Council
Meeting
Held Tuesday, July
26, 2005
Host: Ms. Bonita White
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 name, agency, and position. She thanked
Bonita White, Director, EEO Programs, DHHS, for sponsoring this meeting.
She also thanked her
staff for preparing an informational brochure of the Council, and for assigning
an acronym for the organization – COFEE.
EEOC Customer Service Survey
Jorge Ponce,
Co-Chair of the Council, addressed the EEOC Customer Service Survey that the
Council released in July 2005. He
thanked all the Council members who participated in the survey, and,
specifically, Araybia Robinson in Ms. Johnson’s staff for receiving and
aggregating the survey results.
Mr. Ponce clarified
that this was not the first time that the Council had conducted a survey. He indicated that the Council has issued
various position papers in the past, including two that were based on surveys –
one on the relationship between EEO Offices and Offices of General Counsel and
another on Management Directive 715.
While acknowledging
that EEOC received high marks for its customer service, he discussed the survey
responses that merited further consideration.
Fifty-five percent
of respondents opined that EEOC should extrapolate the statistical information
for future Annual Reports on the Federal Work Force solely from the
Central Personnel Data File (CPDF), or from its future replacement, the
Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system. EEOC relied on the CPDF to prepare the 2004 Report, so there is
already a precedent set.
In the Additional
Suggestions portion of the survey, a respondent indicated that EEOC did not
allow federal agencies to provide their comments to the draft version of
MD-715, and subsequently refused to listen to concerns. Another respondent stated that there was not
any apparent coordination between EEOC and OPM regarding helping agencies to
meet their MD-715 reporting requirements.
Mr. Ponce stated
that the new EHRI system will allow users to retrieve information on age,
agency, contact information, employee, investigation security clearance,
payroll, performance appraisal, Race and National Origin (RNO), personnel
action, position, and retirement. It will provide access to thirty-two years of
employee data starting in FY 05, and will allow users to conduct various types
of trend analyses regarding training information, RNO representation by grade and
total workforce, most populous series, etc. Mr. Ponce indicated that the EHRI
data is broken down by PATCOB categories.
Consequently, he predicted that customers (including executives,
managers, supervisors, employees, and the general public) would much prefer to
utilize the EHRI data rather than the new EEOC occupational categories that
were introduced in 2004. Another factor
to consider is that the National Finance Center, where most federal agencies
get their data dumps from, has indicated that it will continue relying on the
PATCOB categories, and that it would only change to the new EEOC categories
after OPM orders it to. So far, OPM has
continued relying on the PATCOB categories.
For additional
information on the EHRI, Mr. Ponce referred Council members to http://www.opm.gov/egov/EHRI_overview.asp.
Consultation
Seventy-four percent
of respondents indicated that EEOC regularly sends them proposed regulations and
other documents through regular mail, while sixty-eight percent of respondents
preferred to get these documents electronically. Considering that postal
offices after 9/11 irradiate all incoming mail and that this results in delays
for mail distribution, respondents want EEOC to send them future correspondence
via e-mail.
EEO Directors
Meetings
Eighty-seven percent
of respondents thought it was a good idea for EEOC to ask for input from EEO
professionals when developing the agenda for its quarterly EEO Directors
meetings, while sixty-six percent of respondents indicated that EEOC sometimes
adopted the suggestions offered as
agenda items for these meetings.
Moreover, fifty-three percent of respondents stated that they could not
attend all the EEO Directors meetings, and eighty-two of respondents wanted
EEOC to post the verbatim minutes of these meetings on its Web site. Mr. Ponce stated that a verbatim transcript
would be deleterious to the spontaneity of these meetings, so he referred to a
suggestion in the Additional Suggestions part of the survey that called for a
synopsis of the meetings.
OPM Coordination
Seventy-one percent
of respondents indicated that EEOC does not advise OPM sufficiently on the
proper classification of EEO-related jobs, as required by Executive Order
12067, while eighty-two percent of respondents opined that EEOC should. Mr. Ponce shared a position paper that a
Navy EEO professional prepared regarding the placement of the EEO Program under
the Human Resources Office. To view this position paper, click on the Navy Letter July 05 file.
Proactive Steps
Eighty-nine percent
of respondents were not aware of instances where EEOC had made recommendations
to OMB regarding the staff size and resource needs of EEO programs of federal
agencies. In the Additional Suggestions
portion of the survey, a respondent stated that EEOC definitely should take
advantage of the provisions of this Executive Order.
Training
Sixty-six percent of
respondents stated that EEOC does not provide sufficient EEO training, although
sixty-one percent liked the content of previous EEOC training and considered
the EEOC trainers to be subject-matter experts.
MD-715
Presentation
Michael Gautier, an EEO employee at the Army, gave a presentation that focused on the cooperation that is necessary between the information technology personnel and the EEO staffs.