Our Formal EEOC Comment
- JFK
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
To Our 1000+ ISO-30415 Certified Professionals: I Have Submitted a Formal Comment to the EEOC
Colleagues,
After some drafting at the National Leverage Lab Conference in Washington DC last week, this morning, on behalf of the 1000 ISO-30415 Certified Pros at the Workforce Service Management Institute, I submitted a formal public comment to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concerning its proposed major revisions to the federal-sector discrimination complaint process under 29 CFR Part 1614.
I did so because this proposal raises an important workforce management question that goes well beyond politics:
When does making a process faster actually make the system better?
The EEOC proposes eliminating mandatory pre-complaint counseling, changing access to Administrative Judge proceedings, eliminating administrative adjudication of class complaints, and making other significant changes to the federal-sector EEO process. The Commission describes its objective as making that process “quicker, simpler, and more effective.”
Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing.
From an ISO 30415-informed workforce management perspective, a discrimination complaint is more than a case requiring disposition. It is also information about the performance of an organizational system.
When multiple people experience substantially similar problems, we should be asking whether we are looking at several unrelated complaints or evidence of a common failure in recruitment, promotion, compensation, performance management, accommodation, leadership, mobility, separation, or another workforce process.
That distinction matters.
My comment therefore asks the EEOC to consider something fundamental before finalizing this rule:
What measures will demonstrate that the redesigned system is better at identifying discriminatory conditions, detecting systemic patterns, protecting employee voice, producing corrective action, identifying root causes, and preventing recurrence not simply processing complaints faster?
ISO 30415 gives our professional community a particularly relevant perspective on this question. Its framework addresses accountability and responsibilities, actions, measures and outcomes, inclusive organizational culture, the human-resource lifecycle, and stakeholder relationships.
I encourage you to participate independently.
The EEOC is still accepting public comments on this proposed rule. The Commission expressly states that anyone may comment and that it will review public comments and relevant data before making its final decision.
If you choose to participate, I encourage you to do so in your own professional capacity and in your own words.
Read the proposal first:
Then submit your individual comment through the official federal rule making docket at Regulations.gov.
Then Go To:
Search for:
RIN 3046-AB46
Federal Sector Equal Employment Opportunity
Agency: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
When commenting, don't simply say that you support or oppose the proposal. Give the Commission evidence, professional experience, management reasoning, and specific recommendations.
As ISO 30415 professionals, consider asking questions such as:
What happens to organizational learning when complaint processes are streamlined?
How will recurring patterns across individual complaints be detected?
What replaces the systemic-detection capability when administrative class adjudication is eliminated?
How will root causes be identified?
How will corrective-action effectiveness be measured?
How will recurrence and retaliation be monitored?
How will employee voice and confidence in the reporting system be measured?
What evidence will distinguish faster case processing from better discrimination prevention?
You do not have to agree with my conclusions. Independent professional comments are more valuable than 500 copies of mine.
Read the proposal. Apply what you know about ISO 30415. Examine the management system. Reach your own conclusion. Then put that expertise into the public record.
The question I placed before the Commission is one I believe deserves serious consideration:
A discrimination complaint is not merely a case to be processed. It is data about the performance of an organizational system.
Our measure of success therefore cannot simply be how quickly government processes discrimination complaints.
It must also be how effectively government learns from them, corrects the organizational conditions that produced them, and prevents recurrence.
James Felton Keith
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