Held
DELIA
JOHNSON
Ms. Delia Johnson, Co-Chair and Director, Office of
Civil Rights for the International Broadcasting Bureau, opened the meeting by
welcoming all attendees. Subsequently,
she asked the attendees to give their names and what agency they were
from. The meeting was sponsored by Ms.
Era Marshall, Director, of Equal Employment Opportunity & Minority Affairs
at the Smithsonian Institution.
DIRECTOR,
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Bonita V. White, Director, EEO Compliance, Office of
Diversity Management and EEO, shared information with Council members regarding
the National Hispanic Employment Initiative (NHEI) launched by the Department
of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in March 2005.
By way of background, Ms. White provided an
overview regarding the structure of the DHHS EEO Program by explaining that the
Department consists of Operating Divisions, known as OPDIVs
that are serviced by their respective EEO Offices. At a minimum, OPDIV
EEO Offices are staffed with Affirmative Employment Program Managers, Special
Emphasis Program Managers and Complaints Managers, along with the directorate
and other staff. Some of the OPDIV EEO Offices also have Hispanic
Employment Program Managers, Disability Program Managers and other
programs designed to enhance underrepresentation. Ms.
White announced that, as a result of restructuring in April 2006, the Department’s EEO Office,
known as EEO Programs Group, was relocated from the Office of Human
Resources to the Office of Diversity Management and EEO (ODME), which is headed
by a Director at the
After the NHEI was launched, each OPDIV Head was
required to designate a representative to serve on the NHEI Work Group, which
had been charged with identifying "out of the box" strategies to
enhance representation of Hispanics in the DHHS workforce. Over a six
month period, this group engaged in a series of facilitated sessions which led
to the development of a Work Plan consisting of action items, responsible
entities and target dates. Having been impacted by supervening
priorities, attendant to the restructuring of the Departmental EEO Program, the
DHHS NHEI Work Plan has not yet been finalized. In terms of a status
update, Ms. White shared that some of the action items have been fulfilled
and/or overtaken by events in the interim, while other action items
require collaboration/ buy-in by responsible entities and/or approval
by higher level officials. With this understanding, Ms. White
highlighted action items recommended by the Work Group that could be replicated
or serve as best practices in other agencies. The NHEI Work Plan
categorized recommended action items in four major areas:
Accountability,
Examples of NHEI Work Plan recommendations include: 1) issuing
a policy statement specifically related to enhancing underrepresentation
and ensuring that components individually tailor directives on the new policy
to be reiterated to
Under the objective of clarifying the roles and
responsibilities of management in increasing and enhancing Hispanic
Employment at the Department and OPDIV levels, actions recommendations
include: 1) extending recruitment diversity performance goals for all
manager and supervisors and linking bonus awards based on achievement of NHEI
objectives; 2) developing of mandatory attendance at substantive employment
forums (addressing hiring tools and flexibilities for supervisors and managers)
to complement all special observances; and, 3) establishment of Individual
Development Plans (IDP) for all employees and assure there are funds to support
IDP activities.
As key measures to define the NHEI's success, the Work Group identified:
1) achievement of successful implementation of objectives in accordance
with the standards set forth in NHEI and the President's Management Agenda
(PMA) Scorecard; 2) reinstituting Diversity Best Practices Awards; 3)
ensuring each DHHS contract awarded has a diversity clause requiring employment
of underrepresented groups at a rate not lower than the Relevant Civilian Labor
Force (RCLF), i.e. Hispanics; and, 4) assuring that all workforce plans
submitted and approved by DHHS address the underrepresentation
of Hispanics with specific goals and objective.
To ensure funding for the
implementation of the National Hispanic Employment Initiative, the Work Group
recommended: 1) the evaluation and prioritization of key recommendations; and,
2) the establishment of a Hispanic Recruitment, Retention and Relocation
effort.
To establish a DHHS/HR
support mechanism that can monitor and track the success of the National
Hispanic Employment Initiative (NHEI), the Work Group recommended actions
such as: 1) hiring a Department-wide Hispanic Employment Program Manager; 2)
hiring or designating HEPMs
in all OPDIVs; and, 3) reinstating HEP Council.
It was
also recommended that DHHS could maximize its recruitment resources and tailor
existing recruitment and hiring programs to focus on Hispanic hires by: 1)
coordinating recruitment efforts among all OPDIVs,
identifying and targeting areas with high Hispanic representation such as job
fairs, professional organizations, etc. 2) developing outreach agreements with
private and non-profit national organizations; 3) developing a pilot program in an Hispanic populated high school,
modeled after the
Recommended actions suggested to publicize DHHS
employment opportunities throughout DHHS Hispanic employee communications
network and within the general population included: 1) developing a
Hispanic Employment Marketing Plan to include an internal newsletter; 2)
creating an outreach program to strategically market DHHS positions across
Hispanic communities; 3) maximizing mentoring programs to target and market to
Hispanic employees; and, 4) establishing a leadership link to
In the area of recruitment, specific
objectives included disseminating and utilizing all flexible hiring authorities
and incentives in order to increase Hispanic employment by 1) disseminating the
"Special Appointment Authorities and
Program Guide Handbook," including a section on employee incentives such
as On-The-Spot Awards, retention pay, recruitment pay, etc., to inform
supervisors and managers of flexibilities regarding current employees for
assisting in Hispanic recruitment efforts; 2) updating basic, advanced and
instructor-led and on-line supervisory and managerial training to include
specific information and examples on the use of direct hire authority; and, 3)
requiring all HR staff, supervisors and managers to take computer-based training
courses on special appointment authorities and employee incentives as an update
or refresher course.
In order to develop
and strengthen partnerships with Hispanic institutions and
organizations, the Work Group recommended 1) maintenance of a centralized/on-line
resource listing of targeting Hispanic institutions, organizations and
associations that can help DHHS meet its goals of increasing Hispanic hiring;
and, 2) utilizing a Department-wide template for Memoranda of Understanding
with Hispanic Serving Institutions and organizations.
Among recommended action actions to use student and
leadership training programs as a source of potential applicants to increase
Hispanic employment were the following: 1) all OPDIVs
must assess, develop a plan and report to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Human Resources (DASHR) their Full-Time Equivalent (
Among the recommendations to increase workforce
statistics were: 1) provide demographic statistics of all special employment
categories and Commissioned Corps Officers in each OPDIV to supervisors and
managers semiannually to prevent barriers/minimize impact upon the hiring and
retention of Hispanic employees; and, 2) audit and report applicant flow data
of all candidates applying for all positions, all candidates placed on a
certificate, and all candidates hired at the Division levels to assure
accuracy of demographic statistics.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
Mr. Charles Miller stated that in working with
Hispanic affinity groups, there was a very narrow overlap between their
overall constituencies and agencies’ programs. Agencies work with
these groups for recruiting assistance and to develop resources to assist
in retention. However, agencies are
typically only recruiting for college graduates, who are
The affinity groups are looking for assistance in
providing incentives to students to complete high school and for career
assistance for a large number of individuals seeking entry-level
employment. Although agencies offer some
programs, like the Student Career Experience Program, for example, they have a
relative handful of opportunities for entry-level employment and scholarships.
A Council member recommended that agencies should
focus on targeted recruitment and emphasized on institutional vacancy
announcements that are written so narrowly that the only way for applicants to
qualify for them is to have worked for these agencies. The member also indicated that there is a
need of commitment from the top officials and resources in order for many of
these affirmative employment programs to work.
THE
Madeline Caliendo, Associate
Administrator for Civil Rights at the General Services Administration, gave a
recap of her testimony before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission's (EEOC) public hearing on the Federal sector investigation
process. GSA was invited to testify
because of its success in consistently completing EEO investigations timely.
The EEOC public hearing looked at three issues related
to EEO investigations with panels on each topic: (1) The timeliness of agency
investigations; (2) The perceived conflict of interest: should agencies
investigate themselves?; and, (3) The quality of agency
investigations.
Ms. Caliendo participated in
the panel discussing the Timeliness of Agency Investigations. “The General Services Administration (GSA)
was invited to testify because of its success in completing EEO investigations
in a timely fashion. In FY05, the
average time for an investigation at GSA was 162 days. GSA attributed its success to (1) a
performance management culture that emphasized performance goals that complied
with EEOC regulations, as well as conducting quarterly performance reviews to
track progress; (2) the acceptance or dismissal of formal complaints within 25
days from the date the formal complaint was filed; and, (3) close monitoring
and tracking of EEO complaints on a regular basis.”
Ms. Johnson ended the meeting by stating that they
will pick up on the discussion with GAO’s and OPM’s
recommendations on the hiring of Hispanics in the federal workplace at the next
meeting.