< back

About Availability

KEY TOPICS:

  • Add a Recruitment Area
  • Assign a Recruitment Area
  • Review and Edit the Census Data Source
  • View and Edit Census Coding

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 together in establishing how many qualified minorities and women are available for jobs at your organization. The results of the two-factor Availability calculation will be weighted and compared to employment statistics at your organization. For more information on the next step, see: Factor Weights.

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, which is organized by statistical areas and coded by occupation. 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 to a different format. The more recent data source also offers additional data parameters that may be useful in determining External Availability.

For important information, see: About Auto Census Coding, below; Data Tables; and the Reference Tables > Job Code.

What is a Reasonable Recruitment Area?

A Reasonable Recruitment Area (RRA) 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.

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. (Please select the Help > [Recruitment Area Wizard] button above for more information.)

Once a Recruitment Area is added to the system, it will be available in any of your organization’s plans.

About Coding Jobs to Determine Requisite Skills

Each job title/code must be matched to a census occupation code. balanceAAP relies on census occupation codes to determine how many people in the defined RRA(s) have the requisite skills for jobs at your organization.

When the System will use Auto Census Occupation Coding

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.

Below are instructions about how to: Review and Edit Census Coding.

Import External Availability Settings from another Plan

If External Availability settings (including census codes) are available from an existing balanceAAP plan and appropriate for the current plan, choose [Import] from the upper toolbar.

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

If the source plan uses a different census data source (typically the earlier 2000 data source), you will be prompted with an additional question, asking whether to translate Recruitment Areas or leave them as they are.

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

Add a Recruitment Area

First, a Recruitment Area is added to the system so that it becomes available for assignment on either of two tabs: By Plan or By Job Group. On entry to External Availability, the By Plan tab displays by default.

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. The Unselected Regions box will be populated with the available regions. Use the forward [Right arrow] to move the highlighted selection to the Selected Regions field.

Note: Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard to select more than one region.

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.

To remove a region from the Selected Regions box, highlight it, and click the [Left arrow].

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 workforce, the resulting RRA could be named: “Richland County 60% Fargo 40%”.

Click [Finish].

Choose Census Data Type (2006-2010 Census Data Source only)

After selecting a standard or custom Reasonable Recruitment Area, click Show Advanced Options to choose a data type:

  • Residence—Compiles data, based on where people live (includes both employed and unemployed)
  • Worksite—Compiles data, based on where people work (includes employed people)

Choose whether to include the Total US Population or US Citizens Only. The default selections are Residence data for the Total US Population.

Note: If Show Advanced Options are not displayed, check the setting for census data source.

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

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.

If you are working in a Master Plan, select a default for the Master Plan and each sub plan.

(Optional) Assign a Recruitment Area by Job Group

On the By Job Group tab, click the Use Default Recruitment Area link 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.

View and Edit Census Coding

View Existing Census Code Assignments

Click the Census Coding tab at the top of the External Availability screen. The job code and census code matches will be displayed by Job Group. Select a group from the Job Group drop-down.

Using the radio buttons in the upper right, choose to view the page by Census Code or by Job Title. If you have chosen Census Code, additional options to Show Data become available, either By Individuals or By Weighted Statistics.

Note: See Factor Weights to review the instructions for creating weighted statistics.

Click the [Demographic button] next to the code will display the demographic availability of minorities and women for that code.

Edit a Census Code Assignment

In either view, click the [Edit] button at the left of the Job Title to change the census code assignment. The Select Census Code menu will display three options:

  • Select from List – Select from a list of potential census codes for the Job Title. To see all census codes, click [Show All], a button at the bottom of the list.
  • Search by Job Title/Census Title – Type a keyword into the provided field, and click Search. Select by Census Group - Narrow the census code list by job category. Select a job category from the Census Code Group drop-down.

For each method, click the appropriate Census Code to assign it to the job.

Quick Tip: If you know the census codes well or only have a few to edit, choose View by Job Title. Click directly on the Census Code /Description entry to open a drop-down, containing all census codes. Type the first few numbers of the code to navigate down the list, and select the appropriate code. Click Save.

Settings Button

The [Settings] button returns you to Availability Calculation Settings, which displays the External Availability Source that was determined previously under Plan Settings.

Statistics Settings

The Statistics Settings lists each of the default thresholds used to determine underutilization based on group size. These thresholds can be changed, but it is not recommended unless on the advice of counsel. These are the standard thresholds used by OFCCP.

Quick Weights

The Quick Weights option allows you to use both promotions and transfers when calculating the benchmark for the number of entrants to a job group. The default benchmark is calculated, based only on promotions and not transfers. Here you can select to use both by checking off the box.