The Affirmative Employment Program is guided by The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Management Directive (MD) 715. This policy guidance is used to establish and maintain effective programs of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) for all federal employees as required by Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act. The MD-715 requires the EEO Office to conduct periodic (annual) self-assessments of their EEO policies and practices to ensure free and open workplace competition. An important component of MD-715 is the establishment of six Essential Elements for structuring model EEO programs at federal agencies.

1. Demonstrated commitment from agency leadership

2. Integration of EEO into the agency's strategic mission

3. Management and program accountability

4. Proactive prevention of unlawful

5. Efficiency

6. Responsiveness and legal compliance

These six elements serve as the foundation upon which each agency builds its program. Agencies are directed to evaluate managers based on their efforts to prevent discrimination and to track disciplinary actions taken against managers found guilty of violating EEO policies.

The success of an agency's EEO program ultimately depends on individual decisions made by individual agency managers. Therefore, agency managers constitute an integral part of the agency's EEO program. The EEO office serves as a resource to these managers by providing direction, guidance and monitoring of key activities to achieve a diverse workplace free of barriers to equal opportunity. To correct deficiencies identified in the self-assessment report, the EEO office creates program objectives to aide managers in their efforts to overcome the identified deficiencies.