Requesting Veteran Status and Disability Status From Employees

EEOAACOORDINATOR

As I am new to the EEO and Affirmative Action field and because I don't want to ask questions of my employees that I will soon regret, I am seeking assistance from my fellow managers who perhaps have been in a similiar situation.

My HR department has advised that they have not been maintaining certain data regarding our employees. As a State agency, I am responsible for responding to various inquiries asking for for numbers of employees who are veterans, Vietnam veterans, disabled veterans, and disabled employees (non-veterans).

I am thinking of asking our employees for the above information, so our records accurately reflect this data. Am I correct that I CANNOT make this survey mandatory? Any ideas on how I might legally word this request to get voluntary compliance from employees?

If you have any other words of advise for a newbee like myself, please let me know.

Thank you. I appreciate your assistance.

HRCalico

Newbee word of advice - this would have been better placed in the Employment Law section. Not much traffic through here. Welcome to the forum!

We are required to report Veteran status. What I do is make a list of new employees and ask each one exactly what is on the form I am using. I typically give a short speel about we are required to report certain info since we have gov't contracts. So I ask "Are you a veteran?" If they say no, I thank them and go on to the next. If they say yes, I ask if they are considered a " . . . ." and read the column headings and let them tell me.

Then I add that to last year's list, and take out any that have terminated.

Since you don't have the last year's list, just go around and ask everyone. Your speel may include that answering does not affect their job in any way, blah blah blah. I can see how people might not want to reveal disabilities, so that's a tough one. As for mandatory, I don't know. We just ask, and they tell.

Good luck.

EEOAACOORDINATOR

>Newbee word of advice - this would have been
>better placed in the Employment Law section.
>Not much traffic through here. Welcome to the
>forum!
>
>We are required to report Veteran status. What
>I do is make a list of new employees and ask
>each one exactly what is on the form I am using.
> I typically give a short speel about we are
>required to report certain info since we have
>gov't contracts. So I ask "Are you a veteran?"
> If they say no, I thank them and go on to the
>next. If they say yes, I ask if they are
>considered a " . . . ." and read the column
>headings and let them tell me.
>
>Then I add that to last year's list, and take
>out any that have terminated.
>
>Since you don't have the last year's list, just
>go around and ask everyone. Your speel may
>include that answering does not affect their job
>in any way, blah blah blah. I can see how
>people might not want to reveal disabilities, so
>that's a tough one. As for mandatory, I don't
>know. We just ask, and they tell.
>
>Good luck.

EEOAACOORDINATOR

Thank you HRCalico. As you can tell, I am a newbee to this Forum also. I am going to attempt moving my question into the Employment Law Section.

mushroomHR

I too have to do a Vets-100 report and do the same thing HRCalico does. I ask this question at new employee orientation. If they are not a veteran, no need to go further. If they are a veteran I ask for the branch of the military they served with, dates of service, and if they qualify for any of the campaigns or expeditions as indicated by the Office of Personnel Management. This may help [url]http://www.opm.gov/veterans/html/vgmedal12.asp[/url].

EEOAACOORDINATOR

Thank you for taking time out to respond to me. I appreciate your advice.

cthr

Actually, if you are an AAP employer, there is a voluntary form for new hires that asks them to self identify for Vet status and disability. The form should be in the appendix of your AAP as OFFCCP will look for it if you are audited.