On August 10, 2020, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) updated its website, including revamping the National Pre-Award Registry and the VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark Database. These new features provide helpful information to contractors and contracting officials and help to streamline navigation among OFCCP’s website content and tools. Furthermore, the updated tools enhance information accessibility to individuals with vision impairments.

Prior to awarding a supply and service contract, contracting officer must request pre-award clearance from OFCCP, unless the proposed contractor is listed on the Pre-Award Registry. The Pre-Award Registry is a search engine that identifies federal contractors who have been compliant with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations, meaning they have undergone a compliance evaluation and received a Notice of Compliance, within the past two years. The Pre-Award Registry is updated nightly and permits users to search the name of the contractor facility and export search results in Excel. Notably, the Pre-Award Registry includes only information for the contractor facility searched, not the parent organization or other facility locations (unless the locations have been audited within the past two years). Federal contracting officers rely on the Pre-Award Registry during the contract procurement process, so it is important that contractors continue to comply with EEO regulations.

The Hiring Benchmark Database provides a one-page summary of the annual VEVRAA hiring benchmarks necessary for affirmative action program. VEVRAA requires that contractors establish a hiring benchmark by either adopting the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force (which is currently 5.7%) or calculating their own benchmark by taking into account five factors set forth in OFCCP’s regulations. Thus, the Hiring Benchmark Database is a useful tool that contractors can turn to when assessing the effectiveness of their outreach and hiring of veterans.