Hispanic Employment Initiative: Nine-Point Plan

On September 18, 1997, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum to Heads of Executive Departments and Independent Agencies that raised concerns about Hispanic underrepresentation in the Federal workforce. In this memorandum, OPM proposed a Nine-Point Plan to improve the representation of Hispanics in the Federal workforce.

The Nine-Point Plan encourages Federal agencies to:

• Support and implement the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans;
• Provide employment information to students, faculty, and the Hispanic community;
• Use the Presidential Management Intern (PMI) Program for recruiting, converting, and advancing Hispanic college graduates;
• Participate in the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) National Internship Program;
• Use the flexibilities of the Student Educational Employment Program to bring Hispanic students into agency’s shortage category occupations, as well as other occupations;
• Develop mentoring programs to motivate young people to pursue higher education and Federal careers;
• Promote participation of Hispanic employees in career development programs;
• Assess agency needs for full-time, part-time, or collateral Hispanic Employment Program (HEP) Managers and ensure that HEP Managers are integral members of the agency’s management team; and
• Incorporate these activities into agency’s Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program (FEORP) accomplishment report to OPM.

Nine-Point Plan Success

Over the last six years, Hispanic representation in the Federal workforces has steadily
grown. As of June 30, 2007, the representation of Hispanics in the Federal
permanent workforce stood at 7.7 percent, compared with 7.5 percent on June 30, 2006, accounting for more than 3,000 new jobs. Current data shows increases in Hispanic representation in 58 percent of the largest Federal departments’ and agencies’
workforces.

Hispanic Representation in the Permanent
Federal Civilian Workforce

Governmentwide, the percentage of Hispanic permanent new hires climbed from 7.5 percent to 8.6 percent (Table 2). The Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission all saw increases in the percentage of Hispanics among their permanent new hires for the period July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007.

Data Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management CPDF as of September of each year
from 1997-2004, and June 2005-2007

Additional Tip

*For details on how your KSAs will be scored, or sample KSAs that have scored high, see Guide to the Federal Hiring Process.