We finally have a date for the start of the EEO-1 filing season this year, Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
Yes, that is Halloween. And on that day the ghosts and ghouls will also open the Help Desk to assist any trick-or-treaters getting an early start. But filers will have until Tuesday, December 5, 2023 to complete and file their 2022 reports.
There will be an updated EEO-1 Instruction Booklet, as well as updated file upload instructions. The EEOC plans to have the new Instruction Booklet posted by September 6, followed by new upload instructions by the 13th (which, breaking with the theme, is sadly not a Friday). Both documents will be made available on the EEO-1 website here.
The Time to Review EEO-1 Filing Strategy is NOW
In all seriousness, the Halloween start date seems appropriate, as EEO-1 filing has become a bit scary for federal contractor employers after the advent of the OFCCP’s “AAP Verification Initiative” (AAP-VI).
In an effort to discover new contractors to audit, the OFCCP is currently scrutinizing EEO-1 filings like never before. All of a sudden, how an organization files their EEO-1 reports can have surprising consequences in the AAP world.
In the past, EEO-1 reporting had become somewhat of a set-it-and-forget-it exercise in which data is pulled from the HRMS, formatted, submitted, and largely forgotten. The most controversial development in the last few decades has been the expansion of FOIA and the discoverability of EEO-1 reports and data.
But now the OFCCP is making an odd assumption about federal contractor employers—that their EEO-1 reporting structure is the same as their AAP structure, despite the many differences between the two requirements that make it almost impossible for the two structures to match.
The OFCCP isn’t stupid, though. They know the structures shouldn’t match. But it’s the best information they have on your organization’s structure, so that is how they are populating the location information in the AAP-VI Contractor Portal.
The OFCCP is also looking for inconsistencies across various federal reporting databases. For instance, filing an EEO-1 report indicating that the organization is a federal contractor, then not verifying AAP compliance in the OFCCP’s Contractor Portal is likely to be a fast-track ticket to an OFCCP audit.
The agency also has access to federal procurement databases and VETS-4212 data.
Biddle’s New EEO-1 and Contractor Portal Configuration Services
This is why Biddle is launching new EEO-1 and Contractor Portal “Configuration Services.”
We have offered EEO-1 reporting services to our clients for decades and regularly file reports on our clients’ behalf. The OFCCP, however, does not allow third parties to verify AAP compliance on behalf of others in the Contractor Portal, so the actual checking of boxes still has to be done by someone in your organization. If you are confused and unsure how to proceed with regard to your location data in the Contractor Portal, that is where Biddle consultants can really help.
Our consultants will be talking to clients about their broader federal reporting strategies in light of the OFCCP’s AAP-VI.
If your organization has not re-evaluated how it meets these various federal reporting requirements lately, that time is now, because come Halloween it will be time to file.
If you have questions about this, any other federal contractor obligation, or if you would like to talk to a consultant, we’re standing by at BCGi@Biddle.com.
