EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is the federal agency primarily tasked with enforcing federal laws that prevent employment discrimination based on a candidate's race, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status.
Most companies and organizations are covered by federal nondiscrimination laws, and while the rules apply to firings, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits, Greenhouse Recruiting is mostly concerned with how they intersect with the hiring process. Many companies prefer to proactively track and analyze their hiring data to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local nondiscrimination laws.
EEOC questionnaire
Note: The questions included in the EEOC questionnaire cannot be edited.
The EEOC questionnaire is a set of federally-approved questions about race, gender, veteran status, and disability status. The questions included in this voluntary questionnaire are un-editable because they were carefully crafted to comply with relevant regulations. Seemingly minor changes can be deemed a violation by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP).
The EEOC questionnaire is enabled on a per job post basis and will appear for candidates when they fill out an application through your organization's job board.
Additionally, for candidates who entered your system without applying through a job post ( i.e. referrals, prospecting, being associated with a confidential job ), Greenhouse Recruiting also has functionality to email the EEOC questionnaire to candidates.
EEOC report
Candidate responses collected from the EEOC questionnaire are anonymized and compiled in Greenhouse Recruiting's EEOC Report. This report is only accessible by users with Site Admin level permissions with the additional user-specific permission Can see EEOC and demographic reports.
EEOC data and federal contracts
The EEOC questionnaire also assists organizations with federal contracts track recruiting and hiring data, as required by law. Specifically, if a company has 50+ employees and any single government contract worth more than $50,000, such company is subject to the affirmative action planning requirements of Executive Order 11246 and its implementing regulations.
These regulations require government contractors to create an annual affirmative action plan which includes, in relevant part, applicant and hiring demographic information, and analyses revealing whether hiring decisions have an adverse impact on any specific candidate demographic. Affirmative action plans must be completed by federal contractors on an annual basis and are subject to being randomly and periodically reviewed during audits by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
Collecting EEOC data to promote company diversity
EEOC survey and reporting functionality are intended to be used by Greenhouse customers who are government contractors or federal entities. We recommend you only utilize these features only if your organization fits that criteria.
If you do not fit these criteria and are using the EEOC report to gather demographic data without the appropriate level of DE&I reporting, it could represent a risk to your organization. Speak with your legal counsel to better understand the benefits and risks of accessing and reviewing this type of information.
If you'd still like to collect and review recruiting data with appropriate DE&I reports, Greenhouse Recruiting offers custom demographic questions and DE&I reports in Expert subscription tiers.