STATE OF LOUISIANA

DEPARTMENT OF STATE CIVIL SERVICE

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

General Circular No. 001492

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: Affirmative Action Guidelines

Issue Date: June 28, 2002

To simplify record-keeping, the Department of Civil Service is updating the "Guidelines for Preparing Affirmative Action Plans" in the HR Handbook as summarized below. For your convenience, the actual text as it will now appear in the "Guidelines" appears below the summary of changes. These changes are reflected in the HR Handbook on the Civil Service website at:

http://www.dscs.state.la.us/Accountability/hrhandbook/affirmativeactionplan.pdf

Agencies are asked to incorporate these changes into the preparation of their Affirmative Action Plans as soon as possible. Questions about these changes should be directed to Ms. Jamie Lewis at 225-342-8545 or jlewis@dscs.state.la.us.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Due Dates:

AAP’s will now be due to Civil Service three months after the end of the data analysis period. Thus an AAP using data from June 1, 2002 to May 31, 2003 will be due to Civil Service by September 1, 2003.

Effective Dates:

The period addressed by the future action steps described in Affirmative Action Plans will now parallel the dates of the data analyzed in the AAP. Thus if the data analyzed is from June 1, 2001 to May 31, 2001, the action steps described in the plan will cover June 1, 2002 to May 31, 2003. Thus:

Data Analysis Dates: June 1, 2001 – May 31, 2002

Action Steps Dates: June 1, 2002 – May 31, 2003

Due Date for AAP: September 1, 2002

Retention Schedule:

The Guidelines failed to specify the retention schedule for AAP’s. Each AAP should be retained for at least two years.

III. RETENTION

The AAP should be retained for at least two years.

V. DATES

An AAP analyzes workforce data from the past year, and describes action steps planned for the future. The data analysis in an AAP looks at personnel activity during a chosen twelve-month period. Based on the analysis of personnel activity during that past twelve-month period, the agency makes plans for how recruiting, hiring, etc. will be done during the next twelve months. The completed AAP must be submitted to the Department of Civil Service within three months after the end of the data analysis period.

For example, an agency may choose to use September 1, 2001 – August 31, 2002 as the data analysis period. In this case, the data used in the AAP will reflect personnel activity from September 1, 2001 to August 31, 2002. The employee counts used in the AAP will be based on the employees in service on August 31, 2002. The action steps described in the AAP will address future personnel activities from September 1, 2002 to August 31, 2003. The AAP will be due at Civil Service by December 1, 2002.

Example:

Data Dates: September 1, 2001 – August 31, 2002

Action Steps Dates: September 1, 2002 – August 31, 2003

Deadline for Submittal: December 1, 2002

Each agency chooses its AAP dates. When choosing, consider the availability of both data and personnel. If you know that your office is audited at a certain time every year set your dates so that you will not be working on the AAP during that time. If you work at a University that hires many new employees at the beginning of each semester, set your dates so that you will not have to work on the AAP during those peak-hiring periods.

To request a change your AAP dates, submit your current and your proposed AAP dates to the Department of Civil Service prior to your current due date.

Sincerely,

Allen H. Reynolds

Director