1: Justice, Opportunity and Inclusive Workplaces

JUSTICE, OPPORTUNITY AND INCLUSIVE WORKPLACES

Other Information:

The EEOC is the Nation's primary enforcer of the civil rights employment laws, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, color, religion, sex, age, and disability. The agency was created in 1965 for the purposes of handling charges of discrimination and securing relief for victims of discrimination. The public continues to rely on the Commission to carry out these fundamental responsibilities and bring justice and opportunity to the workplace. Our fight against discrimination goes beyond enforcing the law. The best way to combat workplace discrimination is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Educating employers and workers about their rights and responsibilities under the law is the first step toward promoting an inclusive workplace, where all workers are judged on their talents and abilities without regard to any protected characteristic. All of the EEOC's major programs and activities - from educating our Nation's youth on their rights and responsibilities as they enter the workforce to investigating and litigating complaints of systemic discrimination - are done in the service of four shared goals: remedying and deterring unlawful employment discrimination increasing public confidence in the fair and prompt resolution of employment discrimination disputes increasing voluntary compliance with the Federal equal employment laws increasing individual awareness and understanding of rights and responsibilities. To measure our ability to achieve these outcomes, our strategic plan is focused on extending the reach of our enforcement and outreach programs and enhancing confidence in our ability to resolve charges of discrimination in a timely, accurate, and consistent manner. We will measure our success by assessing the number of individuals benefited from our enforcement and outreach programs and by assessing the public's confidence in our enforcement of the laws.PERFORMANCE MEASURES Long-Term Measure 1 Long-Term Measure 1 By FY 2012, the number of individuals benefiting from EEOC's enforcement and outreach programs increases by TBD%*. Annual Measure 1.1 By FY 2012, the number of individuals benefiting from improvements to organizations' policies, practices or procedures, because of the EEOC's enforcement programs increases by TBD%. Annual Measure 1.2 By FY 2012, the number of individuals benefiting from improvements to organizations' policies, practices or procedures because of EEOC's outreach programs increases by TBD%.*TBD = To Be Determined We believe it is important to measure our success by looking beyond the monetary and equitable relief we secure through our enforcement actions. Our long-term and annual measures focus on tracking the improvements that are made in the workplace as a direct result of both our enforcement and outreach programs. We selected these measures because, when we secure changes in employment policies, practices and procedures through our enforcement or outreach programs, we have a positive impact not only on the immediate victims of discrimination, but also on all individuals in the affected workplace. Through organization-wide changes, individuals benefit from a more inclusive workplace and have greater opportunities to compete on a level playing field.These measures include all services we provide to the public that result in workplace benefits: outreach and technical assistance (in both private and federal sectors), administrative resolutions (including mediation), litigation resolutions, and federal sector hearings and appeals. Beginning in FY 2005, we began collecting data on the number of individuals benefited through private sector enforcement and mediation charges, so we have limited trend data on the number of individuals benefited by these two programs. Our first priorities will be to establish a methodology and baseline data for the remaining programs. This data is necessary for us to establish targets for the long-term measure and the associated annual performance measures.

Objective(s):

1: Proficient Resolution

2: Mediation/ADR

3: Enforcement and Litigation

4: Proactive Prevention

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