Training Helps Federal Contractors build meaningful and compliant Affirmative Action Programs
CHALLENGE
A well-known federal agency wanted to improve the skills of the thousands of federal contractors and subcontractors across the country and help them build meaningful and compliant Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs) for their own organization. AAPs are designed to ensure that women, minorities, and people with disabilities have fair and equal opportunities in the workplace.
The federal agency conducted a skills-gap assessment, which revealed that federal contractors did not always have the knowledge required to develop truly impactful and compliant AAPs. The assessment also revealed that the federal agency’s compliance officers were spending a significant amount of time auditing the contractor’s AAPs, which often failed to meet regulatory requirements.
To improve efficiency, the federal agency committed to carrying out high-quality, practical training on how a federal contractor should create and maintain compliant AAPs that followed agency standards. This training also aimed to enhance the auditing process, improve productivity, and reduce waste for the federal government.
SOLUTION
At Cynuria Consulting, our expertise in learning and talent development is supported by our unique human-centered and agile approach. That is why we were chosen by the federal agency in 2018 to create and develop their vital AAP training.
We designed a comprehensive, practical course called Creating and Maintaining Affirmative Action Programs.
This five-hour course is structured across a set of six self-paced e-learning modules and broken into three lessons per module. Learners could include human resources representatives, diversity officers, legal counsel, and other employees responsible for AAPs within a contractor’s organization.
1. Solution Pre-Work
We started by reviewing the federal agency’s needs assessment data and performing a deep dive into AAP regulations, AAP best practice, and AAP development data. We then produced a detailed instructional design document that linked the federal agency’s needs with our recommended course objectives, competencies, prerequisites, technical requirements, preliminary content outlines, and instructional strategies. From there, we developed a project plan that applied agile methodologies for scattering design, scripting, audio recordings, development, and review cycles and shortened the overall development timeline for the client.
Blending in our human-centered design expertise, we partnered with agency subject-matter experts and conducted interviews to understand the typical scenarios that a contractor might encounter when developing or evaluating an AAP. Through this, we discovered that federal contractors need access to the training course as soon as possible, as they must develop their AAPs within just a few months of being awarded a federal contract.
2. Solution Design
Considering all the information from our research, we designed and scripted an immersive self-paced five-hour course Creating and Maintaining Affirmative Action Programs to address the real-life situations that federal contractors face. The course is compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and includes both a transcript and closed captioning to ensure that it is accessible to people with disabilities. The course includes:
An introductory module that provides a course overview and review of functionality.
Additional five self-paced course modules with each module broken into three micro-learning lessons that combine engaging interactions and multiple voice actors with embedded knowledge checks to assess content retention. Learners can consume the content at their own pace over time.
Highly engaging storytelling methods with characters that represent both the federal contractors and the compliance officer, taking them through typical AAP scenarios and answering the most common contractor questions and challenges. The content was developed in Articulate Storyline and includes opportunities for learners to practice and apply their new skills.
Reusable resources such as useful job aids and handouts that outline, for example, methods for determining underutilization of talent.
Benchmarking for federal contractors, who can take the training and measure their progress in completing the modules and knowledge checks via the agency’s learning management system.
RESULTS
Launched in April 2020, the Creating and Maintaining Affirmative Action Programs course is now available on the agency’s contractor compliance portal. Federal contractors and subcontractors nationwide can access and complete the course at any time both before and after contract awards.
