Glossary

AAP. The written Affirmative Action Plan.

Adverse Impact. A significantly different rate of selection in hiring, promotion, transfer, training, or other employment-related decisions for any race, sex or ethnic group. A finding of adverse impact by itself, does not establish impermissible conduct and may be explained by considering job-relatedness or business necessity. Related page: Adverse Impact

Annotation. Sec. 60-2.1(e) states that an employee included in a plan other than where he is located must be annotated to identify the actual location of the plan in which the employee is included as well as the plan for the employee’s work location. The Workforce Analysis and the Job Group Analysis must be annotated. The Complete AAP software uses an Organizational Display in lieu of a Workforce Analysis. The Organizational Display is not required to be annotated. Related page: Annotations

Any Difference Rule. The results of the Any Difference Rule can be but are not by default displayed in the Availability Analysis, Utilization Summary and Annual Goals reports. This calculation method compares the number of minorities and females in your organization to the exact calculated availability. Related page: Any Difference Rule

Applicant. 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 user's recruitment and selection procedures. The 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 orally, depending upon the employer's practice. See Internet Applicant for applicants that are recruited through the internet or related electronic data technologies.

Audit. An audit in the context of affirmative action is an official review of an organization’s AAP and practices by OFCCP (known officially as a Compliance Evaluation), or a self-review by the organization’s human resources representative.

Availability. Availability in the context of affirmative action 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. 41 CFR 60-2.14. Related pages: Availability Calculations, Determine Availability

Base Salary. The salary paid to individual employees at the beginning of the AAP year that does not include overtime, bonuses or shift differential.

Census Area. In the context of affirmative action, Census Areas are used 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 and available through American FactFinder (AFF) (factfinder2.census.gov). 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 Opportunity Commission (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 Local Census Area refers to the geographic area that surrounds your facility, from which employees might commute. The Non Local Census Area refers to the recruiting area beyond the Local Census Area.

Consider this example: if your company resides in a large city, you can expect that potential employees will be willing to commute to your facility from a suburban or outlying area. You can review your current workforce in each job group to determine just how far your employees actually commute. Lower-wage positions may not attract candidates from outlying areas. In these cases, you may consider using the county in which the city resides. Higher-paying positions may well attract candidates from suburban areas. The city and outlying suburbs would fall within your Metro Area, thus the entire area would be considered your immediate recruitment area. If your company resides in a remote, rural area you may expect that people would travel or relocate from surrounding towns or counties to obtain employment.

At times a company has a limited local skilled workforce from which to fill available positions. In these cases, companies may at times recruit on a statewide or national level. This broader recruitment area would qualify as your Non-Local Census Area.

The AAP Software now 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. They may or may not work in this selected area.

Census Code. In the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial survey of the U.S. population, some households are asked to fill out the sample or "long" form that attempts to gather the economic characteristics of the population, which 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 this data for use in AAPs. The census codes are available in the census data that you download into your Complete AAP software. Up to three census codes can be assigned to each job.

OFCCP accepts this data for use in Affirmative Action Plans. The census codes are available in the census data that you upload into your Complete AAP software. It is your job to assign at least one code for each of your jobs. Related page: Assigning Census Codes

Company. Within the context of The Complete AAP software, this refers to the unique name of a company in the File menu’s Company Information option and may contain up to 96 characters. In the Pro version of The Complete AAP software, the term “Company” refers to an organization that contains several AAPs (i.e. Plans). In the other version of The Complete AAP software, the terms “Company” and “Plan” are interchangeable.

Covered Veteran Categories.

• Disabled veteran is one of the following:

• a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or

• a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

• Recently separated veteran means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran’s discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

• Active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

• Armed forces service medal veteran means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Department Code. Within the context of The Complete AAP software, this refers to a unique code representing a department or unit of supervision that contains up to 10 alphanumeric characters in length.

Department Name. Name for each department or unit of supervision.

Disabled Utilization Goal. The Final Rule establishes a nationwide 7% utilization goal for qualified IWDs. Contractors will apply the goal to each of their job groups, or to their entire workforce if the contractor has 100 or fewer employees. Contractors must conduct an annual utilization analysis and assessment of problem areas, and establish specific action-oriented programs to address any identified problems. Please visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/section503.htm for additional information about determining this goal.

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

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.

EEO. Equal Employment Opportunity. Prohibits employment decisions based on employees’ or applicants’ race, sex, creed, religion, color, or national origin or any other protected class.

EEO-1 Code. Please see: Definitions of EEO-1 Job Categories

EEO-4 Code. Please see: Definitions of EEO-4 Job Categories

EEO-6 Codes. See IPEDS Primary Occupational Activity Codes.

EEO Company. In the Complete AAP software’s Narrative Info tab of the Plan Information window, the EEO Company is the name of the facility where the EEO Coordinator is located.

EEO Coordinator. The individual given responsibility by the Executive Officer for the development, implementation and monitoring of the AAP.

Employee ID. Within the context of The Complete AAP, Employee ID is a unique code assigned to each employee that may be up to 10 alphanumeric characters in length.

Employee Name. Within the context of The Complete AAP, Employee Name is the field in which an employee’s name or equivalent can be imported or entered. This field may be up to 60 characters in length.

Equal Opportunity Clause. The subparagraphs contained in 41 CFR 60-1.4(a) or (b) required by Sections 202 and 301 of Executive Order 11246, as amended, to be part of contracts covered by the Executive Order. Pursuant to 41 CFR 60-1.4(e) and 60.49, the clause is a part of covered contracts regardless of whether it is physically incorporated into the contract or whether the contract between the agency and the contractor is written.

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.

Factor Weights. Importance given to factors considered when determining availability. The “weight” in question refers to the percentage assigned to the factor.

Factors of Recruitment. Method of recruiting applicants for open positions. Factors include: Local, non-Local, Schools, Promotables, Trainable, and User Identified.

• Factor 1a: % in Local Census Area - If you recruit using your local labor department, put ads in local newspapers, or simply take walk-ins, it is likely that you hire persons from the immediate labor area. One would normally use this factor for almost every job group. The only exception would be if you recruit through internal promotions or hire only from a broader nationwide area, and never hire locally.

• Factor 1b: % in Non-Local Census Area – Use this factor if you normally recruit outside the immediate labor area, such as statewide or nationwide, for jobs in this job group. This factor would normally apply if the job group consisted of higher-level management or professional jobs that require broader recruitment efforts.

• Factor 1c: % in Schools – Applies if you recruit at specific institutions for positions. You must gather the availability for this factor from the institutions from which you recruit for jobs in this job group. The Complete AAP provides the female and minority graduation rates from those institutions if you select awards, discipline and institution name.

• Factor 2a: % of Promotables - If promotion from lower-level positions is a significant means of filling positions in this job group, use this factor. You will need to identify the job groups and/or jobs from which jobs are filled in this job group.

• Factor 2b: % Trainable - This includes all individuals who could, with appropriate formal training, which the contractor is reasonably able to provide, become promotable or transferable during the AAP year. This means that if you have employees who could be trained during the current AAP year to fill positions that promote into this job group, you should use this factor. You will need to identify the individuals and determine what percent of them are females, and what percent of them are minorities.

• Factor 3: Custom - This factor allows you to specify your own availability factor. For example, you may wish to use the percentage of females and minorities that applied for the jobs in this job group; in which case you could label the factor "Applicant Flow Log". Related page: Assign Weight to Your Recruiting Factors

Feeder. In the context of affirmative action, feeders are jobs or job groups that are most likely to provide employees an opportunity for promotion to another job group.

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 Stats tab of the Options window found under the Utilities menu.

Four-Fifths or 80% rule. Broad, general test that compares the selection rates of minorities to whites, and females to males to determine if a substantial disparity exists. If the selection rate or utilization of minorities/females is within 80% of the selection rate or utilization of whites/males, then the 80% Rule is passed. Related page: 80% Or Four-Fifths Rule

Gender. The Census Bureau recognizes two genders: male and female. Each employee must be identified as male or female in contractors’ AAPs.

Good Faith Efforts. This term refers to contractor’s efforts to make all aspects of its affirmative action plan work. Designing and implementing an effective affirmative action plan 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.

Grid Edit. Grid Edit in the software refers to a data table that is displayed in a spreadsheet format. This the default setting for most data tables in The Complete AAP. Both the Grid Edit and the Single Record Edit are available in the Locations, Department, Job Groups, Jobs and Employees tables’ Tools options. Related pages: Department Grid Edit, Employee Grid Edit, Job Grid Edit, Job Group Grid Edit

Hire Date. The date the employee was hired.

Identifier. Within the context of The Complete AAP, an identifier is an alphanumeric code of up to 10 characters that helps distinguish one AAP from another in the Company or Open Plan icon lists.

Import. Moving information or data from one program to another electronically. Two types of data can be imported into The Complete AAP software: workforce (employment information) and adverse impact.

Internet Applicant. According to 41 CFR Part 60-1, an Internet Applicant is any individual to whom the following four criteria apply:

• The individual submits an expression of interest in employment through the Internet or related electronic data technologies;
• The contractor considers the individual for employment in a particular position;
• The individual’s expression of interest indicates the individual possesses the basic qualifications for the position; and,
• The individual at no point removes himself or herself from further consideration or otherwise indicates that he or she is no longer interested in the position.

Related page: 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 Primary Occupational Activity Codes. The principal activity of a staff member as determined by the institution. If an individual participates in two or more activities, the primary activity is normally determined by the amount of time spent in each activity. Within the context of affirmative action, IPEDS Codes are the bases of job groups for public educational employers. Please visit http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ for a list of Primary Occupational Activity Codes.

IPEDS Survey Components and Data Collection Cycle. (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/report-your-data/overview-survey-components-data-cycle) Please note that the data provided to consultans is usually delayed by one or two years. The data provided is for July 1 - June 30.

JAAR Analysis. The Job Area Acceptance Range report compares the utilization of minorities and females in each department with the whole organization. This report is not required for an AAP however the OFCCP may run this report during their audit.

Job Code. Within the context of The Complete AAP, a job code is a unique code for each unique job name that contains up to 10 alphanumeric characters.

Job Group. Within the context of affirmative action, 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.

To further refine your job groups, you might begin by gathering a list of all your current jobs. Separate the jobs by their EEO categories then determine how many employees are in each EEO category. If the job group is large, you might consider splitting it out into more than one job group. For example, if you have a group of 160 employees in EEO category 2, you might take a closer look at the job titles within that EEO category. Determine which jobs have similar wages, responsibilities and opportunities for advancement. Determine too if you would recruit differently for the jobs.

Consider a large Professionals group that includes accountants and engineers; An Engineering Professional would not have similar wages, responsibilities and opportunities for advancement as an Accounting Professional, and one would typically recruit differently for the jobs. This consideration would allow us to break the Professionals category into two groups: Engineering Professionals and Accounting Professionals. Related pages: Creating Job Groups, EEO Categories

Job Group Code. Within the context of The Complete AAP, a job group code is a unique code for each unique job group name. Job group codes should contain no more than 10 alphanumeric characters.

Job Name/Title. Title of position held by individual employees. By regulation, the Workforce Analysis and Job Group Analysis must display job names. The Organizational Display is required to show the title of the supervisor.

Location. Within the context of The Complete AAP, the location field in the Employees table indicates the physical site where employee works. The locations are listed in the Locations icon table.

Location Code. Within the context of The Complete AAP, a location code is a unique code that identifies a location. This field may contain up to 10 alphanumeric characters.

Minorities. For affirmative action purposes, the six non-white and non-favored racial/ethnic categories : Persons of the minority groups Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or Two or More Races.

MSA. A Census Bureau-defined urbanized area of at least 50,000 inhabitants.

OFCCP. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. The government agency under the Federal Department of Labor that is charged with enforcing the affirmative action regulations.

Plan. Within the context of The Complete AAP, a Plan refers to an AAP for one location.

Plan Code. A unique code that identifies an AAP in The Complete AAP software. A Plan Code may contain up to 10 alphanumeric characters.

Plan Dates. A Contractor’s first AAP must be completed within 120 days of the original covered contract date. AAP dates should reflect the upcoming year (i.e. if your AAP is on a calendar year, the AAP dates should be January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015). AAP dates can be changed, but Contractors should not wait longer than 1 year to update their AAP. Within the context of The Complete AAP, AAP dates are referred to as Plan Dates.

Plan Name. Within the context of The Complete AAP, a plan name is a unique name for an AAP. A plan name may contain up to 150 alphanumeric characters.

PMSA Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area. PMSAs are one or more large urbanized counties that have strong social and economic ties to neighboring communities except in New England where they are composed of cities and towns.

Promotable. Employees who are qualified and eligible for promotion based upon valid selection criteria. In the context of developing data for availability, those employees who are currently employed in a job group or groups that serve or could serve as a source from which selections are or could be made for other job groups.

Promotions From. This employment activity includes promotions within a job group as well as promotions from one job group to another. These promotions appear in the Adverse Impact Report. Example of Promotion Within: Admin Assist I in Job Group 5A is promoted to Admin Assist II in Job Group 5A.

Promotions To. This employment activity consists of movement into a job group. ”Promotions to” appear only in the Goals Progress Report. Example of Promotion To: Plant Manager in Job Group 1B is promoted to VP of Production in Job Group 1A.

Race/Ethnicity. Each employee in an AAP must be identified as one of the following race or ethnic categories as recognized by the OFCCP. Please see Race and Ethnicity Definitions for the categories that may be utilized in an AAP.

Recruitment Area. The geographic area from which the contractor usually seeks workers for a particular job group.

Recruitment Factors. Methods of recruiting applicants for open positions. OFCCP requires that you consider two factors: external and internal recruitment. The Complete AAP software breaks these two down to six factors: local, non-local, training institutions, promotable and transferable, trainable, and user defined. Related pages: Factors 1a and 1b, Factor 1c, Factor 2a, Factor 2b, Factor 3

Salary Basis. Salary Basis indicates the frequency of employees’ Base Salary. The choices include: hourly, weekly, semi-monthly, bi-weekly, monthly or annually.

Salary Code. Salary Code is a unique alphanumeric code that can be up to 10 alphanumeric characters in length.

Single Record Edit. Single Record Edit displays details for only one record of a group as opposed to the Grid Edit’s multi-record view. Both the Grid Edit and the Single Record Edit are available in the Locations, Department, Job Groups, Jobs and Employees tables’ Tools options. Related pages: Department Single Record Edit, Employee Single Record Edit, Job Single Record Edit, Job Group Edit, Locations Single Record Edit

Snapshot. Refers to a count of all individuals employed as of the first day of the AAP year and not a count of all individuals employed within a date range.

SSEG. Formed for the purpose of conducting a compensation analysis, Similarly Situated Employee Groups consist of employees that have similar job duties and responsibilities and occupy positions that require similar skills and qualifications.

Standard Deviation. 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”.

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 (Pro version), 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. The 2 Standard Deviation Analysis 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. See also Standard Deviation. Related page: Two Standard Deviations

User Defined Date. Used for Multiple Regression reporting, a user-defined date is a field in the Employees data table. Up to 2 additional dates beyond Hire Date may brought in as user defined date fields in the compensation Multiple Regression Test. Examples include: date of last increase, rehire date, date of last promotion, etc.

User Defined Number. Used for salary regression reporting, a user defined number is a field in the Employees data table. Up to three user-defined numeric fields maybe used in the compensation Multiple Regression Test. Examples include: experience, annual review rating, education, etc.

Veteran Hiring Benchmark.The percentage of total hires who are protected veterans that the contractor seeks to hire in the following year.

• Option I: Adopt the National Percentage of Veterans in the Civilian Labor Force

The simplest method for setting a hiring benchmark is to adopt the national benchmark based on the percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force.

• Option II: Develop Individualized Hiring Benchmarks

To set a benchmark using this method, contractors must consider all of the five factors listed below. However, contractors are not required to use all five factors to create their benchmark.

1. The average percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force for the State where the establishment is located, for the previous three years.

2. The number of veterans who participated in the employment service delivery system in the State where the establishment is located, over the previous four quarters.

3. The applicant ratio and hiring ratio for the establishment for the previous year.

4. The most recent assessment of the effectiveness of your outreach and recruitment efforts.

5. Any other factor, such as the nature of the job openings or the facility’s location, that would tend to affect the availability of qualified protected veterans.

Please visit http://www.dol-esa.gov/errd/VEVRAA.jsp for additional information on the hiring benchmark.

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