On Thursday, February 8th, Dao Nguyen and Michael Pati presented in a webinar titled EEO-1 Filing that covered important basics of the annual reporting required by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Apart from the obligation of covered private employers, and federal contractors and subcontractors, to complete the annual filing, attendees were reminded that these reports can have an impact on federal contractors, since the EEO-1 reports are one of the factors used by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to determine which company or establishments to select for compliance reviews.

Key highlights of the webinar include:

Who must file:

Private Employers subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, with:

• 100 or more employees; or
• Fewer than 100 employees if the company is owned or affiliated with another company and the entire enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees

Federal Contractors and Subcontractors subject to EO 11246 (41 CFR 60-2.1(b)).

When to file:

• The 2017 EEO-1 Report must be filed no later than March 31, 2018, and the online filing system (aka EEO-1 Survey Application) is now open.

How to file:

• Reporting Information
  • Employment data should include all part-time and full time employees for any selected payroll period in October, November, or December 2017.
  • Employees will be reported by job EEO category, race/gender, and location (establishment)
  • The requirements to report W-2 compensation data and hours worked were officially put on hold pending review, so those data are NOT required for the 2017 filing.
• The presentation covered how users may register as a First-Time Filer and how Returning Filers can obtain a new password to log in to the Application for the current filing period.
• One of the new elements of the Application for the 2017 filing year is the introduction of a verification code
  • This step during the login process helps to confirm that the user is authorized to access the online Application for the company
  • The code will be emailed to the company’s contact person on file each time a new computer is used to access the Application
• When users are ready to file their reports, they will be presented with the EEO-1 Survey Data Filing Option to either complete the online form (i.e., manual data entry) or upload a data file.
  • Completion of the online form tends to be the preferred method for organizations with only one or very few locations to file.

    A live demonstration was performed showing how to use pivot tables in Excel to summarize the employee data that would be used to complete the online form.

  • Data file upload tends to be the preferred method for organizations with multiple locations to file (e.g., hundreds of sites) as it is more convenient and less time-consuming than manually filing separate reports for all locations. Detailed instructions for uploading data files can be found here: https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/upload/2017-EEO-1-Survey-Users-Guide.pdf.

Other important details:

• Employers must file a report for each establishment (i.e., physical work location) within the company – or client/customer sites where employees work – and include all company employees as of the selected pay period.
• “Home Office” or “Virtual Locations” are no longer accepted as establishments and all such employees must be included in the establishment report where their manager sits.
• Single-establishment employers must only file one form, the Type 1 Single-establishment Report.
• Multi-establishments employers must file
  • a Type 2 Consolidated Report;
  • a Type 3 Headquarters Report; and
  • a combination of Type 4 (for sites with 50 or more employees), Type 6 or Type 8 (sites with less than 50 employees), and/or Type 9 (new sites with 50 or more employees), depending on the size of each of the company’s establishments.
• For employers who experienced a merger, acquisition or spin-off after September 30, 2016, an email notification should be sent to EEOC advising them of the changes. For instructions on what information to include and where to send it, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/.

A recorded version of the webinar, which includes the live demonstration of creating pivot tables, is available to our Platinum members. To log in and access the webinar, or to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member, please visit BCGi’s website. You may contact us via email staff@biddle.com or call (800) 999-0438 for any questions.

Contributing author: Dao Nguyen, EEO/AA Consultant I at Biddle Consulting Group, Inc.