Fiscal Year 2024 Congressional Budget Justification

D.    Object Class – Agency Summary

Table 3 - below shows the changes in the EEOC’s object class funding over three fiscal years.

*May not add due to rounding

E.    Object Class Summary- Technology Modernization Fund (TMF)

 

*Totals do not reflect issues/bases filed under more than one statute.

Mediation Program

A key component of the Commission’s enforcement strategy is the continued emphasis on the use of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) as an effective tool to resolve charges of discrimination early when appropriate. We continue to pursue efforts to secure greater participation by employers, using informational materials, and outreach events that highlight the benefits of mediation for employers.

The program continues to receive positive feedback from participants. Based on the responses to an annual survey of participants in our mediation program, charging parties (employees, job applicants, and retirees) and respondents continue to express their confidence in the level of service provided under this process. In FY 2019, 96.8 percent of all participants indicated that they would utilize the mediation process in a future charge filed with the EEOC. This is a direct measure of the public’s confidence in our mediation program. Furthermore, successes in our mediation program have a positive impact on our pending charge inventory levels. In FY 2020, the survey was placed on hold due to remote mediations. Pursuant to a contract issued in FY 2021, independent researchers developed an updated electronic survey that mirrored the EEOC’s adaptation to on-line video mediations from previously in-person sessions. The survey results were issued and made available to the public in June 2022 on EEOC’s external website via a report entitled, “EEOC Mediation Participants Experience in Online Mediation and Comparison to In-Person Mediation.” Of specific note, 95 percent of ADR participants surveyed would return to the mediation program in a future charge.

The mediation program continues to enhance the Commission’s efforts to timely resolve discrimination charges. In FY 2022, the agency achieved 6,578 successful resolutions out of 8,690 charges that were mediated. During FY 2022, mediations were completed in an average of 146 days with over $170.4 million in benefits secured. Federal sector mediations were also conducted in FY 2022 by staff mediators, with 471 sessions conducted. These mediated resolutions not only assisted the Commission in reducing the federal sector workload, but it also permitted administrative judges to further concentrate their efforts on conducting hearings and rendering decisions in the federal complaint process.

As an outgrowth of the shift to remote work as a result of the pandemic, increased resources were made available to expand the use of appropriate technological practices that allowed mediations to be conducted virtually, via secure internet platforms created due to the world-wide health crisis. Prior to the health crisis, mediation sessions were conducted face-to-face, with the mediator and parties physically present. However, consistent with safety guidelines implemented during the pandemic, the in-person preference for such sessions became untenable. The Commission was able to augment the initial 100 Zoom licenses acquired so that Zoom for government is now the primary platform for conducting mediation sessions. This transition to an online environment led the Commission to enter into two independent research contracts to evaluate qualitative aspects the adaptation and adoption of online mediation platforms from in-person sessions.

The reports released in June 2022 found an overwhelming satisfaction with the EEOC’s mediation program, as well as a successful transition from in-person to online mediation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, participants viewed the EEOC’s voluntary mediation program to be highly effective, fair, and neutral, and expressed strong satisfaction with the process. The studies also found “near unanimity” in participants’ willingness to participate in the mediation program in the future.

Specifically, more than nine out of 10 participants (98 percent of employers and 92 percent of charging parties) indicated they would be willing to participate in the EEOC’s mediation program again if they were a party to an EEOC charge. A majority of participants (nearly 70 percent) reported they would prefer online mediation to in-person mediation in the future. Participants cited flexibility, convenience, cost savings, and a “safe space” as reasons for preferring online mediation.

Moreover, the reports noted that EEOC mediators found that online mediation is easier to use and more flexible than in-person mediation; achieved similar or better quality and value of settlements for both parties; and increased access to justice for charging parties.

The reports include a brief history of the evolution of the EEOC’s mediation program, a review and analysis of the agency’s internal participant surveys from FYs 2018-2019, as well as comparisons from prior benchmark measures gathered by these researchers in EEOC program evaluation 18-22 years ago.

The reports were presented by co-author, Professor E. Patrick McDermott, during The Labor and Employment Relations Association’s (LERA) annual meeting. The new reports, along with the original baseline reports, are available on the EEOC’s website at Studies of the Mediation Program.

Outreach to employer representatives and other stakeholders highlights the value of ADR to resolve charges of discrimination filed with the Commission. The success of the mediation program encourages other employers to participate in our mediation program. To that end, in FY 2022, the participation rate increased to 33.4 percent from 31.3 percent in FY 2021, as mediation staff continued to provide information to smaller employers that, in the past, have declined to participate in the program.

Chart 4 on the next page reflects the level of mediations projected for FYs 2022 through FY 2026. These will return to FY 2018 levels in successive years, due largely to the end of the mediation pilot program and additional hiring.

Chart 4: Private Sector Enforcement Program Mediations

*May not add due to rounding

 

State, Local and Tribal Programs

The FY 2022 appropriation for State, Local and Tribal Programs activities was $31,500,000, the same as the prior fiscal year. The same amount for FY 2024 includes funding to maintain EEOC’s relationship with the fair employment practices agencies (FEPAs) and Tribal Employment Rights Offices (TEROs). Each year the agency reimburses our partners for the work they perform under the authority of Title VII and the Procedural Regulations (29 C.F.R. §1601 et seq). Historically, every three (3) years, the EEOC slightly increases the reimbursement amounts to help maintain good partnerships, the quality of the work, as well as address inflation concerns. In FY 2024, the 62 TERO contracts will have remained the same for three years and will be due for an increase. SLTP’s requested funding in FY 2024 will address the TERO contract increase, as well as SLTP costs in the areas of training, conferences, outreach and engagements, licensing or services, and program support costs. Our outreach and training efforts include enhancements to encourage full utilization of technology and support for the SLTP staff in the EEOC field offices with updated and relevant tools and resources. For FY 2024, the SLTP training program will include the ability to conduct virtual FEPA and TERO training conferences as well as other hands-on, in-person, training sessions to ensure the work is performed by our partners at a quality level consistent with the EEOC’s expectations. The in-person sessions will allow us to provide more interactive education to less senior FEPA and TERO trainees in need of investigative skills development than what can be successfully accomplished virtually. In addition, our effort to reach Native American/Alaska Native communities pursuant to White House priorities and Executive Orders, requires several efforts. In FY 2024, such efforts will include traveling to remote areas to educate tribal communities; using several media outlets such as tribal radio and social media; and conducting outreach to tribal youth around the country by working with Tribal Colleges and Universities and other federal partners such as the Department of Labor and Department of Education.

The FEPAs help the EEOC resolve charges of employment discrimination and prevent duplication of effort, resulting in a more efficient use of resources for both the EEOC and the FEPAs. With the requested level of support for FY 2024, we expect FEPAs to resolve at least 35,000 intakes and charges. These resolutions would be in addition to what the EEOC resolves directly.

We have strengthened our relationship with TEROs and FEPAs and identified areas where we can achieve efficiencies for all parties. The primary focus continues to be on information sharing, training, and enhanced communication between the EEOC and its TERO and FEPA partners. For example, FEPAs participate in the development and presentation of outreach and education events, frequently joining with the EEOC field staff to provide training on Federal, state, and local employment discrimination laws. Similarly, TEROs help the EEOC in addressing issues of employment discrimination on or near tribal lands.

Further, the Administration has made a key priority of requiring all federal agencies to abide by our nation-to-nation federal government trust relationship with Native American tribes. To this end, the EEOC in FY 2022, pursuant to Executive Order 13175, reported to the White House and kept updated, the agency’s consultation policy and action plan that were created as a result of our consultation with Tribal Leaders. This engagement goes beyond previous agency efforts and enhances the EEOC’s ability to reach tribal communities to ensure they know their rights under the laws enforced by the EEOC. This new EEOC endeavor involves outreach to Tribal Nations, well beyond the 62 TEROs with whom the agency has customarily contracted. This will likely increase the actual number of TEROs with whom the EEOC contracts in the future.

We have also continued to engage with our FEPA partners to implement the strategic goal that links the FEPAs’ accomplishments to the EEOC’s Strategic Plan. This includes mechanisms such as model work-sharing agreements to encourage FEPA support of Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) priorities. During FYs 2018 through 2022, we continued to provide training and guidance to the staff of our FEPA partners on a range of topics including charge processing and technical discussions. Additionally, in FY 2022, the EEOC looked to increase the number of joint activities conducted with FEPAs. For the first time, the EEOC held a joint FEPA and TERO conference at the beginning of the fourth quarter, FY 2022. Some sessions included both the FEPAs and TEROs while other segments of the conference program were delivered on separate tracks to maximize our effort to provide training content best suited for the respective needs of our external partners.

Throughout FYs 2017 and 2018, the EEOC worked to enhance our legacy Integrated Mission System (IMS) to provide electronic notifications and document exchange between the EEOC and FEPAs. Since the beginning of FY 2019, the EEOC and the FEPAs have been able to electronically exchange notifications of Charges of Discrimination (Form 5) that are dual-filed with the corresponding agency and have access to electronic copies of the Form 5 and Notice of Dual-Filing data (Form 212). Electronic document exchange is also being utilized to make the Substantial Weight Review process more efficient.

Modernization of the FEPA component of our legacy case management system was included in the EEOC’s Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) proposal, which was approved in early FY 2020. With TMF resources and EEOC IT development and modernization funding, the FEPA component of the EEOC’s new Agency Records Center (ARC) was launched to FEPA partners in January 2022. Dedicated technical resources have been acquired to support our FEPA partners on their usage of the modernized case management system.

Chart 5 below shows the actual FEPA receipts, total resolutions and pending inventory for FYs 2021 - 2022, and projections for FYs 2023- 2026.

Chart 5: FEPA Workload Projections

FEPA Workload Projections
FY 2020 to FY 2026

Systemic Program

Tackling systemic discrimination – where a discriminatory pattern or practice or policy has a broad impact – is an integral and critical part of the mission of the EEOC. Systemic discrimination creates barriers to opportunity that causes widespread harm to workers, workplaces, and our economy. Systemic investigations and lawsuits address significant legal issues that have a broad impact on an industry, profession, company, or geographic area.

The EEOC has worked to remove discriminatory obstacles to equal opportunity and to institute promising practices in thousands of workplaces. As a direct result of the EEOC’s systemic investigations and lawsuits, several thousands of workers have received jobs, wages, and benefits and many more have benefited from positive changes in workplace practices. The EEOC’s success rate for conciliation of systemic matters was 53 percent in FY 2022. In those cases that the EEOC was not able to resolve in the conciliation process, the EEOC achieved a 100 percent success rate in the systemic lawsuits resolved in FY 2022.

In FY 2022, the EEOC field offices resolved over 300 systemic investigations and obtained over $29.7 million in remedies during the administrative process as well as targeted equitable relief designed to change employment practices, prevent future discrimination, and bring employers into compliance with the law. These resolutions included voluntary conciliation agreements in 90 systemic investigations in which the Commission had found reasonable cause to believe that discrimination occurred. At the litigation phase, the EEOC resolved 10 systemic suits in FY 2022 for just over $28 million in remedies for nearly 1,300 victims of discrimination.

To reinvigorate and expand the agency’s systemic program, in FY 2024 additional lead systemic investigators will be hired across the country to augment the existing pool. These investigators are specially trained to identify and investigate systemic discrimination, obtain appropriate monetary relief for many aggrieved victims of discrimination, and non-monetary relief to effectively change workplaces and prevent future discrimination. The skills needed to perform these tasks are specialized and distinct from the skills needed to investigate an individual or small class case and more systemic lead investigators would contribute to improving the number and quality of our systemic investigations. New trial attorney hires will ensure that lead systemic investigators receive appropriate guidance and legal advice while investigating potential systemic violations. Additional labor economists and other expert witnesses will be hired to provide analytical support for systemic investigations, as well as consulting and testifying services for systemic litigation. Increased resources will be directed to key positions that will provide national systemic coordination.

In FY 2022, the EEOC continued holding quarterly systemic conferences with the agency’s systemic staff. The FY 2021 conference brought lead systemic investigators and systemic coordinators from around the country together virtually with our staff of experts in the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) and the Office of General Counsel’s (OGC) Research and Analytical Services (RAS), and a select number of attorneys. In FY 2022, the EEOC again held its nationwide systemic conference virtually, and hopes to have at least one in-person systemic conference in FY 2023 and in future years. These conferences are invaluable to conduct specialized skills training, exchange ideas, and strengthen the working relationships between agency offices, which is essential for this vital program to succeed. They will be especially beneficial as the agency promotes more investigators to lead positions and/or hires additional lead systemic investigators in FY 2024.

Litigation

Since 1972, the Commission’s litigation program has served a vital role in fulfilling the agency’s mandate to enforce the federal civil rights employment laws. The Commission has long emphasized that the litigation program should focus on cases that have the potential to impact multiple workplaces or large groups of applicants or employees, emerging issues where the agency’s expertise may be especially critical to achieving a successful outcome, and individual cases where broader law enforcement goals can be advanced with the successful resolution of the case. In addition, the litigation program focuses on population groups and geographic locations where private enforcement of anti-discrimination laws is lacking, and where individuals have minimal access to the legal system to protect their rights. In all its litigation, the EEOC seeks to secure targeted equitable relief as well as monetary relief for all aggrieved individuals.

In FY 2022, the EEOC resolved 96 cases for just over $39 million in relief for 1,461 individuals, achieving a favorable result in around 95 percent of all litigation resolutions. For the past four years, the number of suit resolutions has outpaced the number of new suit filings, resulting in a declining active docket in each of the last several fiscal years. The agency has begun to reverse this course with the infusion of new trial attorney staff. In FY 2021, trial attorney staffing rose from 118 to 131. By the second quarter of FY 2023, trial attorney staffing rose to 145. Many of the new attorney hires were placed in offices that have been historically understaffed, particularly in the southern region. In addition, at the end of FY 2022, the agency rolled out a new Assistant Regional Attorney (ARA) position in each of its legal units. This position will enhance the development and the conduct of complex litigation, with particular attention on systemic discrimination. With these recent staffing enhancements and realignments, the agency projects an increase in suit filings in FY 2023 with greater geographic diversity and a renewed focus on high-impact cases.

With this budget request, the agency would expand on these outcomes in FY 2024.

The resources requested will permit us not only to establish an upward trend in suit filings, but also to focus more energy on high-impact cases. More cases will involve challenges to systemic discrimination, including discriminatory barriers to employment, systemic racism, patterns of sexual and other forms of harassment, protecting the rights of immigrants and other vulnerable populations, and discriminatory pay practices. In addition, more cases will involve other high priority issues, such as suits to protect the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals and suits addressing the civil rights impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As its docket expands, the agency expects increases in litigation expenses. Much of the agency’s litigation requires depositions, expert witness contracts, and litigation support expenses. As the pandemic recedes further, the agency expects an increase in travel expenses. The agency also plans to increase its investments in training and litigation technology. These investments in infrastructure will better position the agency to advance its civil rights mission. In addition, with this proposed budget, in FY 2024, the agency plans to hire additional trial attorneys in field offices, as well as limited increases in attorneys and in-house analytic experts in headquarters, along with automatic backfills. These hires will ensure that each district is appropriately staffed and supported and well-equip the agency to rebuild its docket and litigate high-impact cases, across the nation, and to provide increased legal support and guidance to the agency’s investigative staff.

2.   Federal Sector Programs

Federal Sector Enforcement Activities

In the federal sector, the EEOC enforces statutes that mandate all federal personnel decisions be made free of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, reprisal, genetic information, or disability. These statutes require that agencies establish programs of equal employment opportunity for all federal employees and job applicants. The EEOC has adjudicatory responsibilities in the federal EEO complaints process and oversight responsibilities for federal programs.

As a result of the 2012 revisions to Commission regulations at 29 C.F.R. § 1614.102(e), the SEP, and the Federal Sector Complement Plan, the Commission’s Office of Federal Operations is working with agencies’ EEO Programs to ensure they are compliant with all of the Commission’s regulations, decisions, policies, and directives. In addition, the EEOC is enhancing its security requirements for its key staff and offices. Security enhancements consists of the security clearances for certain program officials (adjudicators, investigators, senior staff). Certain hearings and appeals may be hindered due to the sensitivity of classified information in which the intelligence community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) agencies are impacted. These measures will help to ensure full, fair, and impartial adjudication of EEO complaints.

The EEOC works to ensure that the federal government is the leader in creating an inclusive, barrier-free workplace that empowers employees to achieve superior results in service to our country. Concurrent with these efforts, agencies must position themselves to attract, develop and retain a highly qualified workforce that can deliver results to the American people. Equal opportunity in the federal workplace is key to accomplishing this goal; agencies must hire and promote talented and qualified employees without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or genetic information.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provide the Commission with its mandate that all federal personnel decisions be made free of discrimination and require federal agencies to establish affirmative programs of equal employment opportunity (EEO) for all federal employees and job applicants (42 U.S.C. §2000e-16 and 29 U.S.C. §791). Under these laws, and through subsequent statutes and amendments, Congress gave the EEOC oversight responsibility over EEO programs in the federal government to ensure that equality of opportunity is provided to the nearly three million people across the country and around the world who have dedicated their careers to public service. EEOC Management Directive 715 (MD-715) is the roadmap that guides agencies in identifying and removing barriers to equal employment opportunity so that the American people have a model federal work force that fully reflects the contributions, skills, and talents of all its employees.

Additionally, Congress mandated that the EEOC act as the enforcement authority for complaints of discrimination brought by applicants and employees in the federal sector. The Commission implements this authority through regulations that establish procedures for federal employees or job applicants to file complaints of employment discrimination. The agency charged with discrimination is responsible for informal counseling, and, if a complaint is filed and that complaint is accepted, the agency is also responsible for investigating the claims raised therein. At the conclusion of the investigation, or after 180 days following the filing of a complaint, the complainant may request a hearing before an EEOC Administrative Judge (AJ). Instead of requesting a hearing, the complainant may request that the agency issue a final decision on the matter. The agency’s final decision, or final action after a hearing, may be appealed to the Commission.

Federal Sector Improvements – Hearings

The overarching goal of the EEOC’s federal sector program is to enforce the nation’s laws prohibiting employment discrimination in the federal workplace. One way the Commission fulfills this mandate is through its vigorous federal sector hearings program. With 24 hearing units located throughout the United States, the program provides federal sector complainants with a full, fair, and impartial adjudication of their EEO complaints.

In FY 2022, through the federal sector hearings program, the EEOC secured more than $125.1 million in benefits for federal workers (an almost 40 percent increase from fiscal year 2021). Notably, this relief included the $12 million settlement of a landmark class action case involving a finding of discrimination.

During FY 2022, the Commission received a total of 6,785 hearings requests, which reflects a decrease of 11.5 percent compared with the number received in FY 2021 (7,664). Additionally, in FY 2022, the Commission’s hearings program resolved a total of 9,336 complaints, with a focus on resolving older cases and utilizing case management strategies to balance field inventories through the resolution of older cases and the closure of incoming cases. Resolutions resulted in a 76 percent reduction of pending cases that were more than 300 days old. The focus on aged cases also resulted in a 4 percent reduction in the average age of the overall pending federal hearings inventory.

The reduction of pending and aged inventory will have a positive impact on the agency’s ability to more timely process the hearings complaints received and better serve participants in the hearings process.

We project, as shown in Table 7 below, a focus on processing enhancements implemented and level staffing, ensuring pending inventory levels do not significantly increase.

*Pending beginning inventory adjusted to reflect case activity spanning FYs.

These workload projections include the positive impact we anticipate with the full implementation of the federal Case Management System. In accordance with the Strategic Plan for FYs 2012-2016, the federal sector working group created a Case Management System to provide a mechanism for identifying and categorizing the federal sector hearings and appeals inventory and for tracking Commission priorities. The goal of the system is to expedite and tailor case processing commensurate with agency resources.

The key feature of the hearings Case Management Plan is the requirement that the EEOC’s Administrative Judges (AJ) hold an initial conference at the start of the hearings process. The underlying principle is that early proactive intervention by the AJ, especially prior to the start of discovery by the parties, will lead to more efficient adjudication of cases and an overall reduction in the time and resources spent on a case. The results from the hearings Case Management System are positive. The pre-hearing conferences facilitate settlement and set the parties’ expectations and provide an opportunity to discuss how much discovery is needed. Identified benefits include: 1) early education; 2) early mediation; 3) early identification of issues/partial dismissals/amendments; 4) fewer motions; and 5) greater time to dedicate to the more substantial and complicated cases, and to conduct research on novel issues. We will continue to evaluate and quantify the efficiencies gained through this Case Management System while also working to identify the most effective practices to increase efficiencies across the agency.

The agency continued its focus on expanding the use of technology to make the federal hearings and appeals process faster and more effective. For more than seven years, the EEOC has provided agencies with a digital method for submitting complaint-related documents. During FY 2015, this digital process was enhanced and integrated into our Federal Sector EEO Portal (FedSEP). Beginning in 2017, administrative judges have been able to upload their orders and decisions for access by the agencies in cases before them. Using the FedSEP portal, agencies can easily upload all documents for both hearings and appeals. This laid the groundwork for plans to expand FedSEP access in FY 2018 to complainants through the creation of the EEOC Public Portal. The EEOC Public Portal also provides complainants with the capability of accessing hearings and appeals cases, uploading and transmitting hearings and appeals-related documents, and receiving of hearings-related documents issued by the agency and the Administrative Judge, as well as the appellate decisions issued by the Commission. The system also allows complainants to request a hearing or appeal online; and to review the status of the hearing or appeal case. In addition to the gains in efficiency and cost savings, these technological innovations will make the hearings and appeals process more transparent for all parties and help reduce the agency’s reliance on support staff to prepare and scan paper documents received by the parties.

Priorities for the federal sector hearings program launched in FY 2018 and continuing through FY 2022 included exploring additional tools to leverage technology in order to increase both the quality and efficiency of decisions issued by its AJs, thereby helping to manage the growing hearings inventory. Similar case management efforts have been made with respect to class actions filed against the federal government and adjudicated by the hearings program. During FY 2022, approximately 40,000 federal individual employees were included in several class actions. Such investments will further improve service and increase efficiencies for federal employees and federal agencies utilizing the federal sector hearings process.

In first quarter FY 2022, with the recent hiring of new hearings staff, OFP virtually launched “AJ Academy,” the first national training program for AJs. The purpose of this initiative was to provide effective and consistent legal education, case updates, and case management best practices. AJ Academy took place over a two-week period, with several presenters. OFP contracted with the National Judicial College to provide courses in writing effective judicial decisions. Coupled with the AJ Handbook and the Legal Reference Guide, newly hired attendees of AJ Academy finished the mandatory session well-equipped to begin their work as AJs. In addition, experienced AJs who voluntarily attend the AJ Academy received federal sector case updates and refresher education that ensures consistency in the hearings program on a district and national level.

In addition, through coordinated collaboration between EEOC’s Office of Field Programs and Office of Federal Operations, EEOC developed the LINKUP initiative, which launched in the third quarter FY 2022 with a virtual event, which will ensure consistency and communication among EEOC’s federal sector community.

Chart 6 below demonstrates the workload and number of administrative judges assigned to handle hearings complaints for FYs 2021 through 2022 and projections for FYs 2023 through 2026. The increase in resolutions in FYs 2021 and 2022 reflect the continued use of the new case management procedures highlighted above. The decline in inventory levels allows for more timely processing of both newly filed and older cases using the enhanced procedures. The ability to increase the resolution rate in FY 2023 and 2024 will be enhanced by the expanded use of case management techniques and greater efficiencies achieved with technology in the hearings process. We anticipate this prompting a decline in the pending inventory through FY 2026.

Chart 6: Federal Sector Hearings Workload

FY 2020 to FY 2026

Federal Sector Appeals Programs

One vital function of the EEOC is its comprehensive program designed to advance equity in federal government employment, including for people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent inequality. With the goal of affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights and equal opportunity, the EEOC has the responsibility for serving as the neutral arbiter in the federal sector for appeals from agency decisions on equal employment opportunity (EEO) complaints, collective bargaining agreement grievances alleging discrimination against federal agencies, and reviewing decisions by the Merit Systems Protection Board containing allegations of discrimination in appealable actions under 29 C.F.R. Part 1614.

The appellate decisions issued by the Commission serve as a vehicle for the development and promulgation of the Commission's policy and legal interpretation on emerging and evolving civil rights law that impact not only the federal sector, but also workers and employers throughout the nation. Finally, they serve to educate federal sector complainants, agencies, and the public sector about the law; guide agencies in their efforts to become model workplaces; and vindicate the public interest in eradicating discrimination in federal employment. To this end, the appellate decisions are disseminated to several commercial publishing services as well as posted on the Commission’s website, which identifies noteworthy decisions as well as decisions of interest on current legal topics.

Advancing equity requires a systematic approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes. The Commission ensures that its federal appellate adjudicatory functions are fair and efficient, and that the decisions issued apply relevant law and precedent to the unique facts presented in each individual case. The EEOC's federal sector appellate attorneys exercise this adjudicatory responsibility while at the same time recognizing their responsibility to effectively manage the appellate inventory to ensure that decisions are issued as expeditiously as possible. The table on the next page details the EEOC's appellate adjudication results and projections.

 

Table 8 above identifies the actual workload for FYs 2020, 2021, and 2022, and projected workload for FY 2023 through FY 2026. The workload reflects a steady increase in appellate inventory resulting from a projected increase in appeals received in FY 2023 due to a surge in AJs and other pilot projects, while attorney staffing remains level.

In its effort to eliminate discrimination in the federal sector, the EEOC’s appellate federal sector program issues appellate decisions; orders make whole relief to victims of discrimination; orders that responsible agency officials receive appropriate training; orders agencies to consider taking discipline against responsible agency employees; refers, as appropriate, appellate decisions to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for the consideration of discipline under OSC’s prohibited personnel action authority; requires agencies to post notices to all employees of decisions finding discrimination at the relevant agency facility; and ensures agency compliance with such orders.

As a result of the extraordinary circumstances of – the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EEOC’s federal sector attorneys were on 100 percent telework status from mid-March 2020 through April 2022. Nevertheless, they continued their diligent efforts to eradicate and remedy discrimination occurring at federal agencies while seeking means to address the challenge of the unexpected work environment. Further, they have continued these efforts upon reentry into the federal workplace.

The EEOC continues to explore operational improvements that can be achieved as the result of revisions to work processes. Through collaboration, training, and educational outreach, the Commission’s federal sector appellate adjudicatory body has partnered with federal agencies to speed submissions of the complaint record by leveraging technology, perfecting defective records, and reducing wasted efforts spent on records not ripe for adjudication.

The EEOC has been successful in managing its appellate inventory through improvements in technology. With regard to technological innovations, the EEOC has recognized the efficiency and cost savings that can be achieved by creating a digital infrastructure for the exchange of hearings and appeals related documentation. In FY 2015, the EEOC deployed the adjudicatory components of the Federal Sector EEO Portal (FedSEP). Using the FedSEP portal, agencies can upload documentation for hearings and appeals. The EEOC has continued to provide technical assistance to agencies and made numerous refinements to FedSEP based on federal agency stakeholder feedback.

In FY 2018, the EEOC deployed Phase 1 of the federal sector components of the EEOC Public Portal. Complainants can now use the EEOC Public Portal to request a hearing or appeal online and upload appeal and hearing related documentation. In addition to the gains in efficiency and cost savings, these technological innovations make the appellate process more transparent for all parties and reduce the EEOC’s reliance on appellate support staff to prepare and scan paper documentation received by the parties. The Portal also enhances parties’ ability to track the progress of their matters pending before the Commission. During FY 2020-2022, the Commission continued to disseminate information to federal agencies and the public on how to use their respective portals, and its federal sector and information technology offices have continued to collaborate to improve the Portal experience.

In addition to leveraging technology to improve the processing of appeals, the EEOC is using its Case Management System to bring consistency and greater efficiencies to the processing of federal sector complaints through the early categorization of incoming hearings and appeals. The EEOC continues to identify all "broad impact" appellate cases, as well as those that implicate areas of focus identified by the Commission.

A critical component called for by the Case Management System was the development and implementation of a Federal Sector Quality Practices Plan that was approved by the Commission in early FY 2017. The practices identified are designed to deliver excellent and consistent service in the EEOC’s adjudication of federal sector hearings and appeals and fulfill the Commission’s oversight responsibilities for ensuring federal agencies’ compliance with EEO laws.

While the implementation of the Case Management System has permitted the EEOC to identify priority cases, and new technology has created greater efficiency in processing appeals, the agency still needs to effectively manage its appellate inventory by employing targeted management techniques. As part of this effort, in recent fiscal years the Commission targeted for adjudication the oldest appeals in the inventory, while simultaneously resolving a significant percentage of new appeals within 180 days.

As a result of these efforts, at the end of FY 2021, the EEOC had issued 4,125 appellate decisions, and made 107 findings of discrimination. During this same period, the EEOC's appellate program secured $7.7 million in monetary relief for victims of discrimination in the federal sector. In addition, the EEOC's federal appellate program issued 90 decisions that addressed one or more of the priority issues identified in the EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP).

Chart 7 on the next page identifies the actual workload inventory and number of attorneys assigned to adjudicate appeals of EEO complaints for FYs 2020, 2021, 2022, and projections for FYs 2023 through 2026.

 

Chart 7: Federal Sector Appeals Workload

FY 2020 to FY 2026

Appellate cases addressing access to the overall federal sector EEO Complaint process represent about 40 percent of the incoming appeals. One option which is being utilized to address this is the development of Federal Sectors EEO Shared Services. This will include the development of a government-wide Federal Sector EEO Complaint Management System. As well, the EEOC will continue to explore strategies to slow the rate of growth of its inventory by using sound case management principles and process improvement techniques without compromising quality. The EEOC will control the appellate inventory by focusing on resolving its oldest cases; prioritizing cases with the broadest impact; quickly addressing those appeals which seek to preserve access to the EEO process; and setting in place procedures to address an expected influx of a large number of appeals from an adjudication of a nationwide class action claims. The office will continue to fulfill its responsibilities under the Strategic Enforcement Plan and the Federal Complement Plan and the Commission's Strategic Plan for FYs 2017-2021.

The EEOC will continue its assessment and categorization process to identify impactful issues, Commission priority cases, and agencies in need of federal sector technical assistance, guidance and outreach, and program evaluations. Appeals will be assigned in a manner consistent with the Commission's strategic goals and public service. The EEOC will issue decisions which place improperly dismissed complaints back into the EEO process while evidence is readily available and assure that inappropriate cases are quickly flushed from the process. At the same time the EEOC will systematically address its inventory control efforts by identifying methods to improve the quality of agency submissions.

The EEOC's federal sector appellate attorneys will continue their education and outreach efforts and share their expertise with other offices and agencies in proactive prevention of equal employment opportunity law violations and attaining model employer status through decisions designed to address pressing issues confronting federal agencies.

Oversight of Federal Agencies’ EEO Programs

The EEOC has oversight responsibility for ensuring that federal agencies maintain continuing affirmative programs to promote equal opportunity and to identify and eliminate any barriers to participation. The EEOC’s Management Directive 715 (MD-715) serves as the roadmap and tool kit for agencies to achieve the overall goal of making the federal government a model EEO workplace. MD-715 requires agencies to assess their progress and programs on at least a yearly basis on: (1) agency leadership’s demonstrated commitment to EEO; (2) integration of EEO into the agency's strategic mission; (3) management and program accountability; (4) proactive prevention of unlawful discrimination; (5) complaint processing efficiency; and (6) responsiveness and legal compliance with the EEOC’s regulations and orders.

The EEOC works with agencies to promote model EEO program policies and practices that foster an inclusive work culture and prevent employment discrimination by using a number of oversight tools. These include technical assistance visits followed by written feedback, formal program evaluations, opportunities to pilot new complaint processing techniques designed to enhance efficiency, technology advances, issuing Notice of Non-compliance to enhance compliance, researching, and producing analytical reports on topics of interest to the federal EEO community, and providing fee based and no cost training and outreach to the federal community. The EEOC sets new oversight goals each fiscal year that are tailored to achieve improvements, address emerging issues, and promote the government’s goal of becoming a model EEO employer.

For FY 2022, the EEOC established several technical assistance goals. The first was to ensure that 90 percent of agencies have compliant reasonable accommodation procedures by the end of FY 2022. To meet this goal, our staff discussed the status of the procedures with the agencies during technical assistance meetings and provided written feedback to agencies, upon request. As of September 30, 2022, 179 out of 198 agencies, or 90.4 percent of the agencies that received EEOC feedback had compliant reasonable accommodation procedures. The EEOC also established a goal ensuring that 75 percent of agencies had a compliant anti-harassment policy by the end of FY 2022. As of September 30, 2022, the FY 2022 goal was met, as 78.8 percent, or 160 out of 203 agencies that received FSP feedback had compliant anti-harassment policies. Moreover, EEOC established a goal to conduct 55 technical assistance visits with agencies in FY 2022 and issue a feedback letter within 180 days of each visit. In FY 2022, EEOC staff have conducted 66 technical assistance visits with agencies and timely issued 97 percent of the 34 feedback letters.

The EEOC continues to conduct research, which it presents to agencies to assist them in maintaining continuing affirmative programs to promote equal opportunity and to identify and eliminate any barriers to full and fair workplace participation. In February 2022, the EEOC issued a report on the State of Age Discrimination in the Federal Sector. Additional reports that were published include The EEO Status of Workers with Disabilities in the Federal Sector and the FY 2019 Annual Report on the Federal Workforce. For FY 2022, the EEOC will conduct further research to assist federal agencies to span various areas of reporting. A second report on Alternative Dispute Resolution will examine the impact of the program within the federal government. A continuation of a report on criminal histories and credit reporting is underway along with a study of the retention of persons with disabilities as related to organizational practices, as well as a report on the underreporting of sexual harassment. Lastly, three demographic profiles of women in Federal service are underway to highlight the status of African American, Latina, and Native American and Alaska Native women. Various aspects of these groups will be discussed to include their overall representation in the Federal workforce, their representation for ages 40 and over, median salaries and voluntary and involuntary separations.

During FY 2022, the EEOC continued to advance technology to improve communication within the federal community and to enhance the EEOC’s analytical capabilities. For example, the EEOC is creating two new data dashboards for MD-715 data by gender and sex as self-service tools as well as updating the Annual Report Dashboard. The Commission's continued development of this system gradually will incorporate its legacy data into the platform (Form 462 and MD-715 data from 2006 to 2012) and other sources of data, including complaint data for hearings and appeals, the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the 2016-2018 Census data, and responses to correspondence. In FY 2022, the EEOC will continue to work with the large federal payroll providers, Interior Business Center, National Finance Center, and Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service to facilitate the digital upload of federal agency workforce data into the EEOC’s FedSEP portal. This effort will eliminate hundreds of staff hours necessary for each federal agency to submit statutorily required reports to the EEOC.

During FY 2022, the EEOC has continued to meet its mandate to conduct program evaluations both on a government-wide and agency-focused level. The EEOC is conducting a government-wide review of Merit Final Agency Decisions which will in part examine timeliness by various sized agencies. In addition, the EEOC is examining the impact of personal assistance services on the federal sector in light of the pandemic, to better determine how agencies are fulfilling their obligation to provide accessibility to federal employees with disabilities. Two program evaluations were initiated for two subcomponents of cabinet agencies with an emphasis on accessibility as part of the reasonable accommodation program as well as direct reporting structure.

To provide ongoing legal updates to the entire EEO community, the EEOC published on its public website three issues of the EEO Digest in FY 2021. This publication is a summary of important federal sector EEO cases. In addition, the EEOC published two legal articles on topics of interest for federal sector EEO programs in FY 2022. The EEOC published articles on pay equity and on the progress made towards equality for the LGBTQI+ employees. . In FY 2023 and FY 2024, the EEOC will continue to issue the Digest and focused articles that support current efforts in the federal sector EEO community.

Concurrent with these oversight responsibilities in the federal sector, the Commission continues its education efforts to assist all stakeholders by: (1) creating and conducting fee-based training through the Revolving Fund; (2) creating and conducting customized EEO training for EEO professionals, managers, employees and other stakeholders; (3) forming strategic partnerships, and (4) participating in free outreach activities, including conferences, summits, meetings and other events where the Commission's presence would add value.

During FY 2022, the EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations, Outreach Training and Engagement Division has strengthened and diversified federal training and outreach by revising existing course offerings and developing new topics to enhance federal employees’ knowledge and understanding of DEIA and EEO laws, regulations, and guidance. The staff created and introduced LGBTQI+, implicit bias, intersectionality, and DEIA learning to its current curriculum. Select topics were delivered and well received at events averaging 300 attendees. To ensure the broadest reach, and foster a more accessible virtual learning environment, the EEOC also reviewed and updated existing workbooks and manuals to ensure 100 percent section 508 accessibility compliance and streamlined the process for attendees to request a reasonable accommodation. Providing excellent customer service is a priority, and Commission components joined to redesign the external registration system and process for all fee-based courses. During the redesign phase of the registration system when training was halted, our clients remained eager for learning. In response to the demand for learning opportunities, staff continued offering customized training and launched a no-cost two-week learning opportunity for the federal community and stakeholder organizations. The event covered 4 key EEO topics and was offered during eight different time slots. Well over 3,200 EEO practitioners attended and EEO Counselors and EEO Investigators received their required annual EEO Refresher credits. Once the registration system was complete, clients were timely notified and able to enroll in our specialized EEO courses.

The EEOC EEO Education Consortium continues to serve as a virtual meeting place to network and learn from other EEO practitioners. The EEOC EEO Education Consortium achieves its objective through the delivery of robust learning activities, small group meetings and social media. During 2022, five large scale events and numerous limited engagements were offered throughout the year. EEO practitioners held meetings and hosted events focusing on critical topics such as accessible workplaces, intersectionality and processing reasonable accommodations. To meet the growing demand for more robust programming, the Consortium is developing a mentorship program for GS 11-13 EEO practitioners to support their professional and leadership development. The program pairs a mentee with a mentor who will provide needed guidance. The program also includes six optional leadership sessions and three networking activities.

The EEOC also made significant strides in broadening the Commission’s reach by way of no-cost outreach initiatives such as webinars, online information sessions, and social media. Staff delivered 17 EEO and affirmative employment webinars for the public which were recorded and posted to the EEOC You Tube channel. Moreover, eight affirmative employment videos were developed and will be posted to the same channel for federal employees. The videos offer succinct learning on trigger identification and barrier elimination.

The EEOC has realized a combined 10 percent increase in participation in webinars and online information sessions from FY 2021. In FY 2022, the EEOC also achieved a marked 30 percent increase in engagement across each of its social media platforms and is developing a mobile application for stakeholders to access critical resources on their mobile devices. In addition to the EEOC broadening its reach to stakeholders across social media platforms, the team staffed several large conferences, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, Federal Employee Women, Federal Dispute Resolution Conference and Blacks in Government. Through these opportunities, staff provided training, updates, and educational information to attendees.

 

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VII.      STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE II - Prevent employment discrimination and promote inclusive workplaces through education and outreach

A.    Introduction

In Title VII, Congress expressly required the agency to engage in education and outreach activities, including providing training and technical assistance, for those with rights and responsibilities under employment antidiscrimination laws. Strategic Objective II, to prevent employment discrimination and promote inclusive workplaces through education and outreach, reflects the EEOC’s obligation to deter employment discrimination before it occurs. Investigations, conciliations, and litigation are only some of the means that the EEOC uses to fulfill its mission and vision. Educational and outreach programs, projects, and events are also cost-effective law enforcement tools because they promote understanding of EEOC’s laws and voluntary compliance. All parties benefit when the workplace is free of discrimination, and everyone has access to equal employment opportunity.

There are two outcome goals for Strategic Objective II:

Outcome Goal II.A: Members of the public understand the employment discrimination laws and know their rights and responsibilities under these laws; and

Outcome Goal II.B: Employers, unions, and employment agencies (covered entities) prevent discrimination, effectively address EEO issues, and support more inclusive workplaces.

The EEOC targets its education and outreach program to individuals who historically have been victims of employment discrimination. The Commission also provides outreach and education to particularly vulnerable communities that may be unfamiliar with our laws, such as those who are new to the workforce or low-skilled workers and new immigrants. Moreover, it is important for the agency to provide technical assistance to underserved segments of the employer community, including small and new businesses. Given their size and limited resources, such businesses are often less able to take advantage of the EEOC’s training programs and are less likely to have in-house human resources professionals to assist them with compliance.

The EEOC often cooperates with other departments and agencies in the performance of educational and outreach activities. The state and local FEPAs are important partners in this regard, as are the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Moreover, the EEOC regularly reviews the agency’s sub-regulatory documents and updates or augments these materials with plain language, as needed, on a priority basis each year. This reinforces the EEOC’s continued focus on providing clear and easy to understand materials for the diverse array of audiences that the agency serves.

Performance Measures 6 through 8 were developed by the Commission to track the agency’s progress in achieving these outcomes.

B. Performance Measures and Results

Performance Measure 6 for Outcome Goals II.A. and II.B.

Performance Measure 6 focuses on strengthening and expanding the impact of the EEOC’s education and outreach activities by expanding use of technology. The implementation of a technology plan created in FY 2018 will better facilitate the dedication of resources to the most critical needs. The EEOC also focuses its technological advances on priority areas and specific communities to increase public access to information about rights and responsibilities under the laws the EEOC enforces. The FY 2022 targets for Performance Measure 6 were for the EEOC to report on the user experience surveys as directed and increase access to information in at least two additional priority areas.

During the fiscal year, the EEOC continued to build upon the effort to employ customer experience surveys on the website, most notably by implementing the plan that was developed in FY 2020. The agency has analyzed the survey responses received, approximately 150-200 survey responses per quarter, to determine whether any revisions to the website would aid the public’s understanding of the equal employment opportunity laws or increase their knowledge of rights and responsibilities under these laws.

Additionally, the agency conducted four new social media campaigns during the fiscal year: 1) increasing awareness of workplace harassment through an interactive campaign on Instagram during Q1; 2) increasing awareness of how to report race and color discrimination in the workplace through a coordinated effort on Twitter in Q2; 3) increasing federal workers’ awareness of the federal complaint process and the role of the EEOC on Twitter in Q3; and 4) increasing awareness in Q4 about pregnancy discrimination and the laws to protect pregnant workers and job applicants in the workplace, utilizing Facebook and Twitter platforms including a focus on reaching Spanish language audiences.

The EEOC has also increased the amount of video content on the agency’s website and helped ensure that events focused on the Chair’s priorities have been recorded and posted on the EEOC’s YouTube channel, including posting more Spanish language videos and the agency’s first video in American Sign Language in over six years. In addition to maintaining the agency’s Spanish language website and posting 52 new documents in Spanish and 18 Spanish press releases, the EEOC implemented a public education campaign about the over 300 webpages in 7 languages newly posted to the agency’s website and posted over 18 new documents, each in Chinese (Simplified), Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and 2 new documents each in Pashto and Farsi.

Performance Measure 7 for Outcome Goals II.A. and II.B.

The EEOC is in a unique position to serve as a conduit to promote effective partnerships and to strengthen relationships among diverse groups with common goals. As a result, the agency believes it can facilitate effective interactions that can lead to reducing or eliminating employment barriers. For example, connecting an employer association with an advocacy organization seeking to eliminate recruitment and hiring barriers may help to prevent discrimination and create job opportunities for qualified job seekers. Performance Measure 7 leverages the agency’s long-term significant partnerships with civic and advocacy organizations (particularly those that represent vulnerable or underserved workers) and employer and business organizations to achieve sustained benefits for all communities.

The FY 2022 target for Performance Measure 7 was to maintain the FY 2019 baseline measure of 70 joint partnership events held. The agency maintained the number of significant partners, nationwide, and worked with EEOC’s partners to advance equity in organizational policies, employment practices, and to reduce employment barriers in underserved and vulnerable communities and to support small and new businesses. The agency’s District Offices hosted 1,619 partnership events with state, local, tribal, federal, and advocacy groups to increase awareness of FY 2022 strategic partnership priorities and initiatives and to provide updated technical assistance. Significant efforts were made to reach communities that may be reluctant to come forward, such as persons with low literacy skills and limited English proficiency, deaf, or hard of hearing individuals, and those new to the workforce

Performance Measure 8 for Outcome Goal II.A.

Performance Measure 8 ensures that the EEOC’s sub-regulatory guidance documents and resource materials are reviewed and that, where necessary, they are updated and use plain language. The agency’s enforcement work in the private sector, its adjudicatory and oversight work in the federal sector, and its outreach and education work all depend on the availability of up-to-date and accessible materials explaining the laws it enforces and how to comply with them. While the regulations issued by the Commission set the basic legal framework for the implementation of those laws, sub-regulatory materials provide more tangible assistance to those with rights and responsibilities under such laws. These materials may or may not require a vote of the Commission and may include a range of guidance material, best practices, question and answer documents, and fact sheets.

The FY 2022 target for Performance Measure 8 was for the EEOC to produce or update at least two resource or guidance documents on the agency’s updated priority list that focuses on the most critical for action. The EEOC published two regulatory updates – to make inflationary adjustments to the penalty for violating notice posting requirements on February 23, 2022, and to make ministerial changes to the agency’s contact information in existing regulations on March 16, 2022. The agency also drafted and issued two technical assistance documents in FY 2022: 1) ) The COVID-19 Pandemic and Caregiver Discrimination Under Federal Employment Discrimination Law (March 14, 2022); and 2) The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Use of Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence to Assess Job Applicants and Employees (May 12, 2022), along with a companion document, Tips for Workers: the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Use of Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence (May 12, 2022).

Additionally, the EEOC updated the agency’s pandemic technical assistance document, What you should know about COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws, seven times in FY 2022:

• On October 13, 2021, updates were made in accordance with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC);
• On November 17, 2021, a new section on retaliation was added (Section M);
• On December 14, 2021, a new section was added about COVID-19 as an ADA disability (section N);
• On December 20, 2021, edits were made to reflect further changes in guidance from federal public health authorities;
• On March 1, 2022, a new section on religious objections was added (section L);
• On March 14, 2022, the section on caregivers was updated; and
• On July 12, 2022, a comprehensive update was issued.

With these updates, the EEOC ensured the document’s continued accuracy in light of the most up-to-date guidance from the CDC.

 

C. Outreach

As the table below shows, we have provided and will continue to provide outreach and education to individuals in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Wake Island. With the FY 2024 Budget for outreach activities, we will expand our outreach to individuals across the United States, including underserved areas. We plan to continue to target specific events to address the employment discrimination issues that are particular to geographic areas or stakeholder communities. In FY 2022, the EEOC conducted over 3,040 free outreach events reaching more than 218,184 individuals nationwide with information about employment discrimination and their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, and we anticipate similar outreach levels in FY 2023.

 

Through public relations, training, and education, the EEOC enhances public awareness of employment discrimination and the importance of preventing such discrimination in America’s workplaces. Our outreach is meant to provide knowledge and an understanding of workplace conditions that may give rise to violations of the statutes we enforce.

The EEOC targeted its outreach and education programs to vulnerable communities and small and new businesses in FY 2022. The EEOC conducted 1,007 outreach events for vulnerable workers and underserved communities in FY 2022, reaching 79,788 participants. This included outreach to immigrant and farmworker communities, as well as communities where individuals are reluctant to come forward to report employment discrimination. EEOC field offices also collaborated with partner organizations to extend the agency’s and better serve vulnerable workers and underserved communities, which included conducting 1,619 partnership events reaching 98,490 attendees. To enhance the EEOC’s ability to identify and reach vulnerable or underserved populations, the EEOC developed a data visualization tool to enable EEOC field offices to readily obtain demographic and industry data by District Office. The EEOC anticipates that in FY 2023 and beyond, this tool will increasingly be modified with additional data that will further its usefulness. Also, as the nation recovers from the effects of the pandemic, in FY 2023 the EEOC will strengthen its efforts to conduct in-person outreach to vulnerable communities.

Given their size and limited resources, these businesses are often less able to take advantage of commercial training programs and less likely to have in-house human resources professionals to assist them with compliance. In FY 2022, the agency conducted 399 outreach events directed toward small businesses, reaching 18,878 small business representatives.

In addition, the EEOC continued to promote its public website containing the online Small Business Resource Center, a comprehensive resource providing small businesses tools to understand the federal anti-discrimination laws and to prevent employment discrimination in their workplaces.

The site features answers to frequently asked questions, guidance for making employment decisions in common scenarios, and pointers for developing good workplace policies. It has tips for small businesses on various potential workplace discrimination issues to help businesses avert problems before they arise. It also provides quick access to the names and contact information of the EEOC’s Small Business Liaisons in EEOC’s field offices. These liaisons answer questions from small business owners as they institute policies and practices to comply with the law.

The Small Business Association Office of the National Ombudsman’s Annual Report to Congress grades all federal agencies on their responsiveness to small business concerns and their compliance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. The Ombudsman’s most recent 2020 Annual Report to Congress, which was published in FY 2022, gave the EEOC an “A” rating across-the-board, the highest possible rating, reflecting the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) recognition of the EEOC’s strong commitment to assist this important sector of the economy.

Through the agency’s education and outreach activities, the EEOC also played a pivotal role in promoting racial justice and confronting systemic barriers in the workplace during FY 2022. For example, the EEOC reached out to workers of color and conducted outreach through listening sessions, panel discussions, trainings, and other meetings to strategize ways to combat racial and ethnic harassment and discrimination. The EEOC’s field offices facilitated the exchange of information across district offices, coordinated community engagement efforts with other federal agencies, and collaborated with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI), and the White House Office of Public Engagement in response to the rise in hate crimes and incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities around the nation. Through regional roundtables, technical assistance programs, regular planning calls, resource-sharing, virtual convenings, and webinars, the EEOC worked with the WHIAANHPI Regional Network to address specific community needs and feedback. A total of 279 WHIAANHPI events were conducted reaching 12,213 individuals. The agency also conducted 42 Historically Black Colleges and Universities outreach events reaching 1,741 individuals, 468 outreach sessions involving race discrimination reaching 52,675 attendees, including 143 events focused on racial justice reaching 9,064 attendees, and 327 sessions on national origin discrimination reaching 51,454 attendees.

The EEOC also prioritized outreach and education on the workplace civil rights implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing workers, employers, and other stakeholders with up-to-date information about the interplay of COVID-19 and federal EEO laws. During FY 2022, the EEOC held 369 outreach events related to COVID-19, reaching 26,041 individuals.

In FY 2022, the EEOC also focused outreach and education on priorities identified in the agency’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP).

The EEOC takes seriously its role of enhancing public awareness about emerging issues of employment discrimination in America’s workplaces. By facilitating effective partnerships and collaborations with internal and external stakeholders, the EEOC works to reduce and eliminate employment barriers and achieve sustained benefits for the communities we serve. In FY 2022, the agency conducted over 1,619 partnership events reaching 98,490 attendees.

1.         Non-fee-based Outreach

Table 10 below shows funding for Outreach (non-fee-based). Our Budget request for FY 2024 for Strategic Objective II is $6 million. The proposed request for FY 2024 will support our existing outreach activities across the United States.

 

 

2.         Fee-based (Revolving Fund – Education, Technical Assistance and Training)

The EEOC Training Institute (Training Institute) provides fee-based training and technical assistance to stakeholders in the private and public sectors. The Institute is funded through the EEOC's Revolving Fund, established by Congress in 1992 to enable the EEOC to charge reasonable fees for specialized products and services developed and delivered as part of the Commission’s training and technical assistance efforts. The Revolving Fund (RF) serves as the mechanism through which the EEOC can collect payments, thus offsetting some of the costs devoted to training and technical assistance to external entities and allowing the agency to offer more non-fee-based outreach events to those populations less able to pay for training.

The Training Institute provides a wide variety of fee-based to assist private sector employers, and state, local, and federal government agencies in educating their managers and employees on the laws enforced by EEOC and how to prevent and eradicate discrimination in the workplace. The Training Institute offers workshops, courses, and conferences on a variety of EEO compliance issues including but not limited to current developments regarding EEOC guidance. Additionally, the Training Institute provides Respectful Workplaces employee training, Leading for Respect manager and supervisor training, and compliance training related to the 2016 Report of the Co-Chairs of the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace.

In FY 2022, the events were conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In FY 2022, the Training Institute conducted virtual workshops, courses, conferences, and Customer Specific Training (CSTs). Below is a more in-depth explanation of each type of program offered by the Training Institute in FY 2022.

Technical Assistance Program Workshops. In FY 2022, the RF continued the new product line introduced in FY 2021 to take advantage of the virtual training environment and to provide even more opportunities for employees and employers to receive training, education, and information about their respective rights and obligations to prevent and eradicate workplace discrimination. The Training Institute continued to offer 1-hour (breakfast and lunch briefings), 2-hour, 3-hour (half-day), and 5-hour (full-day) workshops. These workshops were extremely successful as they allowed EEOC field offices to partner together, pool their creative ideas and resources, and maximize revenue potential. These workshops received excellent evaluations from attendees. In FY 2022, the Training Institute conducted 16 national (1, 2, 3, and 5-hour) workshops with 2,444 attendees.

Customer Specific Training. The Customer Specific Training (CST) programs provide training and education for employees, managers, supervisors, and human resource professionals from private sector employers and State, local, and federal government agencies on their EEO responsibilities and how to prevent and eradicate workplace discrimination. The Training Institute can design customized courses to be delivered at employers’ worksites, including virtual delivery during this pandemic period. In FY 2022, the Training Institute conducted 184 virtual CST events that reached 5,008 attendees. Of those events, 63 events focused on Respectful Workplaces employee training (789 attendees) and Leading for Respect manager and supervisor training (787 attendees).

National Federal Courses and Federal Agency Training. The Training Institute offers federal courses that are designed to meet training requirements for EEO practitioners working throughout the federal government. In FY 2022, there were 42 national federal courses with approximately 1,241 attendees and 42 federal agency training sessions with approximately 2,100 attendees. Of the federal agency training sessions, six focused on Respectful Workplaces employee training and Leading for Respect manager and supervisor training.

Due to federal agency COVID-19 guidelines, the RF did not conduct any in-person training in FY 2022. It used virtual platforms to meet the training needs of its external stakeholders. As a result, the RF successfully met its financial, operational, and program requirements.

Table 11 below shows the financial summary of the Revolving Fund.

 

*May not add due to rounding

**Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (BBEDCA) Section 256(k) (2): Mandatory Sequestration for FY 2020, $177,000, FY 2021, $228,000, FY 2022, $193,538, FY 2023, $171,000 (included in the Net Budget Authority line above.)

EXAMINING CONFLICTS IN EMPLOYMENT LAWS CONFERENCE

The agency held its 25^th Annual Examining Conflicts in Employment Laws (EXCEL) Training Conference for both federal sector and private sector EEO practitioners.

The conference started with a joint opening plenary session by EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja, and OFCCP Director Jenny Yang. Additionally, Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels provided closing remarks on the conference’s final day. The conference received outstanding feedback from participants. A record number of 874 participants attended from the federal and private sectors. The conference offered 36 workshops and several breakout sessions that covered COVID-19 related topics as well as significant employment law and EEO compliance issues. The conference generated approximately $682,680 in net revenue.

 

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VIII.      MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVE – Achieve organizational excellence

A. Introduction

The EEOC’s Management Objective, achieving organizational excellence, seeks to improve management functions with a focus on information technology, infrastructure enhancement, and accountable financial stewardship. These areas are cross-cutting and require integration and coordination across the agency to foster organizational excellence from internal and external perspectives.

The EEOC has developed two outcome goals for the agency’s Management Objective:

Outcome Goal III.A: Staff exemplify a culture of excellence, respect, and accountability; and

Outcome Goal III.B: Resource allocations align with priorities to strengthen outreach, education, enforcement, and service to the public.

Performance Measures 9 through 12 were developed to support these strategies.

B.    Performance Measures and Results

Performance Measure 9 for Outcome Goal III.A.

Performance Measure 9 takes a holistic approach to assessing and strengthening the agency’s efforts to improve employee engagement and inclusiveness. The EEOC does not focus solely on improving Federal Employment Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) scores because that is only one snapshot of agency performance. Annual focus groups and climate assessments enable ongoing feedback mechanism to engage with staff and seek their input on solutions to agency challenges.

The FY 2022 targets for this measure were to conduct annual focus groups and climate assessment(s) with employees for feedback on agency culture and implement plans as necessary, to maintain or increase the EEOC’s FEVS scores. During Q1 of FY 2022, the BEST Workgroup conducted focus groups with employees based on five FEVS focus areas and briefed the Chair on the results and the agency’s culture. Also, OPM released the EEOC’s Employee Engagement Index (EEI) score of 78 percent for the agency, a decline of 2 percentage points from 80 percent in FY 2021. However, OPM also introduced the DEIA Index in FY 2022, which replaced the Inclusion Index from previous years – effectively eliminating the requirement to compare prior year EEI results, based on the agency’s FY 2022 FEVS score. DEIA Index is specifically designed to align with Executive Order 14035 and emphasizes the four components in Equal Opportunity: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. In FY 2022, the EEOC’s average score for DEIA was 81 percent, which exceeded the Government-wide average of 69 percent by 12 percentage points, and the average for medium-sized agencies of 75 percent by 6 percentage points.

Performance Measure 10 for Outcome Goal III.A.

Performance Measure 10 focuses on obtaining feedback on services provided to the public. It also supports the goal of obtaining and evaluating feedback from the targeted audiences the Commission serves to allow better measurement of the agency’s service delivery and increased accessibility.

The FY 2022 targets for Performance Measure 10 were to continue to implement feedback surveys and related mechanisms from the public and targeted audiences the EEOC serves, to adjust the measures and targets, as necessary, and set goals for improvement or maintenance of the agency’s service delivery and increased accessibility annually.

As part of the annual assessment of the ADR program, an e-survey was issued at the end of FY 2022 to provide an assessment of participant satisfaction on the adaptation to remote mediation sessions. Results were issued and made available to the public in June 2022 on EEOC’s external website via a report titled, “EEOC Mediation Participants in Online Mediation and Comparison to In-Person Mediation” Also in FY 2022, the Revolving Fund utilized revised survey measures to secure feedback from attendees at all workshops, customer specific trainings, and the annual EXCEL Conference. The FY 2022 EXCEL conference design and presentations were modified based on the prior fiscal year’s conference to make further enhancement in FY 2023.

Performance Measure 11 for Outcome Goal III.B:

Performance Measure 11 allows the agency to track and assess progress on migration to a fully digital charge/complaint environment. The benefits of such modernization include improved collaboration and knowledge sharing, enhanced data integrity, reduced paper file storage or manual archiving/disposition requirements; and allowing a more mobile workforce. Streamlined services and increased responsiveness to users throughout the process will be regularly evaluated. The FY 2022 target for Performance Measure 11 was to report on progress quarterly and adjust the plan, as necessary.

During FY 2022, the modernization team defined and developed an end-to-end charge management solution for the agency’s private sector processes and the accompanying processes for its FEPA partners. Over 200 requirements workgroup meetings, requirement reviews, and demonstrations were conducted in support of this program. These requirement efforts were critical to the development of nine common services, which are the foundation of the modernized system, and 20 app modules, which are the enabling tools for private sector and FEPA processes. The private sector component of the modernized system, now branded as ARC, was deployed on January 18, 2022, to 145 EEOC and FEPA offices, with demonstrations of the system and training for staff before full implementation. Development of ARC then shifted to modernizing the litigation and federal sector services components of the agency’s charge management system. ARC Litigation Case Management was deployed in January 2023 with Litigation Appeals targeted for Spring 2023. Federal sector services will follow, for deployment in CY 2023.

Briefings were provided throughout the fiscal year to senior agency managers and the TMF Board to apprise them of the project’s progress and to solicit feedback and input on key issues and proposed modifications to system design and launch. Status updates were also shared with the GSA in accordance with TMF requirements.

Performance Measure 12 for Outcome Goal III.B.

At every level within the EEOC, a common understanding of how the strategic priorities direct the work of the agency is necessary for success. The EEOC will achieve this common understanding in various ways, including integrating Strategic Plan goals within performance standards and ensuring that budget submissions from each component office explain how the agency’s resources will be used to implement the strategies and goals outlined in the Strategic Plan. By developing a strong and clear message for use in budget documents and other publications, the agency demonstrates the nexus between its budget requests, allocations, and operating plans and the achievement of its mission and vision.

The FY 2022 targets for Performance Measure 12 were to submit the EEOC’s FY 2023 Congressional Budget Justification and the 2022 Operating Plan and prepare the EEOC’s FY 2024 Performance (OMB) Budget that aligns resources with the Strategic Plan. These documents were all submitted in a timely manner and clearly explained how resources aligned with strategic priorities. The final FY 2022 Operating Plan was approved by the Chair on March 15, 2022. The agency’s Fiscal Year 2023 Congressional Budget Justification was submitted to Congress on March 28, 2022. The FY 2024 Performance Budget was submitted to OMB on September 12, 2022.

C.    Program Areas

1.         Highlighted Resource Area

Table 12 below shows our highlighted budgetary resources for Information Technology (IT) under Strategic Objective III. For this strategic objective, the agency’s resources are allocated between Strategic Objective I and Strategic Objective II to identify the full cost of conducting our front-line programs, including all of the elements of our operations supporting those programs.

 

2.         Human Resources

a.     Workforce Planning

The EEOC has undergone several changes to its operations and workforce over the years. As a result of the pandemic in FYs 2020, 2021 and 2022, and early 2023, the EEOC successfully pivoted and adjusted operations to effectively deliver its mission and results. In order to continue to serve the public effectively, the EEOC must conduct workforce planning to holistically staff and analyze the impact of changes in the laws and the workplace and develop and implement strategies to reshape/reform existing workforce structures, staffing, and functions for its offices.

In August 2017, OPM conducted a human capital management evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the EEOC’s strategic management of human capital, the efficiency and effectiveness of its human resources programs, and compliance with merit system principles, laws, and regulations. The findings indicated that the EEOC lacked comprehensive information and plans to recruit strategically its current workforce, plan for future staffing levels and leadership continuity, and ensure its training programs support agency needs. In FY 2018 through FY 2020, the EEOC started a workforce planning initiative and made comprehensive changes with improvements to hiring, recruitment, training, and retention. As a result of the pandemic, the EEOC effectively adjusted operations in FY 2020, 2021, 2022 and early 2023 due to the pandemic but must now complete robust workforce planning with ongoing analysis and staffing plans that allow leadership to identify and use human capital (and technology) strategies best suited to support the EEOC’s current and future organizational goals in FY 2023, FY 2024, and beyond.

b.     Training and Retention

The EEOC is focused on training and developing employees at all levels – non-supervisory employees, team leads, supervisors, managers, and executive-level staff. The EEOC will accomplish this continuous learning at all levels through talent management, ensuring our Headquarters and Field Offices identify and close skills gaps, and implement and maintain programs to attract, recruit, develop, promote, and retain quality and diverse talent so the agency can accomplish its mission.

The EEOC will continue to provide all employees with a comprehensive training program and expand access to learning and development through four primary approaches: 1) training activities responsive to their individual and executive development plans (IDP/EDP); 2) internally sponsored, instructor-led courses, workshops, and webinars; 3) training programs addressing position-related competency needs; and 4) online courses available through the EEOC Learning Management System (LMS). We will use a strategic approach to deliver these training programs for effective talent management. In FY 2024 and beyond, we will use agency strategic goals, focusing on necessary competencies, and continue developing a Talent Management and Leadership Succession Plan for employees at all levels. The plan is the result of our review of a variety of resources, including other agencies’ leadership succession plans, Field and Headquarters perspectives, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance, Government Accountability Office (GAO), the EEOC Office of Inspector General (OIG) Reports, and information regarding organizational planning for succession in both the private and public sectors. We will also consider the EEOC’s performance reports, employee surveys, our Human Capital Operating Plan, and guidance/feedback on aspects of the plan from the EEOC Executive Resources Board.

We intend to address our future leadership needs in a coordinated and thoughtful manner. The Talent Management and Leadership Succession Plan will provide the reasoning and blueprint for addressing the anticipated loss of experienced leaders by providing a process to identify and prepare well-qualified individuals to lead the agency into the future. Strong leadership will ensure a continued commitment to the agency’s mission and successful accomplishment of our goals.

During FY 2023, we will continue to expand web-based and virtual training as the EEOC continues to make significant investments in IT resources to increase bandwidth and modernize computer systems to handle increased traffic to train and develop employees at all levels. Virtual training opportunities remain very popular – allowing the EEOC to convey relevant information and timely updates to our staff in all of our 15 Districts and Headquarters locations reaching a vast amount of EEOC’s employee population.

The EEOC launched a new, more robust LMS in FY 2021, that significantly aided the agency in strategically planning and administering learning and talent management activities for its staff, tracking employee course completions, conducting pre- and post-testing to measure results, and gathering data needed to submit required reports on agency training activities to OPM. In FY 2023, the EEOC plans to launch additional learning and development platforms to our system capabilities to deliver quality training for the workforce, to include a new leadership development on-demand platform, along with a language platform to assist employees in better serving the communities in which we provide services. We will continue to explore new learning modalities in this area to add to our system offerings in FY 2024.

Training for newly hired investigators is central to the agency’s ability to conduct effective efficient investigations. In the first quarter of FY 2022, training was conducted for 103 new investigators, as well as 48 Investigative Support Assistants (ISAs), and 30 Office Automation Assistants (OAAs). Toward the end of the second quarter FY 2022, the EEOC held New Investigator Training for 55 participants, which included new EEOC investigators as well as investigative staff from Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPA) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Each New Investigator Training was a two-week intensive introductory level training for investigative staff that covers important topics that are critical to the development of New Investigators. In addition, in the first quarter FY 2022, with the recent hiring of new hearings staff, OFP virtually launched “AJ Academy,” the first national training program for administrative judges.

The agency held four training sessions for all enforcement staff nationwide on identifying, investigating, and conciliating systemic discrimination. Furthermore, training was provided on new and emerging issues that all investigators need to effectively handle, including matters related to COVID-19 (for example, discrimination related to disability, religious accommodation, and discrimination and harassment against Asian-American and Pacific Islanders), increased awareness surrounding LGBTQI+ issues to ensure robust implementation of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Bostock v Clayton County, and the EEOC’s alignment with Executive Order 13175 and our relationship with Native American Tribes and Tribal Employment Rights Offices (TEROs). The EEOC held both the FEPA conference and the TERO conference at the beginning of the fourth quarter, FY 2022.

In the second quarter FY 2022, the EEOC held a joint training with the Office of Field Programs (OFP), Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to provide two substantive training sessions on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This training was tailored to focus on the needs of the field FOIA staff to assist them with completing their work.

Leading up to the launch of the new charge management system in January 2022, ARC, the EEOC conducted several training sessions to ensure staff were trained and prepared for the new digital charge system. This resulted in open communications and support throughout the Agency, and a successful transition.

In late FY 2022, the EEOC designed and conducted a systemic conference for approximately 70 employees from across the country. That conference consisted of a two-day, hands-on, interactive case study simulating a hiring process that used artificial intelligence. Participants practiced the skills of interviewing a charging party to frame the systemic violation and drafting requests for information to gather data from Respondent. This conference helped to develop critical skills for field investigators and attorneys. As we bring on new staff, we will continue to provide these types of trainings in FY 2023 to position us for success going forward.

Because the EEOC has begun to rebuild the agency’s capacity by hiring many new attorneys in FY 2021 and FY 2022, we conducted a three-day, virtual New Trial Attorney Orientation training in FY 2022, and we conducted a three-day in-person New Attorney training for 50 attorneys from legal units around the Nation in early FY 2023. We plan to conduct more in-person training and conferences for Trial Attorneys and legal unit leadership from across the country. These meetings are vital to engagement and retention of the field legal units, as they share strategies and best practices about litigation and performance management.

In FY 2022, OGC conducted two skills-based training sessions with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), on oral advocacy. A total of 53 trial attorneys attended. These learning-by-doing trainings enhance the ability of trial attorneys to litigate cases independently and bring quality advocacy to the litigation program. In FY 2022, we also conducted training for approximately 30 trial attorneys and 20 legal support staff on electronic stored information (ESI) matters. The training covered the EEOC’s internal ESI policies, litigation support services, preserving, collecting, and producing ESI from claimants and aggrieved individuals, and obtaining ESI from defendants and third parties. In FY 2022, we held basic Relativity training for new employees. Recognizing the importance of technology, we continued to offer monthly virtual technology trainings for trial attorneys and legal support staff, highlighting various technological tools which can make their work more efficient. In FY 2022, we also coordinated with an outside vendor to provide monthly legal professional development training to paralegals and legal support staff. Additionally, we arranged for the LitSupport staff and three attorneys to attend a four-month training program to become certified e-discovery specialists. As we bring on new staff, we will need to provide these types of trainings in FY 2024, including in-person, to position us for success going forward.

The EEOC strives to make continuous improvements to our training programs to ensure our employees at all levels have the knowledge and skills to effectively perform their duties. In FY 2023, the EEOC will continue providing mandated training requirements to employees and will partner with the Small Agency Council to provide expanded training courses from Shared Service providers Training Centers.

c.     Performance Management

In FY 2021 and 2022, the EEOC satisfied the requirements outlined in OMB memorandum (M-19-24) regarding “Guidance on Awards for Employee and Agency Workforce Fund Plan.” In accordance with M-19-24, the EEOC implemented a balance between performance/rating-based awards and individual/contribution awards that supported the strategic use of awards and recognition throughout the year and addressed workforce challenges by allocating rating-based awards in a manner that recognize high performing employees.

d.     Recruitment and Retention

In FY 2024, in support of our Workforce Planning initiative, the EEOC will develop a Workforce Plan and Recruitment and Retention Plan for the field and headquarters offices to improve overall recruitment and retention to ensure we retain increased staffing levels.

The EEOC will continue to act in accordance with OPM and OMB guidance and executive orders to ensure compliance with the federal recruitment requirements by providing tools and resources needed to attract and retain talent at all levels. To support our Recruitment and Retention strategy to fill and retain positions year-round, the EEOC will use a wide range of hiring flexibilities to rebuild and increase agency staffing including encouraging Schedule A hiring of persons with disabilities; continued use of non-competitive veterans hiring appointments; using internships, fellowships, and early career hiring programs that include the Pathways Programs (Internship, Recent Graduates, and Presidential Management Fellows), College Graduate, and Law Clerk/Attorney Honors Program for entry level positions; encouraging Military Spouses appointments; collaborating with AmeriCorps VISTA/Peace Corps for various appointments; and building strategic partnerships and alliances with stakeholders such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AAPISIs), Tribal Nations, local high schools, and colleges/universities.

Simultaneously, as part of the Workforce Planning strategy, the EEOC will closely monitor and analyze, recruitments and separations of highly qualified candidates and employees due to retirements, transfers to other agencies, and separations for employment outside of the Federal Government. By utilizing recruitment, relocation, and retention (3Rs) incentives and employee development, the EEOC will strategically address human capital needs and build and maintain a high-performing workforce with essential skills and competencies to ensure we retain our talent and staffing numbers.

In FY 2023, the EEOC will continue to provide Work-Life programs, including Employee Assistance Programs for our entire workforce to support work-life balance that ultimately helps with employee retention to maintain and support the EEOC workforce.

e.     Addressing Internal Workplace Issues

RESOLVE is the EEOC’s internal Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program that provides a forum for the informal resolution of workplace disputes (including griev­ances and EEO complaints) among the Commission’s staff at headquarters and the 53 field offices. Mediation is the most commonly used ADR process within the program. Informal resolution can also be used in lieu of, prior to, or after mediation. If several employees are involved in a conflict, group facilitation may be used to address office wide concerns. We have seen that addressing workplace issues early and effectively helps foster amicable working relationships, enhances employee morale and produc­tivity, and reduces the financial and other resources associated with workplace conflict. Our ADR program will: 1) continue outreach to all of the Commission’s staff, 2) will serve as a resource for individual employees and groups of employees, and 3) continue to conduct seminars to help employees develop conflict resolution skills.

The Office for Civil Rights, Diversity and Inclusion (OCRDI), under the direction of the Chair, provides leadership in the development, implementation and evaluation of the EEOC internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) and civil rights programs, including investigations, compliance, and affirmative employment programs; the EEOC’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs; and the agency’s reasonable accommodation (medical, religious, and interpreter services, etc.,) programs. OCRDI was created in August 2022 in response to President Biden’s Executive Order No. 14035 (Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce).

OCRDI provides technical guidance, advice, investigations, and support services to managers, executive staff, employees, applicants for employment and other services on the Federal government’s equal opportunity and civil rights program; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs; and reasonable accommodation program in accordance with Section 717 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Sections 501 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; Section 403 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended; Executive Order 11478, as amended by Executive Order 12106; Executive Order 14035, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Workplace; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; the Civil Rights Act of 1991; the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008; and title 29, Code of Federal Regulations, part 1614.

OCRDI serves as a liaison and central organization to design and implement DEIA programs, investigate employee and applicant inquiries and complaints, and handle all reasonable accommodation requests. The OCRDI director is responsible for the establishment of effective and efficient formal and informal procedures for prevention and investigation of agency internal civil rights and DEIA issues.

OCRDI provides overall leadership and management of agency-wide training and development of policies and programs designed to establish, maintain, and enhance internal EEO and civil rights, DEIA, non-discrimination practices, and a healthy organizational culture across the agency.

3. Public Service

Across the agency, we are working to better serve the public by making our services easier to access, reducing wait times and providing information in plain language that is readily understood.

Through our Intake Information Group (IIG), the EEOC expanded the agency’s public accessibility by phone, e-mail, and video phone service for the deaf and hard of hearing. The IIG consists of in-house staff who serve as the first line of contact for many members of the public and is accessible via toll-free phone lines and e-mail. The IIG received over 475,000 calls in FY 2022 (an 18.8 percent increase from FY 2021); and it is on track for a similar call volume in FY 2023. In FY 2022, approximately 46.76 percent of callers utilized the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) information system and needed no further assistance. Centralizing this first point of access to the public to a single entity has a significant impact on our field offices by enabling them to spend more time on investigating and resolving charges of discrimination. Many of these callers seek general information about their rights, office locations and phone numbers and other types of information more efficiently provided through this centralized service. In FY 2022, on average each month our IIG Contact Representatives answered more than 39,500 calls, 5,725 emails and approximately 75 video phone transactions from individuals wanting more information or wishing to discuss their situation with an EEOC representative. In FY 2022, over 74 percent of calls, emails, and videophone calls answered by the IIG Contact Representatives were fully resolved by the IIG Contact Representatives without being referred to other staff in the EEOC field offices. Assessing all contact channels combined, the IIG Contact Representatives received almost 544,560 transactions in FY 2022, and we anticipate a higher volume in FY 2023. Investments made in the Intake Information Group have allowed the EEOC to expand its reach and more efficiently serve the public. Previously, the EEOC’s investigators in each EEOC office responded to calls from the public. In FY 2022, our staff of approximately 39 IIG Contact Representatives, handled over 400,000 contacts without the need to forward them to EEOC investigators. As noted above, using IIG Contact Representatives to handle calls allows investigators to be more productive and efficient and enhances our service to the public. In FY 2022, each EEOC investigator continued to resolve an average of 129 charges.

In the third quarter FY 2022, the IIG undertook the significant challenge of implementing a new telephony contract, along with a new/updated software platform. This new technology enables the IIG to significantly improve customer service by, among other things, leveraging new self-help features for the public and increasing the IIG’s ability to successfully address a higher percentage of inquiries without having to forward them to other parts of the Agency. The IIG implemented this new technology while simultaneously maintaining all of the high-quality services referenced above to all internal and external stakeholders of the EEOC who seek assistance from the EEOC on a daily basis.

As noted above, the EEOC has also increased the agency’s accessibility to individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. As technology has moved forward, video phones have become the preferred method of communication for many individuals whose primary language is American Sign Language (ASL). When instituted, the EEOC was one of only three federal agencies (along with the Federal Communications Commission and the Small Business Administration) offering interactive video calls to the public. Staff members were hired to answer and respond to calls using ASL through videophones. Callers who are deaf or hard of hearing are able to have direct access to the EEOC staff, rather than through intermediaries, such as interpreters or video relay service. In FY 2022 approximately 898 video calls were handled by the IIG, and we anticipate that number to increase in FY 2023. We will continue to assess the public demand for ASL services to determine if additional staffing resources are needed to support this aspect of our service to the public.

The IIG continues to lead the way in advancing remote work, thus helping to reduce our physical footprint and reduce costs. In addition to the seven individuals hired for remote work with the IIG through a partnership with the National Telecommuting Institute (NTI), the option for remote work status had been expanded to all IIG Contact Representatives. Prior to the pandemic, 74 percent of the IIG Contact Representatives teleworked full-time. During the period of the agency’s shift to 100 percent telework due to the pandemic, the IIG operations were able to successfully continue with all staff working remotely. The IIG was able to operate at optimal levels because of the experience gained during prior years of using telework. Currently all IIG Contact Representatives have elected remote work status.

Beyond the contacts made through our IIG, another significant part of our work is addressing inquiries that do not ultimately become charges. These inquiries involve significant amount of staff time. In many instances where inquiries are submitted, staff interview the individual in depth and counsel the individual as to their rights, responsibilities, and the process. In FY 2022, the EEOC received more than 218,000 inquiries in field offices, an almost 10 percent increase from the prior fiscal year, over 160,700 of those inquiries were filed through the online intake and appointment scheduling system.

The EEOC has had a continual focus on enhancing its charge intake services, including through the expansion of walk-in hours, and issuance of a plain language brochure to assist potential charging parties in understanding their rights and the EEOC charge handling process. Individuals may contact the agency by phone, by mail, by e-mail, and by facsimile, by going to the EEOC’s website, or by visiting the EEOC field offices. In October 2018, the agency expanded the Online Inquiry and Scheduling System to all 53 field offices. This system allows potential charging parties to submit a pre-charge inquiry for review and schedule an appointment for an intake interview.

4. Information Technology - Digital Transformation

The EEOC is committed to digital transformation to increase its efficiency and to provide timely and effective service to the public. This encompasses everything the agency does, from increasing the efficacy of its administrative processes to better supporting mission-related activities in enforcement and litigation that are directed at stopping and remedying unlawful employment discrimination. These efforts are organized around three strategic IT goals:

• Transform the way the EEOC serves the public by making its charge complaint, and appeal processes transparent and providing information to its constituents online and on demand.
• Streamline processes to improve customer service for constituents, including individuals, state and local partners, Federal agencies, businesses, and other organizations.
• Improve productivity by providing agency employees secure access to the tools, data, and documents they require.

The first and most important effort of the agency’s digital transformation efforts is the modernization of its charge/case management system. The EEOC’s Strategic Plan required that the EEOC “complete a shared vision and develop high-level plans with resource requirements for modernizing [our] charge/case management system.” To meet this goal the agency submitted a proposal to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), an innovative funding vehicle that uses a competitive vetting process to make funds available to federal agencies for technology improvements. After a process that included developing project proposals, a high-level project plan, a technical architecture, and a full business case, the TMF Board awarded the agency $4 million dollars, in two $2 million tranches. The initial TMF funds were received in early 2020, with the second $2 million received in FY 2022. These TMF funds have provided the EEOC with the resources to modernize the legacy technology and data structure of its now 22-year-old Integrated Mission System (IMS) over a three-year period.

Over 22 months, the modernization team defined and developed an end-to-end charge management solution to enable the agency’s Private Sector processes and the accompanying processes for its Fair Employment Practices Agency (FEPA) partners.

Over 230 requirements workgroup meetings, requirement reviews, and demonstrations were conducted in support of this program. These requirement efforts were critical to the development of nine common services, which are the foundation of the modernized system, and 20 app modules, which are the enabling tools for Private Sector and FEPA processes.

The modernized system – now branded as the Agency Records Center (ARC) – was deployed in January 2022. The EEOC completed this large-scale deployment – to 145 EEOC and FEPA offices – after significant user acceptance testing and training efforts. The agency is committed to the change management activities crucial to the program’s success and developed and presented more than 35 national-led trainings and demonstrations. Feedback for this effort was universally positive. The EEOC is now modernizing Litigation and Federal Sector Services. Litigation Case Management went live within ARC in January 2023. The development of Litigation Appeals is underway, with the Federal Sector Services in the wings for delivery in CY 2023.

Modernizing its legacy charge/case management while also transitioning to new, more effective, peripheral digital systems is complex, and the success of both is essential to the agency’s mission. These supplementary efforts have included:

• The EEOC previously launched our Public Portals, providing online services for parties to submit inquiries, schedule an interview, formalize charges, exchange documents, identify processing preferences, check status, and update contact information – without the need to visit an EEOC office or use mail services. Similarly, the EEOC deployed electronic services to our public sector constituents, bringing the EEOC’s federal sector online services on par with the private sector. The companion Federal Sector EEO Portal (FedSEP), which provides online services to Federal Agency OEO offices, integrates with the public sector side of the EEOC Public Portal for information and document exchange.
  
  We conservatively estimated that the use of private sector online services saves over 41,000 hours of investigator time (almost two weeks per investigator) annually.  Electronic service also results in printing/postal/processing savings for the field offices’ clerical staff, freeing each enforcement office administrative assistant from more than seven days of work to perform other tasks. In addition to these cost savings and efficiency gains, the EEOC’s Public Portals proved to be a critical success factor in the agency’s ability to provide continuity of services to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  Beginning in FY 2023, and continuing in FY 2024, the EEOC will modernize its Public Portals with expanded language offerings, more granular data, new services, and improved interview scheduling made possible by the ARC implementation.
• In FY 2020, the agency modernized its over ten-year old external website, eeoc.gov. The new website is based on secure open-source technologies and improves our constituents experience, better promotes the agency’s message, integrates more effectively with our social media activities, supports multi-language capabilities, provides a mobile responsive platform for easier viewing on phones and tablets, and is fully compliant with applicable accessibility standards. In FY 2021, the agency integrated multi-language capabilities into eeoc.gov to further reduce barriers in providing information and services to our constituents. As of FY 2022, eeoc.gov provides some services in 9 languages, with additional expansion underway.
  
  Also, during FY 2021, the EEOC migrated its out-of-support legacy intranet site, InSite, to SharePoint. Both the eeoc.gov and inSite migration efforts helped partially resolve an open OIG finding regarding “out-of-date infrastructure supporting legacy EEOC systems and services.” The migration of EEOC’s final at-risk system, our legacy Document Management System, to SharePoint, was completed in January 2023 – closing out this multi-year risk finding.
• In accordance with another of the EEOC’s Strategic Plan goals – to “[align resources] with priorities to strengthen outreach [and] education,” the agency conducted market research for cloud-based software-as-a-service Outreach and Engagement solutions to support the activities of OFP, OFO, and OGC. Prototyping of a new solution will begin in FY 2023, with procurement, development, and deployment continuing through FY 2024.

For digital transformation projects to achieve the goals of increased efficiency and improved service, the EEOC needed to invest in the infrastructure necessary to support a digital workplace. Accomplishments and plans in this area include:

• The EEOC previously expanded Field Offices and Headquarters network capacity to better support operations and prepare for the transition to unified communications, including investments to replace outdated network equipment. These efforts provided highly available, secure, data communication capabilities that are critical to our development of digital workplace. Initial bandwidth expansion was completed in FY 2021 via the Federal Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. EIS is expected to reduce the agency’s annual data communications costs by nearly 50 percent, which are being re-invested in increased bandwidth – enabling agency personnel to communicate with voice, video, and data from all locations. The network investments for the EEOC’s Headquarters, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and Microsoft Office 365/Azure connections enabled the EEOC to support fulltime remote telework brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  During FY 2023, the EEOC will continue to modernize our network infrastructure and will implement enterprise wireless capabilities, facilitating communication and collaboration throughout the EEOC office space and removing physical workstation-based connectivity limitations.
• In FY 2020, the agency completed its shift from its aging Novell directory and file services to investments in Microsoft Office 365 and Azure. Completion of these efforts enabled the agency to migrate its primary device operating system to Windows 10 during FY 2021. To address concerns associated with deploying a major upgrade during the pandemic and fulltime remote work, the EEOC developed a fully automated re-imaging / restore process that allowed laptop migrations to be performed via three methods, all following strict COVID-19 protocols: no-contact on-premise laptop swaps/upgrades, curbside (drive-through) laptop swaps, and shipped swaps. In FY 2022, the agency introduced “auto-pilot” deployments, enabling laptops to be reimaged and updated fully remotely, without attachment to the agency network. This automation will significantly improve the security and version control of our endpoints, especially for fully remote workers. During FYs 2023 and 2024, the EEOC will continue to refresh end-user equipment – mobile devices, laptops, peripherals, and multi-function devices – and will deploy the Windows 11 upgrade.

To improve remote collaboration and communication capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EEOC aggressively deployed Microsoft Teams enterprise-wide. Deploying and utilizing Teams so rapidly, including developing written guidance, video presentations and remote training, helped transform the way the EEOC communicates – as EEOC employees are now able to use the enhanced chat, file, meeting, and videoconferencing capabilities in Teams. This effort was expanded to provide Teams voice capabilities enterprise-wide, enabling staff to make and receive external calls during full-time remote work.

• The migration from legacy telephone systems to unified communications was completed in FY 2021, saving the agency over $1.2 million annually, which will be reinvested in other needed IT services.
• The EEOC continued its migration from on-premises and hosted data centers to cloud services.  In FY 2021, the agency developed a roadmap and long-term success goals for its Azure Commercial tenant, including governance, policy enforcement, cost management, automation, and integrated security – factors that will enable the EEOC to leverage secure cloud services and manage costs going forward.  In FY 2022, the agency increased its Azure Commercial workload usage and, at the same time, reduced costs by leveraging Azure Hybrid Use Benefits, reserving Virtual Machine instances, and automating storage repository cleanup.
• One of the significant challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic was provisioning laptops to the summer interns that were preparing to on-board. Understanding the importance of this resource, and the time constraints related to their service, in less than one month the EEOC designed and provisioned a secure Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) environment for interns use. WVD allows interns to securely connect to EEOC systems and services from their personal laptops at their remote locations. Using the EEOC’s Azure cloud infrastructure, WVD services are ramped up or down to more efficiently and cost effectively meet these fluctuating needs. Due to the success of this effort, the WVD platform has been expanded to support the EEOC’s continuity of operations, advanced data analytics, and litigation support requirements.

*This table includes cybersecurity FTE costs.

Securing the EEOC’s digital workplace is a critical part of the agency’s plans, with priorities developed and put in place to protect data that is central to the agency's mission and the privacy of the people the EEOC serves. The EEOC acquired several systems and services what will enhance security capabilities to better identify, analyze, and resolve internal vulnerabilities.

In January 2022, OMB released M-22-09, Federal Zero Trust Strategy, requiring agency enterprise security architectures to be based on Zero Trust (ZT) principles. During FY 2022, the EEOC made significant progress in implementing Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) requirements across all five pillars: Identity, Device, Network, Application, and Data. This work will expand significantly in FYs 2023 and 2024, as outlined below:

• The ZTA Network pillar is one of the core capability models. In FY 2022, the EEOC initiated the implementation of network access control (NAC), limiting and securing network access to only government-furnished devices. In FY 2023, the EEOC will complete a comprehensive evaluation of zero trust network capabilities and begin the incremental implementation of Software Defined Networking/Perimeter (SDN/P). SDN/P will provide secure access to EEOC’s enterprise resources and applications without a VPN. The EEOC is evaluating both SDN standalone and cloud service offerings. SDN/P implementation, which will continue into FY 2024, will enable the EEOC with network segmentation, zero trust network access, and access control. Furthermore, it allows for removing VPN infrastructure and eliminating points of exposure.
• The EEOC currently leverages various technologies and security controls to gain contextual details and obtain a greater understanding of performance, behavior, and activity baselines across ZTA pillars. This visibility improves detection of anomalous behavior and provides the ability to make dynamic changes to security policies and enforce real-time access decisions. In FY 2024, the EEOC will expand focus on Data pillar of the ZTA capability model. The SDN/P implementation, outlined above, will address some elements of data in-motion activities. FY 2024 activities will expand to data at rest – reviewing data, inventory, categorizing, and labeling. These activities will provide extra visibility into data and how it is accessed and used, allowing the EEOC to automate categorization, security responses, and granular audits; implement additional data integrity/data spillage techniques; and deploy comprehensive logging and information sharing to meet the needs of zero trust. This includes focusing on monitoring systems, such as sensor data and telemetry, supplementing visibility into activity occurring within the environment and aiding in the triggering of alerts used for response. Automation and orchestration will be additional areas of focus, integrating Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and other automated security tools and managing disparate security systems.
• For the ZTA Identity pillar, in order to better meet ZT requirements for all agency-provided devices, the EEOC made a strategic decision to move away from the prior PIV-based device-login solution to a new password-less Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) strategy - providing a strong, non-impersonable authentication process for all agency resource access. In FY 2022, the EEOC piloted and acquired FIDO2/WebAuthn-compliant devices and services for workstation logon, remote desktop (RDP) sessions, network device login, and cloud applications access. Deployment of this new ZT MFA service will be completed in FY 2023. In addition, in FY 2022, the EEOC established a MOU with GSA’s Technology Transformation Services for Login.Gov integration. The secure sign-in service integration will provide the public with MFA and phishing-resistant authentication methods for EEOC’s public-facing systems. In early FY 2023, the EEOC completed Login.Gov integration for its public-facing system receiving FOIA requests. Integration work will continue with the EEOC’s other public portals during FYs 2023 and 2024.
• To address requirements for the ZTA Device pillar, in FY 2021, the EEOC deployed Hardware Security Module (HSM) dedicated cryptographic components into the agency’s infrastructure to provide enterprise PKI certificates for workstations, servers, applications, and other IT security efforts. In FY 2022, the EEOC successfully enabled, tested, and deployed a new agency laptop setup experience using Windows Autopilot and Microsoft Intune Endpoint Manager, a cloud-enabled transformative platform for unified and secure endpoint management. The new process: reduces end users’ device setup time by 75 percent; does not require access to EEOC’s Network for provisioning; and ensures the laptops are up to date with automatic patches and updates, reducing security vulnerabilities. FY 2023 and FY 2024 ZTA efforts under this pillar are focused on improving device authentication, compliance, and inventory management.
• For the ZTA Application pillar, the above referenced deployment of the TMF-funded ARC system utilized DevSecOps practices, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and immutable infrastructure Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) features. In FY 2022, the EEOC coordinated with DHS to conduct a “High Value Asset” (HVA) security assessment review of the new ARC system and its cloud-based environment. The ARC system is designated as an HVA due to its support of EEOC mission essential functions. All findings associated with this DHS review were fully mitigated by early FY 2023. In FY 2024, the EEOC will continue to focus on ZTA secure access cloud and isolation requirements.

In addition to the above efforts, in FY 2022, the agency implemented a Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP), and operational continuous monitoring capabilities through the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program. These expanded controls will significantly reduce cybersecurity risk and allow the agency to better meet FISMA requirements and standards.

On the privacy front, the EEOC implemented Office 365 Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technologies to monitor outgoing external email transmissions for content containing sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers. In FY 2021, the agency also implemented EEOC Secure Share, a secure file transfer solution that enables the agency and external parties to exchange files in a HIPPA and FIPS 140-2 compliant manner. The EEOC will continue to deploy and utilize data-at-rest encryption and other data loss prevention technologies within SharePoint and Azure to better protect and secure the agency’s sensitive data.

Another key IT focus is Enterprise Analytics and Reporting, as the agency has recognized the need to better utilize its data for analytics, such as to support decision making, and operational reporting, to support mission results. The EEOC migrated its IMS-based analytics to Microsoft Power BI, retiring its aging and unsecure Hyperion environment in early FY 2022. For the remainder of FY 2022 and into FY 2023, this work turned to developing Power BI-based reporting and analytics services for its new ARC charge/case management system.

As outlined above, in FY 2022, the EEOC achieved many of our multi-year digital transformation milestones – realizing the related benefits, efficiencies, and cost savings. With sufficient funding in FYs 2023 and 2024, the EEOC will continue to use its newly acquired technologies to their fullest potential – modernizing its network infrastructure, improving digital services, and enhancing information security and privacy through our ZTA strategy and plan.

5.     Finance and Administration

Office Rehabilitations and Relocations

The EEOC continues to collaborate with the General Services Administration (GSA) to right-size space to achieve optimum assigned staff and space capacity ratio of a 70 percent or more capacity utilization rate of EEOC-occupied space.

We continue to prioritize, plan, and execute imminent lease expiration, opportune space reductions, and other major space management operations in support of the agency’s strategic objectives and overall mission.

The EEOC continues to incorporate space reduction or sustainment measures to comply with amended OMB memorandum M-12-12 “Promoting Efficient Spending to Support Agency Operations,” Executive Order 13589 requirements to reduce operating costs and “Reduce the Footprint (RTF).” Measures we employ include, but are not limited to the following:

• The EEOC will employ measures to not increase our total square footage from the FY 2015 RTF baseline. The agency will return to GSA or lessor unneeded or underutilized space (rightsizing); and identify “off-setting” office space to reduce when we must exceed the FY 2015 RTF baseline for one or more of the EEOC’s offices.
• Adherence to Agency Space Allocation Guidelines, for universal application of personnel and office space requirements that include a designated number of two-person private offices dependent upon the total square feet of the office.
• For maximum economic efficiency, the Commission continues to plan space requirements for both the short and long terms and “right-size” offices in conjunction with lease expiration operations. We also fund security and safety improvements and furniture replacement as needed.
• The EEOC also will continue to review all space needs, current and emerging to ensure that we maximize our space utilization and update our space allocation guidelines to adjust for a post-COVID work environment, as detailed in OMB Memorandum M-21-25 “Integrating Planning for A Safe Increased Return of Federal Employees and Contractors to Physical Workplaces with Post-Reentry Personnel Policies and Work Environment, Appendix II.” Our efforts will consider the agency’s mission, current and future workplace needs, and most importantly the impact on the communities we serve. To this end, the EEOC is moving to relocate the Washington Field Office to the first floor of the EEO headquarters building to improve customer access, allow for repurposing their old space to accommodate the newly formed Office for Civil Rights, Diversity and Inclusion (OCRDI); establish a separate physical security office; and, to establish a hoteling/shared space section to accommodate several cubicles and offices for remote workers and enhanced workstation sharing.

Based on the above, the following is a summary of FY 2021 completed space actions and FYs 2022-2024 planned space actions:

• FY 2022: Expiring leases and lease awards, anticipated relocations and office wide re-configuration Commission projects: Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Louisville, Milwaukee, Memphis, Nashville, Norfolk, New York, and Pittsburgh.
• FY 2023: Anticipated expiring lease, relocation, and office wide re-configuration Commission projects: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Greensville, Newark, San Diego, Savannah, and Richmond.
• FY 2024: Anticipated expiring lease, relocation, and office wide re-configuration Commission projects: Raleigh.

Financial Management and Data Analysis

The “Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014” (DATA Act) requires agencies to designate Agency Senior Accountable Officer (SAO) to meet the legislative and regulatory requirements.

The EEOC’s designated SAO is the CFO. The EEOC is taking steps to improve budget, performance and financial data as prescribed by the DATA Act.

Financial and Spending Data Analysis and Compliance

The EEOC currently uses an outdated Oracle Contract Life Cycle Management (CLM) System to procure goods and services. The CLM has many system and control limitations, does not produce 508-compliant documents, and is no longer in compliance with basic regulatory requirements, including the DATA Act, clause and form updates, e.g., Standard Form 26 (SF26), Item 13 is not updated to reflect the past update from March 2013 of “41 U.S.C. 3304(a)”, the authority for using other than full and open competition. Additional help desk support requests for data fix scripts are often required to resolve historical data inputs and revisions to prior workarounds for technical integration obstacles which were required for processing obligations prior to system upgrades. Examples which have surfaced include the following: the inability to receive negative dollar amounts for processing modifications for de-obligations; and, the inability to override actions previously requiring “approved without reporting” for award processing or actions requiring the “technical connectivity failure” option after the FY 2018 system upgrade.

The EEOC is taking various complementary approaches and controls to overcome the CLM system limitation and non-compliance challenges to meet the legislative and regulatory mandates, and to satisfy the DATA Act requirements.

Security, Safety, Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations

In FY 2022, the Commission will complete the installation of an Enterprise Physical Access Control System (ePACS) in all 53 Field Offices and Headquarters. This will bring the EEOC into compliance with HSDP-12, FIPS 201, NIST SP 800-116 and DHS/Interagency Security Committee standards and guidance. Ongoing support, life cycle replacement, office relocation installation, service and maintenance are required.

In FY 2019, the Commission embarked on mitigating active shooter vulnerabilities within their Field Office’s intake areas for offices located in buildings without physical security screening (x-ray and magnetometer) and armed Protective Security Officers. The EEOC, working with GSA, collaborated to install ballistic resistant glass transaction windows in 16 locations without physical security screening and armed Protective Security Officers. The final installation will be complete in FY 2022. Future office relocations into buildings without physical security screening and armed Protective Security Officers will include ballistic glass transaction window installations.

IX. VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF DATA

The agency’s private sector, federal sector, and litigation programs require accurate enforcement data, as well as reliable financial and human resources information, to assess the EEOC’s operations and performance results and make sound management decisions. The EEOC will continue efforts to ensure the accuracy of program information and analysis of the information.

The EEOC systematically reviews the information collected in the agency’s databases for accuracy by using statistical software (e.g., SAS, PowerBI, etc.) and program reviews of a sample of records during field office technical assistance visits. Additionally, headquarters offices regularly conduct analyses to review the information collected to identify erroneous entries requiring correction to collection procedures.

The modernization of the agency’s legacy IMS application to the new ARC system will significantly improve the collection and validation for our program data related to charge intake, investigation, mediation, conciliation, and FEPA functions – migrating away from manual activity-based data entry to automated event-driven recordation. During these modernization efforts, the EEOC has identified many areas where we will be able to further improve and automate our current processes and related data integrity. Because several performance measures require data to assess our achievements, it is significant that we can now obtain more reliable data more quickly.

The EEOC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) continues to review the agency’s data verification and validation procedures, information systems, and databases and offer recommendations for improvements. The agency uses the OIG’s information and recommendations to continually improve the EEOC’s systems and data.

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