Improving the Timeliness of Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint Processing in Department of Defense

The Offices of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity and Civilian Personnel Policy aim to provide a work environment in which all Department of Defense DoD employees are provided equal employment opportunities regardless of their diverse backgrounds. When an individual believes that he or she has been discriminated against, the aggrieved person can contact an Equal Employment Opportunity EEO office and may elect to formally file a complaint in DoD regarding the discrimination. Once a person files a formal EEO complaint, federal regulations stipulate that, barring specific circumstances, the complaint should be processed within 180 days. For years, the majority of EEO complaints filed in DoD have not been processed within this regulated time frame. This report aims to provide information that will assist DoD in addressing this delay of formal EEO complaints. It describes assessments of the trends and root causes associated with the lack of EEO complaint processing timeliness, and it identifies several potential avenues for improving processing timeliness. It also outlines a method for systematically evaluating the effects of changes that DoD may make to its complaint processing procedures.