Agency Mission

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a major agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The top-level official of the FHWA is the Administrator, who reports directly to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The FHWA has a field office in every State, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The FHWA has broad responsibility for ensuring that roads and highways in the United States are safe and technologically up-to-date. The FHWA provides financial and technical support to the States for constructing, improving, and preserving America's highway system.

The FHWA pursues its vision and mission through the implementation of four strategic goals: National Leadership, Program Delivery, System Performance, and Corporate Capacity.

Self-Assessment Results

The FHWA's self-assessment revealed several essential areas that require improvement. There is a need to:

• Establish and implement timetables for the FHWA's review of its personnel programs (Merit Promotion, Employee Recognition Awards, and Employee Training and Development) as well as conduct a workforce compensation and reward system trend analysis by race, national origin, sex and disability;
  
  
• Implement EEO action plans and incorporate the EEO action plan objectives into FHWA strategic plans;
  
  
• Improve data collection in all areas;
  
  
• Conduct systematic trend analyses by race, national origin, gender and disability to determine the effects of management/personnel policies, procedures, and practices on these groups;
  
  
• Conduct barrier analyses to determine the reason for the low participation rates of the various identified groups–Hispanic men and women, White women, and persons with targeted disabilities (PWTD);
  
  
• Conduct barrier analyses to determine the reason why Black males and females, Hispanic males and females, and American Indian males and females are not occupying grades 12 through 15 in accordance with their representative numbers in the workforce;
  
  
• Involve senior management in the identification of barriers and the development of action plans to eliminate barriers when found; and,
  
  
• Establish a method for conducting audits of field offices to determine compliance with MD-715 requirements.
  

While there is a need for improvement in the above mentioned areas, the FHWA has been proficient in ensuring that policy statements are up-to-date and disseminated, as well as ensuring that there is an efficient and fair dispute resolution process, and an efficient and effective EEO complaint processing program.

Workforce Analysis

The FHWA has low participation rates for Hispanic males and females, White females, American Indian females, and PWTD.

The net change (benchmark) for the FHWA's permanent workforce is 1.04%.

Hispanic males represent 6.17% of the CLF but only 3.89% of the FHWA workforce. There was a net change of 9 or 8.91%.

Hispanic females represent 4.52% of the CLF but only 2.51% of the FHWA workforce. There was a net change of 12 or 20.34%.

White females represent 33.74% of the CLF but only 22.99% of the FHWA workforce. There was a net change of -2 or -0.31%.

American Indian females represent 0.32% but only 0.28% of the FHWA workforce. There was a net change of 2 or 33.33%.

PWTD represent 31 or 1.10% of FHWA's workforce. The USDOT has a 3% goal for PWTD. There was a net change of 0.00%.

FHWA's Objectives to Address Barriers and/or Deficiencies

The FHWA's objectives and identified barriers are a continuation from the previous years. To become a Model EEO Agency, the FHWA will focus its efforts on the following objectives:

1. Educating all employees in the areas of reasonable accommodation, workplace harassment, and the EEO discrimination complaint process and procedures;
   
   
2. Continue educating all supervisors and managers on hiring and retaining PWTD and reasonable accommodations;
   
   
3. Continue implementing the FHWA Recruitment Program for PWTD which will include achieving our 3 percent goal of hiring PWTD, marketing the use of temporary FTE slots available through the Office of Human Resources, and conducting outreach to PWTD in an effort to increase employment;
   
   
4. Establishing a centralized reasonable accommodation tracking system so that the FHWA can accurately monitor requests;
   
   
5. Check with employees requesting reasonable accommodation to determine if needs have been met;
   
   
6. Educate all FHWA employees on contact information for the Disability Resource Center;
   
   
7. Educate all FHWA employees regarding the FHWA Disability Coordinator; and,
   
   
8. Include questions in exit interviews to identify what barriers may exist for employees with targeted disabilities.

The FHWA will re-establish the FHWA MD-715 Work Group to study ways to strengthen and improve the FHWA's workforce. The MD-715 Work Group will strategize and implement the Management Directive Action Plan. These efforts will be focused on analyzing statistical information to determine and identify potential barriers in equal employment and equal employment opportunity. The MD-715 Work Group will identify potential barriers to determine whether a particular employment practice disproportionately excludes members of a protected group.

The Hispanic Recruitment Team will continue to provide support in reaching out to grass root organizations in the Hispanic community to enhance the knowledge of transportation industry and public service.

Summary of Actions Implemented or Accomplished

The FHWA implemented a Hispanic Employment Program Plan created in 2006 and established a Hispanic Recruitment Team to address the deficiencies with Hispanic women and men with regard to low participation rates. The following actions were accomplished under this initiative:

• Outreached to grass root organizations in the Hispanic community to enhance their knowledge about the transportation industry and public service;
  
  
• Attended conferences, career fairs, and networking sessions across the United States targeted to the Hispanic population;
  
  
• Solicited and encouraged Hispanic Serving Institutions to become host-sites for the DOT National Summer Transportation Institute, and in the future, will navigate them through the application process; and,
  
  
• Provided training to managers, supervisors in the areas of reasonable accommodation, workplace harassment, the EEO discrimination complaint process and procedures.
  

While the Office of Human Resources and the Office of Civil Rights partnered in hiring a consultant during fiscal year 2007 and a report was provided, this information has not yet been shared with senior leadership. The report will be reviewed by the newly appointed Associate Administrator for Civil Rights and a determination will be made regarding whether the information should be shared.

The FHWA continues to provide mandatory EEO training for all employees. The training includes: Alternative Dispute Resolution, Constitution Training, Information Assurance Awareness, No Fear Act, Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Privacy Act, and Prohibited Personnel Practices and Workplace Safety. The Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Human Resources continue to work to provide training to all employees in other areas such as MD-715, Workplace Harassment, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the FHWA Internal Complaint Process. The templates for these training sessions have been completed and are due to be online via eLMS before the end of fiscal year 2009.