The Chair's Priorities for 2020

Chair Dhillon's Priorities for 2020 are rooted in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC or the Commission) Mission to "Prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal opportunity for all in the workplace" and its Vision of "Respectful and inclusive workplaces with equal employment opportunity for all." The Chair's Priorities build on the EEOC's proud legacy of civil rights accomplishments, and share the common theme of excellence, strategic innovation, and collaboration.

Priority No. 1 - Continuing to Provide Excellent Customer Service

The EEOC will continue to be responsive to employees who raise claims of discrimination in the workplace. Too often, justice delayed is justice denied. To fulfill the priority of providing excellent customer service, the Commission will continue its:

• Commitment to handling claims of discrimination promptly and fairly. This includes a continuation of the focus on Priority Charge Handling Procedures ("PCHP"), Quality Enforcement Practices ("QEP"), and Federal Sector Quality Practices to effectively manage active workloads and reduce inventory levels in private and public sector charges and federal sector hearings and appeals.
• Commitment to embracing technology and leveraging its power to improve our service to all stakeholders.
• Commitment to upgrading the Commission's data collection, analysis, and reporting capabilities, which will enable the agency to use modern data analytics to facilitate data-driven decision making.
• Commitment to supporting our front-line employees to enable them to maintain their focus on providing excellent customer service.

Priority No. 2 - Continuing to Provide Robust Compliance Assistance

The first word in the EEOC's mission statement is "prevent," and everyone's work at the Commission contributes to the goal of preventing discrimination in the workplace. To fulfill this priority of providing robust compliance assistance to ensure equal opportunity, the Commission will continue to focus on:

• Providing high-quality, easy to understand education and outreach in the private, public, and federal sectors.
• Prioritizing outreach to the small business community.
• Continuing to build strong partnerships with employer and advocacy groups.
• Updating our guidance and technical assistance documents (where appropriate) to ensure that they represent a clear explanation of the law, and rescinding those documents that are out-of-date, raise the potential for confusion among our stakeholders, or exceed the Commission's statutory authority.
• Ensuring that we actively monitor and track compliance elements in our settlement and conciliation agreements and consent decrees.

Priority No. 3 - Enhancing Our Efforts to Reach Vulnerable Workers

The EEOC serves a unique and significant role in the enforcement of civil rights laws in the workplace. During 2020, we will re-examine our efforts to reach vulnerable workers in our society and make adjustments as necessary to ensure that we are identifying, reaching, and effectively serving - through outreach, enforcement, and litigation - vulnerable workers throughout the nation's workforce.

Priority No. 4 - Strategically Allocating Commission Resources

The EEOC will continue to make effective use of available resources, allocating those resources to tasks that will have the maximum impact on fulfilling our mission. To that end, the EEOC will:

• Continue to build on our successful mediation program in the private and federal sectors.
• Make a renewed commitment to meaningful and effective conciliation efforts in all private sector matters.
• Conduct our litigation as vigorous advocates and to the highest ethical standards, while recognizing that our mission is to enforce the law and that litigation is truly a last resort and not an appropriate substitute for rule-making or legislation.
• Partner with other government agencies to advance our common interests and eliminate confusion among stakeholders, while recognizing that we cannot seek to enforce statutes outside of our jurisdiction or seek remedies that are not authorized under the laws that the EEOC is authorized to enforce.

Priority No. 5 - Continuing EEOC's Efforts to be a Model Workplace

The EEOC can best accomplish our mission with a productive, inclusive, and diverse workforce. Thus, the EEOC will continue to:

• Fully embrace the principles of equal employment in our own workplace, recognizing that doing so creates an environment that enhances the EEOC's overall effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of inclusion and respect, and support collaboration and strategic innovation among all employees.
• Support our employees by providing them with the tools and resources they need to be successful in their jobs.