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.
Mr. Jorge Ponce, Council Co-Chair, mentioned that there was a provision to prohibit EEOC from suing companies that impose English-only rules in the workplace in the appropriation bill for Commerce, Justice and other departments that was highly controversial, and that it was delaying the passage of this appropriation bill. Mr. Ponce indicated that several members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus had taken a forceful posture to oppose this bill.
EHRI
Mr. Matthew Perry, the new Director of the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) at OPM, gave a lecture that was entitled “a frank discussion of EHRI with EEO professionals.” Mr. David Williams, Associate Project Manager of EHRI, came with Mr. Perry.
Mr. Perry stated that EHRI has been around for about 3 ½ years, and it’s had its peaks and valleys. Nevertheless, things are moving now.
Currently, OPM pays premium rates to store employees’
official personnel folders (OPF’s) in
Mr. Perry explained that federal agencies currently send to OPM two feeds regularly – one containing the personnel records and a CPDF (Central Personnel Data File) one with statistical information related to the workforce. One of the EHRI’s goals is to have just one feed to save agencies money. Thus, Mr. Perry is looking to do away with the CPFD feed by 2009, and, thus, let the EHRI be the all-encompassing statistical database for the federal sector.
Jorge Ponce indicated that to facilitate the integration of all statistical data with EHRI, federal agencies should adopt the same occupational categories to make it easier to generate longitudinal reports. Considering that OPM has relied on the PATCOB occupational categories, these should become the standard – and, thus, do away with EEOC’s nine occupational categories. Messrs. Perry and Williams agreed with Mr. Ponce’s suggestion.
Mr. Perry explained that the “time in payroll grade” data is not collected currently by EHRI. To generate a table that captured this information would cost OPM $100,000. Considering that the payroll grade will become less important in the future with the increase of pay-banding and personnel systems like the DoD’s National Security Personnel System (NSPS), it makes more sense to collect information broken down by salaries.
Mr. Perry also indicated that EHRI does not collect information on the number of applicants per vacancy. He stated that federal agencies could collect statistical information, like that pertaining to the race and national origin (RNO), only from employees, but not from applicants. To collect it from applicants would be in violation of laws like the Privacy Act. He is aware of a few federal agencies that collect RNO data from applicants using the USAJOBS database, but they do so at their own risk.
Mr. Perry stated that the EHRI does not collect Civilian
Labor Force (
Mr. Perry said that OPM is providing CPDF reports to EEOC on a quarterly basis. Nevertheless, he reminded all that his goal is to do away with the CPDF feed by 2009.
Regarding the EEOC’s MD-715 Report, Mr. Perry questioned the need to generate forty statistical tables. He stated that when he came to OPM, he had told his staff to limit the size of all future PowerPoint presentations to twenty slides. According to him, too much information dilutes your message. Since he implemented his new policy, much progress has been made because managers understand better the decisions that they are being asked to make.
Mr. Perry indicated that OPM has begun to assess the adaptation of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ MD-715 application to the EHRI suite of tools. His concern is that when Michael Dole leaves the Department of Veterans Affairs, no one will be left to carry on after him. Therefore, OPM has hired temporarily the programmer who works for Mr. Dole. Mr. Perry will be looking also at the MD-715 online systems at the Army and Air Force Departments shortly.
Ms. Linda Jackson, Director, Complaints Adjudication Division in the Office of Federal Operations, emphasized that EEOC has held conversations with OPM on EHRI, and EEOC's desire to have the MD-715 tables programmed into that system, since 2004. She clarified that the MD-715 statistical tables were divided into those that gathered information on employees by RNO groups and those thatpertained to persons with disabilities.
Mr. Ponce stressed that there are various federal agencies that have purchased online systems to generate their MD-715 reports. If OPM and EEOC ignore the mandate of GAO Report 06-214, entitled “Equal Employment Opportunity: Improved Coordination Needed Between EEOC and OPM,” more federal agencies will purchase additional online systems – to the point that there will not be any takers for an EHRI system that generates the MD-715 tables in the future. Rather than spend time pointing fingers at who dropped the ball in the past, Mr. Perry is in the enviable position to deliver on his promise to assess the feasibility of generating these MD-715 tables within six months. At the end of the six months, Mr. Perry promised to address the Council again.
To see Mr. Perry’s PowerPoint presentation, click on EHRI 07.