Go Green! Become a Model Employer
To accomplish its goal of becoming the employer of choice, the federal government continues to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the United States at all levels. Even The Presidential Management Agenda’s Strategic Management of Human Capital initiative has highlighted diversity as an integral strategy for enhancing the federal government. As a result, agencies are required to report on their diversity outcomes and activities to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) each year, thus ensuring the agencies are working to meet the needs of the people they serve.
Embracing Diversity
Clearly, any organizations — including federal agencies — that want to be successful in today's world must recognize and use diversity to their advantage. A good diversity management plan includes people with disabilities. Not only are they a group you must track and report on, but when targeting people with disabilities, you can also tap into other diversity pools, including women, men, African Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics.
According to an EEOC study,1 best practices that promote equal employment opportunity address one or more barriers that adversely affect equal employment opportunity. In addition, management must be seriously committed to the plan by effectively communicating with employees, being held accountable for implementation and showing noteworthy results.
Meet EEOC Requirements
Management Directive 715 (MD-715) was issued to establish standards for ensuring that agencies develop and maintain model EEOC programs. MD-715 requires agency heads and other senior management officials to demonstrate a firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment. Agencies must show their employment and hiring decisions are free of discrimination and report to EEOC yearly on their efforts to remove barriers to full inclusion. EEOC releases an annual report2 on the federal workforce, allowing EEOC and the general public to compare rates among different agencies.
Model of Diversity
Showing your agency has improved its hiring of people with disabilities will help your agency stand out as an employer of choice, not only in EEOC’s annual report but also with the general public. Since the report breaks down the number of employees with targeted disabilities by total workforce in each agency, any interested party can receive full disclosure to the employment practice of any federal agency. The press is paying an increasing amount of attention to the EEOC annual report, publishing critical articles such as DiversityInc.’s August 2007 article entitled “Which Federal Agencies Fail at Diversity? EEOC Tells All.”3
The federal hiring and retention rate of people with disabilities has declined over the past 10 years and is now less than 1% of the federal workforce, despite the existence of a large, viable pool of jobseekers with disabilities looking for work in the federal government.4
According to the EEOC, there were 2,611,493 federal employees in FY 2006 and 24,442 were individuals with targeted disabilities (0.94%). The top agencies for hiring people with disabilities were the EEOC and Social Security Administration with over 2% of their workforce being individuals with targeted disabilities. Most agencies fell far below 2%, despite an increase in overall federal hiring.5
Where does your agency rank?
- Check Table A6-B at http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/fsp2006/report.pdf.
- EEOC Profiles for Selected Federal Agencies
Going Green
The President's Management Agenda is a strategy for improving the management and performance of the federal government.6 Creating a more effective government depends on attracting, developing, and retaining quality employees from diverse backgrounds and ensuring that they perform at high levels.
Sound investment in employees is essential if agencies are to achieve their mission, considering a significant initiative of the President’s Management Agenda is the strategic management of human capital (PDF). Each quarter the Office of Management and Budget scores agencies while the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) evaluates human capital, with green signaling strong dedication and continued success in working towards a diverse workforce.
In order to get to green, agencies must show, among other things, that they have programs in place to recruit broadly to attract a diverse applicant pool and sustain workplace diversity. Agencies must also demonstrate that they are making use of flexible hiring authorities and tracking their results.7
One agency working to get to green is the Social Security Administration. They face numerous challenges, not the least of which is the retirement wave that will impact not only their staff but also their workload when millions of newly eligible Americans apply for benefits. In an effort to get to green on their human capital agenda, they are recruiting from a variety of sources.
According to James Lockhart, Deputy Commissioner of SSA:8
We are actively recruiting new employees from every source we can. This includes both traditional sources, like colleges and universities, and non-traditional sources, like organizations that seek employment for the disabled. We are looking for employees with the skill sets we need, including people who speak the languages of those who will be applying for benefits.
The Department of Defense is an agency that’s gotten to green on their human capital performance. They practice the goal of having a civilian workforce that, at all levels, reflects the diversity of the people they serve. As part of their plans, they support the hiring of people with disabilities and track their performance each year (PDF).9 One method they use to recruit people with disabilities is the Workforce Recruitment Program. They are consistently at the top of the list of federal agencies that hire students with disabilities under this program.
Has your Agency Gotten to Green? (PDF)
Guide to getting to green in strategic human capital management (PDF)
OPM’s “Building and Maintaining a Diverse and High Quality Workforce”
GAO highlights 10 agencies with leading diversity management practices (PDF)
Q&A: Promoting Federal Employment for Individuals with Disabilities
1 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Best Practices of Private Sector Employers” 1997.
2 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Annual Report on the Federal Work Force Fiscal Year 2005”.
3 Jennifer Millman, “Which Federal Agencies Fail at Diversity? EEOC Tells All,” DiversityInc 2007.
4 Christopher Lee, “Fewer Disabled Workers in Federal Civilian Jobs,” The Washington Post 4 July 2006: A13.
5 EEOC, “Annual Report on the Federal Work Force Fiscal Year 2005”.
6 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Frequently Asked Questions”.
7 The President’s Management Agenda, “Strategic Management of Human Capital” (PDF) 2007.
8 James Lockhart, “The President’s Management Agenda: Getting to Green,” The President’s Management Agenda 2007.
9 U.S. Department of Defense, “Civilian Human Resources Strategic Plan 2002-2008” (PDF) : 20.
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