As the charge moves through the compliance process codes are mailed into Headquarters for entry into the computer for maintaining status on the charge. This system as currently designed is cumbersome and unwieldy. Substantial resources are required to operate it, especially from the Pre-Investigation Analysis (PIA) Unit for recording and transmitting data to Headquarters. Much error is in the present system. A past inventory has shown that the computer files had an average error of 25% per District Office. I believe that by redesigning the system less resources will be required to operate it and a better product will be received. Timely and accurate information will assist managers at all levels in rapidly identifying problems and initiating corrective actions. Resources gained in the PIA unit will be more usefully spent in analyzing new charges received and gathering information needed for investigation. Approximately 50% of PIA time will be freed up for these activities. The following improvements have been made in the design of the CSRS: (a) A headquarters controlled numbering system has been established to eliminate different charge numbers being assigned to the same complaint. (b) The case numbering system has been eliminated. Only one number will be assigned to a complaint and that will be the charge number. (c) The case codes have been eliminated. Previously, there were separate codes for charges with charge numbers and charges with case numbers (case numbers were assigned after the charge was investigated). Now one set of codes will be used to track the charge through the entire process. (d) A new set of codes have been developed with obsolete and redundant codes eliminated and additional codes established in light of new information requirements. (e) Recording and reporting forms have been simplified facilitating transmission of data. (f) Input control procedure have been designed for headquarters to assure quality of data input. (g) Computer files have been redesigned to speed up processing of data. A pilot study is currently being conducted in two district offices testing the above changes. If the pilot proves satisfactory, the new design will be implemented system-wide. 9. Describe in detail any changes in the organizational structure of the Commission which you plan or have implemented in an effort to reduce the Commission's backlog in the processing of complaints. What is the rationale for these changes? Over the past several years, a number of people, including OMB, CSC, and GAO, have recommended improvements and changes in the Commission's organizational structure. To provide an objective assessment of these recommendations and to review our current situation. I have engaged the consulting firm of Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc. I anticipate that by September, after reviewing the consultant's report, we will be in a position to make the necessary changes. 10. Describe the training program and staffing pattern of the training academy which the Commission will be establishing in September 1974. What resources have been necessary for the implementation of this academy? What is the source of these resources? The training program which the Commission will implement in September, 1974 is a core curriculum of technical training for all Commission personnel. In FY 1976 and subsequent years we intend to expand this program to include all training needs of our own staff and the technical training needs of all Federal, state and local agencies with Title VII and similar responsibilities. The latter will aid in the development and implementation of standardized administrative practices in the employment discrimination field. During FY 1975 the training developed and delivered by the EEOC National Training Center will include: 1. Supervisory-Instructor Training (5 days) to equip all Commission supervisors and managers to serve as on-the-job counselors, coaches, and instruetors to new employees. Twelve classes are scheduled to train approximately 240 supervisors and managers. 2. Introduction to Basic Equal Employment Opportunity Concepts (5 days) for all Commission professional and technical personnel not directly involved in the compliance process. This training will insure that Commission personnel, regardless of their function, have a firm grasp of our mission, are conversant with Title VII: and have an understanding of our general operating procedures and practices. Eleven courses are scheduled to train approximately 220 people. 3. Basic Compliance Training (8 weeks) for all new Equal Opportunity Specialists (Employment) including skills training in the entire compliance process. The course consists of two two-week segments in residence at the Training Center with a return to the field for a four-week period of structured on-thejob training between the two residential segments. Eighteen of these classes will be completed during FY 1975, allowing us to train approximately 360 Equal Opportunity Specialists (Employment). We expect the bulk of the trainees to be new employees who enter on duty during the year or who entered on duty late in FY 1974. As space becomes available training slots will be allocated to OFCC, other Federal agencies and state and local fair employment practice agencies. 4. Orientation.-The Training Center will develop a standardized orientation package for use in Headquarters and field offices. The package will include a general orientation to the Federal civil service and a specific overview of Commission activities, practices and organization. All new Commission employees will go through the orientation. The implementation of the Training Center is being accomplished through existing personnel with training responsibilities and capabilities and the assistance of an outside contractor. The cost of the contract is $207,000. As we move toward the date for the first course offerings in September and heavy scheduling in the winter months additional resources such as facilities, materials, production, and audio-visual support will be required. Initially, major personnel resources are being supplied by the contractor. The contractor staff is supplemented and monitored during the current developmental period by two senior Commission employees. Additional Commission personnel resources will be required from September on to assist in the delivery of the training. The need for additional Commission personnel will become especially critical during the second half of FY 1975 as we begin to phase out the contractor's personnel and plan for full internal operation and staffing during FY 1976. During FY 1975 we will meet the Training Center's personnel needs by shifting about six positions, mostly from our Employee Development Branch, which already have training responsibility. This initial permanent cadre must be supplemented by Commission technical and professional personnel brought into the Academy on short-term assignments. However, by the end of FY 1975 we will need to make personnel allocations to allow full-time staffing of the Training Center. If the Training Center is to effectively serve as a means toward standardized administration of Title VII, nation-wide and increased Commission productivity, a full-time staff is a necessity to insure that training activities do not place a continuing drain on field operations. The proposed staffing pattern calls for a cadre of education specialists, technical instructors, and normal educational administrative and management support personnel. 11. Provide a breakdown of the Commission's contracts (actual and projected) with State and local human rights agencies for Fiscal Year 1974, when the Commission received an appropriation of $2.5 million, and Fiscal Year 1975, when the Commission requested an appropriation of $5 million, for this purpose. Table 5 shows the contract amounts for State and local human rights agencies for FY 1974, when the Commission received an appropriation of $2.5 million. We have not yet entered into any contracts with State and local deferral agencies for FY 1975 since the amount to be appropriated to this activity has not yet been determined. If Congress grants our request for $5 million, we anticipate that those agencies which have demonstrated unusual competence in terms of quality and quantity of their work product will receive substantial increases in their funding. These agencies will generally be located in areas where the backlog of charges is sufficient to warrant funding increases. TABLE 5.-EEOC's CONTRACTS WITH STATE AND LOCAL HUMAN RIGHTS AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 1974 Atlanta regional office: Tennessee Commission for Human Development__ Contract $26, 500 57,000 Chicago regional office: Ohio Civil Rights Commission__ Indiana Civil Rights Commission__. Youngstown Fair Employment Practice Committee_. Gary Human Relations Commission__. Michigan Civil Rights Commission___ Illinois Fair Employment Practice Commission___. Wisconsin Equal Rights Division Department Industry, Labor and Human Relations_ Fort Worth/Dallas regional office: Oklahoma Human Rights Commission___ Arkansas (Governor's Committee on Human Resources) – Corpus Christi___. Kansas City regional office : Kansas Commission on Civil Rights_. Iowa Civil Rights Commission__ Hutchinon City of St. Louis Council on Human Relations_. Omaha Human Relations Department_ Waterloo Human Rights Commission__-- New York regional office: Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination_ Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights__ _ _ Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities__ New York City Commission on Human Rights_. Contract 175,000 41, 000 9,000 24, 000 6,500 80,000 60,000 121, 500 41, 000 30, 400 27, 200 56,000 30,000 18,000 33,000 18, 000 18, 000 132,000 18, 000 102,000 15, 500 28, 000 190,000 153, 660 70,000 30, 000 New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights_. State of New York Division on Human Rights. Philadelphia regional office : Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission_. 210, 000 161, 840 Human Relations Commission of the County and City of Oregon Bureau of Labor Civil Rights Division_. Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations_. Total 2,500,000 12. In your testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations on April 30, 1974, you indicated that the Commission would expand its efforts to seek voluntary compliance through its Office of Voluntary Programs, yet no increase in staff of this office was requested. Please indicate how you intend to accomplish this goal. 21.000 12,000 19,500 35,000 30,000 The reference in my testimony to the "Office of Voluntary Programs” was intended to encompass both Headquarters and Regional voluntary programs activities. In addition to 30 positions located at Headquarters, each of the seven Regional Offices now has three professional voluntary programs positions. The Commission's FY 1975 Budget Request includes an increase of fourteen Regional Office positions (two per Region). No additional resources were requested for the Headquarters Office because we plan to further decentralize operational activities and progressively limit Headquarters to staff and support activities. As this decentralization occurs it will be possible to reprogram resources to expand field capability even more than is indicated by the FY 1975 request. In addition to expanding field capability, a major change in program emphasis is contemplated during FY 1975. Until FY 1974, voluntary programs activity was limited essentially to responses to requests for educational and technical assistance. During FY 1974 a limited experiment was begun in which attempts were made, without reference to pending charges, to obtain voluntary agreements with employers. These agreements are to contain all that might be included in conciliations agreements growing out of charge investigations. The basic difference is that voluntary agreements would not directly resolve charges but would rather, deal with systems change and affirmative action and, as was the case in the AT&T Agreement, provide a procedure for resolving pending and future charges. An agreement has been reached with one major firm. Several other attempts with utility companies are in process. This limited success has encouraged us to expand the experiment in FY 1975 to seek seven such agreements. However, we propose to enter into such agreements only if the employer is willing to make them fully enforceable in the courts as contracts. If this investment proves effective, the Commission will reprogram and seek additional resources as appropriate to take full advantage of the "voluntary agreements" approach. Finally, we also propose to concentrate and structure our educational and technical assistance to employers in a manner aimed at explicitly documented affirmative action commitments which can be monitored and by which actual progress on commitments can be measured. By this means we hope to obtain maximum and measurable pay-off to our statutory technical assistance authority. 13. Submit a summary of the findings and recommendations of the recent study of the Commission's investigative systems. To what extent have you, or do you intend to implement these recommendations? The following briefly describe the findings and recommendations of a recent study of the Commission's investigative systems and the extent to which they have been implemented. (a) Use of written requests for information Findings.-Insufficient use is made during investigations of written requests for information, and where they are used they are not sufficiently standardized. Recommendation.—Minimize to the extent possible on-site investigations where investigations either wholly or partially by mail would suffice, and minimize the amount of time expended by District Office personnel in drafting requests for information. Implementation.-Recommendation has been approved and development begun on a complete standardized “request for information" package to be distributed for field use by the end of the second quarter. (b) Settlement of charges during investigation Finding. There is an unrealized potential for settling many charges prior to completion of a full investigation. The primary reason for this is uncertainty as to (1) which charges are appropriate for settlement, (2) what the minimum settlement standards are, and (3) the appropriateness of permitting an "investigator" (rather than a "conciliator") to negotiate a settlement. Recommendation.-Because settlement of charges during investigation normally results in substantial efficiencies, it should be strongly encouraged whenever the following conditions exist: (1) the charge does not have important class implications (it is estimated that only about 20% of pending charges have important class implications); (2) a settlement satisfactory to charging party is available; and (3) the settlement can be accomplished efficiently. Wherever possible, the settlement should be handled by the "investigator". Implementation.-Currently, under review. (c) Investigation by conciliation units Finding. Very little investigative input is provided by District Office conciliation units, despite the potential for substantial efficiences if conciliations units are given investigative responsibility in selected situations. Recommendation.-Direct conciliations units of District Offices that whenever possible they are to either settle or investigate and settle charges pending against respondents with whom they are negotiating or reviewing for compliance. In addition, to the extent permitted by the conciliations unit's workload, they should be given responsibility for the handling of expedited charge-processing mechanisms, including the completion of the investigation of any charges that cannot be settled through the mechanism. Implementation.-Currently under review. (d) Immediate investigation of selected charges Finding. When a narrow charge is investigated very soon after it is filed, the investigation can be conducted much more efficiently and the possibility of settlement during investigation is greatly enhanced. Recommendation.-Selected narrow charges which involve issues of unusual importance to charging parties (e.g. discharge) should be scheduled for immediate investigation. Implementation.-Recommendation approved. Guidelines should be incorporated in the Compliance Manual and distributed to field offices by the end of the second quarter. (e) Investigative standards relating to narrow charges Finding. There is uncertainty at the field operational level both as to which charges should be given a narrow construction, and as to the investigative standards that should be applied to such charges. As a consequence, inappropriately broad investigations and unnecessarily high investigative standards have resulted in significant inefficiencies. Recommendation.-EEOC Compliance Manual should be redrafted so as to both: (1) provide more specific guidance on when and how to investigate a charge only to the scope of the complaint and (2) clearly identify the file and evidentiary requirements which apply to charges which do not have important class implications. Implementation.-Recommendation approved. Action to be completed by the end of the second quarter. 14. Describe what efforts are being made to reduce the current backlog of cases through coordination with State agencies (e.g. FEP) and Federal agencies (e.g. OFCC). The State and Community Affairs Program will be decentralized to the District Office level in FY 1975 to fully utilize the potential of deferral agencies. Roughly sixty percent of the charges received by EEOC are deferred to state and local agencies, so that the potential for backlog reduction through coordination with these agencies is significant. In order to tap this potential, the Commission is developing new procedures, standards and controls for processing charges. These new procedures and standards will eliminate duplication of effort between EEOC and deferral agencies. Indicative of the importance which the Commission attaches to decentralization is the planned transfer of Headquarters positions to the field and the distribution of fifteen positions to District Offices with the largest number of unresolved charges. As a result of the redirection of the state and community program to improve the partnership between EEOC and its sister agencies, we have projected that 15,000 charges can be resolved by deferral agencies if $5 million is appropriated to this program for FY 1975. This partnership would contribute significantly to the goal of zero backlog growth for the Commission in FY 1975. The continuation of the partnership in FY 1976 is expected to result in a significant contribution by deferral agencies in achieving an absolute reduction in the number of charges in the backlog. The use of work performed by related federal agencies offers a significant opportunity to reducing EEOC workload. By its participation in the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinating Council EEOC is attempting to develop programs designed to use the work of other federal agencies. A number of difficulties exist in implementing this effort, including regulation restricting the examination and copying by other federal agencies of documents obtained by 42-235-75—20 |