As economic cycles go, the last 18 months have been a time of change for any company doing business with the federal government. Budgets have been cut across the board, and it often feels like the government is trying to get the same services for a fraction of the cost. For those of us working in Talent Acquisition or Human Resources, the pressure to do more with less has never been more tremendous.

Article originally published in SHRM Online on October 23, 2014.

As I previously wrote in another blog article, Common Problems with the Service Contract Act (SCA) Requirements, the requirements under the SCA are difficult to navigate. I have recently received questions on and worked with multiple clients on helping them classify their SCA workers; so here I wanted to go a little deeper on how to properly map your workers to the Wage Determination.

As a government contractor, there are what seem like endless and ever changing requirements that you must comply with. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) serves as a guidebook to government contractors and outlines the rules, regulations, and processes that must be followed by government contractors throughout the acquisition planning, contract formation, and contract administration processes when the government is purchasing (acquiring) goods and services. The FAR is easy to overlook as an HR professional as many of the regulations pertain to the contracts and finance departments within your organization; however, one aspect of the FAR that pertains to the Human Resource department of government contractors is the Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct[1].

There are thousands of government contractors who hold Service Contract Act contracts, yet so many of them are confused about the requirements. It’s understandable; the requirement guidelines are complicated and difficult to navigate. As an HR consultant with GovCon subject matter expertise, I often interpret the guidelines for many of our federal contracting clients to ensure they are in compliance. Here are a few tips to help clarify some of the most frequent misunderstandings I have discovered over the years consulting on the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act of 1965, now known as the Service Contract Labor Standards.

If you are a recruiter or HR professional working for a federal contractor, the recent changes to OFCCP recordkeeping rules have been challenging to keep up with. If you are unsure about the details of these rules, please see our recent blog posts on the subject.