National Marine Fisheries Service
Southwest Region
Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee (EEOAC)
Personnel Subcommittee
February 2, 2000

Issue: The NMFS Southwest Region seeks to improve its efforts to recruit applicants for employment. Recognizing that some groups of people may currently be under-represented in the SWR workforce, the Personnel Subcommittee of the SWR Equal Employment Opportunity Committee is proposing to identify such under-represented groups and to devise recommendations for SWR management to improve recruiting practices targeted at these groups.

Proposed Solution: Based on a review of existing EEO reports produced by NMFS Headquarters and the SWR, the Personnel Subcommittee will identify and expand the pool of possible sources for reaching, informing, and recruiting under-represented groups for the SWR workforce. The Personnel Subcommittee will research and develop a database of schools, associations, and organizations who will post or distribute NMFS SWR vacancy announcements to their members. The database could include names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. The Personnel Subcommittee will also propose to SWR management methods for implementing an employment outreach strategy.

Cost: No direct costs are anticipated.

1. Personnel Subcommittee will request WASC to provide information on vacancy announcements in SWR over the last two years in order to gain an understanding of the types of jobs that are available in the Region and Center. This information will guide the Subcommittee in its search for information on appropriate groups, schools, and institutions that could participate in distributing future vacancy announcements.

2. Personnel Subcommittee members will review existing EEO reports to identify minorities and other under-represented groups in the SWR workforce.

3. Personnel Subcommittee members will meet with human resource specialists in their offices/geographic areas to collect existing lists of schools and institutions. Additional information will be collected by conducting searches (e.g., by Internet, telephone, etc.) to identify other opportunities for reaching minorities and other under-represented groups.

4. Personnel Subcommittee members will do searches for their areas and send results to Subcommittee chairperson for compiling.

5. Personnel Subcommittee will develop and implement a method for contacting schools, institutions, organizations, etc., to establish liaison with points of contact who are willing to distribute vacancy announcements when received from NMFS SWR.

6. Approximately six months after the recruiting outreach plan is implemented, the Personnel Subcommittee will evaluate the plan’s effectiveness to determine whether changes or updates are needed.