Council Meeting
Held
Host: Ms. Delia Johnson
Introduction
Ms. Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair and Director, Office of Civil Rights for International Broadcasting Bureau, opened the meeting with a few remarks and then asked the attendees to give their names, agencies, and positions.
Announcements
Mr. Ponce, Co-Chair, indicated
that the First Annual Federal Hispanic Career Advancement Summit would be held
on
Mr. Ponce announced that the
President will sign the ADA Amendments Act on
Delia Johnson introduced guest speaker Carlton Hadden, Director of the EEOC Office of Federal Operations.
Mr. Hadden proceeded to give an EEO update. Following is a list of the items that he discussed.
Applicant-flow form
Mr. Hadden indicated that the final notice of submission of
this form to the Office of Management and Budget should be published in the
Federal Register shortly. [It was published on
A Council member noted that OPM had a different perspective on the collection of applicant information. He asked whether EEOC had coordinated this form with the Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Hadden responded that he understood that OPM’s perspective regarding the collection of applicant information differed from EEOC’s policy. He stated that he could not speak on behalf of OPM regarding its differing perspective and that OPM would be the appropriate entity to address that. Notwithstanding, Mr. Hadden noted that collection of applicant tracking information was mandated by the unanimous approval by EEOC Commissioners of MD-715.
He noted that several agencies currently collect applicant information via their own OMB-approved form. He stated that EEOC had agreed to develop the form as an option for those agencies that had not developed an approved OMB form. He further stated that only a handful of federal agencies had an issue regarding whether to collect this data from applicants. He said he was willing to talk to these agencies offline where this was still an issue.
EHRI
Mr. Hadden stated that he had attended a meeting, organized
and hosted by Mr. Ponce on
Mr. Ponce indicated that he had heard that OPM had accomplished two of the three action times -- preparing a 1-page document in plain English documenting the OPM goals for this initiative and a statement of needs. The only pending action item was for the Army representatives to contact OPM regarding the feasibility of using its software to generate the MD-715 tables. As background, Mr. Ponce explained that the EHRI Director had concluded that the Army’s system was the best one that he’d looked at. One of features of the Army’s MD-715 system that he liked best was the creation of dashboards that allowed the viewing of selective data by multiple users. While the data elements are present in the database, users can tailor the statistical information that they wanted to see regularly -- rather than annually when it was time to prepare the MD-715 report. This feature allowed stakeholders at agencies to assess and adjust diversity goals throughout the year.
Mr. Ponce said that he had been copied recently on an e-mail
from Army to OPM regarding the pending action time -- whether Army would allow
OPM to use its software for the EHRI project.
Since Mr. Hadden stated that he had not been copied on this e-mail, Mr.
Ponce promised to contact all the participants who attended the
Electronic Files
Mr. Hadden urged agencies interested in digital files, not to wait for the Notice of Proposed Rule Making to be finalized to start submitting their appeal records and complaint files to EEOC electronically. He asked Council members to submit their questions to Dann Detterman at dann.detterman@eeoc.gov.
EPCA (EEO Performance Compliance
Assessment)
Mr. Hadden gave a short history of EPCA. Back when the MD-715 was issued in 2003, EEOC had announced that EPCA was going to be the scorecard used to measure how well federal agencies were implementing the attributes of a model EEO program under MD-715. However, EEOC’s then Chair did not want to call EPCA a scorecard because of concerns that it would be confused with other federal government scorecards developed by OMB and OPM. In any event, Mr. Hadden noted that his staff had been working and developing EPCA for quite some time. He noted that the Department of Transportation had been using an internal scorecard under MD 715, and that EEOC had conferred with the EEO Director there as it developed its scorecard. He stated that the draft that he would be sending out was different than the more advanced one used by Transportation.
He stated that those EEO Directors who were profiled in the EEOC’s Annual Report on the Federal Work Force would receive an e-mail from him with the information that would be included on the EPCA report -- which would be publicly shared on the EEOC website. He explained that federal agencies that were profiled in the Annual Report on the Federal Work Force would be the ones provided a draft EPCA report. He said that the draft EPCA would contain workforce data on the agency’s workforce demographics (especially the progression data for the GS-14, GS-15, and SES), an overall raw score for selected MD 715 elements, and selective feedback from the OPM’s Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS) on how employees viewed their agencies. Agencies will have one week to submit their comments to OFO.
A Council member asked whether EPCA was similar to an EEOC audit. Mr. Hadden responded that EPCA was more generic; it was not as detailed as an EEOC program evaluation audit. He noted that during the recent EEOC EXCEL Conference, there had been a suggestion that EEOC post on its website the results from EEOC program evaluations -- similar to the posting of GAO reports. Mr. Hadden noted that this suggestion flowed from concern that the current practice of sending these reports to agency heads was not sufficient.
Announcements
Mr. Hadden announced that the EEO Directors meeting will
take place on
He also announced that EEOC will host a public meeting on
Mr. Hadden was asked about the impact of the upcoming presidential election. He stated that regardless of who won the upcoming presidential race, there would likely be major changes in EEO/civil rights, given the likelihood of history being made with either the first woman as Vice-President or the first bi-racial President being elected.
MD-715 Reports and Feedback Letters
Mr. Hadden stated that 77% of federal agencies had submitted their FY-07 MD-715 reports. He indicated that OFO had not sent feedback letters to some federal agencies. A good rule of thumb was that if your agency has not received a feedback letter for the FY06 MD-715 report, your agency will get one in FY-09. Mr. Hadden noted that the while delay was related to resource limitations, EEOC was hopeful that the feedback would be provided in a more timely fashion in FY ’09.
Mr. Hadden cautioned federal agencies that the MD-715
feedback should not be an annual exercise.
Instead, he urged them to analyze their workforce demographics
throughout the year. He mentioned that
the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the
Additional Questions
A Council member expressed frustration at federal agencies for not being more aggressive in pursuing corrective action against management officials in findings of discrimination. Mr. Ponce indicated that he was aware of a memorandum of understanding whereby EEOC could refer findings of discrimination to the Office of Special Counsel for possible corrective action. Thus, he asked Mr. Hadden how often EEOC had taken advantage of this MOU. Mr. Hadden responded that it was a very low number - EEOC had made referrals under the MOU a limited number of times – approximately four times.
Mr. Hadden stated that EEOC realized that this was problematic and began working to revise the MOU, so as to improve the use of the options provided by referring matters to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). He stated that EEOC had begun meeting and working with OSC staff and drafted an enhanced MOU which would expand the options for referring matters to OSC. However, Mr. Hadden noted that an intervening event had occurred with the appointment of a new Special Counsel. He stated that the new Special Counsel had focused on and pursued different policy initiatives. EEOC had opted to hold further work on the draft MOU in abeyance. He noted he understood that the term of the Special Counsel was ending shortly and that it was a good time to renew EEOC’s staff development of the draft and to revisit this once a new Special Counsel was in place.
Ms. Johnson asked what did EEOC intend to do with the 23% federal agencies that had not submitted their MD-715 reports for FY-07. Milton Belardo, Chair of the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers, responded that EEOC could probably forward their names to the Office of Special Counsel for possible corrective action. Mr. Hadden indicated that EEOC would review each situation and could also schedule program evaluations to these agencies shortly.
PERCEVD
Mr. Crenshaw, from DESTIN Enterprises, LLC, gave a presentation on PERCEVD (Preparing Employers to Reintegrate Combat Exposed Veterans with Disabilities) – developed in cooperation with former Walter Reed psychiatrist Dr. Cynthia J. Washington . For additional information on this program, go to http://www.destinenterprises.com/.
Careers in Transition
Indigo Triplett Johnson gave a presentation on the various programs that Careers in Transition offered. She said that her company offered training courses to organizations faced with hiring, retaining, and motivating employees. She discussed her latest book, “Playing by the Unwritten Rules; Moving from the Middle to the Top” – which offered suggestions and guidance to professionals who were unable to attain true career success despite their best efforts. To get more information about the services of Careers in Transition, call 770 414-1026.
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