Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Sharing Promising Practices and Fully Implementing Strategic Human Capital Planning Can Improve Management of Growing Workload

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), created by title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, promotes equal opportunity in the workplace and enforces federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, and disability. As the nation's primary enforcer of civil rights employment laws, EEOC investigates charges of employment discrimination from the public, litigates major cases, and reaches out to federal agencies and the public to educate and prevent discrimination. EEOC serves every industry, every segment of the population, and every part of the country. While its core mission has not changed since the agency was established more than 40 years ago, EEOC continues to face a range of new challenges in the 21st century, including long-term fiscal constraints, changing demographics, and rapid advances in technology. The federal government overall faces significant human capital challenges, including a retirement wave that will lead to the loss of leadership and institutional knowledge at all levels. EEOC is not immune from this trend. EEOC estimates that within 4 years, all of its current senior executives and senior managers will be retirement eligible, if they have not already retired by that time. Moreover, between 2000 and 2007, EEOC lost nearly one-quarter of its full-time-equivalent staff, from approximately 2,850 to about 2,150. In view of EEOC's human capital management challenges and the growing demand for its services, we examined (1) national trends in EEOC's private sector enforcement workload and the factors that contribute to them, (2) how EEOC offices manage their workload, and (3) EEOC actions to address its future workforce needs.