Glossary
All entries, unless otherwise stated, should be taken in the context of affirmative action regulations or equal employment opportunity policies.
80 % (Four Fifths) Rule
The 80% or Four Fifths Rule is a calculation method available to be used in either the Annual Goals Report or in Disparity Analysis Reports. This broad, general test can be used in the Annual Goals Report to provide a 20% margin of error in comparing percent utilization of females and minorities against percent availability of each. In the context of Disparity Analyses, the 80% Rule is used to compare the selection rates of race and gender groups to determine if a substantial disparity exists in their hire, promotion or termination rates.
AAP
AAP is an abbreviation of Affirmative Action Program or Affirmative Action Plan.
Annotation
Annotations refer to the description of employees’ work locations and/or reporting locations required to be shown in clearly labeled, annotated versions of the Job Group and Workforce Analyses. Annotations are created in direct response to 41 CFR 60-2.1(e), which states that employees reported in AAPS other than that of where they physically work must be annotated in both AAPs to identify both their work and reporting locations. The Complete AAP software is programmed to produce an Organizational Display by default instead of a Workforce Analysis, but users of the Pro edition may opt to publish Workforce Analyses instead. The Organizational Display is not required to be annotated.
Any Difference Rule
This calculation method compares the percentage utilization of minorities and females in your organization to the exact calculated availability. The results of the Any Difference Rule can be, but are not by default, displayed in the Availability Analysis and Annual Goals reports.
Applicant
If even one individual expresses an interest in an open position using the Internet or related electronic data technologies, the entire pool of interested candidates is considered to be subject to the four Internet Applicant criteria. If not one individual expresses an interest in a position using electronic means, employers may default to the guidelines that were in place prior to the advent of the Internet Applicant Rule. For traditional applicants that are not recruited through the internet or related electronic data technologies, the precise definition of the term “Applicant” depends upon the contractor’s recruitment and selection procedures. The general concept of an applicant is that of a person who has indicated an interest in being considered for hiring, promotion, or other employment opportunities. This interest might be expressed by completing an application form, or might be expressed verbally, depending upon the employer’s practice.
Audit
Notice of an OFCCP audit arrives in the form of what is referred to as a “Scheduling Letter,” and will contain reference to one of six different types of audits. Please read through Preparing for an OFCCP Audit to learn about the six types of audits, and to link to examples of each type.
Availability
Availability refers to the calculated percentage of females and minorities who are available in a contractor’s recruiting pool. To determine the availability of qualified minorities and women available, the OFCCP indicates that contractors must consider at least 2 Factors, 1) the percentage of minorities or women with requisite skills in the reasonable recruitment area, and 2) the percentage of minorities or women among those promotable, transferable and trainable within the organization. Availability percentages appear in Availability Analyses, Annual Goals Reports, and in Executive Summary/Management Presentations. 41 CFR 60-2.14.
Base Salary
Base salary is the salary paid to individual employees at the beginning of the AAP year without consideration of overtime, bonuses, or shift differential.
Census Area
Census Areas are used in AAPs as external statistical recruiting sources to determine female and minority availability against which contractors may compare their workforce population to determine if underutilization exists. The EEO Tabulation 2006-2010 (5-year ACS) data is included in the Complete AAP. This 107-table tabulation, which highlights the diversity of the labor force, is based on the American Community Survey (ACS) 2006-2010 five-year data (www.census.gov/acs). The Census Bureau produces this tabulation for four sponsoring Federal agencies: Equal Employment OpportunityCommission (EEOC), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the Department of Labor (DOL) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The EEO Tabulation serves as the primary external benchmark for comparing the race, ethnicity, and sex composition of an organization’s internal workforce, and the analogous external labor market, within a specified geography and job category. In the context of The Complete AAP, the Census Area refers to the geographic area that surrounds your facility, from which employees might commute. The AAP Software provides the opportunity to use either worksite or residence data. Worksite data includes individuals that work in the selected area, regardless of their county of residence. Each census area contains at least 50,000 people that work in the area; therefore, some sparsely populated areas may not be included in the worksite data set. Residence data includes people that live in the selected area who may or may not work in this selected area.
Census Code
In the U.S. Census Bureau’s surveys of the U.S. population, economic characteristics of the population are gathered that include questions about income and employment, transportation, Industry, education and housing. The Census Bureau groups respondents’ similar jobs, and the groups of jobs are given one common title and a code. Called the “Special EEO File”, these census codes contain availability statistics for females, Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Two or More Races, and minorities as a group. The availability statistics are based directly on the number (or percent) of respondents in the given geographic census area. OFCCP accepts U.S. Census Bureau data for use in AAPs. The census codes are available in The Complete AAP software, and up to three census codes can be assigned to each job in the Jobs window.
Company
Company refers to a company unit comprising one or more U.S. locations. Each company is listed separately in The Complete AAP’s Companies window, and each is intended to represent one single AAP year. The Company name and associated information can be edited after its creation by selecting File and Company Information.
Compliance Officer
A Compliance Officer is a representative of the OFCCP who conducts reviews of contractors’ AAPs.
Department Code
Within the context of The Complete AAP software, this refers to a unique code representing a department or unit of supervision.
Department Name
This refers to a unique name representing a department or unit of supervision.
Disability
The term disability means, with respect to an individual:(i) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual;(ii) A record of such an impairment; or(iii) Being regarded as having such an impairment. See How Do You Know You Have a Disability in the Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability form.
Discrimination
The treatment of individuals or groups with consideration to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disabled or veteran status. The Office of Contract Compliance Programs attempts to uncover not only overt discrimination, but also concealed discrimination such as when an employer uses a facially neutral selection standard (e.g., a test, an interview, a degree requirement) that disqualifies a member of a particular race or gender group at a significantly higher rate than others.
Disparity Analysis
A Disparity Analysis determines whether significantly different rates of selection exist in hiring, promotion, transfer, training, or other employment-related decisions for any race, sex or ethnic group. A finding of disparity by itself does not establish impermissible conduct, and may be explained by considering job-relatedness or business necessity.
EEO
Equal employment opportunity means freedom from discrimination in all aspects of employment on the basis of protected classes such as race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability or genetic information.
EEO-1 Code
Please see EEO Job Categories.
EEO-1 Report
Government contractors who are required to have an annual written AAP must file an EEO-1 report each year. Please visit the EEOC’s FAQ page for further information.
EEO-4 Code
Please see EEO Job Categories.
EEO-6 Code
Please see EEO Job Categories.
EEO Coordinator
The individual given responsibility by the Executive Officer for the development, implementation and monitoring of an AAP. This individual typically oversees the preparation of an AAP, and is a Compliance Officer’s main contact during an audit.
Employee ID
Employee ID is an optional field in the workforce and employment activity import templates; it refers to a unique code by which each employee can be identified. If not imported with workforce data, the program will assign its own set of codes for purposes of distinction. If not imported with employment activity, the program will leave the field blank.
Employee Name
Employee Name is a required field in the workforce and employment activity import templates; it refers to text by which each employee can be identified. The format is not limited by type or number of characters.
Equal Opportunity Clause
An Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Clause for individuals with disabilities, protected veterans, women, and minorities, and a clause relating to employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) must be incorporated in bold print into each non-exempt subcontract.
Ethnicity
See Race/Ethnicity
Executive Officer
The top-level company official who has overall responsibility for implementation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy as required by regulation.
Facially Neutral Selection Standard
An employment selection standard that does not make any reference to a prohibited factor and is equally applicable to everyone regardless of race, gender or ethnicity. A facially neutral employment practice is one that does not appear to be discriminatory on its face; rather it is one that is discriminatory in its application or effect.”
Feeder
See Promotable.
Fisher’s Exact Test
A statistical test that is designed to determine if adverse impact exists in employment decisions. The Fisher’s Exact test’s parameters may be changed in The Complete AAP’s publishing settings for the Disparity Analysis.
Four-Fifths Rule
See 80% Rule
Gender
The government agencies relevant to affirmative action, the OFCCP, Census Bureau, and EEOC, all recognize only two genders: male and female. Until the OFCCP in particular provides guidance on non-binary genders, affirmative action programs must identify each individual as male, female, or unknown. The Complete AAP does not count unknown gender in its statistics, so some tally inconsistencies in effect arise.
Good Faith Efforts
This term refers to contractor’s efforts to make all aspects of its affirmative action program work. Designing and implementing an effective affirmative action program requires sustained attention. The contractor must analyze its employment and recruitment practices as they affect equal opportunity, identify problem areas, design and implement measures to address the problems, and monitor the effectiveness of its program, making adjustments as circumstances warrant.
Government Contract
Any agreement or modification thereof between any contracting agency and any person for the furnishing or supplies or services, or for the use of real or personal property, including lease arrangements. The term “services,” as used here, includes, but is not limited to, the following: utility, construction, transportation, research, insurance, and fund depository, regardless of whether the Government is the purchaser or seller. The term “Government Contract” does not include (a) agreements in which the parties stand in the relationship of employer and employee and (b) Federally assisted construction contracts.
Hire Date
The date an employee was hired; this is an optional import field in the workforce template, but, in the “Activity Date” field, hire date is required for hire activity in the employment activity template.
Identifier
An identifier is an alphanumeric code that helps distinguish one AAP from another in the list of companies shown in the Companies window accessible from the Companies icon.
Import
Electronic movement of information or data into The Complete AAP version 12 from a file or from The Complete AAP version 11.
Internet Applicant
See Internet Applicant Guidelines.
IPEDS
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The primary source for data on colleges, universities, and technical and vocational postsecondary institutions in the United States
IPEDS Codes
IPEDS Codes are the bases of job groups for public educational employers. Please see IPEDS Job Categories at EEO Categories.
IPEDS Survey Components and Data Collection Cycle
IPEDS consists of twelve interrelated survey components that are collected over three collection periods (Fall, Winter, and Spring) each year. The data cycle runs from July 1 – June 30, and release of data is usually delayed by one or two years. See the IPEDS Survey Components and Data Collection Cycle for more information.
Job Code
A job code is an optional import field that refers to a unique code for a job title. Upon data import, The Complete AAP accepts only one job title per job code. If the field is left blank, The Complete AAP will assign a job code for each job title imported.
Job Group
A job group is a group of jobs within the same EEO category having similar content, salaries and opportunities. OFCCP regulations indicate that you may use EEO category titles if your organization contains fewer than 150 employees. See Job Groups to learn more about forming job groups.
Job Group Code
A job group code is a unique code for each job group name.
Job Title
Title of position held by individual employees. By regulation, the Workforce Analysis and Job Group Analysis must display job titles of employees and supervisors; the Organizational Display is required to show the title of each department’s top-level manager. The Job Title field in the workforce import template is required, but the field, though recommended, is optional in the employment activity import template.
Location
Location refers to the physical work site of an employee. If an employee works remotely either from home or temporarily at various sites, a user of The Complete AAP may identify the individual’s work site as “Remote.”
Location Code
A location code is a code that identifies the physical work site of an employee. This field is optional, but recommended in the workforce import template, but required in the employment activity import template.
Minorities
In affirmative action, minorities refers to the six non-white and non-favored racial/ethnic categories: Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Two or More Races. The OFCCP does not recognize Hispanic/Latino as a separate ethnic group. If a company tracks Hispanic/Latino as a separate ethnic group meant to be paired with a racial group, it wise to follow your company policy regarding whether race or ethnicity should be used.
OFCCP
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is the government agency under the Federal Department of Labor that is charged with enforcing affirmative action regulations.
Pay Analysis Group
A Pay Analysis Group (PAG) is a group of employees (potentially from multiple job titles, units, categories and/or job groups) who are comparable for purposes of analyzing a contractor’s pay practices. See What is a ‘pay analysis group’? on the OFCCP’s FAQ page.
Plan
A “plan” refers to an affirmative action plan or program.
Plan Dates
Plan dates refer to the beginning and end dates of an affirmative action plan. See What Are My AAP Dates in AAP Basics for information on establishing these dates.
Promotable
Promotable refers to jobs populated by current employees who are qualified and eligible for promotion to another job based upon valid selection criteria. Promotables are selected in the Weights window of The Complete AAP version 12.
Promotions
Promotions from employment activity includes promotions within a job group as well as promotions from one job group to another with higher salary, and more responsibilities and/or opportunities. Promotion activity is imported into the employment activity table, and ultimately appear in the Promotion Disparity Analysis Report.
Promotions to consist of movement into a job group from a job group with lower salary, and fewer responsibilities and/or opportunities. Promotions to are imported into the employment activity table, but appear only in the Goals Progress Report.
Race/Ethnicity
Race refers to any one of the groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits regarded as common among people of shared ancestry. Ethnicity refers to the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Each employee in an AAP must be identified as one of the race or ethnic categories recognized by the OFCCP. Race/ethnicity can be left “unknown” in only applicant data. If an employee declines to self-identify their race/ethnicity, visual determination my be made by an HR employee who does not have hiring/firing authority over the individual.
Recruitment Area
The geographic U.S. Census area that covers the audience a contractor’s recruitment efforts may reach, or the geographic U.S. Census area from which a contractor usually receives interested candidates.
Recruitment Factors
Methods of recruiting individuals for open positions. OFCCP requires that you consider two factors: external and internal recruitment. The Complete AAP software allows for two external sources that include geographic recruitment areas, and training institutions. The software allows for one internal source: promotables. Finally, the program allows for a custom factor that can be internal or external, and for which the user must provide availability statistics.
Salary Basis
Salary Basis indicates the frequency an employee receives their Base Salary. The choices include: hourly, weekly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly, monthly or annually.
Salary Code
Salary Code is a unique alphanumeric code assigned by the contractor to represent individual salaries, or salary ranges.
Snapshot
Refers to a single-day count of all individuals employed as of the first date of the AAP year, or the last date of the prior AAP year.
Supervisor ID
A supervisor ID refers to the employee ID of a supervisor. This ID is used by the program to determine department managers, to count employees in their managers’ AAPs, to determine where employees at sites of fewer than 50 employees are rolled up, and to annotate employees as required by OFCCP regulations.
Total Salary
Total salary refers to the salary of an employee for the 12 month period prior to the beginning of the new AAP year that includes all compensation, such as base salary, overtime, and bonuses.
Two Standard Deviations Test
A standard deviation is a statistical measure used to describe the probability that differences between similarly situated groups (such as in selection rates, wages, etc.) occurred by chance. In simple terms, a standard deviation shows how much variation there is from the norm or “mean”; the most widely used threshold is two standard deviations, hence the name of the test. The 2 Standard Deviation Test is commonly used to analyze selection rates for groups of all sizes, and it usually results in a lower showing of under-representation than the Four- Fifths Rule; the threshold .
User Defined Fields/ User Defined Activities
The Complete AAP allows for user-defined fields in the workforce import template, and user-defined activities in the employment activities import template. Used for Multiple Regression reporting, you may import up to 10 user defined fields in the workforce template. Examples include: date of last increase, rehire date, date of last promotion, experience, annual review rating, education, etc. You may import an unlimited amount of user-defined activities with your employment activities import template; you will be asked to add the user-defined fields as you encounter them during import.
Veteran Hiring Benchmark
The Veteran Hiring Benchmark is the percentage of total hires who are protected veterans that the contractor seeks to hire in the following year. Users may use the default the acceptable benchmark developed by the OFCCP and automatically updated by TCAAP, or they may Develop; Individualized Hiring Benchmark.
Weights.
Weight applied to recruitment factors considered when determining availability. The “weight” in question refers to the percentage assigned to the factor. See Review Weights in the Review Remaining Data chapter for information on what to consider when setting weights.
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