You already know you must display labor law posters in the workplace to inform employees of their legal rights and responsibilities. Yet your labor law posting compliance may be incomplete if you don’t communicate this same information to job applicants. In fact, of the six mandatory federal postings, four must be displayed in areas where applicants can view them. Further still, nearly half of the states and several cities also require area-specific postings.
If you have job candidates coming into your facility for any reason – whether to fill out an application or participate in an interview – you must present the necessary posters.
Which Posters Must Be Displayed in Applicant Areas?
By law, applicants must be able to view these federal postings in your business:
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): Covers anti-discrimination provisions and legally protected characteristics.
- Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA): Addresses re-employment after military leave, anti-discrimination provisions and health insurance issues. (Note: This one is recommended as a best practice because the law protects applicants.)
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA): Describes the rules around lie detector tests in employment, which is mandatory even if you don’t use lie detectors.
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Explains employee leave eligibility and benefits, as well as employer responsibilities.
For proper compliance, posters must be displayed in prominent locations throughout your business where they’re easily accessible to all employees and applicants. In a small office, you may be able to satisfy this requirement by posting in one location, such as a foyer or hallway. Larger companies, however, may need more than one posting site to provide access.
Always target highly visible areas that get the most traffic. In a large facility, this could mean posting near each entrance, as well as the employee break room and HR department.
Online Job Applicants Also Need Access
Additionally, you need to make sure you’re providing the required postings for online job seekers. To achieve this, you can add links to electronic postings on the same platform as your online job application. Per the recommendation of the Department of Labor (DOL), you should include a notice near the online job application stating, “Applicants have rights under federal and state employment laws.”
Electronic postings are not a substitute for wall postings. If you have applicants visiting your business, you are responsible for displaying physical posters.
Smart Solutions to Meet Job Applicant Posting Requirements
We offer innovative solutions to reach both online and in-person job applicants. The Poster Guard® Applicant Area Federal Poster Service provides a bold, laminated poster that visiting job applicants can view. The all-in-one federal posting extends 12 months of automatic poster replacements whenever requirements change. It also includes two additional recommended notices on immigration/I-9 and drug-free workplace. Plus, it’s available in compact sticker format for retail kiosks and other small spaces.
Another option is the Online Applicant Posting Service that provides all federal, state and local posting requirements for job applicants, along with 12 months of automatic updates. The attorney-approved electronic postings are viewable via a web link you can add to your website or online applicant platform.
Both applicant-area posting solutions include the latest, mandatory “Know Your Rights” EEOC poster (issued October 2022) that all covered U.S. employers must share.
