California EDD Contributions towards Achieving Equal Opportunity and Nondiscrimination

California Employment Development Department Equal Employment Opportunity and Legal Offices' Contributions towards Achieving Equal Opportunity and Nondiscrimination

Contact Information of Individual Submitting Nomination

Nominator: Ernesto Magana

Agency Name: California Employment Development Department

Contributions towards Achieving Equal Opportunity and Nondiscrimination

Mr. Patrick W. Henning, current Director of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), has issued several messages to all EDD employees that included the following statement:

As the Director of EDD, I am strongly committed to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and the implementation of EEO policies and objectives that will enhance the quality of our work life and the productivity in our workplace. The EDD's most valued resource is its employees. It is my goal to create a positive workplace where all employees feel comfortable that their work and individual contributions count. The EDD is an equal opportunity employer and has a comprehensive EEO policy. We are committed to assuring equal employment opportunity and equal access to services, programs and activities for all individuals. We will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with a disability to enable them to perform the functions of their job.

The EDD's commitment to equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination includes many processes, procedures, and practices to uncover, examine, and remove barriers to equal participation at all levels of the organization. The EDD EEO and Legal Offices play a vital role to ensure that the following are accomplished:

Annual Workforce Analysis: The EDD collects specific federal and state demographic information of its workforce to evaluate equal employment opportunities. The data collected is analyzed through the Annual Workforce Analysis to identify any barriers to equal employment opportunity and to gauge the success of EDD's efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. The California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) collects the data and reports its findings to the California Legislature annually. There are three components to the workforce analysis.

Workforce Composition: EDD conducts an analysis of significant underutilizations among racial/ethnic and gender groups.

Persons with Disabilities: EDD conducts an analysis of representation of persons with disabilities and set annual goals.

Upward Mobility: EDD identifies EDD upward mobility classifications; the number of employees that are participating in upward mobility, and the number of employees expected to progress from positions in low-paying classifications to entry level technical, professional, and administrative positions and set annual goals. The EDD submitted its latest Annual Workforce Analysis to CalHR in May 2018 (See enclosure 1)

Removing Barriers of Employment for Peoples with Disabilities: The EDD uses the Limited Examination and Appointment Program (LEAP) to hire people with disabilities. LEAP is a hiring program for people with disabilities to gain access into state service. The EDD EEO Office administers the LEAP program at EDD and has a LEAP Coordinator who works in the EDD EEO Office. The EDD LEAP Coordinator educates EDD managers and supervisors about the LEAP program, serves as LEAP liaison with the CalHR, and tracks LEAP hires at EDD (See Enclosures 2 for LEAP program background and Enclosure 3 for LEAP hires at EDD for the last four fiscal years).

Eliminating Barriers for Limited English Proficient (LEP) Customers: The EDD conducts the biennial Dymally-Alatorre Language Survey (biennial language survey) to measure the frequency of contact with LEP individuals. The EDD sites around the state conduct a two-week survey and record every customer's language. If a non-English language shows up in more than five percent of customer interactions, the EDD sites will provide language access services for that language. The biennial language survey measures if the EDD has a sufficient number of qualified employees in public contact positions to serve the LEP community. The EDD Bilingual Services Coordinator works in the EDD EEO Office and is responsible for devising the language access policy and procedures and ensuring that EDD adheres to it. Also, the EDD Bilingual Services Coordinator oversees the facilitation of the EDD biennial language survey. The EDD 2018-2021 Language Access Plan sets an official, enterprise-level course of action to ensure that LEP individuals have access to EDD's available programs, services, ad information (See Enclosure 4 for the results of the latest biennial language survey and Enclosure 5 for EDD's 2018-2021 Language Access Plan).

Annual Demographic Data and Record Analyses: The EDD conducts annual analyses of demographic data and records in its Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to determine whether these programs and activities are being conducted in a nondiscriminatory way. The results of the Annual Demographic Data and Record Analyses are shared with the Department of Labor’s Civil Rights Center and EDD's senior managers. (Enclosures 6 and 7 are the latest analyses for the EDD UI and WIOA programs).

Other significant contributions

The EDD EEO Office currently has six EEO Specialist and one Manager. As a team, the EEO Office’s contributes to the understanding and achievement of EO and nondiscrimination for all EDD employees and customers by doing the following:

Coordinating of EDD's Employee Mediation Program,
Investigating of all EDD internal and external discrimination complaints and allegations,
Developing investigation Reports of Findings,
Presenting investigation findings to EDD's EEO Review Committee,
Developing EDD’s position statements requested by external agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH),
Developing and maintaining EDD’s WIOA Nondiscrimination Plan,
Overseeing EDD’s compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII Civil Rights, and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act,
Administering LEAP program,
Administering EDD’s Diversity and Upward Mobility Programs,
Developing and reporting EDD's Annual Workforce Analysis,
Overseeing the EDD's Disability Advisory Council,
Overseeing EDD’s Bilingual Services Program, including the quarterly updating of EDD's Bilingual Services Directory,
Conducting annual onsite compliance monitoring reviews of California's 45 Local Workforce Development Areas (LWDAs) for compliance with WIOA Section 188,
Coordinating with EDD University to oversee all EEO-related training efforts,
Providing EDD's Discrimination Complaint Process training to all EDD employees, including managers and supervisors, and
Providing training and technical assistance to all 45 LWDA EO Officers on EO and nondiscrimination matters.

The California EDD has established effective policies and procedures to prevent all forms of EEO discrimination. It regularly examines the impact of these policies, procedures, and practices for potential barriers to EEO. The EEO Office plays a key role in the success of the EDD EEO program because it advises EDD managers and supervisors on EEO matters, plays a key role in EDD's training and education efforts, effectively coordinates between the EEO program and Human Resources program, has sufficient budget and staffing to support the success of the EEO program, and is involved in and consulted on personnel actions.

The EDD Legal Office's contributes to the understanding and achievement of EO and nondiscrimination for all EDD employees and customers by doing the following:

Providing legal assistance, an attorney is assigned to each investigation, to EEO Specialists to ensure that complaints and allegations of discrimination are properly investigated in a timely manner,
Working with EDD EEO Office Manager to ensure that all investigation and position statements are completed in a timely manner,
Presenting on EDD’s EEO Program, along with EEO Office manager and EEO Office staff, at new EDD employee orientations and training sessions for EDD managers and supervisors, and
Presenting on new requirements of WIOA Section 188 to California's 45 LWDA EO Officers.

Statement of results, accomplishments, impacts and any other appropriate information that demonstrates why the nominee's efforts were an exceptional contribution.

The EDD EEO Office accomplished the following in Calendar Year 2018:

Conducted 32 investigation of internal discrimination complaints and allegations,
Conducted 13 investigations of external discrimination complaints and allegations,
Issued 21 No Prima Facie letters,
Processed 48 EEO-related inquires,
Processed 44 non-jurisdictional letters,
Made eight EEO-related referrals to EDD branches,
Issued 11 Position Statement notices to EEOC and DFEH,
Processed five ADA inquires,
Worked with EDD programs to promote employment of people with disabilities within EDD by successfully completing 26 LEAP hires,
Received and processed 96 discrimination complaints and allegations,
Conducted 25 onsite compliance monitoring reviews of LWDAs,
Issued 90 compliance monitoring reports (Draft and Final) to LWDAs,
Reviewed EDD Bilingual Services Policy and developed a policy statement,
Updated the EEO Office Intranet SharePoint site to house all EDD language access resources in one place,
Developed mandated Babel Notices and marketed their use throughout EDD,
Coordinated EDD’s biennial language survey,
Conducted ten training sessions at EDD field sites throughout California that were requested by EDD various programs,
Completed EDD Workforce Analysis,
Developed EDD Bilingual Services Directory Update Process that went into effect on January 1, 2019,
Led the coordination of October 10, 2018 EDD Headquarters Diversity Fair celebration that was attended by nearly 1,000 EDD employees in Sacramento, California,
Assisted and encouraged local EDD management teams to hold Diversity Celebrations throughout California in October 2018 in 106 EDD sites to coincide with Diversity Awareness Month to promoted diversity awareness throughout the entire department,
Developed a Language Access Complaint poster that will be distributed to all EDD public-facing sites in 2019 in English (Enclosure 8), Mandarin, Cantonese, Armenian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Tagalog,
Developed California's Nondiscrimination Plan and issued it to the Department of Labor's Civil Rights Center in February 2018,
Conducted training of LWDA EO Officers on July 17-18, 2018 (See Enclosure 9),and
Organized three EDD Disability Advisory Council meetings.