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Create an Affirmative Action Plan

Create Plan Master Settings

  • Determine if the plan is an annual plan or an update plan.
  • Set plan date and personnel action date range.
  • Enter general information, including company name, plan name, and establishment name.
  • Determine if the plan is a single plan for a single location or a master plan that will be broken down into multiple sub plans for multiple locations.
  • Select whether you want to use zip code information to build your recruitment areas.
  • Select whether you have prior year plan to use as your history source for the current plan.
  • Select the appropriate EEO Schedule.
  • Select the audit status.

Note: A master plan refers to a plan that is created for organizations that have multiple locations. This master plan will contain all the data for the entire organization. Later in the process, this master plan will then be broken down into separate sub plans for each location.

Plan Type

Select Annual or Update

There are two plan types; an Annual Plan or an Update Plan. You are required to complete an annual plan once a year, and in this plan you will be analyzing your data for the previous 12 month period. You are also required to complete an update plan at least six months into your plan year to evaluate the progress you have made.

Plan Dates

Enter Plan Date

The plan date for an Annual Plan is the effective date your affirmative action plan begins. The date can be any date you choose. You may want to consider choosing a date that coincides with your business cycle, or other programs that you want to roll-out at the same time, or simply when the HR department is the least busy and can dedicate time to work on the plan.

The plan date for the Update Plan is the date you choose to evaluate the progress you have made towards meeting your goals set in the annual plan. You must complete at least a six month update to your Annual Plan. If for example you have a January 1, 2013 annual Plan, your update plan date, (if completed at the six month point), will be July 1, 2013.

Enter Personnel Action Date Range

The personnel action date range for an Annual Plan will be the 12 month period prior to your Annual plan date. For example, if you have a January 1, 2013 plan, your personnel action date range will be from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.

The personnel action date range for an Update Plan will be from the beginning of the Annual Plan up to the date prior to your update plan date. For example, if you have decided to do a six month update to your annual plan which is effective January 1, 2013, your update plan date is July 1, 2013. And your personnel action date range for the July 1, 2013 update plan will be from January 1, 2013 through June 30, 2013.

General Information

Enter General Information

Company Name: Enter your company name as you would like it to appear on your reports.

Plan Name: The plan name should include the effective plan date as well as whether it is an annual plan or an update plan. For example, if you are creating a January 1, 2013 annual plan your plan name will be January 1, 2013 Annual Affirmative Action Plan.

Establishment Name: For your establishment name, you may use a geographical location—for example, "Vienna, VA." If you are creating a master plan which will be broken down into multiple sub plans, your establishment name for the master plan should be entered as "Master Plan" or similar text to identify the plan as such. Later in the process you will be able to input the specific establishment name (location) for each of your sub plans.

Multiple Plans

"Will you be creating multiple plans from a master plan data set?"

Select Yes if you have multiple establishments since you will need to create a Master Plan from your data set. This Master Plan will then be broken down into multiple sub plans later in the process.

Select No if you are only creating a single plan from your data set. Single plans are created when you only have one establishment or location.

Determine Availability Settings

From the Availability menu, answer the following questions:

Will you be using zip code information to determine recruitment areas for your job groups?

Select Yes, if zip code fields will be included in Roster, Applicant, or Plan Code data. If zip code information is not available or zip codes will not be used to build recruitment areas, select No.

Note: Geographic recruitment areas for each job group will be defined later, using Recruitment Areas tools. Employee zip codes or other options can be used to determine these areas; see Help for: Availability/External Availability

If the answer is Yes, the system asks: Which zip code would you like to use when calculating External Availability in your plan?

Select one of the following options:

  • Roster Work Code
  • Roster Home Zip Code
  • Applicant Zip Code
  • Plan Code Zip Code—for multiple plans only. Note: Only one type may be used. Zip code settings for External Availability are also included in the Recruitment Wizard.

Do you want to use 2000 census data or EEO 2006-2010 ACS Tabulation data for external availability?

Choose between the two types of data released by the U.S. Census Bureau to be used when calculating External Availability.

Note: The EEO 2006-2010 data uses four-digit census codes for occupations in place of the three-digit codes used previously in the 2000 census data. Choose the option that matches how your organization’s data is coded.

Prior Year Plan

"Do you have a prior year plan in BALANCEaap or balanceAAP?"

When you are creating a new annual plan you will need to indicate whether you have an annual plan from the prior year which you can use as a history source. The prior year’s plan is used to evaluate your progress on your goals set in that previous year’s plan.

Option 1

I do not have a prior year plan in balanceAAP or balanceAAP.

If you do not have a prior year plan that was created in BALANCEaap (our client server or desktop version) or BALANCEaap, then select the first option. Later in the process you will be able to select an alternate history source for this plan.

Option 2

I want to use a prior year plan from balanceAAP.

If you have a prior year plan created in BALANCEaap, check this second option and then select the plan from the Company, Establishment, and Plan drop-down list.

Note: Update plans utilize the availability settings from the annual plan for which it is updating. Select an annual plan from the Company, Establishment, and Plan drop-down list as the history source for all update plans created for that plan year. For example, if you are creating a July 1, 2012 update plan to evaluate the progress you made towards meeting the goals set in your January 1, 2012 annual plan, then the January 1, 2012 annual plan should be selected as the history source.

Option 3

I want to import a prior year plan from a balanceAAP file.

If you have a prior year plan that was created using our desktop or client server version of balanceAAP, then you want to select this third option. Once you finish the create plan screen and hit the Create button, you will be prompted to locate the BALANCEaap file for the previous year plan you want to use as the history source. Please refer to the System Tools section for more information on the balanceAAP Import.

Update plans utilize the availability settings from the annual plan for which it is updating. Select this annual plan from the Company, Establishment, and Plan drop-down lists. For example, if you are creating a July 1, 2013 update plan to evaluate the progress you made towards meeting the goals set in your January 1, 2013 annual plan, then the January 1, 2013 annual plan should be selected as the history source.

EEO Schedule

Select the appropriate EEO schedule from the following options, based on your company type:

  • 1-Private
  • 4-Governmental
  • 5-Educational (Elementary & Secondary Education)
  • 6-Educational (Postsecondary Education)
  • IPEDS [[Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System]

Audit Status

TheTo checkbox here is used to show that you have plans under audit that you want to be able to view on the BALANCEhub DASH. By checking the box here you are indicating that one or more of your sub plans are under audit. From the plan information screen, you can check this audit status button for any sub plan under audit. Then you view your plan results on the BALANCEhub DASH you will be able to selectuse audit status as a metricfilter andoption viewfor thosethe plansBALANCEhub currentlyreport distribution display, check the box for: Is this plan under audit.audit?