Xerox Corporation, and hundreds more. *********************** Disclaimer This White Paper is intended for informational purposes only and is not a legal opinion. Each company should seek the advice and counsel of its own legal representative(s) for legal opinions regarding VEVRAA/JVA compliance and reporting requirements.

15 (Exhibit 1) Robust Solution Four Distribution Channels W E F P -- Web Fax -- Paper Three Levels of the Workforce System S O R -- State Agency -- Office (One-Stop Center, Employment Service Office, One-Stop Affiliate) -- Rep/Counselor (DVOP, LVER) (Exhibit 2)