Overall, 1999 was another excellent year for our profession and for the Houston business community. Tight labor markets and continued rapid growth in the local economy presented HR professionals with many opportunities to add bottom line value to their organizations and enhance their stature as key business partners. With companies emphasizing "attracting and retaining" high performing employees, HR departments responded with innovative recruiting, compensation, benefits, training and development strategies. These were positive trends for employees, Human Resources, and their organizations.

However, even as this rosy scenario would seem to enhance HR's stature, one troubling issue continues to exist just below the HR radar screen. A quick review of the Houston Chronicle's Business Section frequently reveals a continuing trend that offsets many of HR's positive accomplishments. Almost daily, the Chronicle publishes notices of companies settling employment-related lawsuits and EEOC settlements or litigation, many involving Houston area organizations. Reported cases range from very large to small companies and we know that only a miniscule number of settlements reach the media. With HR assuming expanded importance within organizations, why do so many employers continue to have difficulty with employment law related issues, which traditionally have been a key HR responsibility?

One reason is that the three major federal enforcement agencies have become more efficient and have invested heavily in technology and training for their investigators. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and Office Of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCCP) have developed enforcement plans to focus their resources on complaints, investigations, and audits that they feel have merit. Laws, Executive Orders, and regulations have been revised reducing ambiguity and obvious conflicts. Examples of agency efficiency are the EEOC's priority charge processing, the OFCCP's expanded compliance checks, as well as Wage and Hour's unannounced overtime and exempt versus nonexempt audits. Also earlier this year, the EEOC and the Department of Labor entered into agreements to share information and refer complaints especially in the area of compensation discrimination. Now a complaint received by one agency may evolve into investigations by all three.