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September 26, 2006
Are You Ready for the New EEO-1?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has revised the annual report it requires from private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more workers--for the first time since its inception in 1966. Called the EEO-1, the report concerns the portion of organizations' part- and full-time (but not casual or temporary) applicants and employees who are female or members of minority groups.

What's changed? First, note that reports for 2006 are not affected; the new format applies only for data submitted by September 30, 2007. The major changes involve both various ethnic and racial categories and levels of management. First, there's a new data category called "Two or more races (not Hispanic or Latino)." EEOC figures show increasing numbers of U.S. workers who identify themselves as bi- or multiracial, with few of them among those seeing their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino--so racial data for Hispanics or Latinos will no longer be collected. Further, "Hispanic" becomes "Hispanic or Latino"; and "Asian and Pacific Islanders" becomes either "Asian" or "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander," both with the caveat that the person is not Hispanic or Latino. Finally, "Black" will now be "Black or African American," again with "not Hispanic or Latino" as a qualifier.

In addition, EEOC stressed again its preference for having employees and applicants identify their own gender, ethnicity, and race, and offered sample language to persuade them to do so while informing them that such disclosures are voluntary. For people who decline to self-identify, the employer can draw a visual conclusion and must specify in its records whether the identity was self-identified or visual.

Parsing managerial levels is part of EEOC's effort to see where glass ceilings exist and what progress is being made to eliminate them. To that end, the old distinction between applicants or employees who are "Officials and Managers" versus those who are not has been expanded: the higher-level category now becomes "Executive/Senior-Level Officials and Managers" and "First/Mid-level Officials and Managers." EEOC has originally proposed creating three levels that would distinguish between first- and mid-level managers, but employers protested that would be too difficult, and the agency backed down. The final tweak to make the new differentiation meaningful is that employers must reclassify non-managerial employees with special expertise as "Professionals."

What to do. To gear up for these changes, employers should consider these steps:

  • Resurvey your workforce using the new race and ethnicity categories.
  • Create procedures to identify characteristics when employees and applicants decline to self-identify.
  • Update and adapt your HR information systems to the new report format.
  • Recategorize all your officials and managers to conform to the new format.
  • Conduct a self-audit.
  • Watch for guidance from the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs on how it will conform its EEO reporting requirements to the new format.