Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the March
20, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Getting Affirmative Action Plans Right, & Written
It’s hard to imagine a more misunderstood program than
Affirmative Action. It has become a hot-button issue, causing instant
debate on whether a person should be hired because of his merits,
or because of his gender or race or ethnicity. In reality, however,
Affirmative Action, at least as it applies in the workplace is no
draconian program designed to pressure employers into hiring the unfit
or underqualified so that they may achieve some artificial racial
or gender quota.
“An Affirmative Action plan is actually an opportunity for us
to check on ourselves, to ensure that we provide opportunity to all
people,” says Barbara Cordasco, director of affirmative
action services for the Employers Association of New Jersey (EANJ).
For 14 years she has drafted hundreds of the complicated plans, and
not only does she know what goes into creating a plan, but she knows
what the government looks for when it conducts random compliance
reviews.
She sat through her first review just three or four months into her
job, and has helped employers through many over the years.
On Friday, March 22, at 9:30 a.m. Cordasco speaks on “Getting
Down to the Basics of Affirmative Action” at a seminar sponsored
by EANJ and taking place at Caldwell College. Cost: $50. Call
973-239-8600.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) oversees
Affirmative Action plans, and Cordasco has never seen an instance
in which the agency shut down — or even fined — a company
for failing to hire enough women, members of minority groups,
veterans,
or handicapped individuals. “They look for good faith
efforts,”
she says. “That’s the most important thing.”
It must be said, however, that the compliance reviews Cordasco is
involved with are of EANJ members, a group that already has shown
a healthy respect for employee issues by signing on as members of
the non-profit, which is focused on human resource administration.
Other companies — particularly those that have not bothered to
draft an Affirmative Action plan — may fare less well. And while
the OFCCP is not out to hassle employers into oblivion, it must be
said that Affirmative Action plans are complicated documents that
can not be casually tossed together.
Cordasco explains the nuts and bolts, and offers this guidance on
preparing an Affirmative Action plan.
Who needs one? Every company with 50 or more employees,which does at least $50,000 worth of business a year with the federalgovernment, needs an Affirmative Action plan. This business may betransacted directly — selling airplanes, for example — orindirectly. A company whose business is making fabric or paint, ormining ore, or preparing marketing materials needs an AffirmativeAction plan if those goods, raw materials, or services end up in aproduct that is sold to the federal government. “Contractors havethe responsibility of informing sub-contractors,” says Cordasco.In addition to these contractors and sub-contractors, all financialinstitution need Affirmative Action plans, says Cordasco, adding”wedo plans for a lot of New Jersey banks.”What does it look like? A lengthy document, an AffirmativeAction plan is made up largely of tables that enumerate every employeeby job category, job title, gender, and race or ethnicity. There arealso columns for veterans and the handicapped, both of which groupscome under the jurisdiction of the OFCCP. The plans contain narrativesin addition to tables. In the narratives, employers set out goalsfor including members of minority groups in each of ninefederally-mandatedjob categories, and comment on areas where they made progress toward,or fell short of, goals set in the previous year.Hiring, promotion, transfer, and termination all are tallied andaddressed.”It’s not just about getting minorities and women in,”explainsCordasco, “it’s about what you do with them once they arethere.”Where do employees come from? Key in putting togetheran Affirmative Action plan is figuring out where applicants for eachposition are likely to live. The general rule is that the higher theposition, the farther an individual is likely to travel to fill it.”Someone isn’t going to drive two hours each way to answer yourphone for $8 an hour,” says Cordasco. She points out, however,that for $200,000 an executive might be willing to make that samecommute.This information is important because it forms the heart of anAffirmativeAction plan. The basic idea of affirmative action is that theworkforceat any given position should mirror applicants within the recruitmentarea who are qualified to fill it. Therefore, if all of an employer’sjanitorial staff lives in Mercer County, and if 43 percent of thejanitors living in Mercer County are women, then 43 percent of theemployer’s janitors should be women. If 10 percent of all the janitorsin the county are Hispanic, then 10 percent of the employer’s janitorsshould be Hispanic.If senior executives are chosen through a national search, and if12 percent of all senior executives are women, then 12 percent ofthe employer’s executives should be women.These are the goals. The OFCCP considers a number that falls within20 percent of the goal to be in compliance.What about internal promotion? To complicate mattersfurther,the Affirmative Action plan needs to take into account how many jobswithin each category are filled not by new hires, but rather throughtransfer or promotion. If, for example, all of a companies seniorexecutives are always chosen from within, the demographic data acompanyuses in compiling its Affirmative Action plan for that job title isthe demographic make-up of the job titles within the company fromwhich it promotes.If all senior executives are promoted from middle management, and32 percent of middle managers are black, then 32 percent of thosepromoted into senior management should be black.What if a company falls short of a goal? “The OFCCPdoes not expect you to hire someone who is not qualified,” saysCordasco. “It is not saying you must hire X number of minoritiesor women. It is saying you should hire fairly.” An employer whochooses 10 male nuclear physicists to fill 10 vacant positions when32 percent of the nuclear physicists in its recruitment area are womenis not automatically in trouble. It has an opportunity to show thatits hires were chosen because of superior experience, for example,or because no women applied despite outreach efforts.Who is an applicant? While it might, at first blush,appearobvious, this is one of the trickiest questions employers face.”Evenafter 30 years (of Affirmative Action plans), it’s still a grayarea,”says Cordasco. The OFCCP, she says, “maintains the definitionis what it always has been — someone who is minimally qualifiedand who applies.”Today, with one ad drawing 500 — or even 5,000 responses, thedefinition, Cordasco says, “has become a nightmare for manycompanies.”According to a strict interpretation of OFCCP policy, she says, ifa company so much as looks at a resume, and quickly decides that”theperson is not in the box,” he or she becomes an applicant.While, in reality, companies have some latitude in determining whois — or isn’t — an applicant, Cordasco warns that the practiceof considering only those who are called in for interviews applicantsis dangerous. It narrows the definition to a degree the OFCCP wouldlikely find unacceptable.Is the applicant male or female? In the Affirmative Actionplan, employers must list how many applicants for each job title fallinto which categories — gender, race, ethnicity, veteran, andhandicapped. The problem is that a company may never see most of itsapplicants, and may not be able to determine gender or ethnicity froman application or resume. The job is easier when an applicant sitsfor an interview, but is still not foolproof. “Employers haveto make a good faith effort,” says Cordasco. If an applicant’sname is Rose, chances are pretty good that she is a woman. If herlast name is Rodriguez, she may be Hispanic.Asking an applicant for the information would generally yield moreaccurate results, but the question needs to be carefully put. SaysCordasco, applicants must be told that responses to questions ongenderand ethnicity are entirely voluntary and will be used solely for thepurpose of compiling employment records for compliance purposes. Theymust be assured that the information will not be used in making hiringdecisions.Some companies mail postcards to applicants requesting theinformation.And some companies include a questionnaire on applications.Is there pay parity? While hiring and promotion are thetwo things that come to mind first, affirmative action also looksat rates of pay. In fact, says Cordasco, pay parity is one of thefirst things the OFCCP checks for in an audit. Everyone with a similarjob title should be earning a similar amount of money. If, afteradjustingfor experience, the OFCCP finds that women or minorities are makingless for doing essentially the same job, the employer will have someexplaining to do.What does the OFCCP look for? Cordasco says consistencyis important. If a company has a definition of who is an applicant,or a policy for evaluating middle managers for promotion, or aprocedurefor giving notice of possible termination, it needs to apply eachin the same way over time.Perhaps most important of all, a company must show a good faith effortto extend opportunities for employment — and advancement —in all of its job titles to everyone who is qualified. Ways of doingthis, says Cordasco, include advertising jobs in magazines forminoritystudents or women engineers or Hispanic healthcare professionals.Attending job fairs for women and minorities is another positive stepas is contacting groups that promote opportunities for women, specificethnic groups, the handicapped, or veterans. Internal programs,includingdiversity training and continuing education, also are pluses.Who gets audited? Cordasco says very few audits resultfrom complaints by employees or by spurned job applicants. Most comeabout as a result of random selection, making it vital that everyemployer have a current plan in place, and be ready to provide back-updata, including job applications and resumes.Cordasco says the employers she has been working with over thepast decade and a half have no problem with affirmative action.”Clearly,they want to be in compliance,” she says. “They want to hireanyone who can do the job.”Top Of PageWork/Life ShowcaseEnthusiastic and optimistic no matter what thecircumstances,Barbara Kaplan, American Re’s work/life consultant, says thecurrent economic downturn is not hurting the work/life movement.”Ohno, not at all,” she says. “We just have to be morecreative.”The need to accommodate employees’ personal needs in the workplaceis greater than ever, and doing so, she says, does not have to bean expensive proposition.She gives lunchtime seminars and vendor shows as examples of low orno cost events that can add value to employees’ lives while respectingfinancially stressed employers’ budgets.Kaplan is a founder of the Princeton Work/Life Alliance. Theorganization,whose members include Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merrill Lynch, holdsits first Work/Life Resource Showcase on Thursday, March 21, at 9a.m. at Amersham Health at 101 Carnegie Center. The two-hour eventis free. Call 609-243-5563.The occasion is an opportunity for HR professionals — whetheror not their companies are members of the Princeton Work/Life Alliance— to meet vendors of employee-enrichment programs. Among theexhibitorsare health clubs, consultants, theme parks, resource and referralproviders, and massage therapists.”Massage therapists are big at companies now,” says Kaplan.”They relieve stress.”While stress busting is important, Kaplan says that the two biggestwork/life topics — by a wide margin — are child care and eldercare. The next Princeton Work/Life Alliance meeting takes place onWednesday, June 19, at 9 a.m., at Merrill Lynch’s new child carecenterin Hopewell. Kaplan says members of her group are eager to see thenew facility.Child care, of course, has always been an issue at work, or at leastan issue that affects work. Elder care stands to become just asimportantas greater longevity, combined with more women in the workforce,collidein the coming decades, causing Boomer workers to juggle workresponsibilitieswith care for elderly parents. Beyond these two big issues, work/lifeconcerns include fitness, recreation, and the eternal clash betweenpiles of paper in the office in-box and piles of laundry at home.Area companies address these concerns with everything from on-sitedry cleaning pick-up, dentists, and health clubs to vouchers foremergencychild care. It is the work/life consultant’s job to tune in toemployees’needs and to suggest new programs to management.Kaplan, who has been work/life consultant at American Re forthree-and-a-halfyears, is a graduate of Rutgers University (Class of 1993), whereshe studied communications. She calls her position “the job ofthe decade,” pointing out that it is not only the “SandwichGeneration” — Boomers simultaneously caring for teens andaging parents — who are driving the work/life movement. She says,”people just out of college want to know if there is health clubreimbursement, child care, business casual.”The Princeton Work/Life Alliance is a way for area companies to shareinformation on how they have implemented programs to meet these needs.And the upcoming showcase is an opportunity for these companies tofind out what services in the community exist to make it easier fortheir employees to balance a full work day with at-homeresponsibilities.Monday, March 25Top Of PageGetting Everyone Out SafelyOn September 11, the Department of Labor evacuated itsthree-block-long building in Washington, D.C. “We’re just acrossthe river from the Pentagon,” says Zoe Fearon, coordinatorof the department’s central office for assistive services. “Wecould see the smoke.”It was a stressful day, full of confusion. The evacuation, saysFearon,was “a wake up call.” No longer would emergency evacuations— with all the planning they entail — be of concern only tooffices located on flood plains or in the shadow of a volcano. Noweveryone would have to be ready, and not just for floods, fires, andhurricane-strength winds. “It could be chemicals,” she says.”You might have to turn off the air circulators and forbidegress.”Fearon speaks on Monday, March 25, at 9 a.m. on “Safety Measuresfor Personnel Evacuations” at a meeting of the New JerseyMinoritieswith Disabilities Coalition at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Piscataway.Cost: $300. Call 609-984-3379. While the talk will highlight thechallengesof evacuating disabled employees, it will address general emergencyevacuation procedures, and some equipment now available to facilitateevacuation when elevators are not working.Fearon says she has been knowledgeable about disabilities all of herlife. “My brother is blind,” she says, “and many membersof my extended family live with disabilities.” Her parentsdedicatedthemselves to raising her brother so that “he was never left outof anything.” A banker and musician, her brother followed a familytradition in graduating from Syracuse University. Raised in upstateNew York near Syracuse, Fearon herself headed south for college,graduatingfrom Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, in 1976.During her college years, Fearon did volunteer work in a school forthe deaf in Staunton. She learned sign language, and, aftergraduation,was offered a job there. In subsequent years, she earned master’sdegrees in counseling and human services and in deaf education. Afterteaching, working as a counselor, and interpreting sign language,Fearon accepted a job at the Department of Labor as an interpreter.She found the department did not have a resource center for itsdisabledemployees, and wrote a proposal suggesting that one be created. Itwas, and she became its director.Fearon points out that the stereotype of a disabled person as someonewho has a permanent condition falls short — particularly in termsof thinking of an evacuation plan. The disabled could include theintern who broke his leg playing basketball, the accountant recoveringfrom knee surgery, or, says Fearon, with just a hint of mischief,”the excessively chronologically gifted.”Here are some considerations for safely evacuating everyone —disabled or not.Make a plan — and review it often. Circumstanceschange.There may be no employees not able to sprint down stairs today, buta month from now there could be several. We’re all just one eventaway from being disabled, Fearon points out. An operation or two,a problem pregnancy, and a sports injury could significantly increaseeven a small company’s roster of people needing assistance in anemergency.Designate someone to grab the attendance sheets. Ifemployeessign in and out, put someone in charge of taking the sign in sheetsout with them in case of an evacuation. This could save not onlyworry,but also the lives of rescue workers.Choose an assembly place. Tell all employees to meet inthe park across the street, for example. Make sure everyone knowsabout the assembly place, but don’t hesitate to change it. This isanother to schedule review of the plan. The park may close forreseeding,or be chosen as a parade staging route. Or the road between yourofficeand the park may be torn up in a big construction project.Find a safe harbor. During an emergency it may beimpossiblefor some — or all — of your employees to get home. Plan inadvance for temporary accommodations, perhaps at an auditorium orschool. And think ahead about how employees would get there,particularlyif mass transit were unavailable.Appoint zone monitors. In general, says Fearon,friendshipsform naturally at work, and employees tend to watch out for oneanother.Nevertheless, it can be a good idea to ask for one volunteer per flooror section to be a zone monitor, responsible for seeing who needshelp, providing last minute instructions, and keeping track of whohas left the building.Make a phone tree. Where there are several small officesin a building it is a good idea to collect phone numbers of a contactfrom each. “Carry laminated cards” with the numbers, Fearonsuggests. This, too, is a way to check on who has gotten out of thebuilding.Plan to stay inside. We are now aware, says Fearon, thatwe must be prepared for all kinds of emergencies. So, in additionto making evacuation plans, make plans for situations during whichemployees would need to stay inside. How would they be informed? Whowould make sure no one left? Who would make decisions on whether toopen windows or shut down air circulation systems? How would employeesbe updated on the situation?Before September 11, evacuations never received much attentionat most offices. The result, says Fearon, is that “it becamepoignantlyclear that we could do so much better.”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
