How do you address affirmative action?

Hi Mary--I believe that there are some guidelines you must follow if you are a publicly traded company and then others to follow based on good industry best practice. I would suggest you look at the federal EEOC site at:
http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/index.cfm for details on what you are required to do.

In general, you would be wise to have an EEO statement printed and handed out to all job applicants which explains that your company values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer and that this information be kept separate from the formal application. In that statement you may wish to include a notice like the following: In order to promote a diverse candidate pool for all jobs, we ask that applicants voluntarily provide information on race, gender, national origin, age and veteran status. We will keep this information separate from your formal application and it will not be used during the selection process.

I would encourage you however to look at fostering a strong commitment to diversity among your hiring managers so that they are making hiring decisions that are consistent with your company's values. Regardless of your policies, a hiring manager needs to see the value of having diverse staff in order to succeed at moving the demographics of your employees to match those of our diverse region.