As we stand back and examine what happened during 2018, it is natural to simply catalogue the numerous changes that occurred at the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). There were multiple new directives, new initiatives, and new personnel at the agency. There were actions taken that we had never seen before from the agency, including the public release of information on h...

For several years now, I have been conducting an ongoing study of OFCCP statistics and the impact on the contractor community. The most recent results are based upon the review and analyses of OFCCP closed compliance activity between FY 2014 through FY 2018 (as reported as of 7/21/2018) and do not address the compliance readiness of the entire federal contractor community who may have an open OFCCP compliance activity (ev...

96 The OFCCP Digest is a complimentary resource for federal contractors on topics of Affirmative Action, EEO, and government compliance....

The 'gig economy,' characterized by freelance and temporary contract work, has grown exponentially in recent years. A January 2018 NPR/Marist poll found that, currently, one in five jobs in the United States is held by a contract worker and, within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. This remarkable shift away from the traditional employer-employee relationship has and will...

Product development is one of the most challenging aspects of running a business, because it’s a rare situation in which your offering is already so perfect you don’t need to improve or evolve with the market. You can vastly save a great deal of time and stress in your efforts to create new products and services, or expand on or enhance your existing ones, with five specific strategies. Put Yourself in Your C...

Technology and office culture will undoubtedly change in the coming years, and with it, workplace dynamics. Three experts weigh in on how to lead a team in this potential new day. When writing my new book, Humanity Works: Merging People and Technology for the Workforce of the Future, I found a business world in the process of rapid transformation. I learned that one way to have a sustainable competitive advantage in a co...

When the concept of reverse mentoring burst on the scene in the multigenerational workplace, it was all about having cool 20-somethings teach the older crowd how to use “the Facebook.” Now most generations are pretty savvy—in fact their takeover of Facebook has sent Gen Z scurrying to Instagram or Snapchat. But that doesn’t mean that they still can’t learn a thing or two from the younger gener...

Most business owners would agree that product innovation is important to their success in today's world. History is full of companies that were initially very successful but failed to innovate when the market changed, says Jeremy Brandt, founder and CEO of We Buy Houses, an online service that connects home sellers with potential buyers. And that informs the way his company operates. “At We Buy Houses, we c...

Have you ever seen the reality show Undercover Boss? I highly recommend it. On the show, the CEO of a company, disguised in casual clothes and with a made-up back story, spends time working incognito alongside his or her front-line employees. There are the predictable inter-employee spats, miniature crises, and times when the CEO just doesn’t “get” how to do some simple task. It's all in good fu...

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a time to celebrate the contributions of America's workers with disabilities both past and present and educate about the value of a workforce inclusive of their skills and talents. In honor of NDEAM, we recently talked to John D. Kemp, one of the nation's foremost authorities on disability employment and current President & CEO of The Viscardi Cent...