UPDATED and Bumped: Guest post by Ms. Terri Dickerson, Director, Coast Guard Office of Civil Rights
UPDATE below in Italics
This post responds to a comment on Admiral Allen's Diversity Advisory Council post. The commenter requested (1) an update on the progress of a Functional Review that I requested, and (2) the status of Equal Opportunity (EO) Review reports.
Functional Review
As stated in my 4 September message to the workforce, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) periodically conducts functional reviews of its sub-components' EEO offices. I requested DHS undertake such a review of the Coast Guard, and as of 25 September, it is underway. At its onset, I informed all in the Coast Guard leadership that the effort had begun, and asked them to encourage any personnel contacted to give reviewers their cooperation.
The review aligns with the Commandant's direction that offices be proactive and forward-leaning in maintaining and improving policy, operations, and workplace climate and environment. A number of personnel are being interviewed service-wide, and my office has responded to all requests made of us by the reviewers. I have been advised that the effort will conclude by the end of the calendar year. At its conclusion, results will be made available to all personnel.
EO Review Reports
The Coast Guard conducts various self-assessment activities as a means to monitor progress and identify areas where barriers may operate to exclude groups. Federal agencies employ various means to assess themselves, and Equal Opportunity Reviews are one of Coast Guard?s means. The program consists primarily of a pre-visit survey of questions which help gauge unit effectiveness from an EO standpoint, followed by a site visit at which the team conducts interviews and focus groups. Since FY 2006, we have met our goals of completing as many as 22 reviews per year.
Before our team leaves the site, it provides the command an outbrief. The team subsequently produces a written report, directed to the commanding officer, that communicates findings, highlights best practices and areas of concern, and offers recommendations. Timely written reports to the unit are an important part of the review and my staff is working aggressively to reduce the delivery time.
The commenter asked if we have a new policy with regard to EO review reports, and we do not. However, we do have a new standard for the analysis in the reports. As one example, the team now offers data by which the CO may compare the unit to Coast Guard benchmarks. Additionally, the reports now culminate in recommendations based on a full analysis of data arising from the questionnaire and on-site activities. I am very proud of the analytical framework around which my staff is completing these activities. Feedback indicates that the care the team exercises is offering the units they inspect a solid basis from which to form action plans.
{This post has been updated to address follow up questions raised in the comments section. At the time I joined Coast Guard (April 2006), 9 reports were pending. Further analysis identified report quality in addition to timeliness, as main factors. To eliminate the backlog, I approved some of the reports, but with the directive that future reports reflect new standards for analysis and preparation. Throughout the following year, the division (CG-00H2) continued to conduct reviews (22 total) but was unable to respond to the new report-writing standards. (See Timeline )
In March 2008, I provided more guidance which exemplified the benchmarks for sufficient reports. The division initially held a series of meetings, ultimately crafting a strategy for report production by field and headquarters civil rights personnel. In August 2008, the division abandoned the field re-write strategy, and developed a robust plan for reaching sufficiency. As of August and through today, with ardent and admirable focus and commitment, my staff has produced, and I have signed and forwarded to commands 20 reports. We could not achieve this without our remarkable division leadership and teamwork. By the end of November, they will have produced and I will have signed another 24. At the current pace, we will clear all reports by the end of the year, placing us back on track with the 45-day guidance expressed in our EO Manual.
Important Note: We are pleased about and welcome new interest in our EO Review program and can assure readers that throughout this process the Coast Guard has met its statutory obligations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission directs agencies to self-monitor; each does so by its own means. Some that perform similar workforce audits do so remotely, that is, without visits. Our workforce is served by the Coast Guard?s commitment to the substantially more resource intensive yet ever more effective on-site review. Moreover, we are better stewards when our after action reports offer service-wide benchmarks, cohesive analyses, and recommendations aligned specifically to findings at the location ? standards which our reports now achieve!}
Today we updated the "What's New" section of our website with the first in a series summarizing the EO Review completed over the last three years. Thank you for your interest in these programs. We encourage you to visit our website. If you do, please visit our "What?s New" section under the "News" button. You can also provide comments submit questions through the "Contact Us" link.
This post responds to a comment on Admiral Allen's Diversity Advisory Council post. The commenter requested (1) an update on the progress of a Functional Review that I requested, and (2) the status of Equal Opportunity (EO) Review reports.
Functional Review
As stated in my 4 September message to the workforce, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) periodically conducts functional reviews of its sub-components' EEO offices. I requested DHS undertake such a review of the Coast Guard, and as of 25 September, it is underway. At its onset, I informed all in the Coast Guard leadership that the effort had begun, and asked them to encourage any personnel contacted to give reviewers their cooperation.
The review aligns with the Commandant's direction that offices be proactive and forward-leaning in maintaining and improving policy, operations, and workplace climate and environment. A number of personnel are being interviewed service-wide, and my office has responded to all requests made of us by the reviewers. I have been advised that the effort will conclude by the end of the calendar year. At its conclusion, results will be made available to all personnel.
EO Review Reports
The Coast Guard conducts various self-assessment activities as a means to monitor progress and identify areas where barriers may operate to exclude groups. Federal agencies employ various means to assess themselves, and Equal Opportunity Reviews are one of Coast Guard?s means. The program consists primarily of a pre-visit survey of questions which help gauge unit effectiveness from an EO standpoint, followed by a site visit at which the team conducts interviews and focus groups. Since FY 2006, we have met our goals of completing as many as 22 reviews per year.
Before our team leaves the site, it provides the command an outbrief. The team subsequently produces a written report, directed to the commanding officer, that communicates findings, highlights best practices and areas of concern, and offers recommendations. Timely written reports to the unit are an important part of the review and my staff is working aggressively to reduce the delivery time.
The commenter asked if we have a new policy with regard to EO review reports, and we do not. However, we do have a new standard for the analysis in the reports. As one example, the team now offers data by which the CO may compare the unit to Coast Guard benchmarks. Additionally, the reports now culminate in recommendations based on a full analysis of data arising from the questionnaire and on-site activities. I am very proud of the analytical framework around which my staff is completing these activities. Feedback indicates that the care the team exercises is offering the units they inspect a solid basis from which to form action plans.
{This post has been updated to address follow up questions raised in the comments section. At the time I joined Coast Guard (April 2006), 9 reports were pending. Further analysis identified report quality in addition to timeliness, as main factors. To eliminate the backlog, I approved some of the reports, but with the directive that future reports reflect new standards for analysis and preparation. Throughout the following year, the division (CG-00H2) continued to conduct reviews (22 total) but was unable to respond to the new report-writing standards. (See Timeline )
In March 2008, I provided more guidance which exemplified the benchmarks for sufficient reports. The division initially held a series of meetings, ultimately crafting a strategy for report production by field and headquarters civil rights personnel. In August 2008, the division abandoned the field re-write strategy, and developed a robust plan for reaching sufficiency. As of August and through today, with ardent and admirable focus and commitment, my staff has produced, and I have signed and forwarded to commands 20 reports. We could not achieve this without our remarkable division leadership and teamwork. By the end of November, they will have produced and I will have signed another 24. At the current pace, we will clear all reports by the end of the year, placing us back on track with the 45-day guidance expressed in our EO Manual.
Important Note: We are pleased about and welcome new interest in our EO Review program and can assure readers that throughout this process the Coast Guard has met its statutory obligations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission directs agencies to self-monitor; each does so by its own means. Some that perform similar workforce audits do so remotely, that is, without visits. Our workforce is served by the Coast Guard?s commitment to the substantially more resource intensive yet ever more effective on-site review. Moreover, we are better stewards when our after action reports offer service-wide benchmarks, cohesive analyses, and recommendations aligned specifically to findings at the location ? standards which our reports now achieve!}
Today we updated the "What's New" section of our website with the first in a series summarizing the EO Review completed over the last three years. Thank you for your interest in these programs. We encourage you to visit our website. If you do, please visit our "What?s New" section under the "News" button. You can also provide comments submit questions through the "Contact Us" link.
Posted at
1:14 PM
5 Comments:
I really appreciate this post by Ms. Dickerson, and it's very informative.
But, it does not address why so many EO reviews have gone unsigned and returend to units in excess of one year, some longer.
I'm in that same group. Our EO Review has never been seen. The outbrief by the team is one thing, but without anything concrete that can be read, digested, and most importantly acted upon, the review is of little value.
It's been well over a year, we have new command cadre that must go it from scratch.
Agree, same here at my unit. We finally got our EO review over a year after the fact, but I would argue that it doesn't have as much useful info as some might think.
Lastly it (the review) does not even come close to matching the out brief we received from the team.
Thank You Ms. Dickerson.
Your update represents the single greatest example of Transparency Breeding Self Correcting Behavior seen to date inside Coast Guard. I applaud you for taking the time to not only write the first post, but to respond with additional information as well.
I look forward with increased enthusiasm to the results of the Functional Review early next year.
Lastly, I want to again applaud you for being possibly the first senior Coast Guard Official to use this forum and the social media to respond to issues related to your office with apparent honesty.
Your thoughts and comments are welcome and will be published unedited on CoastGuardReport.org anytime.
Please continue with this level of transparency!
I did the math on Ms. Dickerson's post and it indicates that some commands waited over 900 days for thier written reports. That is much longer than the approximately 45 days in the EO manual.
Wouldn't it have made for a better business practice to get the reports out and then use the new methodology on future reports once you had it nailed down.
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