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About Availability

KEY TOPICS:

For information on the related steps, see:

Establish External Availability by Building Recruitment Areas

What is External Availability used for?

External Availability (Factor 1), along with Internal Availability (Factor 2), will be considered in establishing how many qualified minorities and women are available for jobs at your organization. The results of this two-factor Availability calculation will be weighted and compared to employment statistics at your organization.

About External Availability and U.S. Census Data

To help in making the External Availability calculation, balanceAAP is loaded with U.S. Census Bureau demographic data, organized by statistical areas, which you can use to build Reasonable Recruitment Areas (RRAs). Census responses about occupation are included, and these are represented by occupation codes. For plans dated January 1, 2014 and later, the census data source is the EEO 2006-2010 ACS Tabulation Data set.

Note: Older plans in balanceAAP may have been created using the 2000 census data source. The 2006-2010 Census Occupation Codes have since been updated; and the more recent census data source offers additional data parameters (as described below).

Cross-references: For important information on coding, see:

What is a Reasonable Recruitment Area?

A Reasonable Recruitment Area is the geographic area from which your company recruits; and this area may be tailored to an AAP by Job Group, as appropriate. An RRA can be built from the following standard census areas:

  • Place (city or municipality)
  • State
  • Country (or county set, if low population)
  • Core-Based Statistical Area, or CBSA (metropolitan area)

Custom RRAs can also be built by combining census areas, or using other data categories (e.g., education) that are available in balanceAAP.

Once a Recruitment Area is added to the system, it will be available for assignment in any of your organization’s plans, by accessing one of two tabs in the External Availability tab header:

  • By Plan (default)
  • By Job Group

Note: If Zip codes or a Drilldown fields are in the data set for use in determining RRAs, External Availability will open the Recruitment Area Wizard, and the areas will be organized by that field.

Auto Census Coding

For the system to determine how many people in the defined RRA(s) have the requisite skills for jobs at your organization, each job title/code must be matched to a census occupation code. Census occupation codes may be imported with the Job Code Reference table. If census codes are not present in the data set (or some are blank), balanceAAP will perform Auto Census Coding to complete those entries when you exit the Data screens. This feature also runs if you change the census data source.

Add a Recruitment Area

A Recruitment Area must first be added to the system so that it is available for later assignment. Begin by choosing the [Add a Recruitment Area] button from the upper toolbar.

From the Reasonable Recruitment Areas menu, click the radio button for:

  • Standard Reasonable Recruitment Area from the standard regions defined (2010 census, including counties, states, and CBSAs)

OR

  • Custom Reasonable Recruitment Area combining 2 or more standard regions and assigning custom weights

Click [Next].

If Standard Area was Chosen

Select the Region Type from the drop-down. If the State drop-down displays, select a State.

Highlight the desired region on the Regions list, and click [Next]. The selected region will display on the Name menu. Review and rename it if desired, and click [Finish].

If Custom Area was Chosen

Select the Region type, and if applicable, select the State name. The Unselected Regions box will be populated with the available regions. Use the [Right arrow] to move the highlighted selection to the Selected Regions field.

Notes: Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard to select more than one region. To remove a region from the Selected Regions field; highlight it; and click the [Left arrow].

To display regions from other statistical areas, revisit the Region Type and State drop-downs. Add one or more regions in the same manner as described above.

Click [Next]. Name the RRA, and Weight each of the area’s regions: Retain the even weighting displayed as the default, or edit each Weight field as desired. (A warning will display if the sum is over or under 100 percent.)

Example: Richland County and Fargo, North Dakota could be combined into a custom RRA. After weighting each region, based on its role in supplying qualified candidates for your organization's workforce, the resulting RRA could be named: “Richland County 60% Fargo 40%”.

Click [Finish].

Choose Worksite Data and/or US Citizens Only (2006-2010 Census Data Source only)

When creating an RRA, the following default selections will apply:

  • Residence —(Includes Compilesboth data,employed and unemployed persons, based on where peoplethey live (includes both employed and unemployed)live)
  • Total US Population

However, an alternative data type is available for each of these settings.settings, After clickingrespectively. Click [Add Recruitment Area] and selectingselect a standard or custom RRA,RRA (as described above). Then click Show Advanced Options. Choose; and choose one or both of the following types in place of the displayed default selections:

  • Worksite —(includes Compilesemployed data,people, based on where peoplethey work (includes employed people)live)
  • US Citizens Only

Note: If Show Advanced Options is not displayed, check the setting for census data source, which must be 2006-2010.

More Reasonable Recruitment Area Data Sources

From the Reasonable Recruitment Areas menu, click More Reasonable Recruitment Area options. Choose a topic below, click [Next], and proceed through the guided menus:

  • Age
  • Earnings
  • Educational Attainment (5 levels)
  • Educational Attainment (6 levels)
  • Industry
  • Other (e.g., NORC Ph.D. data)

Assign a Default Recruitment Area by Plan

On first entry to the By Plan tab, the default Recruitment Area will be set to the United States. Select an RRA specific to your organization from the drop-down.

(Optional) Assign a Recruitment Area by Job Group

On the By Job Group tab, click the Use Default Recruitment Area link for a Job Group to override the default RRA. Choose a different RRA from the drop-down, and Save the selection.

Quick Reminder: Click [Add Recruitment Area] if the area you wish to use is not displayed in the drop-down.

Edit a Recruitment Area Assignment (by Job Group)

Return to the Recruitment Areas > By Job Groups sub-tab. Using the Recruitment Areas for Job Groups menu, click on a Recruitment Area link. Select another area from the provided drop-down, and click Save. Remember, if the area you want to assign is not displayed for selection, return to instructions above to Add a Reasonable Recruitment Area.

Review Plan Settings for External Availability

The [Settings] button in the upper toolbar leads to Availability Calculations Settings page, which allows you to review (and edit) Plan Settings:

  • External Availability Source for census data
  • Statistical Settings
  • Quick Weight options

Important Caution: Edit the above settings only after careful review of all related Help instructions (on this page and linked above).

Import External Availability Settings from another Plan

To apply External Availability settings (including census codes) from another existing balanceAAP plan , choose [Import] from the upper toolbar.

Choose the Company, Establishment, and Plan from the drop-downs.

If the source plan is detected as using a different census data source, answer an additional question, regarding whether to translate Recruitment Areas or import only census codes.

Note: This import will not affect any current census codes when they are not present in the source plan.