If you’re an HR professional, affirmative action plan tracking likely rules your universe. And why shouldn’t it? One misstep can cost both you and your company a boatload of money. Instead of fearing your affirmative action plan though, you should welcome the opportunity to create an affirmative action plan that appeals best to your organization. All you need is a basic understanding of how an affirmative action plan works and how to create a tracking plan that monitors your hiring process from start to finish.
If you’re an HR professional, affirmative action plan tracking likely rules your universe.
What is an affirmative action plan?
In a nutshell, an affirmative action plan is a company plan designed to ensure outreach to protected classes and also to provide equal employment opportunities to these groups. These efforts are monitored and mandated by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Currently, the four protected classes are females, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.
Who needs an affirmative action plan?
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it should help you get your affirmative action plan feet wet to determine whether or not your company qualifies for tracking:
- 1st Tier Government contractors with $50,000 or more in federal government contracts or 50 or more employees at one location.
- 2nd Tier Government contractors (supplies to a 1st tier contractor) with $50,000 or more in contracts of 50 or more employees at one location
- Working on many city and state contracts
- Growing businesses desiring city, state, federal contracts
What should an affirmative action plan track?
As mentioned earlier, an effective affirmative action plan tracks the hiring process from post all the way through hire. Here are a few affirmative action hiring plan essentials:
- Job Requisition Approvals
- Job Ad Posting Locations
- Collection of Race/Gender on Applicants
- Minimum Qualifications Met
- Hiring Approval Documentation
- Applicant Log of Disposition Codes
In addition to tracking affirmative action through the hiring process, you’re going to want to log the job requisition approval process which includes:
- Position & Description
- Reason for Opening
- Suggested Pay Range
- Job Type/Classification
- Qualifications for the Job
- Proof of Approval through Chain of Command
A high compliant affirmative action plan should also track job ad posting locations:
- Job Board or Organization Focus
- Timing of Posting
- What Jobs are Posted
- Proper Collection of Proof
- Where
- When
- What
- 3rd Party Postings
Your affirmative action plan should include proper documentation regarding applications:
- Expression of Interest in Position
- Collection of Race/Gender
- Job Specific Questions
- Minimum Qualifications for the Job
Affirmative action plan tracking for minimum qualifications cover:
- Collect Minimum Qualifications on Requisition
- Create Direct Screening Questions and Record Answers from Applicants
- Flag in Spreadsheet Yes/No Met Basic Qualifications
- May or May Not Need to Include Depending on Your Plan
Another step in the affirmative action plan strategy is similar to the job approval process, but involves documentation for the hiring approval process:
- Name of Person Hired
- Proposed Pay
- Reasons why higher/lower than Requisition
- Pre-approve Requisition with Higher Range
- Source of Applicant
- Approval for Offer Acceptance by Management or HR
The last component of a high quality affirmative action plan is the applicant log report which tracks who applies:
- Names & Dates Applied
- Job Applied for and Classification
- Race & Gender of Applicant
- Met Minimum Qualifications
- Disposition Reason
- Point in Process When Dispositioned
- Date of Disposition
What are some of the challenges associated with affirmative action?
Now that we’ve spent some time delving deeper into the compliance aspect of affirmative action and what constitutes a solid affirmative action plan, let’s take some time to address the potential challenges you face trying to manage this process. We can start with the obvious – this process is complicated. And if you’re tracking this process manually, you’re probably going to drop the ball somewhere. Hey, you’re only human. Additionally, if you’re tracking all of this information yourself in spreadsheets, you’re putting yourself and your company at risk due to security constraints and potential data breach. So, how can you make an overwhelming and potentially “dangerous” situation more achievable? One of the best options is to choose hiring software that is designed to track all of this data for you compliantly.
Ready to turn over the affirmative action reigns to experts? We’ve helped thousands of clients track their affirmative action hiring effectively, and we can help you too! Give us a call and see for yourself.
