Equal Employment Opportunity: DHS Has Opportunities to Better Identify and Address Barriers to EEO in Its Workforce
Highlights
What GAO Found
Why GAO Did This Study
Under MD-715, federal agencies are to identify and eliminate barriers that impede free and open competition in their workplaces. EEOC defines a barrier as an agency policy, principle, or practice that limits or tends to limit employment opportunities for members of a particular gender, race, ethnic background, or disability status. According to EEOC's instructions, many employment barriers are built into the organizational and operational structures of an agency and are embedded in the day-to-day procedures and practices of the agency. In its oversight role under MD-715, EEOC provides instructions to agencies on how to complete their barrier analyses and offers other informal assistance. Based on agency submissions of MD-715 reports, EEOC provides assessments of agency progress in its Annual Report on the Federal Workforce, feedback letters addressed to individual agencies, and the EEO Program Compliance Assessment (EPCA).
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should direct the Officer for Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) to develop a strategy to regularly include employee input from such sources as the Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS) and DHS's internal survey in identifying potential barriers to EEO. |
Closed – Implemented
DHS' 2010 Management Directive 715 (MD-715) report includes a strategy to regularly include employee input from employee sources. For example, DHS' MD-715 report includes a section titled "EEO Plan To Eliminate Identified Barrier." One of the planned activities is to develop and implement an exit survey with target dates by which the exit survey would be implemented, and when the results of the survey would begin to be used to influence workplace policies. The report also describes a planned activity to use the employee viewpoint survey (EVS) to identify changes needed to improve employee satisfaction. Within four months of the publication of the EVS, DHS officials would begin to work to develop a plan for changes based on the results. According to DHS officials, the EVS will be conducted annually and the results of the EVS and the exit surveys will be used to identify potential barriers to EEO.
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| Department of Homeland Security | The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should direct the Officer for CRCL and the Chief Office of the Human Capital (CHCO) to identify essential activities and establish interim milestones necessary for the completion of all planned activities to address identified barriers to EEO. |
Closed – Implemented
To address this recommendation, in its fiscal year 2011 Management Directive (MD) 715 report to the EEOC, DHS identified essential activities and established interim milestones. For example, DHS identified that there was an under representation of individuals with disabilities and that it was not recruiting and hiring at the rate needed to bring representation more in line with federal averages and goals. To address this, DHS committed to taking 4 actions over time, including establishing an effective program for reasonable accommodations. The milestones for this action were to survey component agencies for the current status of reasonable accommodations by September 30, 2011, develop a systematic plan by September 30, 2012, and implement the plan beginning on September 30, 2013.
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