Effective Strategies: Marketing the Program Building Your Business Case

1
Effective Strategies Marketing the
Program Building Your Business Case

• Milton Belardo, Esq. Chair
• National Council of Hispanic Employment Program
  Managers

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Challenges

• Apathy
• HEP not on priority lists. There is no sense of
  urgency.
• Lack of commitment, ownership, and
  accountability.
• Ignorance
• Of underrepresentation
• Of Roles and Responsibilities (CR, HR, Operating
  Units)
• Of opportunities, resources, issues,
• Resources
• Resources not allocated according to need
• Personnel FT/PT Outreach Teams
• Budget Travel, Training, Outreach materials,
  Sponsorships, etc.

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The Business Case for addressing Hispanic
employment issues

• Largest fastest growing US minority group 2nd
  largest portion of civilian labor force.
• Projected to be ¼ of the population by 2050 or
  sooner.
• Facilitates interface with taxpayers.
• Enables enhances partnerships with business,
  advocacy, civic, educational, media
  communities.
• Maximizes brand identity as a good Corporate
  Neighbor and Employer of Choice.
• Improves quality of decision-making at all
  organizational levels.
• Increases productivity by having diverse
  perspectives on problems.
• Improves effectiveness.
• Decreases complaints, litigation, and associated
  costs
• Higher retention of Hispanic employees.
• Adherence to Congressional Legislation
  Presidential Mandates.

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Representativeness

• See a Federal Government that reflects the faces
  of the people we serve.

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Federal Workforce Challenges

• A changing of the guard is underway
• The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that
  50 of Federal employees and 70 of Federal
  managers will be eligible to retire by 2010.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO)
  estimates that 55 of Senior Executives in the
  Federal government will retire or leave office by
  2007.
• The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
  estimates the peak of the Federal retirement wave
  will occur between 2008 and 2010.

Source LULAC Conference HEPM Summit 2007.
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Current State of Hispanic Employment

• Underrepresentation of Hispanics continues to
  exist despite government-wide efforts to achieve
  parity.
• Underrepresentation is most prevalent at the
  senior levels, in particular in the Career Senior
  Executive Service, where Hispanics account for
  just 2.5.
• Policies/Actions that have impacted Hispanic
  federal employment
• Agencies Human Capital Management focus on the
  retirement Tsunami.
• Less than favorable GAO reports on Hispanic
  representation in Federal government.
• OPM Federal Executive Board focus on
  diversity/inclusion and away from Hispanic
  Employment Programs.
• OPMs implementation of Executive Order 13171 is
  more focused on recruitment and outreach and less
  on management accountability.

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Employment Trends

• Over a ten year period there has been a marginal
• increase in the representation of Hispanics in
  the Federal
• workforce.

Source EEOC FY 2006 Annual Report on the
Federal Workforce.
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Employment Numbers

• Hispanics comprise 10.7 of the Civilian Labor
  Force (CLF), but comprise just 7.7 of the
  Federal Workforce.
• Average grade for Hispanics is 9.4.
• Underrepresentation gap represents 120,000 jobs
  and 5.5 billion dollars in salary.

Sources EEOC FY 2006 Annual Report on the
Federal Workforce and NAHFE Congressional
Testimony, May 2007.
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Employment Numbers
Percentage of Hispanic representation in the
Federal Government.
Hispanics comprise 10.7 of the Civilian Labor
Force (CLF), but represent 7.7 of the Federal
Workforce.
Source EEOC FY 2006 Annual Report on the
Federal Workforce.
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Federal Agency Leaders

• Some agencies have missions and locations that
  may help facilitate the recruitment process.
• Homeland Security (18.67) where Customs and
  Border Protection is a leading employer.
• Social Security Administration (12.8).
• EEOC (13).

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Situational Awareness

• Resources.
• Stakeholders.
• Mission.

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Strategy

• Educate
• Partner
• Communicate

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Educate

• Issue
• Internal/external stakeholders are unaware of
  Hispanic employment issues.
• Opportunities
• Develop internal/external opportunities to
  communicate and educate stakeholders about
  Hispanic employment issues.
• Deliver periodic education sessions on Hispanic
  employment issues with decision makers and hiring
  officials.

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Partner

• Coordinated efforts of OCR/EEO, OHRM, and
  Operations are CRITICAL.
• Issue
• Officials unaware of hiring options or unwilling
  to use these authorities.
• Opportunities
• Assist in matching vacancies with special hiring
  authorities.
• Create awareness among hiring officials of these
  special authorities to hire Hispanics.
• Deliver periodic education sessions on hiring
  authorities to be given to decision makers and
  hiring officials.
• Prior to announcing vacancies, give OCR and HR
  opportunity to match positions to special hiring
  authorities.

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Communicate

• Issue
• Hispanic applicants and employees unaware of key
  contacts and
• employment and development opportunities.
• Opportunities
• Assist in developing Employer of Choice
  marketing plan. Help in developing
  multi-venue/bilingual campaigns. Stress QWL/QL.
• Assist in developing specific marketing campaigns
  for each mission-critical job/vacancy

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Core Activities

• Outreach and Recruitment
• Development and Advancement
• Retention

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Mission-Critical Occupation

• A job series or occupation is considered mission
  critical if it has a direct impact on the ability
  of the organization to perform its essential
  functions and activities.

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Geographic Distribution of
Professional/Administrative Jobs
Source Central Personnel Data File. Permanent
full-time employees as of September 30, 2006,
excluding the Department of Justice, Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
19
Entry-Level Hires by
Location, FY 2006
20
Percent of People 5 Years
and Over Who Speak Spanish at Home 2005  
Legend                                      
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Addressing Hispanic Employment

• Focus on results (let the data tell the story).
• Encourage agencies to demonstrate commitment by
  devoting
• People.
• Time.
• Energy.
• Resources.
• Encourage cooperation amongst Hispanic
  organizations, like NOMAR, LULAC, NCLR, etc. to
  serve as advocates on this issue.
• Secure a Senior-level Government Champion on
  Hispanic Employment.

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How do we get there?

• Ensure that underrepresented groups are
  proactively recruited.
• Create a workplace environment where every
  employee is valued.
• Increase the number of underrepresented groups
  throughout all levels of the Federal Government
  workforce.

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Core Areas
A culture of inclusiveness with leadership
support.
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Recruitment

• Corporate
• Unified
• Coordinated
• Leveraged Resources

Recruitment
Targeted
Applications
Targeted

• Recruitment Sources
• Colleges/Universities
• MSI / IHE
• Faculty referrals
• Other agencies
• Professional organizations
• Match vacancies to sources

Recruitment
Return on Investment
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Recruitment Strategy Education and Outreach

• Issue
• Insufficient awareness of underrepresentation and
  employment issues.
• Internal
• Ensure opportunities are posted in all
  communication venues for employee access.
• Ensure that your agency employees from
  underrepresented groups are fully developed and
  prepared to assume positions of greater
  responsibility.
• Ensure that your agency is aware of the culture,
  concerns, and issues of its employees, customers,
  and the community it serves.

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Recruitment Strategy Education and Outreach

• External
• Communicate the activities and initiatives of the
  agency to external organizations.
• Create the image of your agency as the premier
  employer of choice for all demographic groups.
• Ensure that prospective applicants are aware of
  the Federal Government as an employer of choice
  and the opportunities for them.

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Recruitment Strategy Education and Outreach

• External
• Develop external opportunities to communicate and
  educate others about underrepresentation
  employment issues and deliver periodic education
  sessions on these issues.
• Partnerships with MSIs.

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Recruitment Strategy Coordination

• Issue
• Officials may be unaware of hiring options or
  reluctant to fully utilize hiring authorities.
• Opportunities
• Maximize opportunities for underrepresented
  groups.
• Deliver periodic education sessions on hiring
  authorities to decision makers and hiring
  officials.
• Prior to announcing vacancies, give OCR and HR
  opportunity to match positions to special hiring
  authorities. Note Hiring should not be special
  hiring authorities only.

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Recruitment Strategy Coordination

• Issue
• Establish cooperative relationships with internal
  and external
• organizations in order to respond to the mission
  and goals of the
• agency.
• Internal
• Employee organizations.
• Affinity groups.
• External
• Professional associations (DCHMBA, NHLA, etc.)
• Media networks.

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Recruitment Sources

• Barrier
• Recruitment teams not tapping into all available
  sources of potential applicants.
• Action
• Utilize expertise within the agency workforce to
  identify recruitment sources (Affinity Groups,
  employee orgs, SMEs).
• Create a task force from among agency
  SEP/Affinity Group employees and interns to
  develop lists of sources for mission critical
  positions at all levels.
• Create specialized databases and listservs to
  quickly network and distribute opportunities.

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Targeted Recruitment

• Barrier
• Many HR organizations tend to divide resources
  among all groups instead of focusing on
  underrepresented groups.
• Action
• Focus sufficient resources to underrepresented
  groups.
• Get creative about sourcing.recruitment is not
  simply posting a vacancy announcement.

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Retention Activities

• Exit Research
• Monitor exit and mobility trends.
• Conduct research and studies.
• Workplace Issues
• Generational.
• Language.
• Work-life balance.
• Benefits.
• Workplace environment.
• Best Practices
• Benchmarking.

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Retention

• Barrier
• Non-inclusive environment for underrepresented
  groups due to negative attitudes.

• Action
• Educate agency population about diverse
  cultures, languages, and
• people.
• Develop a Diversity-friendly New Employee
  Orientation.
• Develop a entry-level buddy system to guide
  new employees and
• develop a Diversity Mentoring Program.
• Organize monthly brown-bags or quarterly town
  hall meetings with
• agency officials and employees on diversity
  employment issues.

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Development

• Barrier
• Higher-level or special assignments are not
  tracked. This limits tracking diversity
  inclusion in career-enhancement activities.

• Action
• Develop targeted marketing of these programs
  to underrepresented
• groups.
• Establish internal listserv of
  underrepresented groups of employees to
• network openings to these programs. Utilize
  affinity group networks.
• Identify high-potential employees for these
  opportunities.
• Assist employees with career planning and
  development actions.
• Help identify internal and external learning
  opportunities and
• institutions.

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Advancement

• Barrier
• Applicants and employees unaware of contacts and
  employment and development opportunities.

• Action
• Ensure diversity of Managerial, Executive
  Development, and
• Mentoring Programs.
• Ensure underrepresented groups are included in
  succession
• planning discussions.
• Require accountability of decision makers and
  heads of
• organizations for non-inclusion.
• Develop a Diversity Report Card based on a
  diversity
• Employment Audit. Provide incentives for
  results.

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• The single greatest way to impact your
  organization is to focus on its leadership.

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Resources

• EEOC - FY 2006 Annual Report of the Federal
  Workforce, July 2007
• http//www.eeoc.gov/federal/fsp2006/report.pdf
• NHLA - An Evaluation of OPMs Efforts to Improve
  Hispanic Underrepresentation in the Federal
  Government, February 2006
• http//www.bateylink.org/pdf/NHLA_rpt_web1.pdf
• GAO - Data on Hispanic Underrepresentation, March
  2007
• http//www.gao.gov/new.items/d07493r.pdf
• GAO Additional Insights Could Enhance Agency
  Efforts Related to Hispanic Representation,
  August 2006
• http//www.gao.gov/new.items/d06832.pdf