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Most regulatory compliance efforts work like this: You receive a list of requirements and then systematically check the boxes until you are “compliant.” The hard work comes at the beginning.

With Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Affirmative Action (AA) compliance, though, that’s not the case. These regulations also come with boxes to check — displaying posters and policies, running reports, conducting analysis, etc. But even when those requirements are met, companies are still only getting started.

With EEO/AA, you are ultimately judged by your level of compliance. In short, what you do with all of those reports and analyses after they are run. For instance, large federal contractors must create Affirmative Action Plans (AAPs) detailing how they will recruit and hire people from marginalized groups. The AAP may be perfectly compliant on paper, but a company could face a significant settlement or damage to its reputation if everything isn’t equally perfect in practice.

This is not a hypothetical risk. At the start of 2020, The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collected a $20.5 million settlement from a life insurance company accused of discriminatory practices. This company probably had all the required posters hanging on the walls and assumed that was enough to stay compliant; that assumption led to disastrous consequences because minimum compliance proved inadequate. Compliance practitioners and company leadership must understand that EEO and AA both require proactive, ongoing efforts.

Setting New Compliance Priorities

When the level of compliance is what matters, compliance practitioners (usually in the HR department) must continuously analyze conditions inside and outside the organization while adjusting their compliance efforts accordingly.

The present tells us why. Companies have been eager to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but vague promises aren’t enough. Companies can begin to make the meaningful, quantifiable progress that activists and the puarge are now requesting by simply committing to EEO and AA regulations.

After all, an AAP is explicitly a plan for creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace. It’s where the rubber meets the road in terms of dismantling systemic racism and building the diverse organizations of the future. EEO rules work similarly to make organizations comprehensively more inclusive.

Putting the focus on compliance — rather than PR, marketing, or other “outward” facing efforts — has huge upsides that compliance practitioners should be highlighting in the C-suite and beyond. Doubling the amount of money a company spends on EEO and AA compliance might seem significant, but it represents only a small fraction of what a serious infraction would cost. It’s a smart investment in prevention.

Further, any company increasing its level of compliance signals a sincere commitment to the issues shaping our society. People don’t want platitudes; they want the sort of meaningful change that EEO and AA aim to engineer within organizations. By making strides to become more diverse, companies set themselves apart from competitors that only pay lip service to the issues people care about.

Treating compliance as an ongoing effort has immense upsides, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Good intentions can get lost in a labyrinth of details, and competing priorities leave little time to focus on compliance training for employees. Despite those obstacles, companies that reset their compliance priorities always become stronger and more diverse.

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