EEOC - To track or not to track...

HR Cat

According to everything I've been taught, ethnic information should not be retained with employment applications in order to prevent any danger that it could affect a hiring decision. However, what about keeping it after a person is hired?

Our HR department handles more than one company, and there are differences of opinion on this issue. Some people have an actual need for this type of information when submitting bids for work. They are asking that HR provide it to the accounting department to be entered in the payroll software, which is used by both HR and accounting. However, others say that it should not be kept where it is accessible to HR at all since they are involved in decisions regarding promotions, transfers, etc.

How do some of you guys retain this type of information?

Rockie

You can track this information after hire. You will need this information, at the very least, to complete your annual EEO-1 Survey.

Cinderella

So HR decides who gets promoted/transfered? Or does HR provide guidelines for Managers / Supervisors (give them info regarding the importance of job performance when promoting, etc.)? The payroll software program we use lists the ee's ethnicity and all of the other protected class info but you have to actually tell the program to pull up that info (it doesn't automatically pop up when you type in "Joe Smoe's" name). We have to have it this way to do the EEOC report in HR but the managers / supervisors / etc. never see it so they would have no way to base their decisions on it from "getting the info from HR"
Cinderella

Gillian

If the records are to be kept in a consistent way, by the people who know what they are doing with this topic, that is HR. Tracking is important for EEO-I, to defend against a challenge by the EE0C or a state discrimination agency, and if you are required to have an Affirmative Action Plan, by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.