PeopleSmart

Employers can turn their raw data into insights that can improve the ways they make decisions, develop strategies, engage their workforce, and grow their business.

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s PeopleSmart platform and practice assists clients in analyzing a myriad of data points to address critical business questions, from diversity and inclusion initiatives and pay equity to reductions in force and other selection analyses. Our team of attorneys works with data analysts to empower employers with data-driven, meaningful insights. We help employers at all stages of their journey—whether an employer is analyzing its data or making strategic decisions—to maximize the insight they can gain from privileged analyses and create actionable information.

We assist our clients in a variety of ways, including:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) is at the forefront of many employees’ and employers’ minds and directly impacts numerous aspects of businesses—legal compliance, ESG efforts, branding, workplace unity, and ultimately, the ability to hire and retain top talent.

Employers are increasingly grappling with the complex issues associated with creating and managing meaningful and successful DE&I initiatives, analyzing important diversity metrics, and educating their leadership and workforce, all while trying to navigate employment laws that are implicated by their DE&I programs.

For years, we have assisted employers across a wide variety of industries to implement effective and legally defensible DE&I initiatives, including:

• Data analyses;
• Program development and implementation (including development of appropriate policies);
• Education, training, and leadership development;
• Internal and external reporting; and
• Crisis management and communications.

Pay Equity

Although only recently in the headlines, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s attorneys have partnered with employers for years to analyze compensation practices. Pay equity and transparency issues are governed by numerous complex laws that, if not managed correctly, can create substantial risk for employers. We assist clients with cost-effective, statistical analyses enabling them to understand risks, identify areas for investigation, and evaluate the effect of various compensation structures and decisions, all while maintaining privilege. Additionally, our attorneys work with employers to ensure they are complying with pay transparency legislation emerging across the nation. Clients rely on our team to know the various pay transparency and reporting requirements and to assist them in developing compliant compensation programs.

Hiring, Promotion, Termination, and Retention Analyses

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s attorneys partner with clients on a variety of hiring, promotion, termination, and retention analyses to better understand potential barriers in equal employment opportunities and trends within their organization. These data-driven insights are invaluable in helping employers identify areas for opportunity, suggest modifications to recruiting and retention practices, identify necessary policy modifications, and more.

Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance

Employers who contract with federal agencies are subject to additional employment-related compliance requirements. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP routinely represents federal contractors and subcontractors to ensure compliance with all applicable affirmative action requirements, including Executive Order 11246, VEVRAA, and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, as well as other employment-related laws and regulations applicable to employers who contract with the federal government.

We collaborate with our federal contractor clients to ensure not only compliance, but also that our clients are forward-looking and anticipating potential changes in the law or enforcement priorities before they take effect. As part of our Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance practice, we assist clients with the following services:

• Affirmative action plan preparation and related compliance;
• OFCCP compliance audit defense;
• Pay equity and compensation analyses;
• Workforce analytics;
• Employment discrimination investigations; and
• Diversity and inclusion planning and implementation.

As part of our OFCCP practice, we have prepared hundreds of affirmative action plans using our software program. Our lawyers supplement the statistical reports with narrative descriptions of the required job transactions and compensation analyses. We have also conducted training seminars on preparing affirmative action plans, developing processes for monitoring and analyzing workforce activity, and conducting internal audits of compensation.

Our lawyers have handled hundreds of audits in every region. These compliance audits have included corporate headquarter audits, compliance reviews, compliance checks, and focused reviews covering a variety of industries, including financial services, electric utilities, pharmaceuticals, health care, advertising, retail and consumer products, and construction.

Additionally, we are routinely retained at the post-audit stage — i.e., after the OFCCP has issued the notice of violation to the contractor — and have negotiated favorable settlements on behalf of contractors.

Reductions in Force and Restructuring

Hunton Andrews and Kurth LLP’s lawyers assist our clients to proactively reorganize their workforce to better meet operational and performance goals, manage costs, and encourage growth while facing today’s complex business challenges. We partner with our clients to provide strategic advice for restructuring plans, including developing strategies for minimizing potential liability, controlling employment or benefits-related costs, and meeting legal or other business obligations that may be triggered.

Wage and Hour Compliance

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has experience in defending wage and hour class and collective actions and conducting proactive wage and hour compliance investigations and analyses. We are proud to have tried complex representative proof cases to jury verdicts. We also have favorably represented clients in appeals of complex wage and hour cases across the country. We have formed strategic partnerships with leading labor economists and consultants to design employment and payroll data analysis to assist our clients, and we leverage technology resources to simplify and reduce costs associated with document- and data-intensive class actions.