Message from the Chairman
February 26, 2013
FDIC 2013 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan
To All FDIC Employees,
I am pleased to share with you the FDIC's 2013 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan. Last year, I established performance goals to update the FDIC's Diversity Strategic Plan and asked each division and office to develop strategic plans that identify steps to promote increased diversity through the FDIC's recruiting and hiring processes. The 2013 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan builds on what we have been doing for years and addresses the goals of President Obama's Executive Order calling for federal agencies to develop and implement a more comprehensive, integrated, and strategic focus on diversity and inclusion. The plan lays out a course for achieving workforce diversity by recruiting from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants; cultivating workplace inclusion through collaboration, flexibility, and fairness; and ensuring sustainability of our diversity and inclusion achievements by equipping leaders with the ability to manage diversity, measure results, and refine approaches on the basis of data. The plan details specific steps to enhance diversity and inclusion at the FDIC in the areas of leadership engagement, analytics and reporting, training, communications, strategic planning, and program enhancement.
Going forward, I have asked the FDIC's new Diversity and Inclusion Executive Advisory Council (EAC), composed of a group of the agency's senior executives, to oversee implementation of the plan and to review and update it annually so that our commitment to diversity and inclusion remains an important priority. The EAC will work together with the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) to maintain the FDIC's commitment to diversity and inclusion. I encourage all of you to take an active role in implementing the plan as well. By valuing the knowledge, ideas, and experiences of all employees, we will serve the public at the highest level.
Sincerely,
Martin J. Gruenberg
Chairman
Preface
In 1999, the FDIC established a vision statement to become an employer of choice. With its first Diversity Strategic Plan, the FDIC committed to recruiting and retaining the most qualified, talented, and motivated employees in the labor market. The FDIC's 2013 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan includes updated strategies to continue the FDIC's success in ensuring that all employees are valued members in the workplace and active participants in carrying out the FDIC's mission.
Additionally, this Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan addresses the goals of Executive Order 13583, dated August 18, 2011, which establishes a coordinated government-wide initiative for promoting diversity and inclusion in the Federal workforce and follows the guidance issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in November 2011. Three goals were identified to align all Federal agencies with the priorities of the Executive Order: (1) workforce diversity, (2) workplace inclusion, and (3) sustainability. The FDIC strongly believes that its diversity and inclusion efforts benefit the entire agency. In 2012, the FDIC established Performance Goals related to diversity, inclusion, and equal employment opportunity. In fulfillment of these goals, each division and major office developed strategies and actions to promote increased diversity within their respective workforces. The Performance Goals and the goals contained in this plan guide the division and office plans and the wide variety of human resources and diversity policies, practices, and programs currently in place. Going forward, this Strategic Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis and, if necessary, updated to support the FDIC's overall goal of promoting diversity and inclusion. The FDIC will continue to uphold its commitment to provide all employees with a work environment that embodies excellence and that acknowledges and honors the diversity of its employees.
Table of Contents
Vision and Definitions
Vision
Respect for diversity and inclusion are embedded in the FDIC's core values and will be integrated throughout its organizational structure and work environment to position the FDIC to effectively achieve its mission of preserving and promoting public confidence in the U.S. financial system.
Diversity
Diversity is defined by who we are as individuals. The FDIC recognizes that strength comes from the dedication, experience, talents, and perspectives of all its employees. Diversity encompasses the range of similarities and differences each individual brings to the workplace, including but not limited to national origin, language, race, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, veteran status, and family structures.
Inclusion
Inclusion is the process of creating a working culture and environment that recognizes, appreciates, and effectively utilizes the talents, skills, and perspectives of every employee; uses employee skills to achieve the agency's objectives and mission; connects each employee to the organization; and encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness.
Plan Implementation
Implementation
Implementation of the strategies in this plan will begin in2013. The FDIC's Diversity and Inclusion Executive Advisory Council (formerly the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) Steering Committee) will oversee the implementation in conjunction with OMWI and will seek to promote leadership engagement on diversity and inclusion issues, enhance OMWI's role as advisor to FDIC leadership on issues related to diversity and inclusion, promote actionable analytics and reporting on diversity and inclusion topics, and increase organizational awareness and engagement about diversity and inclusion throughout the agency on an ongoing basis.
Workforce Diversity
Goal 1: The FDIC will recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society.
Objective: Recruit highly qualified, diverse talent to sustain the FDIC's mission
Strategy 1: Ensure FDIC's recruitment process reaches and attracts a diverse and highly qualified pool of candidates
Action Items:
Ensure that recruitment teams represent the mission occupations and diversity of talent that FDIC seeks to attract, are skilled at interviewing candidates across all dimensions of diversity, and are trained to recognize and disregard cultural bias.
Use a variety of tools, such as print and social media, to attract qualified diverse talent.
Expand the pool of diverse candidates interested in intern programs to support workforce needs across the FDIC, focusing on high school seniors, college students, and students in advanced degree programs.
Strengthen and broaden relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other majority minority and women-serving institutions.
Continue associations with local, national and professional organizations that provide opportunities to source potential applicants for FDIC mission occupations and management and executive level positions.
Involve managers and supervisors in recruitment activities.
Establish a policy to ensure, to the extent possible, interview panels are diverse.
Identify and address barriers affecting diversity representation in all positions.
Workforce Diversity
Goal 1: The FDIC will recruit from a diverse, qualified group of potential applicants to secure a high-performing workforce drawn from all segments of American society.
Objective: Recruit highly qualified, diverse talent to sustain the FDIC's mission
Strategy 2: Ensure that all qualified internal FDIC candidates have an equal opportunity to compete for open positions
Action Items:
Employ interviewing techniques and flexibilities, e.g., the use of structured interview questions, that promote fair and consistent treatment of all applicants and that foster the selection of the best qualified candidates.
To the extent possible, ensure diversity of structured interview panel members.
Educate selecting officials on effective recruitment, consideration, and hiring a diverse work force at all levels.
Train selecting officials on recognizing and avoiding unconscious bias in the recruitment, interviewing and selection processes.
Ensure that vacancies available to internal candidates are advertised to the widest possible audience to promote and encourage open competition.
Periodically advise managers and recruiters on individual, group and organizational patterns and trends of hiring, retention, and promotion of diverse candidates and progress on meeting the performance goals.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 1: Retain FDIC's valued and diverse workforce
Strategy 1: Identify and implement strategies to retain valued employees
Action Items:
Maintain an open dialogue with managers, supervisors, and employees, such as through surveys and focus groups to proactively identify workplace issues and/or enhancements to support retention of a diverse workforce.
Conduct recurrent regretted loss (i.e., voluntary attrition of employees performing at satisfactory level) studies, examining the reasons employees choose to leave the FDIC, and utilize data to enhance working conditions to promote retention and an inclusive environment.
Leverage the Workplace Excellence Program as a resource for maintaining, enhancing and institutionalizing positive workplace and organizational change and advance retention.
Analyze attrition data, both voluntary and involuntary, to determine if disparities exist by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and/or age and address identified retention issues.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 1: Retain FDIC's valued and diverse workforce
Strategy 2: Integrate coaching into the FDIC's leadership competencies
Action items:
Identify a mechanism for communicating coaching behaviors for managers, supervisors and employees specifically related to promoting diversity and inclusion.
Develop a strategy to encourage coaching among all employees and between supervisors and employees.
Increase opportunities for collaboration among employees and encourage an open exchange of ideas and different opinions and perspectives.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 2: Ensure every employee has an equal opportunity for career advancement
Strategy 1: Apply developmental policies and practices consistently to all employees
Action items:
Improve transparency of developmental opportunities by ensuring that Expression of Interest announcements are widely posted and made accessible to all employees.
Monitor the assignment of work and special projects to ensure all employees have an opportunity to participate in new and high exposure learning experiences.
Use flexible workplace policies that support employee engagement and empowerment including, but not limited to, telework, wellness programs, and other work-life flexibilities and benefits.
Support employee participation in affinity and resource groups and provide such groups with access to present ideas and issues to FDIC's senior management.
Expand awareness of the existing mentoring program, particularly among new employees, to facilitate their inclusion in the work team and the FDIC organizational culture.
Add inclusion-specific questions to the annual survey and the exit survey to assess the climate and overall employee sense of engagement.
Collaborate with employees to remove any identified barriers that inhibit their inclusion in developmental opportunities and career advancement/promotion opportunities.
Encourage all eligible employees to develop career development plans and use professional learning accounts.
Encourage employees interested in career development opportunities to make appointments with career counselors.
Encourage employees interested in supervisory positions to seek a coach through the career management center.
Support employees seeking developmental opportunities via Expressions of Interest.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 2: Ensure every employee has an equal opportunity for career advancement
Strategy 2: Expand career development paths to meet FDIC long term mission needs
Action items:
Through collaboration across the FDIC, explore the feasibility of establishing additional career paths, e.g., bridge positions, upward mobility, cross-training opportunities, supervisory and managerial development.
Encourage managers to use position management practices to identify and broaden career path opportunities that meet current and future organizational needs.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 3: Develop and maintain diversity and inclusion initiatives to ensure they are a consistent part of the FDIC's work environment
Strategy 1: Create additional methods for communicating the FDIC's commitment to and value of diversity and inclusion to its workforce and to the public
Action items:
Develop and begin to implement a strategic communications plan to increase organizational awareness and engagement with diversity and inclusion topics through consistent messaging of the business case for diversity.
Identify potential topics and ensure that internal publications, such as the FDIC News, include articles on diversity and inclusion to further promote the importance and success of diversity to the FDIC mission.
Promote and share activities, events, awards, and other diversity and inclusion interests with the FDIC workforce via the diversity and inclusion web site.
Raise public awareness by including information about diversity and inclusion efforts on the FDIC's external web site and at FDIC minority and women outreach events.
Demonstrate appreciation of the diversity of all FDIC employees by hosting a Cultural Diversity Program annually that celebrates all cultures, races, ethnicities, genders, abilities, military experience, sexual orientation, etc.
Leverage employee communication programs, systems, and tools to reinforce diversity and inclusion principles and messaging to the workforce.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 3: Develop and maintain diversity and inclusion initiatives to ensure they are a consistent part of the FDIC's work environment
Strategy 2: Nurture the acceptance of diversity and inclusion through continuous learning efforts
Action items:
Promote continuous learning and discussion of diversity and inclusion awareness by focusing on issues that impact today's workplace; such as generational issues, unconscious bias, and myths about working with individuals with disabilities.
Review current learning and development programs to ensure that diversity and inclusion are included in developmental competencies that enhance organizational units, workgroups, and high performing teams.
Create and maintain a cost-effective, time-efficient, continuous diversity and inclusion training program for all employees.
Develop and sponsor training for individuals involved in the selection, development, and promotion processes to increase their awareness of and reduce the effects of unconscious bias.
Develop a Diversity and Inclusion Leaders series in partnership with agency executives, the Division of Administration, Corporate University, and the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.
Enhance the Diversity and Inclusion Education Series by ensuring that programs and activities support the learning experiences of all employees, while maintaining focus on federally recognized commemorations and observances.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 4: Strengthen programs to increase employee engagement to support and promote agency-wide diversity and inclusion
Strategy 1: Update the Chairman's Diversity Advisory Councils (CDACs)
Action items:
Engage the CDACs and Regional managers in discussions about revising the CDAC Directive to be consistent with and supportive of performance goals, diversity and inclusion strategies, and the objectives of other workplace related FDIC organizations such as Workplace Excellence.
Ensure CDAC strategies, objectives, and activities promote diversity and inclusion to the fullest extent and are not duplicative of other workplace initiatives.
Encourage a cross-section of employees from a variety of grade levels, occupations, and cultures to become members of the CDACs and to participate in their activities.
Ensure CDAC members receive an orientation to the council, including roles and responsibilities, identification of council goals and objectives, their relationship to other FDIC organizations, and information on agency diversity and inclusion goals.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 4: Strengthen programs to increase employee engagement to support and promote agency-wide diversity and inclusion
Strategy 2: Consider enhancements to existing diversity and inclusion programs by revitalizing and implementing FDIC Employee Affinity Groups and Employee Resource Groups
Action Items:
Revise the Employee Affinity Group Directive to ensure consistency with federal guidance, FDIC human resources policies, labor agreements, and performance goals.
Institute nationwide Employee Resource Groups that are organizations
of employees and managers formed around an aspect of diversity such
as generational, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, etc.Encourage and establish managerial sponsorship of Employee Affinity
and Employee Resource Groups to demonstrate agency-wide commitment.Develop a strategy to encourage employee interest and participation in Employee Affinity and Employee Resource Groups.
Workplace Inclusion
Goal 2: The FDIC will cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness to enable individuals to contribute to their full potential and improve retention.
Objective 4: Strengthen programs to increase employee engagement to support and promote agency-wide diversity and inclusion
Strategy 3: Recognize the differing priorities and needs of employees in maintaining healthy career/work life integration
Action Items:
Seek out and adopt policies, programs, and benefits which may support and enhance the career and work life integration of employees.
Continue to encourage supervisors and employees to support and use career/work life integration programs by communicating and educating all employees on the programs' benefits to employee retention and to increased productivity.
Sustainability
Goal 3: The FDIC will develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
Objective 1: Improve diversity and inclusion analytics and reporting
Strategy: Make diversity and inclusion reporting more actionable through improvements in data collection, presentation, and reporting frequency
Action Items:
Create an interdivisional diversity and inclusion analytics working group responsible for the ongoing production of actionable management reports on diversity and inclusion
Address data gaps related to recruitment, advancement, and retention analysis
Enhance data analytics through enhanced reporting techniques and use of external data sources
Increase the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion's advisory role to support leadership in their division-specific diversity strategic plans.
Report progress on the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion policies and programs quarterly to FDIC leadership.
Sustainability
Goal 3: The FDIC will develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
Objective 2: Demonstrate continuous leadership commitment to diversity and inclusion
Strategy 1: Tie diversity and inclusion to FDIC business success
Action Items:
Establish annual performance goals that further enhance diversity and inclusion throughout the FDIC.
Engage senior leadership involvement in collaboration, consultation, and communication on diversity and inclusion issues impacting the FDIC through the Diversity and Inclusion Executive Advisory Council.
Review the FDIC Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan annually and update as necessary to align with divisional diversity strategic plans, performance goals, and other related human resource objectives and trends.
Sustainability
Goal 3: The FDIC will develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
Objective 2: Demonstrate continuous leadership commitment to diversity and inclusion
Strategy 2: Create opportunities for executives to clearly demonstrate commitment to and participate in diversity and inclusion programs, activities, and events
Action Items:
Encourage and provide opportunities for all senior executives and managers to participate in the Diversity and Inclusion Leaders Series.
Encourage executives and managers to speak at both internal and external events that support diversity and inclusion.
Collaborate with executives and managers on the Diversity and Inclusion Education Series to broaden program perspectives and meet the needs of the FDIC.
Sustainability
Goal 3: The FDIC will develop structures and strategies to equip leaders with the ability to manage diversity, be accountable, measure results, refine approaches on the basis of such data, and institutionalize a culture of inclusion.
Objective 3: Demonstrate FDIC's commitment to diversity and inclusion to its employees and the public.
Strategy: Expand the FDIC's Awards Program to recognize and reward outstanding leadership in diversity and inclusion efforts
Action Items:
Review the existing criteria for the Annie D. Moore EEO and Diversity Award to broaden eligibility to recognize leaders who proactively further the FDIC's diversity and inclusion goals.
Examine opportunities to expand reward and recognition opportunities for all employees for diversity and inclusion efforts.