Seyfarth Synopsis: On Wednesday, December 12th, the EEOC hosted a Data Dialogue Listening Session for stakeholders regarding the new Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics ("OEDA"). The EEOC's Acting Chair, Victoria Lipnic, created the office with a mandate to make "transformational" changes in how the agency collects, uses, and shares data to accomplish its mission. The changes are aligned with the current Administration's Federal Data Strategy, which has been tasked with developing a consistent approach to federal data stewardship, use, and access.
The EEOC hired Chief Data Officer, Dr. Chris Haffer, approximately one year ago to carry out the strategic vision for OEDA. Since then the EEOC has been designing the organizational structure, implementing the infrastructure, and building its resources. The Listening Session was the Agency's first opportunity to share the vision, mission and strategy for the OEDA with various stakeholders including advocacy groups, employer groups and researchers. As Acting Chair Lipnic described it, "we spent the last year building the new house, it's time to invite the neighbors." OEDA's mission statement is to:
Provide our customers timely,
accurate, and bias-free data and
information to prevent and remedy unlawful employment
discrimination,
and improve organizational performance.
OEDA will use data and analytics for both the Agency's internal needs and in connection with systemic investigations of employment discrimination matters. The current structure includes four Divisions:
- Business Operations and Organizational Performance Division. This team is currently led by Acting Director Kimberly Essary, J.D. and will responsible for business operational functions for the office.
- Data Development and Information Products Division, is being led by Director Rashida Dorsey, Ph.D. Among other responsibilities, this Division is responsible for administering the EEO-1, 3, 4, and 5 surveys and for developing information products for internal and external stakeholders.
- Information and Data Access Division, is being led by Director Jiashen You, Ph.D. Among other responsibilities, this Division manages the EEOC Library, supports enforcement and litigation activities by providing research and information services to the EEOC's investigative analysts and attorneys.
- Data Analytics Division, is led by Director Mark Leach, Ph.D. This Division will provide analytics support for systemic investigations and training on analytical processes to the field offices. In addition, this Division will be charged with conducting enterprise-wide analytics to identify geographic, industry and other drivers of discrimination charges and emerging trends.
In addition to the organizational structure of the Office, Dr. Haffer discussed certain initiatives aimed at data collection, transparency and leveraging data to improve enforcement and accountability. The specific initiatives discussed included:
- A review of what and how the agency collects data using the EEO-1, EEO-3, EEO-4, and EEO-5 Reports;
- The creation of a "data enclave" to allow data researchers to leverage anonymized EEO data in a secure environment; and
- The creation of public use tool data to allow for more user friendly data mapping and data queries.
The EEOC has promised to have further discussions with stakeholders. We will continue to monitor developments related to OEDA's efforts and will alert you as more develops.
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