CREATING A MORE DIVERSE WORKFORCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00530R000100120005-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2013
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 27, 1988
• Content Type: MISC

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, ?)
DRAFT
CHAPTER SIX
CREATING A MORE DIVERSE WORKFORCE
?
The intelligence agencies have been in the enviable position of
having much larger rates of staff growth than the government-wide
rate of two percent. For the four agencies whose equal employment
profiles and policies NAPA analyzed, the percent of civilian staff
increases from fiscal years 1982 to 1987 were: CIA, 24 percent;
NSA, 37 percent; DIA, 42 percent; and FBI, 18 percent.
This chapter reviews the intelligence agencies' efforts to
recruit and promote women and members of minority groups, and the
extent to wkich the agencies took advantage Of their growth
environments to make their workforces more diverse ones.
Recognizing tnat organizations must do more than simply bring new
people into their workforces, the panel also examined retention and
promotion rates and agency efforts to help their staffs deal with
people from all racial and ethnic groups in the workplace.
I. Marked Variations in Workforce Profiles
Table 1 summarizes the changes of the intelligence agencies'
employment profiles between 1982 and 1987, and compares them to
government-wide data for approximately the same period.
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Staffing
Increase
Change in
female wkfc
proportion
Change in
minority wkfc
proportion
Change in
proportion
of female
professionals
Change in
proportion
of minority
professionals
NAPA
Constructed
Index
Ranking*
1982 Supergrd
distribution
Intelligence
FBI
''AFT
Table 1
Agency and Government-Wide Comparisons
Equal Employment Data
Fiscal Years 1982 - 1987
CIA NSA
DIA GOVT-WIDE
18% 24% 37% 42%
43.7% to
44.9%
+0.2%/yr
24.3% to
24.8%
+0.1%/yr
9.7% to
16.6%
+1.4%/yr
8.5% to
11.2%
+0.5%/yr
Women
lltn of 11
Minority
10th of 11
99.2% men
96.3% wht
1986/7 Suprgrd 98.6% men
distribution 94.4% wht
35.8% to 32.0% 34.8% to
40.8% 42.0% 38%
+1%/yr +2%/yr +0.6%/yr
11.6%
(no
change)
8.3% to 14.6% to
9.6% 19.4%
+0.2%/yr +1%/yr
22% to 24% to 6.2% to
30% 28% 14.7%
+1.6%/yr +0.8%/yr +1.7%/yr
7% (no 7.0% to 2.7%
change) 7.6% 6.8%
+0.1%/yr +0.8%/yr
Women
4th of 11
Minority
11th of 11
men
98.3% white
95.7% men
97.0% white
Women
4th of 11
Minority
11th of 11
97.1% men
95.4% white
94.6% men
96.1% white
Women
8th of 9
Minority
9th of 9
96.4% men
100.0% wht
98.0% men
98.1% wht
2%
38.2% to
40.2%
+0.5/yr
23.8% to
25.5%
+0.4%/yr
23.5% to
26.8%
+0.8%/yr
12.7% to
15.0%
+0.6%/yr
N/A
93.8% men
93.6% white
91.7% men
93.2% white
Government-wide data covers fiscal years 1982 - 1986; Intelligence
agency data is for fiscal years 1982 - 1987.
Government-wide supergrade data is for fiscal year 1986; Intelligence
agency data is for fiscal year 1987.
Indexes were constructed based on size of agency professional
or professional administrative staff. Thus, when two agencies
appear to be "tied," they are actually ranked on different
scales, because they are on different indexes.
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LiKAI- I
Given their rates of agency growth, NAPA expected that there
would be growth in the proportion of women and members of minority
groups in each agency's worktorce. In fact, the proportion of women
rose in all agencies, with the proportion of professional women
growing more than the government-wide proportion. DIA's proportion
of professional women increased the most. DIA had, however, the
smallest proportion of women in professional positions in 1982, and
the largest rate of overall staff growth. The CIA and NSA are both
above the government-wide proportion and have a much larger
proportion of women in their professional workforce than do DIA and
the FBI.
Growth in the proportion of members of Minority groups as part
of the total workforce was similar to that of the growth of women at
the FBI and DIA. NSA's proportion increased (actually at a greater
rate than the FBI's), and CIA's proportion remained exactly the
same. The FBI's total proportion (24.8 percent) is closest to the
government-wide proportion of 25.5 percent.
No intelligence agency is equal to the government-wide
proportion (15.0 percent) of members of minority groups among the
professional staff; FBI is the closest, with 11.2 percent. However,
DIA had a nigher annual rate of growth (again, starting from a much
lower base). The CIA had no growth and NSA very little.
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After examining each agency's staff distribution, NAPA compared
each to a set of other government agencies. In all cases, the
intelligence agencies were at or near the bottom of the ranking in
terms of members of minority groups in professional or
professional/administrative positions. The FBI and DIA also ranked
poorly in terms of the proportion of women in the professional
ranks, but CIA and NSA compared favorably.
Government-wide, few women or members of minority groups are in
supergrade jobs -- 91.7 percent are filled by men and 93.2 percent
whites. No intelligence agency, however, did even this well.
Recruitment Efforts
All of the agencies have special emphasis recruiting programs,
though the levels of focus seem to differ somewhat.
The CIA emphasizes its college student programs, some of which
are designed to attract minority students, eitner directly or ?N
through college administrators and placement directors. The NSA f'jeA`
OM' CelizA0
Black Affairs and Hispanic special emphasis program managers are the'N Ak
focus of a great deal of that agency's outreach. The FBI has a
centralized recruiting program, in terms of advertising and
promotional efforts, with much direct recruiting done through staff
in its field office. DIA focuses employment advertising and site
recruitment toward minority educational institutions.
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DRAFT
One base against which to compare IC agency recruitment results
is the composition of college graduating groups. Just over 50
percent of 1984/85 college graduates with bachelor's degrees were
*,
women, and 12 percent were members of minority groups.
Most of tne agencies' recruitment levels of women have risen
steadily, but the proportion of new hires who are members of
minority groups varies somewhat more. In fiscal year 1987, the
proportion of professional recruits who were members of minority
groups was: FBI, 15 percent; NSA, 8.9 percent; DIA, 8.0 percent;
CIA, 7.5 percent. These proportions were not constant through the
five year period studied. CIA, for example, has increased its
proportion from three percent in 1985.
Conclusions and Recommendations: Recruitment
It is difficult to determine what factors account for the
varying levels of increase. Among those which would affect changing
proportions are: occupational groups recruited and the proportion
of women and members of minority groups in them; agency level of
effort; and agency location(s).
For example, in the panel's judgment, NSA's level of effort
bc
appears to the greatest -- staff are involved throughout the agency;
staff and managers have received a lot of training in equal
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Lnvi-Ar
employment issues; and tne agency has analyzed its needs and the job
market and done some very targeted recruiting. Yet, the proportion
of professional staff wno are members of minority groups has risen
from only 7 to 7.6 percent. However, the proportion of the overall
minority workforce grew by .8 percent, second only to DIA's 4.8
percent growtn.
DIA's level of effort, as they described it, was less than any
other agency's, yet the proportion of staff growth was greatest.
Even taking into account that DIA started with the lowest levels of
professional staff, the agency's growth is still marked.
This leads to consideration of geography -- DIA's sites are in
an urban area, with a large minority population, and they are on
major public transportation routes. NSA is near urban areas, but is
not on major public transportation routes. On the other hand, the
CIA and NSA are in similar types of locales, and the CIA's levels of
minority representation in its workforce did not grow at all.
Public and private organizations have cited transportation ease and
child care availability as important factors when recruiting women
and members of minority groups, especially for support positions.
Working Within the Heterogeneous Workplace
Most organizations concentrate on hiring increasing proportions
of women and members of minority groups, but focus less on whether
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the existing workforce is prepared to work in a more heterogeneous
workplace. This is not a comfortable topic to address, in that it
requires managers and staff to become more aware of and perhaps
discuss their perceptions and feelings, things not easily done.
Without somewhat deliberate consciousness raising, workforces
that ?have been predominantly white and male may not be as likely to
aosorb women and members of minority groups into the mainstream.
How does this translate into organizational policy? It means, among
other things, that organizations need to assure that they don't
,encourage informal communication networks which work around official
employee performance systems, and that they must work to assure that
women and members of minority groups have the same opportunities to
perform the difficult work that leads to recognition and promotions.
It was beyond the scope of NAPA's work to take the pulse of
each intelligence agency's organizational culture. However, there
are some indicators of "organizational absorption" that can be
examined. These include retention and promotion figures, as well as
special emphasis programs designed to promote a more heterogeneous
workplace.
A. Promoting and Retaining Staff
A, Cirgkr-ILPI
All of the agencies promote women in .rj=e-a-t-tor- proportion L-
their representation in the agency workforce. However, these are
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CfAr I
aggregate figures,
ladders more often
determine whether
similar timeframes
request this.
and thus include support staff, whose career
include the option of yearly promotions. To
staff in like positions were being promoted in
would require more discrete data. NAPA did not
Members of minority groups were generally promoted in a
proportion closer to their representation in the workforce, with
some agencies above and some below the representation level.
this data is for all staff, and doesn't permit analysis about
promotions through professional ranks.
Again,
The intelligence agencies do not appear to do a great deal of
analysis of retention figures for minority and female staff. The
FBI has done some, and as a result deliberately made some
adjustments in its training programs to reduce attrition. These
have had a definite, positive impact on retention.
Only CIA and NSA provided aggregate attrition data. While
there were not any startling indications, some trends do appear
worth monitoring. For example, in NSA, women make up more of those
who left in 1987 (43.8 percent) than 1982 (35.0 percent). Members
of minority groups had also become a larger proportion of those
leaving (rising from 8 to 13 percent). In the CIA, Asian staff seem
to leave at a higher rate tnan otners.
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--ZAFT
B. Preparing the Workplace to Deal with Differences
The agencies described special emphasis training programs,
usually discussing them in terms of benefit to members of a special
emphasis group and to the organization as a whole. For example, the
CIA has three courses in special awareness training for women only,
and a fourth for agency male middle managers.
The FBI is developing a new set of programs designed to
sensitize managers and supervisors to equal employment issues and
provide a greater awareness to all staff. All DIA training courses
for managers and supervisors include EEO principles and
responsibilities, and EEO courses are included in career ladder
training.
NSA held in October 1987 a one-day, off-site seminar for senior
executives on "Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action: The Role
of the Executive." The NSA Director and the entire senior staff
directorate attended. Designed to provide upper management with
sound knowledge of equal employment opportunity and to reaffirm that
this is an inherent part of each senior manager's responsibilities,
the seminar was deemed a "tremendous success." Since October 1987,
180 senior staff have attended, and the goal is for all managers and
supervisors to eventually do so.
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