Return to Home PageThis discussion addresses the Commission's efforts to ensure effective customer service to its internal and external customers in the areas of Policy Direction and Guidance and administration of its internal Equal Employment Opportunity program.
An important part of the Commission's efforts to encourage voluntary compliance with federal employment discrimination laws is accomplished through the issuance of timely and up-to-date interpretive regulatory and policy guidance. This guidance is important to each of the Commission's key constituencies. It provides valuable information for both employers and employees, as well as their representative organizations, about their rights and responsibilities under the law. In so doing, it provides significant assistance to the principal Commission stakeholders in tailoring their conduct to assure that it complies with the law. Commission guidance also provides clear guidance to staff, fostering consistent application of the governing legal principles to the charges filed with the Commission and litigation brought by the Commission. Finally, the judiciary carefully considers Commission regulations and policy guidance in interpreting the law and applying it to particular cases.
Measures for this area focus on user-friendly formats and timeliness.
The final two measures in this subsection address the agency's efforts to create a model EEO program at the Commission, by improving our internal EEO processes. Since becoming Chairwoman in 1999, Ida Castro has emphasized the importance of EEOC as a model agency, with respect to its internal EEO program, inasmuch as the agency provides oversight government-wide on equal opportunity in the federal workforce.
STRATEGIC GOAL 3
Enhance Agency Effectiveness to Achieve our Mission and Strategic Goals by Providing Executive Direction and Support and Building Institutional Knowledge.
Strategic Objective 3.2.
Provide policy direction and guidance to achieve all Strategic Goals.
| STATEMENT | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO. | Target | Results | Target | Results | Target | Target | |
| 3.2.1. | Prepare Question and Answer documents in a simplified format to accompany all Commission approved policy. | X | X | X | X | Prepare Q & As. | Prepare Q & As. |
| 3.2.2. | Prepare for the Chairwoman's consideration by October 1 the proposed fiscal year regulatory agenda. | X | X | X | X | Prepare agenda. | Prepare agenda. |
| 3.2.3. | Address the regulatory agenda by preparing for the Chairwoman's consideration final regulations or notices of proposed regulations, or recommendations that regulatory matters be postponed or not completed and removed from the agenda. | X | X | X | X | Address regulatory agenda. | Address regulatory agenda. |
| 3.2.4. | Percent reduction in the average number of days to process internal EEO complaints from the previous fiscal year. | X | X | 15% Use innovative approaches including ADR |
25% Implemented ADR program & other innovative approaches |
15% | 15% |
| 3.2.5. | Develop and deliver diversity training to EEOC supervisors and managers. | X | X | X | X | X | Develop and deliver training. |
Measures 3.2.1.- 3.2.3 address timeliness in carrying out the agency's regulatory agenda and user-friendly formats for policy guidance. In fiscal year 2002, the Commission will continue to enhance the effectiveness of its policy program by issuing simplified question and answer summaries to accompany all approved Commission policies and regulations. These summaries are posted on the Commission's Web site, accompanying the policy issuances themselves, and are otherwise made broadly available. In addition, the Commission will meet time frames for publishing its annual regulatory agenda and completing action on policy guidances for the year.
The first of the two measures (measure 3.2.4), continued from fiscal year 2000, was designed to reduce the number of days required to process internal EEO complaints. The agency's internal EEO process is comprised of three stages - counseling, investigation and hearings. In fiscal year 2002, our goal is to decrease, by an additional 15% the average number of days in the internal EEO process by decreasing the time necessary at each stage of the overall process. The overall decrease will be facilitated by implementation of the agency's internal Alternative Dispute Resolution program, designed in fiscal year 2000. Like the successful private sector mediation program, the internal program is expected to positively impact the overall processing time of the cases in the counseling and investigation stages. We expect to accomplish an additional 15% decrease in the average processing time at the investigative stage by continuing to use position statements, biweekly case management meetings, and other investigative techniques. At the hearings stage, it is expected that by using an alternative procurement technique to acquire and assign Administrative Judges, the overall time frame for the cases going through this stage will also decrease.
For FY 2002, the agency plans to deliver training on diversity issues to supervisors and managers throughout the agency (measure 3.2.5). The goal of the Cultural Competency training is to build cultural awareness among supervisors, managers and employees in order to improve EEOC workplace relations, but also to improve outside customer service and outreach to various previously under-served minority groups. The curriculum will consist of a series of courses that focus on different aspects of the diversity spectrum, e.g., a general course in awareness of differences, a module on how to communicate with a diverse customer base, a module on how to relate to co-workers of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds, and modules that highlight specific ethnic minorities or special categories, e.g., minorities with disabilities.
This page was last modified on May 3, 2001.