What’s New?
A longstanding component of UC Berkeley’s efforts to develop a diverse workforce that thrives within an equitable and inclusive work environment is the production of our annual Staff and Academic Affirmative Action (AA) Plans. The Affirmative Action Plans for 2017-2018 are now available and are effective as of September 1, 2017. For the first time, they also include Limited and Per Diem hires. What are Affirmative Action Plans?
While our AA Plans are compliance documents that demonstrate that the University complies with federal regulations in order to receive government funding, these regulations, which emerged from America’s historic civil rights struggles in the 1960s, ensure that we monitor our employment practices in specific, measurable ways so that we can identify barriers to equal employment, and importantly, take steps to remove such barriers.
One component of the AA Plan is an analysis that identifies areas of our workforce where minorities, women, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities are employed at levels lower than expected in the current labor market. These become our annual AA Placement Goals. Working toward Affirmative Action goals does not mean we hire someone less qualified for a job because of their protected status – it means that when we recruit for a job, we make sure that we are casting a wide net to recruit applicants from diverse groups, including protected ones, that our job descriptions do not exclude any class of applicants unnecessarily, that all applicants are evaluated using the same fair and job-based criteria, and that the best candidate is ultimately selected for the job.
What Action Do You Need To Take?
Campus managers, supervisors, and hiring committee members are integral to working toward Affirmative Action goals. Here are four ways you can take part in this important, mandatory work:
- Know the AA goals in place for any new staff jobs you are posting.
- The goals will be displayed in the TAM (online recruiting) system when you create the job posting and in the confirmation email you receive when the job is posted.
- You can always look up the goals manually on our Affirmative Action Plan and Placement Goals page
- Work with your Recruiter to put together an outreach plan (including advertising and community outreach) to generate a robust and diverse pool of applicants in alignment with AA goals.
- Ensure the search process is as objective as possible by putting together a diverse and inclusive search committee with a variety of stakeholders to provide input on the hiring decision.
- Take advantage of campus trainings and other resources related to diversity awareness such as:
- Equity and Inclusion: Multicultural Education Program Workshops
- Central Human Resources: Keys to Enhance Your Supervisory Success (KEYS)
- University Health Services: Disability Management trainings
Chancellor Christ has issued a reaffirmation letter and policy statement to accompany the affirmative action plans.
If you have questions about the Staff AA Plan, contact Staff Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Compliance at staffeeo@berkeley.edu. If you have questions about the Academic AA Plan, contact the Office for Faculty Equity & Welfare at ofew@berkeley.edu.
Thank you for supporting our commitment to equality,
Jo Mackness
Interim AVC-HR