1K Analysis of an Executive Order 11246 AAP: Overview of Itemized Listing Data, EEO Trends, Workforce Structure and Personnel Practices

COs must make an initial assessment of a contractor’s workforce and utilization trends by reviewing the contractor’s EEO-1 reports in Part B.III of the SCER.

a. Long-Term and Short-Term Trends. A CO must compare data from the contractor’s most recent EEO-1 Report to data from its earlier EEO-1 reports. For example, if the contractor provides EEO-1 reports for 2015, 2016 and 2017, then the CO compares the 2017 data to the 2015 data to look at the long-term trends, and compares the 2017 and 2016 data for short-term trends. This information provides an overview of:

• The distribution of jobs within the contractor’s workforce (white-collar, blue-collar, predominant EEO job categories);
• The direction of change in the total workforce and particular workforce categories (expanding, contracting, stable); and
• The increases and decreases in minority and female representation in various areas.

b. Changes Due to Reclassifications. If a CO observes significant changes in the size of EEO-1 job categories with little or no corresponding personnel activity, the CO must investigate further to determine if the changes are due to the reclassification of jobs with concentrations of minorities or women from one EEO-1 job category to another. For example, suppose the total number of positions in the Craft category increases from one year to the next and indicates an increase in the number of women. Over the same period, however, both the total number of Operative positions and the total number of women listed as Operatives decreases by nearly the same amount. The CO may then infer that the increase in Crafts may have resulted from the contractor changing the EEO-1 job category of the women’s jobs, rather than from genuine hires or promotions.

c. EEO Category Patterns. EEO trend analysis allows COs to identify broad areas where minorities and women have been persistently underrepresented or concentrated, setting a framework for the detailed review of the workforce analysis for potential discrimination problems and the review of the contractor’s goals progress by job group.

d. Particular Minority Group. This analysis permits the CO to identify any substantial disparity in the representation of a particular race or ethnic group when compared with the distribution of those same groups in the contractor’s labor area and possible internal feeder categories. The disparity may exist in the contractor’s workforce as a whole or certain categories. When a CO identifies such a disparity, the CO must plan to conduct an Impact Ratio Analysis (IRA) of the particular group, at least in those workforce areas where the disparity exists and for the type of activity most likely to have created the disparity.

For example, if Hispanics are well represented in the labor area but have historically been absent from the contractor’s workforce, the CO will plan to conduct hiring IRAs separately for Hispanics. If Blacks have historically been concentrated in the Laborers category, but poorly represented in Operatives and Crafts, the CO’s review of the workforce analysis should focus on the types of jobs held by Blacks and any structural impediments to upward mobility from those jobs. In addition, the CO’s IRA of blue-collar job groups, particularly for promotions and hires into jobs above Laborers, should be conducted separately for blacks. Section 1O of the FCCM further discusses separate employment activity data analyses for particular groups. The CO will also note if the investigation of such a disparity does not show discrimination. The CO will consider whether goals and/or specific affirmative action steps for the particular group are warranted.

In the initial review of the AAP and Itemized Listing data, COs evaluate the organizational display or workforce analysis for acceptability. As a result, they have a basic understanding of the contractor’s organization and operations. For example, a workforce analysis should show:

• Whether the contractor organizes the facility by department or other unit (e.g., division);
• Whether lines of progression exist; and
• How the contractor structures pay and other characteristics that may prove useful for subsequent analyses of both affirmative action and potential discrimination issues.

Other Itemized Listing data that the contractor may provide with the AAP, such as copies of labor agreements, should contain additional information such as pay rates, work performed, organizational structure and rules for internal mobility. COs must enter this information, to the extent that it is available during the desk audit, in Part B.VIII of the SCER.