Seven Tips for a Pleasant Audit Experience
Employers tend to view government agencies as their foes during audits and investigations into their equal employment practices. In truth, employers’ worst enemy in an investigation can be themselves. There is a long list of measures you can take before and during an audit or investigation that can reduce the chance of an unhappy ending.
- Lay down the ground rules. You need to know what documents are being given to the investigating agency and what is contained in those documents. It is prudent that you do not make the mistake of letting the auditors control the audit. There have been instances where employers told auditors from the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to help themselves to whatever they needed from personnel files. You should not let them have free reign of your premises when they come to do an audit. An audit is not a fishing expedition. A better approach involves displaying everything the investigator needs, knowing what is in those documents, and preparing a separate office in which the investigator can perform his or her duties. Investigators should also be prevented from roaming the hallways and questioning random employees.
- Always check the math. Investigations often become entangled in debates over the agency’s analysis of the firm’s internal data. Before wasting a lot of time debating the outcome, check the analysis. In two out of three cases, an erroneous calculation is made or the input data is configured incorrectly.
- Maintain a “brag book.” HR should develop a book highlighting the firm’s formal and informal affirmative accomplishments (Good Faith Efforts). Such a book might include awards, news clippings and memos discussing the achievement of important affirmative action goals. A brag book demonstrates a commitment to such issues and makes a good impression on auditors.
- Adopt an “all or nothing” approach to settlements. A particular allegation could find life in multiple forums due to overlapping jurisdiction between federal, state and local equal employment agencies. In settling a single problem, make sure the allegations cannot re-emerge with another agency.
- Create transparent promotion and hiring processes. Employers should establish job posting systems that offer the whole employee population options for bidding on open positions. While such systems can be cumbersome, they prevent agency complaints and private litigation, asserting that promotions and hiring are secretive, unfair or discriminatory.
- Develop a cooperative working relationship with investigators. There is no reason to antagonize. While an audit can be uncomfortable, many issues can be cleared up through flexibility, cooperation and accommodation.
- Finally, get the CEO involved. Employers should give agency investigators access to the organization’s Chief Executive Officer during a review. Interaction with the top person in the organization generally makes a good impression, especially when it is clear the executive is committed to the principles of equal employment. In most cases, the chief executive understands the importance of the issues and knows how to sell the organization’s values, whether the audience is a group of stockholders, prospective clients or government investigators. The OFCCP wants to know if the CEO really cares about affirmative action or not. They want to know whether he/she has a clue about affirmative action, about the advancement of women and minorities within the company.
