Affirmative Action

Dfox

I have been asked to put together a cost analysis if we had to develop and implement an affirmative action plan. Has anyone been through this process before? Do you have any recommendations?

marc

Good question. I am also on the front end of this question and am posting so I can follow the discussion.

How about it forumites?

Don D

I have this to say. The first thing you should detail in your cost analysis is the value of the time you will waste doing a cost analysis involved in implementing an affirmative action plan. The result of such an analysis is largely meaningless. Companies write and administer affirmative action plans because they are required by the government to do so. With maybe one exception on earth, AAPs are not done voluntarily. They are, by definition burdens on business. But, like business taxes, they are sometimes required. Why in the world would you go through the additional pain of doing an analysis to see what it will cost. Your analysis will not be useful as an arguing point if you try to escape the requirement of doing it. It will not be impressive to people in the accounting hierarchy. You don't budget for it. What's its value? This goes on a list of the ten most wasteful ideas in the HR/Acct arena.

marc

I agree with your analysis of the value of the cost study. I am interested in the steps that would have been identified as being necessary to take in the event implementation is required. I have done my research, just wanted to check my facts.

Anita

good answer, couldn't have said it any better!

Don D

The OFCCP will send you a pamphlet, a handbook and a guide containing every little detail from the program requirements to what your plan must look like and contain; all free, which will detail any and every thing that will be required should you fall under Executive Order 11246. It won't cost you a dime, much less an analysis.

KAMINSKI

First you have to look at your Affirmative Action Plan. The types of AAP's out there is vast so to say there is any one method of determining cost would be inappropriate.

However, I can send you our AAP and you can see how analysis works and then determine costs if you had similar plan.

Anyway, thought it might help.

Can email to you.
Send email address to [email]rkaminski@spearmgmt.com[/email]

E Wart

I agree that this is a waste of time, but probably know where you are coming from. Your management is probably trying to decide if the amount of profit they will make from Government business will be worth it based on the "cost of an AAP".
We are going through the same type of thing right now. I have had to write AAP's and even gone through an OFCCP Audit (which was loads of fun and talking about wasting time.)
Just writing one will roughly take about 3-4 weeks of one persons' time. Then the hard costs of paper, mailings, etc. Then the time of keeping up with all the statistics to measure as well as reviewing them periodically is another costs. It never ends.
E Wart

E Wart

You know, after I posted my answer, I thought of something for you. Find a company near you that offers this as a service. Contact them and find out what they would charge you to prepare an AAP. Then find out whether they provide all the forms applicants complete, letters to recruiters, etc. Also do they monitor it or just prepare it. You may need to add on additional costs to their bid. Then give this to your management. Shouldn't take you as long to do anaylsis.
E Wart

Don D

Another thought or two: The real costs of an AAP are often invisible or thought to be negligible by the bean counters (sorry Marc). Often management and always beancounters think a little added shuffling by HR won't affect the radar at all. What's one more pebble on the pile? But, how does one measure the cost of government intrusion? How do we measure the cost of hassle? How much does additional bureaucracy cost? We have an AAP. I need to hire two people right this minute in the factory. I am required to advertise at the local Job Service office and interview candidates they send. I am required to post an ad in a specific manner if I use the newspaper. I am required to handle applicant traffic in a specific manner and collect specific information regarding their demographics. We are required to log all that on specific forms. We must track all who responded and tabulate the demographics of the two I will hire and perform an analysis of how they relate to the promises we make in the narrative portion of our AAP. Then we must remain vigilant to welcome a government review of our process and the mountain of paper we keep called our AAP.

Without the AAP, I could go down to the corner, whistle loudly, circle my arm over my head and round up two warm bodies and put them to work.

Meanwhile, the beancounter's pencil-lead breaks for the third time and his fingers whiz magically across the calculator key pad as he analyzes all the wrong factors.

marc

I understand your viewpoint, but would caution you to not cover all of the bean-counters with the same blanket. Generalizations can work for many discussions, absolutes rarely do.

A wise man once taught me that not everything that can be measured, should be measured; and conversely, not everything that should be measured, can be measured.

You have mentioned a number of qualitative factors that certainly must be considered if one is 'choosing' to delve into the government contracting. In our case, a number of the programs and services we provide to the community come from the wellspring of taxpayer dollars. The not insignificant "costs" associated with the AAP's come hand in glove with our decision to improve our community through the use of these dollars.

You are correct that the burden placed upon the support staff is often under estimated by decision makers. In our case, we have been fortunate enough to be able to articulate many of these factors and to describe the incremental impacts to our organization.

That said, the practical implementation of the factors you so aptly describe is under my umbrella. The devil is in the details and we are learning as we go.

Carey

I agree with those who have recommended checking with a consultant who offers this service - you will find many. You will need to get all of the tracking systems in place, if you don't have them already. I have never had to do the first AAP for a company, so have always had this in place.

We use a consultant to put together all of our data in nice reports and then I take the information and write the narrative. If it would help you, I have an implementation guide and a narrative template that have been provided to the EEO coordinators of our various offices (my company has to develop several AAPs). If you post your email address, I'll be happy to share them with you.

marc

Thanks Carey, I will take you up on your offer. Pleae email to:

[email]mnicolet@childrenscabinet.org[/email]

I appreciate your help.

DCarp

Did you get the AAP info from Carey? Would you mind sharing it with me. Please forward to
[email]DCarpenter@defensesys.com[/email]

Thanks!

a sal

Carey,

I recognize that your posting was over a year ago, but I was wondering if you still would forward this implementation guide.

I have been assigned to do research on affirmative action plans and produce a document detailing the EEO compliance process. I am currently gathering all information I can, and I came across this forum posting.

My email address is: [email]alsalenger@hotmail.com[/email]

If you have any information that can help me in my endeavor, I would be very appreciative.

Thank you,

Andrew

HR Hat

I too realize that it's been a while since your post on Affirmative Action. Could you possibly send me a copy as well? We are looking at getting into federal work. Thank you!!!

[email]JIM@bgark.com[/email]