Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity

Affirmative Action Program Overview

The university’s Affirmative Action Program (AAP) outlines the university’s ongoing efforts to adhere to regulatory requirements, remove identified barriers to EEO, and expand employment opportunities for females, ethnic/racial minorities, individuals with a disability, and protected veterans. 
The information below highlights the key components of the university’s AAP.

AAP Responsibilities

University Responsibilities
 

Administering the Affirmative Action Program, establishing and monitoring progress towards achieving recruitment goals, and eliminating employment practices that create barriers to equal employment opportunity for our applicants and employees. These efforts are coordinated by the Office of Institutional Equity but are carried out through the Office of Human Resources (OHR), Office of Academic Affairs (OAA), managers and supervisors, as well as all employees at Ohio State. 

OHR and OAA Responsibilities 
 

Developing employment processes and guidelines that advance AAP requirements and ensure EEO is provided in all employment actions. In addition, OAA and OHR ensure affirmative action and EEO principles are applied daily in all employment processes, decisions, and practices. This may take the form of consulting with managers about how to ensure EEO is provided during the recruitment and selection processes, partnering with units to develop strategies to achieve affirmative action recruitment goals, or providing advice and consultation to ensure equity in promotion and compensation decisions.

 
Manager/Supervisor Responsibilities

Knowing and advancing affirmative action and EEO principles in their unit. This could include knowing their affirmative action recruitment goals and exercising and documenting good-faith efforts to meet these goals, ensuring all recruitment and selection processes provide equal employment opportunity in their unit, and basing all hiring and promotion decisions on the qualifications of the applicants and not their demographics. Managers and supervisors complete regular affirmative action and EEO training and also seek consultation and support from OHR and OIE when needed.  

Managers and supervisors should review the AAP manager update annually.

Employee Responsibilities 

Employees are at the forefront of all affirmative action and Equal Employment Opportunity. When employees are aware of and committed to EEO, they lead the institution in carrying forward the practices and principles that make real change. Employees must know and adhere to university policy, but must also uphold EEO principles every day, as well as intervene or report barriers to achieving EEO to OIE. 

Key Terms

Affirmative Action Establishment
 

Identifies how the university’s colleges and units are grouped together for the annual affirmative action planning and reporting process. Each establishment has a separate set of annual affirmative action plans and reports.

The current affirmative action establishments for the university are:

• Ohio State Columbus campus
• OSU Wexner Medical Center
• ATI
• Lima
• Mansfield
• Marion
• Newark

Affirmative Action Plan
 

Consists of (a) a narrative that identifies how the university meets affirmative action regulatory requirements to provide EEO to all applicants and employees and (b) reports that analyze key employment processes to identify any adverse impacts against females, racial/ethnic minorities, individuals with a disability, and protected veterans. Plans are created annually for each AAP establishment as part of the overarching AAP.

Good-Faith Efforts
 

Specific actions that the university undertakes take to fulfill its affirmative action and EEO responsibilities.

Job Group
 

Is composed of similarly situated job titles that share a common purpose and essential duties, skill set, and education or certification requirements.

Minority
 

Per affirmative action regulations, is a person whose race is non-Caucasian and who does not identify as Hispanic.

Recruitment goals
 

A recruitment goal serves as a target to inform recruitment efforts for females and ethnic/racial minorities – not a quota or set aside – and is based on identified underutilization of a specific demographic in our workforce.  The university must make good-faith efforts to meet these goals and document them in accordance with the university’s Record Retention Scheduled.

More information is available at www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/faqs/placement-goals

Underutilization
 

Is defined as having fewer females or racial/ethnic minorities in a job group than is reasonably expected based on the availability (which is the number of qualified individuals in the marketplace). The university is required to make good-faith efforts to recruit a workforce that mirrors the availability in the marketplace for each job group.

Affirmative Action and EEO Recruitment Requirements 

As an affirmative action employer, the university is required to make good faith efforts to recruit qualified and qualified individuals from a variety of backgrounds, demographics, and perspectives. In support of this, the university’s recruitment, selection, and promotion processes must provide equal opportunity to all applicants and ensure applicant demographics are not considered in any way. 

To ensure that our processes are effective and compliant, all individuals who participate in the recruitment, selection, and/or hiring process should complete the Affirmative Action and EEO Recruitment and Selection Basics training. More information on this training is available.