QUESTION
What kind of compliance have agencies shown in following EEPC's recommendations for improving hiring and retention practices to build a diverse workforce?
1:38:54
·
4 min
The Equal Employment Practices Commission (EEPC) audits agencies to assess their compliance with standards aimed at increasing representation of women and people of color. The EEPC looks for evidence that agencies have implemented required programs and policies related to hiring and retention.
- The EEPC does not close an audit until an agency meets 100% of the standards
- Once standards are met, the agency receives a determination of compliance
- The EEPC re-audits agencies every 4 years but may examine different standards
- The EEPC currently cannot conduct spot checks or follow-ups due to limited resources to verify if compliance is sustained over time
Nantasha M. Williams
1:38:54
In addition to conducting audits, EEPC also makes recommendations for agencies to improve their hiring and retention practices, You know, it's interesting to hear from Decast because, you know, of course, we wanna see recruitment practices that really build a diverse work workforce.
1:39:13
But I think some of the issues that we're seeing require a retrospective analysis of for tension.
1:39:22
So just wondering what kind of what kind of compliance have you seen from agencies and following your recommendations?
1:39:30
When the agency does follow EEPC recommendations, has EEPC seen or documented any impacts on the practices themselves in terms of improvement?
1:39:39
And are there any best practices that EEPC would recommend to be implemented more widely by city agencies.
Jeanne Victor
1:39:47
Okay.
1:39:49
So when it comes to following recommendations, EEPC, the way the way that we conduct our audit is we have a series of audit standards that we We look at what the agency is doing against the audit standards.
1:40:07
In this case, we're doing an audit on underutilization of women and people of color.
1:40:13
And we have about 20 standards that we look at.
1:40:17
And in in reference to to retention and to hiring, we we look to see the they have the structure in place.
1:40:28
We don't necessarily we're not there long enough to know if it's working.
1:40:35
We what we wanna look at is whether or not they have the program in place.
1:40:41
And we ask them to provide evidence that they have the program in place.
1:40:45
We wanna see policies, and we wanna see emails.
1:40:48
Like, for example, if if, you know, one of our standards is that you have to have posted your EEO statement.
1:40:57
If you know, we're we're auditing the agency and we ask them, give us evidence that you've posted your EEO statement.
1:41:05
We'd either like to see a photograph of it someplace where it's posted for everyone to see and an email advising all employees that this is where the the policy has been posted, or we'd like to see an email to all employees that says, here's a copy of the policy for your for your use.
1:41:21
So we we we look and see if they have the framework in place to make sure that they are that their program is compliant.
1:41:32
So and and in terms of compliance, We don't leave the audit.
1:41:36
We don't close the audit until a 100% of the standards are met.
1:41:41
So once The standards are met.
1:41:43
The agency receives a determination of compliance, and we move on.
1:41:49
We we re audit the agency in 4 years, but there could be completely different standards because we might be doing a sexual harassment audit at that point.
1:42:01
So we might be looking at the the program from a different perspective.
1:42:05
So, you know, one one thing that that I'll say is that when agencies are subject to the EEPC audit, and we're looking at the standards.
1:42:18
We don't necessarily know that those standards remain in place because as we move on and come back when we may not be looking at those same exact standards again 4 years from now.
1:42:29
Does that make sense?
Nantasha M. Williams
1:42:31
Yes.
1:42:32
But I'm wondering how you do cross reference back to make sure that the standards have been kept in place over a period of time once they make whatever remediation.
Jeanne Victor
1:42:46
So that is something that we would very much like to do, but we're not able at this point to do any spot checks or to go back and and to and to to see if the standards are still in if they're still in clients with their program because, you know, we're a small agency and we just don't have the ability to do that at this point.
