We looked at federal agencies’ efforts to hire and retain individuals with disabilities. Agencies hired about 143,600 persons with disabilities from 2011-2015—exceeding the federal target of 100,000. Agencies made an additional 79,600 hires in 2016 and 2017. About 39% of those with disabilities hired in 2011-2017 stayed less than a year, compared to about 43% of those without disabilities. A...

The Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex—has thousands of employees and supports or funds thousands of academic appointees such as interns and researchers. We looked at Smithsonian’s process for responding to sexual harassment complaints and found: Supervisors lack written guidance on addressing complaints No process for tracking complaints...

We testified about the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to ensure equal opportunity in employment at DHS. For example, DHS uses things like employee surveys to help identify potential barriers and reported some improvements in representation of minorities and women from FY 2014 through 2017. However, it lacks performance metrics for tracking its progress. Last year, we made 6 recommen...

The State Department has expressed a commitment to building a workforce that reflects the diverse composition of the United States. Though State's workforce has grown more diverse, racial or ethnic minorities are still underrepresented, particularly in the senior ranks. Racial or ethnic minorities in State’s Civil Service were 4% to 29% less likely to be promoted than their white coworkers wit...

According to asset managers and industry associations with which GAO spoke, minority- and women-owned (MWO) asset managers face challenges when competing for investment management opportunities with institutional investors, such as retirement plans and foundations. For example, institutional investors and their consultants often prefer to contract with large asset managers with brand recognition a...

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights met about half its performance targets under its four strategic goals for fiscal years 2009 through 2013. Under its goal covering the use of its state advisory committees (SACs), which study civil rights issues within each state, the commission met only 7 of 35 targets. For two goals related to the commission's reporting on civil rights issues and oversight of f...

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), whose reauthorization is the subject of today's hearing, plays a vital role in advancing transportation safety by investigating accidents, determining their causes, issuing safety recommendations, and conducting safety studies. To support the agency's mission, NTSB's Training Center provides training to NTSB investigators and others. NTSB's 2006 rea...

A diverse Senior Executive Service (SES), which generally represents the most experienced segment of the federal workforce, can be an organizational strength by bringing a wider variety of perspectives and approaches to policy development and implementation, strategic planning, problem solving, and decision making. In a January 2003 report (GAO-03-34), GAO provided data on career SES members by ra...

To address the challenges that the nation faces, it will be important for federal agencies to change their cultures and create the institutional capacity to become high-performing organizations. This includes recruiting and retaining a federal workforce able to create, sustain, and thrive in organizations that are flatter, results-oriented, and externally focused. In 2001, GAO identified strategic...

In April 2005 GAO reported on the EEO policy framework in the federal workplace and the roles of EEOC and OPM. This report, in response to a congressional request, provides information on (1) federal agency EEO and human capital managers' views of the EEO framework requirements; (2) their views on the usefulness of guidance and feedback from EEOC and OPM concerning these requirements; and (3) how...