As you're probably aware, establishments with 50 or more employees must have their own affirmative action plans. You have three options for establishments with less than 50 employees: - These establishments can have their own AAPs - Employees in an establishment with fewer than 50 employees can be included in the AAPs that cover the personnel function that supports the establishment - Employees in an establishment with fewer than 50 employees can be included in the AAPs the cover the "official to whom they report" See 41 CFR 60-2.1(d)2 Thus, an answer to your last question is locations with fewer than 50 employees can be placed in their own AAPs. Your remaining questions have no simple answer. It appears that you know that the affirmative action regulations indicate that employees "who work at establishments other than that of the manager to whom they report, must be included in the affirmative action plan of their manager." (41 CFR 60-2.1(d)1) However, this requirement should be tempered by the fact that OFCCP generally expects that most of the employees at any given establishment (i.e. any given location) are included in the affirmative action plans for that location. An OFCCP compliance officer may have a difficult time conducting a review of an affirmative action plan where a significant number of employees based at the relevant establishment are not included in the establishment's AAP. OFCCP's expectation that employees would be placed in AAPs with their supervisor was an outgrowth of the agency's reviews involving corporate headquarters. The agency clearly anticipated that the requirement about placing employees with their supervisors would primarily affect senior managers. However, the world has become far more complicated since this provision was adopted by OFCCP, and it is not unusual for professional and even clerical employees to report to a supervisor at a different location. This appears to be something that OFCCP did not expect, since the agency's regulations, policies, and practices are still primarily focused on compliance reviews involving a given establishment. You need to make a strategic decision regarding the design of your affirmative action plans. You can either have highly complex AAPs that include and exclude employees at any given establishment depending on reporting lines, or you can have simpler AAPs that include a significant portion of the employees at a particular establishment even if their supervisors are located elsewhere. (A third option would be to develop functional AAPs for your organization, but you would need to receive OFCCP's permission to develop functional AAPs.) There are times when simpler is better, and for you this may be one of those times. While technically it appears that all employees should be in the AAP of their direct supervisor, you may be best served by having AAPs where most employees at a given establishment are included in that establishment's AAPs. Senior managers could still be included with their supervisor, but it might make sense to keep professional and clerical employees with the relevant establishment. Please understand that OFCCP will potentially have questions for you regardless of the way you design your AAPs. If too many employees who are physically based at a particular establishment are not included in that establishment's AAPs, an OFCCP compliance officer may raise questions. Conversely, a compliance officer may raise questions if the provisions of 41 CFR 60-2.1 are not being strictly followed. You will simply need to make a decision on AAP design and then prepare responses on how and why your AAPs were designed.

You can use this OFCCP audit checklist to ensure you're doing what is required to maintain OFCCP's regulations including VEVRAA, Section 503, and EO 11246. Or request a demo to streamline your compliance and recruiting efforts.