Who are the people in your AAP Village? Preparing Your AAP

As the saying goes, it takes a village. This is certainly true for building and implementing an Affirmative Action Program. If you are your organization’s AAP Officer, you have a lot of responsibilities and requirements to manage, but you don’t have to go it alone.  As the AAP Officer, you can get creative about engaging others in your organization to help make sure your company is compliant. In addition to your recruitment teams and executive management, here are some other groups in your organization who can be partners in making your Affirmative Action Program compliant and effective.

Procurement/Vendor Relations can be helpful in making sure that your requirement to notify vendors and subcontractors of your AA obligations is done annually. They may have lists of active vendors with addresses and might even be willing to send the required notifications for you. This team can also make sure that any compliance requirements are run by you when signing new contracts or extensions. Let them know of words to look for, such as “affirmative action,” “diversity,” “disability hiring,” “veteran hiring,” etc. and ask that they contact you to ensure you can meet all the requirements. This partnership can make the process go smoother for them, for you, and for the vendor or subcontractor they are working with.

Facilities Management/Custodians can be the eyes and hands to make sure that all required postings are current and visible.  This is especially helpful if you have multiple offices to manage with these postings. Check in with this team annually to make sure that postings are still up and ask that they take a quick photo of the postings to confirm that they are all current and accounted for.

Finance can help you understand the corporate structure, if needed, for determining your Affirmative Action plan structure. As a bonus, this team can help you with FEIN, DUNS and NAICS codes needed for reporting requirements, like EEO-1 and VETS-4212 filings.

Information Technology can help you with many parts of your AAP. From data collection and reporting to updating web sites, partnering with your IT department is critical. Additionally, if you have a relationship with those who make systems decisions, they will know who to consult with before system changes are made that can affect your data collection. Having a say in or at least being included in the process of selecting and implementing a new HRIS or ATS can be critical to good data collection and reporting. This team can also help with the retention of data to help you stay compliant with those requirements. For more on HRIS considerations, check out this previous Berkshire blog post.

Payroll can help with pay reporting for AAP compensation analysis activities. This team may also be your partner when providing other pay information needed for some state reporting requirements, such as California Pay Data reporting or the Illinois Pay Registration Certificate.

Compensation can help with job requirement reviews as well as EEO Category and job group assignments. They too may be involved with various compensation analyses that may play a role in affirmative action compliance.

Marketing is an important partner because they help shape the company image internally and externally. They can incorporate inclusive pictures and language in their marketing, and can help with corporate connections to the community to help with outreach activities.

Expanding and engaging your AAP Village can make for a more effective and efficient Affirmative Action Program. Gather your village and have a great plan year!