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Sharon WongActing DirectorOffice of Diversity and Inclusion
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
PG5 Promote Diversity and Inclusion
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
OPM is responsible for the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion effort focused on developing, driving, and monitoring strategies and initiatives designed to create a more diverse and inclusive Federal workforce. Executive Order 13583, “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce,” challenged the Federal Government with leading by example and attaining a diverse, qualified workforce that enables employees to contribute to their full potential. Similarly, Executive Order 13548, “Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities,” requires agencies to improve their efforts to employ Federal workers with disabilities and targeted disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of these individuals.
In FY 2012, OPM issued the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to provide direction to fifty-seven participating departments and agencies under the two subject Executive Orders. The three primary goals in the Plan included:
- Workforce Diversity. Recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society;
- Workplace Inclusion. Cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and further retention; and
- Sustainability. Develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
In support of the Diversity goal, OPM seeks to improve applicant flow reporting to enable human resources staff and hiring managers to determine whether recruitment efforts have been successful in drawing from all segments of society and to aid in developing future recruitment strategy. Applicant flow data has historically been collected on the basis of race, national origin, and sex, and beginning in 2014, it will be collected on the basis of disability. Historically, the data has been analyzed in an aggregate format; however, through the use of business intelligence tools, applicant flow data for individual hiring actions will be available for review at the hiring manager level after a vacancy has closed, creating incentive for increased hiring manager involvement in the recruitment process and greater opportunity for planning future recruitment efforts.
To further understand how to create an inclusive work environment where employees are fully engaged and productive, OPM and the Department of Veterans Affairs conducted factor analysis on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and found that twenty questions cluster into five areas or behaviors (i.e., fair, open, cooperative, supportive, and empowering) that create inclusive work environments. Based on these five areas, OPM developed the “New IQ” (Inclusion Quotient) techniques and training to assist managers and supervisors in practicing behaviors that foster inclusion, an antecedent to employee engagement. OPM will also continue to focus on the life cycle of the Federal employee to ensure that the Federal workforce is able to hire and develop the best talent from all segments of society, with a focus on internal Diversity and Inclusion efforts to ensure that we serve as a model agency. Internal efforts will focus on the implementation of a data-driven, habit formation strategy that leverages first-line managers and supervisors to foster inclusion and engagement in the OPM workplace.
Strategies
OPM will align business intelligence tools and USA Staffing reports to reflect applicant flow data to encourage and promote diversity and inclusion. For agencies that do not use USA Staffing, OPM will share relevant work requirements and reporting capabilities to inform them about the steps to be taken in working with their own provider to acquire the data. The following strategies will be employed:
- Develop business intelligence tool in 2014 to help decision makers, like hiring managers and supervisors, analyze key workforce data; including applicant flow, attrition/retention, and inclusion indicators.”
- Provide race, national origin, sex, and disability data by job vacancy, once the vacancy has closed;
- Information will be delivered and tracked in a dashboard via USA Staffing to appropriate D&I personnel and hiring managers and shared with other agencies through the diversity and inclusion strategic partnership; and
- All managers will receive training on how to utilize OPM Applicant Flow Data
- Track training and use of New IQ techniques by OPM managers and supervisors
- Provide New IQ training to managers and supervisors;
- Track the use of New IQ techniques within the OPM workforce; and
- Analyze Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey scores for all employees, with an emphasis on people with disabilities and the LGBT community.
Progress Update
While the agency did not meet its target for OPM hiring managers to review applicant flow data for 95 percent of USA Staffing hiring actions, Government-wide, managers and/or Human Resources reviewed applicant flow data for 76.6 percent of USAJOBS hiring actions, exceeding the target of 25 percent due to increased efforts in FY 2015 to make applicant flow data available to more USA Staffing customers.
In FY 2015, OPM refined its approach to applicant flow data, resulting in more targeted and actionable analyses. FY 2014 was the first year that the agency systematically reviewed the data, and looked at it overall – across all positions together. In FY 2015, OPM began to look at the data by occupation, focusing on three occupations with the greatest hiring volume. Towards the end of the year, OPM added three additional occupations. For the year overall, OPM hiring managers reviewed applicant flow data for 60.7 percent of USA Staffing hiring actions. While OMP did not meet the target of 95 percent, applicant flow data is now part of the new OPM HR dashboard and more accessible to associate directors and office heads.
Government-wide, managers and/or Human Resources reviewed applicant flow data for 76.6 percent of USAJOBS hiring actions, exceeding the target of 25 percent due to increased efforts in FY 2015 to make applicant flow data available to more USA Staffing customers.
In 2014, minorities constituted 35.3 percent of the Federal workforce, compared to 34.1 percent in FY 2011; and people with disabilities, including 30 percent or more disabled veterans, represented 12.8 percent of the Federal workforce, reflecting the highest percentage of people with disabilities in Federal service in the past 33 years. Diversity within the Senior Executive Service (SES) also improved, with, for example, women comprising 33.7 percent of the SES, compared to 32.2 percent in FY 2011. With respect to inclusion, data shows that departments and agencies made progress with respect to one facet of OPM’s New Inclusion Quotient (New IQ) (a data-driven strategy that teaches first-line supervisors techniques and behaviors that foster inclusion.) Specifically, the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) data reflects that employees’ positive perceptions of supervisors have increased, with 81 percent reporting that their supervisors treat them with respect, 76 percent feeling that their supervisors listen to what they have to say, and 61 percent agreeing that that their supervisors provide constructive suggestions to improve their performance. OPM will continue to focus internal and Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion efforts on employing data-driven strategies through tools like applicant flow data and the New IQ techniques and through collaboration among agencies on implementation of agency-specific Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plans.
- New IQ training is ongoing for OPM managers and employees. As of September 30, 2015, 87 percent of OPM managers have been trained in the New IQ. OPM employees are strongly encouraged to take this training.
- More than 10,250 human resource and hiring managers have taken the new online course entitled, “A Roadmap to Success: Hiring, Retaining and Including People with Disabilities.” Training is ongoing.
- OPM has launched recruitment and outreach training for SES, managers, and supervisors.
- The agency has launched pilot social media recruiting via LinkedIn with OPM HR staff.
- OPM developed a Habit Scan, a survey where managers are asked how many inclusive habits or activities they have engaged in.
- The agency developed a Simple Pledge in which our senior leaders identify two to four commitments related to diversity, inclusion, engagement, and employee development.
- Chief Human Capitol Officers and Deputy Chief Human Capitol Officers were trained on the New IQ. Additionally, 57 agencies have been briefed on their New IQ scores, and OPM is providing technical assistance on administering the New IQ training in their departments and agencies if they’re not already doing so. 39 of the 57 agencies have received specific technical assistance on the New IQ to create Game Changer experts.
- OPM established a Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Council in March 2015. Through the Council, OPM will develop guidance to cultivate an organizational workplace culture that supports inclusion, employee engagement, transparency, information sharing, cognitive diversity, and equity for all Federal employees.
- The Recruitment, Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Roadmap was rolled out in March 2015. The REDI Roadmap is a comprehensive data-driven, forward-looking human capital management strategy to transform the way the Federal Government attracts, recruits, hires, engages and develops its workforce for the 21st century, and purposely infuses diversity and inclusion throughout the strategies.
Next Steps
No Data Available
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Performance Indicators
Percent of OPM managers trained on the use of the new IQ learning techniques
Percent of managers that have employed techniques from the new IQ
Percent of USA Staffing hiring actions for which OPM hiring managers reviewed applicant flow data
Percent of USAJOBS hiring actions for which managers and/or Human Resources Governmentwide reviewed applicant flow data
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
All OPM organizations have a role in the recruitment of a diverse and talented workforce. Implementation of this strategy is dependent on the Employee Services (ES) (OPM human resources) staff, in coordination with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, to provide program management, policy, guidance, and communication and coordination with hiring managers and employees. Additionally, ES’ Veterans Employment Program Office supports the recruitment and outreach to the veterans’ community. The goal also requires the work of Planning and Policy Analysis (PPA) which is responsible for conducting the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS) and the participation and support of managers at all levels of the agency.
Because this strategy involves leveraging social media and technology, it requires access to social media through official OPM accounts and the support of the Office of Communications. Additionally, the specific recruitment and outreach approaches outlined will require the support of OPM employees, who will extend the outreach of the agency. Dashboard and data analysis tools, along with analytical expertise, are required for ongoing monitoring and feedback.
If agency hiring continues to be extremely constrained by budget limitations, the impact of this goal on the composition of the workforce is similarly constrained. Additionally, without broad hiring, the generalizability of applicant flow data is limited and the results may not be representative of the agency as a whole. For example, if the agency only hires in one location, organization, or occupation, the data cannot be meaningfully extended to represent hypothetical agency-wide hiring, but rather only reflect those limited conditions.
OGC provides legal advice, renders opinions, reviews proposed policies and other work products and comments on their legal efficacy, serves as agency representatives in administrative litigation, and supports the Department of Justice in its representation of the Government on matters concerning the civilian workforce. Diversity and Inclusion objectives can sometimes be in tension with the rules governing staffing and the provision of benefits under Title V of the United States Code, which OPM is responsible for administering. Accordingly, OGC has always closely reviewed all materials related to diversity and inclusion to ensure that they not only comply with the civil rights laws (for example, our initiatives do not unwittingly result in reverse discrimination) but also that they are consistent with the laws for which OPM is responsible, i.e., Title V. Moreover, OGC is closely involved with revisions to regulations to improve the processes for staffing, performance management, and other personnel processes. Finally, OGC defends the agency or liaises with Justice when diversity and inclusion policies and practices are challenged.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
MG1 Diverse and Effective OPM workforce
Statement:
Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Increase applicant flow from groups that underrepresented within OPM and remove barriers where they exist
Description:
- Further developing and implementing our approach to recruitment and outreach.
- Identifying OPM’s unique value proposition as an employer to establish the “OPM Brand” (externally and internally)
- Developing and implementing an approach to internal recruitment with a focus on agility (e.g., connecting talent to project-based work through a government-wide talent matching tool).
- Leveraging technology and social media to create communities around specific mission areas.
- Investing in application assessment tools and processes.
- Identifying and addressing barriers to diversity.
Statement:
- Increase the participation of employees, including groups that are under-represented within OPM, at all levels of the workforce.
- Increase in OPM’s employee engagement index score (especially with respect to the supervisor subcomponent) and New Inclusion Quotient (New IQ)..
Description:
- Launching a comprehensive approach to employee engagement.
- Building leadership commitment and ownership of the engagement approach that incorporates:
- supervisory training1,
- improved assessment and selection of supervisors,
- training in problem-framing and problem-solving methods that empower their teams to develop excellent solutions,
- ongoing support to supervisors and
- monitoring of supervisors’ progress using an accountability tool.
- Increasing communication to employees and promoting inclusion by:
- identifying and using available communication vehicles, including THEO, USAJOBS, USAStaffing®, Retirement ServicesOnline, EmployeeExpress, and OPM.gov,
- Involving employees in design of programs, products and services through collaboration using the Innovation Lab and other internal resources,
- Reflecting OPM core values in communications to employees, including recognition of employees who exhibit core values,
- Involving employee labor/representative groups as vehicles to support the engagement approach.
1 Unless otherwise specified, training described in this plan will be delivered through a shared services model to achieve consistent standards of quality and optimize efficient use of limited resources.
Statement:
Increase in the percent of OPM employees reporting real opportunities to improve their skills within the organization (Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, item #1).
Description:
- Developing an agency workforce plan that outlines OPM’s workforce needs for the medium to long term.
- Conducting a skills gap analysis that identifies the skill requirements of the OPM workforce.
- Aligning Learning Center and The Lab @ OPM’s offerings with OPM needs identified through the skill gap analysis.
- Training OPM employees on the agency’s core values as well as problem-solving methods that support those values.
- Instituting a formal experiential development program (e.g., Fellows, details, cross-organization project opportunities).
- Supporting shadowing and mentoring practices and programs.
- Defining career paths for OPM occupations.
- Leveraging Employee Resource and Affinity Groups to help connect to employees at all levels of the organization.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
OPM will support diversity and inclusion by aligning OPM business intelligence tools to help decision makers, like hiring managers and supervisors, analyze key workforce data including applicant flow, attrition/retention, and inclusion indicators. In so doing, decision makers can develop better outreach and recruitment methods; determine what factors contribute to the retention of a talented workforce; experience cost savings through decreased attrition; and create an inclusive work environment that empowers employees to contribute to their full potential. By September 30, 2015, 95 percent of OPM and 25 percent of government-wide hiring actions will occur following human resource and/or hiring manager’s use of a tool that reveals applicant flow data from prior recruitment efforts. This tool will assist human resource and/or hiring managers in planning their strategic recruitment efforts, resulting in measurable improvements in the recruitment and outreach to underrepresented communities and manager satisfaction with the quality of new hires.
Description:
OPM is responsible for the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion effort focused on developing, driving, and monitoring strategies and initiatives designed to create a more diverse and inclusive Federal workforce. Executive Order 13583, “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce,” challenged the Federal Government with leading by example and attaining a diverse, qualified workforce that enables employees to contribute to their full potential. Similarly, Executive Order 13548, “Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities,” requires agencies to improve their efforts to employ Federal workers with disabilities and targeted disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of these individuals.
In FY 2012, OPM issued the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to provide direction to fifty-seven participating departments and agencies under the two subject Executive Orders. The three primary goals in the Plan included:
- Workforce Diversity. Recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society;
- Workplace Inclusion. Cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and further retention; and
- Sustainability. Develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
In support of the Diversity goal, OPM seeks to improve applicant flow reporting to enable human resources staff and hiring managers to determine whether recruitment efforts have been successful in drawing from all segments of society and to aid in developing future recruitment strategy. Applicant flow data has historically been collected on the basis of race, national origin, and sex, and beginning in 2014, it will be collected on the basis of disability. Historically, the data has been analyzed in an aggregate format; however, through the use of business intelligence tools, applicant flow data for individual hiring actions will be available for review at the hiring manager level after a vacancy has closed, creating incentive for increased hiring manager involvement in the recruitment process and greater opportunity for planning future recruitment efforts.
To further understand how to create an inclusive work environment where employees are fully engaged and productive, OPM and the Department of Veterans Affairs conducted factor analysis on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and found that twenty questions cluster into five areas or behaviors (i.e., fair, open, cooperative, supportive, and empowering) that create inclusive work environments. Based on these five areas, OPM developed the “New IQ” (Inclusion Quotient) techniques and training to assist managers and supervisors in practicing behaviors that foster inclusion, an antecedent to employee engagement. OPM will also continue to focus on the life cycle of the Federal employee to ensure that the Federal workforce is able to hire and develop the best talent from all segments of society, with a focus on internal Diversity and Inclusion efforts to ensure that we serve as a model agency. Internal efforts will focus on the implementation of a data-driven, habit formation strategy that leverages first-line managers and supervisors to foster inclusion and engagement in the OPM workplace.
Strategic Objectives
Strategic Objective:
MG01.01 Deploy agile recruitment and outreach tactics to attract a diverse and talented workforce
Statement:
Increase applicant flow from groups that underrepresented within OPM and remove barriers where they exist
Description:
- Further developing and implementing our approach to recruitment and outreach.
- Identifying OPM’s unique value proposition as an employer to establish the “OPM Brand” (externally and internally)
- Developing and implementing an approach to internal recruitment with a focus on agility (e.g., connecting talent to project-based work through a government-wide talent matching tool).
- Leveraging technology and social media to create communities around specific mission areas.
- Investing in application assessment tools and processes.
- Identifying and addressing barriers to diversity.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement: OPM will support diversity and inclusion by aligning OPM business intelligence tools to help decision makers, like hiring managers and supervisors, analyze key workforce data including applicant flow, attrition/retention, and inclusion indicators. In so doing, decision makers can develop better outreach and recruitment methods; determine what factors contribute to the retention of a talented workforce; experience cost savings through decreased attrition; and create an inclusive work environment that empowers employees to contribute to their full potential. By September 30, 2015, 95 percent of OPM and 25 percent of government-wide hiring actions will occur following human resource and/or hiring manager’s use of a tool that reveals applicant flow data from prior recruitment efforts. This tool will assist human resource and/or hiring managers in planning their strategic recruitment efforts, resulting in measurable improvements in the recruitment and outreach to underrepresented communities and manager satisfaction with the quality of new hires.
Description: OPM is responsible for the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion effort focused on developing, driving, and monitoring strategies and initiatives designed to create a more diverse and inclusive Federal workforce. Executive Order 13583, “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce,” challenged the Federal Government with leading by example and attaining a diverse, qualified workforce that enables employees to contribute to their full potential. Similarly, Executive Order 13548, “Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities,” requires agencies to improve their efforts to employ Federal workers with disabilities and targeted disabilities through increased recruitment, hiring, and retention of these individuals. In FY 2012, OPM issued the Government-wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to provide direction to fifty-seven participating departments and agencies under the two subject Executive Orders. The three primary goals in the Plan included: In support of the Diversity goal, OPM seeks to improve applicant flow reporting to enable human resources staff and hiring managers to determine whether recruitment efforts have been successful in drawing from all segments of society and to aid in developing future recruitment strategy. Applicant flow data has historically been collected on the basis of race, national origin, and sex, and beginning in 2014, it will be collected on the basis of disability. Historically, the data has been analyzed in an aggregate format; however, through the use of business intelligence tools, applicant flow data for individual hiring actions will be available for review at the hiring manager level after a vacancy has closed, creating incentive for increased hiring manager involvement in the recruitment process and greater opportunity for planning future recruitment efforts. To further understand how to create an inclusive work environment where employees are fully engaged and productive, OPM and the Department of Veterans Affairs conducted factor analysis on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and found that twenty questions cluster into five areas or behaviors (i.e., fair, open, cooperative, supportive, and empowering) that create inclusive work environments. Based on these five areas, OPM developed the “New IQ” (Inclusion Quotient) techniques and training to assist managers and supervisors in practicing behaviors that foster inclusion, an antecedent to employee engagement. OPM will also continue to focus on the life cycle of the Federal employee to ensure that the Federal workforce is able to hire and develop the best talent from all segments of society, with a focus on internal Diversity and Inclusion efforts to ensure that we serve as a model agency. Internal efforts will focus on the implementation of a data-driven, habit formation strategy that leverages first-line managers and supervisors to foster inclusion and engagement in the OPM workplace.
