The standard of compliance is good faith. Numerical goals do not create guarantees for specific groups, nor are they designed to achieve equal results. The goal-setting process is used to target and measure the effectiveness of affirmative action efforts to eradicate and prevent discrimination. Affirmative action is preventive and inclusive. The executive order only requires employers to engage in outreach and other efforts to broaden the pool of qualified candidates to include groups previously excluded.
Affirmative action gives everyone a chance to be judged on individual ability.
Affirmative action does not require an employer to hire a person who lacks the qualifications to perform the job successfully, hire the unqualified, or hire a less qualified person in preference to a more qualified one. Affirmative action gives women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans a chance to compete. Affirmative action never has been intended to require or create preferences. Nor does it entail hiring or promoting the unqualified. Moreover, affirmative action is not merely a race issue, but benefits women, persons with disabilities, and veterans under Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 4212 of the Vietnam era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 - all of which require affirmative action programs.