EEO Outreach Moves Online

It may sound like a small thing for stations with five or more full-time employees, but the FCC’s recent declaratory ruling that forever killed the necessity of having to place a newspaper ad to ensure wide dissemination of a job vacancy was both welcome and remarkable.

For nearly 13 years, since the old hiring quotas were replaced with a broad outreach EEO policy, the FCC has had a policy requiring stations with five or more full-time employees to use the newspaper in order to ensure dissemination of job vacancy information. Online sources were nice, but not enough – even in the internet age when everyone looks for a job online. That’s now changed, and beginning with any vacancy from April 22, 2017 going forward, online sources alone are sufficient to disseminate job vacancy information, so long as they will ensure wide dissemination.

We like that instead of issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, which would have taken some months to complete, the FCC took action immediately by way of a declaratory ruling, concluding that the newspaper ad guidance was a policy, not a rule, and therefore subject to immediate change without a rulemaking proceeding. Take a look at footnote 43 for that discussion.

Little changes make a difference. Practical, expedited solutions are wise. If there was a little heart symbol nearby, we would “favorite” this decision by the FCC.