On February 6, 2006, the regulations that provided the final version of the definition of an Internet applicant, issued by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), took effect.

The intent of these regulations is to offer clear guidance to federal contractors about who is considered an applicant in the Internet age. This threshold question is of critical importance to federal contractors, which must comply with federal nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements.

The new regulations put the following requirements in place:

• Employers that must satisfy nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements for federal contractors now have new rules to determine for themselves which of the candidates, prospects, leads or potential hires are actually applicants for any given position.
• Federal contractors with 50 or more employees must continue to solicit race, gender and ethnicity data from applicants at some point during the hiring process.
• Employers will be required to maintain specific records about the sourcing and basic qualifications of candidates and applicants.

For more information and details, please visit: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/faqs/iappfaqs.htm