Our private sector, Federal sector, and litigation programs require accurate enforcement data, as well as reliable financial and human resources information, to assess EEOC operations and performance results and make good management decisions. We have continued efforts to ensure the accuracy of our program information and any analysis of that information.
We review the information collected in our databases for accuracy through software editing programs and program reviews of a sample of records during field office technical assistance visits. In addition, headquarters offices conducting analyses regularly review the information to identify any anomalies that could indicate erroneous entries requiring correction to collection procedures.
We have also deployed approaches that enable the agency to collect information more rapidly and accurately, because the information does not require multiple entries before it can be reviewed and analyzed. For example, in a previous fiscal year, we deployed a secure, web-based application that enabled businesses to electronically submit their annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) to EEOC. This new system reduced the need for manual entry of report data and includes automated edits to validate data, calculate totals, and compare statistics against the prior year’s submission. In another example, we implemented a secure, web-based system that enabled all Federal agencies to electronically submit annual equal employment opportunity statistics (Form 462). This system has improved the quality and timeliness of the information received. Finally, our Integrated Mission System (IMS), which consolidates our mission data on charge intake, investigation, mediation, litigation, and outreach functions into a single shared information system, includes many automated edit checks and rules to enhance data integrity. Since several of our new performance measures require us to use data to assess our achievements, it is significant that we can now obtain those data much more quickly and with greater data accuracy.
We have implemented information quality guidelines and adopted internal procedures to strengthen our ability to verify and validate the quality of our data before they are released to the public. In addition, the agency’s Office of Inspector General includes information and recommendations about aspects of the status of our data validity and verification procedures, information systems, and databases in its reports. We use this information and these recommendations to continue to improve our systems and data.
This page was last modified on December 7, 2006
