August 30, 2005

The Office of Personnel Management recently revised Standard Form (SF) 181, which is used to collect race and national origin (RNO) information from current federal employees.  In doing so, this form will be in compliance with the RNO categories listed in the Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued on October 30, 1997.    

As of January 1, 2006, the new SF-181 will be the government-wide standard for reporting RNO information, and OPM will allow federal agencies until July 2006 to start reporting this data with the new RNO categories.  

1) Are there any differences between the RNO categories in the SF-181 and the MD-715 Instructions?

The short answer is No.  

The SF-181 employs a two-question format: 1) the first question asks whether or not the employee is of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity; and, 2) the second question asks the employee to mark  an "X" next to any of the five given race categories that apply -- American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White.

In establishing the race and ethnic categories for reporting purposes, EEOC was guided by the need to balance three interests: (1) accommodating changing demographics and the OMB government-wide Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 ; (2) obtaining data that will be useful to the agencies' Title VII programs; and (3) limiting the burden on agencies.  The RNO categories in the MD-715 forms are Hispanic or Latino; Non-Hispanic or Latino White; Non-Hispanic or Latino Black or African American;  Non-Hispanic or Latino Asian; Non-Hispanic or Latino Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; Non-Hispanic or Latino American Indian or Alaska Native; and Non Hispanic or Latino Two or More Races.    The ultimate goal is to collect this information once.

2) Can agencies collect additional ethnic and racial categories?

Of course, .Federal agencies are free to collect additional ethnic and racial categories.  This is a matter that should be handled by your IT staff and/or programmers.  Nevertheless, EEO and HR professionals should be part of these discussions.

3) Will agencies have to resurvey their workforces in 2006?

There is no OPM requirement to resurvey current employees.  However, agencies may wish to resurvey in order to provide consistent ethnicity and race data for internal purposes as well for reporting to OPM through CPDF and the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system.  If agencies don't resurvey, they'll have RNO data using the old categories from October 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005, and the new ones from January 1, 2006 through September 30, 2006, and forward.  

Of course, whether to resurvey or not will be based on budget allocations.

4) How will the RNO information be collected?

Self-identification is the preferred method for gathering racial and national origin information. Agencies should provide employees with opportunities to do so and should advise employees of the importance of the data and the agency's obligation to report it. If an employee refuses to provide a self-identification, the agency should make visual identification and inform the employee of the data it will be reporting. 29 C.F.R. § 1614.601(b).

5) What's the status of OPM Form 1386B for collecting RNO data from applicants?

OPM plans to revise it in the future.