Addressing Promotions in your AAP

There are many components that make up an Affirmative Action Plan (AAP), one of which is a review of your personnel actions, including promotions. Contractors are required to analyze their promotions, under OFCCP regulations (41 CFR 60-2.17). The review of promotions for contractors can be a daunting task, especially when trying to prepare for how OFCCP will analyze these personnel actions. Let’s look at what goes into addressing promotions in your AAP. 

What is a Promotion?  

A promotion is generally a change in the job title of an employee in the form of upward movement or advancement, within a company. The promotion may result from the proactive pursuit by an employee to reach a higher level, or it can be given as a reward for good performance by the company. Promotions are usually associated with a pay increase as well.  

There can be different types of promotions in an organization, which are generally determined or defined by the organization. Some types can include movement from a part-time to full-time position, change in title (with an increase in pay), change in job duties, or a grade change. Merit increases, step progressions, and a status change, could be classified as a promotion as well, depending upon what the organization’s definition of a promotion may be.  

Competitive vs. Non-Competitive 

Promotions can be classified as a competitive or non-competitive action. A competitive promotion is defined as a promotion that requires the employee to apply for an open position and that employee is compared against a pool of candidates. A non-competitive promotion is a promotion that does not require the employee to apply for an open position and no other applicants are considered. This type of promotion is also referred to as an ‘in-line’ or ‘step’ promotion.  

Capturing the different types of promotions in your internal systems is a key step in being able to analyze your promotion activity. One way to do this is to develop specific codes for the different types of moves (for example, create a code that is used to designate if the promotion was competitive or non-competitive). If competitive promotions are being captured in your applicant tracking system, it is best practice to develop specific disposition codes to differentiate a competitive promotion (or any other internal movement) from an external hire.  

How are Promotions Analyzed 

Competitive and non-competitive promotions are analyzed differently from one another. When analyzing selection rates of non-competitive promotions, we are using the composition of the job groups at the beginning of the AAP plan year as the promotion pool. The promotion pool is the employees in the job group, that were available to be promoted, for the current AAP year. These pools could also be looked at by job title as well.  

Competitive promotions are analyzed with the applicant and new hire adverse impact analysis. These promotions can be analyzed separately from the external hires as well (internal only pools and external only pools). The way the data is presented could have an impact on how the analysis is done as well. For example, combining both the internal and external pools together so all applicants regardless of if they were an internal selection or external selection are analyzed together; versus, completing a separate hiring analysis, which would only analyze external applicant pools. The grouping of the data can affect the analysis as well. Contractors will want to decide how they want to view their competitive promotion results. For example, will they analyze them by job group, job title, or requisition.  

How will OFCCP Review? 

OFCCP will review promotions by using the composition of the job groups at the start of the plan year as the promotion pool, assuming this is the promotion pool information they are initially provided. If adverse impact is identified at that level, they will typically  ask if competitive promotions are included in the promotions that were submitted for the audit, and if so, for that pool information. They might also request the raw data for the promotion pools (race, gender, job title, job group, promotion date, etc.), as well as the requisition, if the promotion was competitive. The agency will also request the company’s definition of a promotion, as well as any promotion and/or selection policies for the company.  

Handling promotions in the AAP does not have to be a dreadful task. Contractors will want to ensure they have clearly defined what is a promotion and decide how the company wants to analyze their promotions. Be sure to develop promotion codes for both the HRIS and ATS that will clearly help identify what type of promotion occurred and will aid in the tracking of promotions internally. Lastly, be sure that policies surrounding promotions and personnel action selections are developed and maintained, as well as delivered in a consistent manner across all jobs