Before You Begin

Have the following in place before you begin to gather your data:

Establish your AAP dates: the AAP year represents the period of time that your company has to meet the goals it sets as of the start date of its AAP. Your company’s first AAP should be completed within 120 days of its initial federal contract date. The start date of your AAP should fall within those 120 days, and the end date should be one year after the start date (e.g. January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015). If the initial federal contract date is unknown, pick any date.
Determine the number of AAPs that you must complete; each establishment that has 50 or more employees must have its own AAP.
Determine which employees should be in your AAP; all active employees should be included in an AAP. This includes field employees and employees at sites of 49 or fewer employees. You will find more information on who should be included at Who Is Included in an AAP.

Gather Your Data

There are three sets of data that you must gather for each plan that you complete:

The manner by which you gather last year’s goals depends on how, if at all, you prepared your plan last year. You should consider that:

If your company did not have an affirmative action plan in place last year, you cannot determine progress made toward goals. You need not gather prior goals.
If your company’s prior AAP was not prepared using The Complete AAP software, have ready a printout of any report that displays total availability of females and minorities for all underutilized job groups. Common titles of such reports include: “Annual Goals,” “Utilization Summary” and “Availability Analysis report”.
If your company’s prior AAP was prepared using the current version of The Complete AAP, you can transfer the goals automatically by following the Copy a Company and Create Adverse Impact and Goals Progress for the Plan New Year instructions.