President Obama issued an executive order to increase diversity in the federal government through the recruiting, hiring, and promotion process. According to a White House statement, the federal government must “endeavor to achieve a work force from all segments of society.” Within 90 days of the order, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in conjunction with the President’s Management Council and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, must develop an initiative to increase diversity and inclusivity in the federal government’s workplace.
President Obama stated, “By this order, I am directing executive departments and agencies to develop and implement a more comprehensive, integrated, and strategic focus on diversity and inclusion as a key component of their human resource strategies. This approach should include a continuing effort to identify and adopt best practices, implemented in an integrated manner, to promote diversity and remove barriers to equal employment opportunity, consistent with merit system principles and applicable law. According to the Washington Post, “Latinos were only 4.1 percent of the employees in the senior pay levels in fiscal 2010; African Americans, 6.7 percent; and women, 31.2 percent.” Moreover, Caucasians currently make up 81 percent of senior level workers.
