The Employer Information Report, commonly known as the EEO-1 Report, has finally gotten a major makeover that affects what information you must collect about your employees and how you collect it. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revised the form in response to additions made to racial and ethnic categories collected for the 2000 census and issued final regulations in November 2005. (Federal Register, Vol. 70, No. 227, Monday, November 28, 2005.)
Private employers with 100 or more employees, as well as federal contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $50,000 or more are required to submit annual EEO-1 reports to the Joint Reporting Committee (JRC), a committee of the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). These reports track employee data by race, ethnicity, sex, and job classification. The EEOC uses the data to support enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws and to analyze employment patterns. The OFCCP uses the information to target employers for compliance evaluations. The EEO-1 must be filed each year by September 30th.
Summarized below are the changes made to the EEO-1 form and reporting requirements.
Previously, you had to collect information on five EEO-1 race/ethnicity categories: Hispanic, White, Black, Asian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaskan Native. The new changes increase the categories to seven: Hispanic or Latino, White, Black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. In order to yield more accurate data about Hispanics or Latinos the EEOC has adopted the “two-question format†which requires employees, when self-identifying their race, to first report their Hispanic or Latino status and then report the race or races they consider themselves to be. The EEOC will require employers to report the number of employees who identify themselves as “two or more races,†but will not require reporting of the specific races.
The EEOC also changed the EEO-1 job categories. The new categories continue to be skill-based rather than industry-based, but the Officials and Managers category has been split into two subcategories: Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers and First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers. The EEOC believes the subcategories will allow for more detailed assessment of female and minority involvement at different levels.
Residing in the highest levels of organizations, these Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers plan, direct or coordinate activities with the support of subordinate executives and staff managers. In larger organizations, they include those individuals within two reporting levels of the CEO, whose responsibilities require frequent interaction with the CEO. Examples of these kinds of managers are: chief executive officers; chief operating officers; presidents or executive vice presidents of functional areas or operating groups; chief marketing officers; chief legal officers; and managing partners.
First/Mid Level Officials and Managers receive direction from the Executive/Senior Level Management and typically lead major business units. They implement policies, programs and directives of Executive/Senior Level Management through subordinate managers and within the parameters set by Executive/Senior Level Management. Examples of these kinds of managers are: vice presidents and directors; regional or divisional controllers; treasurers; and human resource, information systems, marketing and operational managers. The First/Mid Level Officials and Managers subcategory also includes those who report directly to middle managers. Examples of these kinds of managers are: first-line managers; team managers; unit managers; operations and production managers; call center or customer service managers; technical support managers; and branch or product managers.
In addition, the old Office and Clerical category has been changed to Administrative Support Workers, and current references to skilled, unskilled, or semi-skilled work have been dropped. The Laborers category is now Laborers and Helpers.
The revisions also change the information gathering process. In the past, the EEOC directed you to obtain the racial and ethnic information by visual surveys of the workforce or from post-employment records. The new revisions instruct you to ask employees to self-identify and only rely on the old method as a back up when self-identification is not possible.
In order to complete the new EEO-1 form, you will ultimately need to re-survey your workforce to gather the necessary data. However, for the EEO-1 report due on September 30, 2007, employers are only required to use the new EEO-1 form. Reporting employers are not required to re-survey their workforce for the 2007 report. This means that in 2007, you may fill out the new form with only the limited race data collected in accordance with the old EEO-1 form. Note that the regulations require that employers make their count within the three months prior to the September 30th reporting deadline.
The EEOC has provided helpful information on the new EEO-1 Report on its Web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html, including a discussion of the revisions to the EEO-1 form and how to implement the new racial and ethnic categories.
We can help you develop an employee survey form that elicits the proper EEO-1 information. Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions about the new EEO-1 requirements or need assistance revising your EEO-1 form.
