EEO ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

sharonm

Can some of you share with me how your company's organization is structured concerning the EEO department? I work for Westinghouse Savannah River Company in SC, which has been the Management and Operations Prime Contractor at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site since 1989. There are currently aroung 1200 employees working at SRS. Within this organization, the EEO section is within the HR Department. The HR Department is one of eight departments in a division called Business Management Services. There are 12 other divisions in our facility. As you can see, EEO is "sandwiched" in a department within one of 13 divisions! It is my concern (and opinion) that because of this organizational structure, EEO does not have the level of authority needed to enforce the laws and decisions that affect fair representation and treatment that all employees deserve. If EEO was structured so that a higher level of management provided oversight for actions and decisions made, wouldn't there be more of an incentive for managers to want to do the right thing when it comes to hiring, promoting, development, etc.? Please share how your EEO organizations are structured. Thanks!

Gillian

Our organization is small so can't repond from the perspective of how we are structured. I can respond from the perspective of organization structure, however. The way that you are structured, with EEO an HR function, in one out or eight divisions probably creates a situation where, in the minds of management, EEO is just "another HR program" and unless there is someone at a higher level to ensure that management in all the divisions takes EEO seriously, they probably don't view it as very relevant to their daily lives. One way of possibly alleviating this is to have EEO as a separate department independent of any of the divisions with some sort of consulting role to division management. Another way could be to decentralize HR so that HR expertise (including HR) is more readily available to division management.

Organization structure does not guarantee change, however. An more enlightened view of EEO comes through personal commitment not by organizational change, although organizational change sometimes creates the clout to force some change.

Gar

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-28-01 AT 08:48AM (CST)[/font][p]It's my experience that to whom or what the EEO organization reports to is less important than whether management listens to the recommendations EEO makes. I recall a matter where I advised management to select an older (50+) employee for an Accounting Manager position. I was the EEO Coordinator and management ignored my advice, selecting a much younger (mid-20s) employee. The older employee had more accounting experience than the younger employee had time on the planet. Both had similar performance evaluation ratings. The older employee sued. I was made to testify (deposition) and indicated my advice was ignored (I'm not committing perjury for anyone). Upper management found out and, on the advice of legal counsel, settled out of court for a very large $um for fear of being hit with punitive damages for "willful discrimination." Word leaked out about the settlement and, as a result, I used that situation as leverage with managers for years and you know what? After that, they listened. Foot note: The careers of the managers who made/blessed the initial selection went south after the smoke cleared.