The administration's timeframe for agency restructuring plans is a five-year one. The timeline proposed in this implementation strategy and plan is four years. If sufficient resources are made available it may very well be possible for the agency to accomplish these recommendations within three years. A few can be implemented almost immediately, and others can be phased in over the next several years. Implementation must be addressed with commitment and a sense of urgency. The agency mission is critical and the needs of its customers warrant investing dollars and a commitment of the agency's mind and heart to implement the changes the Academy Panel has recommended.

Organizational transformation is always a careful blend of setting the appropriate organizational values, encouraging a culture of performance, holding individuals and organizational units accountable for their performance, ensuring workforce diversity, and having a well thought-out implementation strategy and detailed implementation plan and a well-designed and expressed communications strategy and plan. Successful organizational transformation also assumes that certain fundamental building blocks are in place. These building blocks include:

· A strong analytical capacity for programmatic, financial and human resources issues
· Highly skilled leaders, managers and supervisors, a well-trained and motivated workforce
· A culture of continuous performance improvement and continuous learning
· A robust information technology infrastructure
· Financial resources to invest in transformation
· A training capacity to provide all employees of the organization the new information and skills to perform successfully in the restructured environment.

These building blocks are not in place in the EEOC. If the organization is to undertake successful transformation, it must step back and develop the basic building blocks.

Organizational transformation demands leadership and the involvement of ALL the organization's stakeholders - political and career leaders, managers, supervisors, individual employees, unions, interest groups, as well as the OPM, OMB and congressional committees and staff who provide oversight and assistance to the EEOC. With the commitment and involvement of these individuals and groups, the agency will have a powerful coalition of supporters who can assist its transformation efforts.

Organizational transformation also requires substantial upfront investments to realize the ultimate benefits of organizational restructuring and performance improvement. Examples of investments the EEOC will need to make include those associated with: the transfer and outflow of employees as the workforce is reshaped; the need to invest in technology to realize productivity increases; the information technology investment needed to facilitate telework and other forms of a more mobile workforce; and the leadership and staff time and effort required to develop and refine the Strategic Human Capital Plan items such as identifying and developing competencies, assessing the degree to which the workforce has those competencies, and related activities.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY AND PLAN

The Academy Panel recommends that the EEOC develop an implementation strategy and detailed implementation plan for the changes it decides to make and use the plan to manage the implementation process.

As part of the implementation strategy the EEOC should:

· Decide which of the Panel's recommended changes do not require extensive consultation and can be implemented immediately.

· Identify a small staff responsible for planning, execution, tracking and implementation assessment efforts.

· Present to OMB funding estimates and justifications for the multi-year restructuring plan, seeking the first-year resources at minimum as a change to the pending FY 2004 request now at OMB. Explore with OMB whether any additional resources for FY 2003 might be provided as a small amendment to the FY 2003 appropriation.

The implementation plan must identify who has the overall responsibility for the implementation process. In the Panel's judgment this is the Chair's role, with delegation to appropriate subordinate staff. The plan should identify every action to be taken, who is responsible for that action, the date it is to start and the date it is to be completed, as well as identify the responsibilities of executives, managers, supervisors, employees, union representatives, and external stakeholders. It must also: identify who is to champion each of the recommendations that the EEOC decides to adopt and the specific tasks that accompany that assignment; identify which recommendations and actions can or should occur simultaneously and which must occur sequentially; and include progress reviews at the Chair's weekly meetings with the agency's executive staff that discuss strategy, progress, problem identification and resolution, and related issues.

Organizations, such as the federal judiciary, that have led successful transformation efforts also establish a policy group to review and recommend solutions for policy and process issues that arise during implementation. Usually members of the policy group are those agency executives and managers who have program and/or financial responsibility for policy and procedural issues. The implementation plan must include a mechanism for updating the implementation plan. Finally, and critically important to the success of transformation efforts, implementation responsibilities must be a component of the performance assessment plan of each individual assigned tasks under the plan.

Table 7-1 provides a summary implementation plan outlined in five phases.

· Phase 1 identifies actions that do not need further consultation and can be taken immediately; it also outlines the detailed planning components essential to the longer-term success of the transformation effort, and sets up the transformation infrastructure, including the consultation with internal and external stakeholders.

· Phase 2 identifies actions to develop and implement pilot projects, completes the headquarters restructuring, and complete development of critical competencies and other important strategic human capital activities.

· Phase 3 involves expanding the pilot projects, and fully implementing those initiatives that need no further testing.

· Phase 4 involves fully implementing the nationwide restructuring.

· Phase 5 is an assessment of the results against established criteria for success. The agency can then make needed adjustments based on documented results.

Throughout the transformation process, the agency leaders should continue to consult with and involve internal and external stakeholders in all programs and efforts. The basic tools for managing transformation, the communications strategy and plan and the implementation strategy and plan, should be continually reviewed and refined.

Table 7-1

Phased Implementation Strategy

PHASE ONE: These activities should be accomplished within 3 to 6 months.

· Identify those actions that can be taken quickly and successfully to demonstrate the Chair's, the Commissioners' and the agency's resolve to change the performance culture of the agency and show real movement towards solving long standing problems. Among the actions that can be taken are:
o Develop the communications strategy and plan. Include the Chair's statement of her goals for restructuring and identify the Chair, the Commissioners and executive staff as champions of change.o Implement the near-term communications strategies, including the transformation website.
o Set up a web page to keep internal and external stakeholders informed on transformation activities and progress, and to receive questions and feedback.
o Identify the project manager(s) for the overall change effort and a small staff of three to four to assist the project manager.
o Fill critical leadership positions with individuals who have the executive and leadership competencies identified in the OPM Executive Core Qualifications, as well as the requisite technical qualifications, so that these individuals can play an active and successful leadership role in the transformation.
o Fill other critical staff vacancies, including critical clerical vacancies.
o Set up a new toll free number for telephone charge filing and publicize it in a limited area so that a small group of customers and staff can test it and develop procedures for the National Call Center.
o Expedite development of electronic filing so that the pilot test can begin in Phase Two and be incorporated into the investigation process prior to advertising it extensively.
o Develop the budget request for litigation software and see if this can be added to the FY 2004 budget request.
o Fund and implement the agency awards program.
o Fund and implement some portion of the tuition assistance program.
o Request early-out authority from OPM.o Establish a career counseling and transition center.

· Identify and work on those issues that require longer-term planning and development. Among the issues will be:
o Complete the strategic human capital plan and begin the rest of the workforce planning process, including the analysis of those who are eligible and plan to retire.
o Conduct the internal and external consultations for the restructuring recommendations.
o Develop the detailed implementation strategy and plan.
o Develop the funding strategy and plan.
o Revise the information technology plan to provide the needed infrastructure.
o Initiate the critical competencies study.
o Initiate succession planning program implementation.
o Develop the telecommuting pilot.
o Identify the first round of headquarters and field offices to be restructured.
o Implement restructuring

PHASE TWO: These activities should be accomplished within 6 to 12 months

· Develop web-based Individual Development Plan (IDP) program.
· Prepare individual IDPs.· Develop the multi-year training plan.
· Prepare the comprehensive cost estimate for skills development needs.
· Realign work so that technical and managerial staff do their highest-level work.
· Implement next phase of restructuring in headquarters and field installations.including expansion of telecommuting, mobile workforce pilot.
· Assess the toll-free number experiment and expand the pilot for the National Call Center.
· Develop and implement secure software needed to support telework and mobile workforce
· Begin the pilot for electronic filing.
· Acquire and pilot test litigation software.
· Acquire strategic decision support software and test its use.
· Complete succession planning implementation.
· Complete next phase of critical competencies study.
· Begin linking recruitment, hiring, promotion, and continuous learning to the critical competencies.
· Revise individual performance elements to link to organizational performance goals.
· Develop metrics for revised performance elements.
· Redesign the agency awards system.
· Revise the process for evaluating, counseling and terminating poor performers.

PHASE THREE: These activities should occur within 12 to 24 months

· Implement next phase of restructuring headquarters and field installations including expansion of telecommuting and mobile workforce.
· Assess agency positions and redesign if necessary.
· Implement next phase of training program.
· Establish the National Call Center.
· Begin formal roll out of electronic filing.
· Expand litigation support software usage.
· Assess strategic decision software pilot and expand usage.
· Use results to inform strategic priorities, programmatic decisions, human capital, budget development, and decisions.
· Complete critical competencies study.
· Link all human capital decision to competencies.
· Implement new leadership model.
· Assess all restructuring and program change efforts against metrics established.
· Delegate budget authority, provide needed training and metrics, and begin quarterly financial reviews.
· Develop baseline discrimination metrics by industry and identify activities to test them.
· Assess virtual libraries, video conferencing and web cameras.

PHASE FOUR: These activities should occur within 24 to 36 months

· Complete restructuring the Commission.
· Complete expansion of the telecommuting workforce.
· Continue formal roll out of electronic filing.
· Complete roll out of litigation support software.
· Complete roll out of strategic decision software.
· Develop analytical tools and program activities to test the Commission's impact on eliminating discrimination.
· Use results to inform strategic priorities and decisions related to programs, human capital, budget development, and information technology.
· Assess programs against established performance measures.

PHASE FIVE: These activities should occur within 36 to 48 months

· Assess restructuring against established metrics.
· Assess telecommuting and mobile workforce against established metrics.
· Use results of strategic decision software to inform strategic priorities and decisions related to programs, human capital, budget development, and information technology.
· Implement new technology solutions such as video conferencing, web cameras, virtual libraries.
· Assess programs against established performance measures

COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND PLAN

A critical first step in successful change is to announce that the Chair, the Commissioners and the EEOC executive staff are the champions of these recommendations and committed to implementing them. Among their most important tasks is to explain the impact the Chair expects the changes to have within and outside the organization.

The Academy Panel recommends that:

The EEOC develop a communication strategy and plan that identifies all the internal and external stakeholders, the issues and communications methodologies to be used with each, the frequency of communications, and the mechanisms for stakeholder feedback.

The communications strategy and plan are at the heart of successful implementation of the Panel's recommendations. The strategy must include a philosophy of open, candid sharing of information and listening to the feedback it generates; top-down as well as bottom-up communications channels within the organization that include executives, managers, supervisors, employees and union representatives; and a commitment to involving external stakeholders, including interest groups, OPM, OMB, and GAO, congressional committees and staff.

The communications plan must be in writing and identify:

· The individual who has overall responsibility to develop and implement the communications plan
· The roles to be played by executives, managers, supervisors, employees, union representative, and external stakeholders
· Who is to the champion each of the recommendations that EEOC decides to adopt and the communications tasks that accompany that assignment

The plan must also:

· Provide for the Chair's weekly meetings with the agency's executive staff to discuss strategy, progress, problem identification and resolution, and related issues
· Explain communications channels that will be used (e.g. memoranda, letters, e-mail, individual and group meetings) to convey and receive information
· Establish a link on In-Site and update project status regularly

The Commission needs to set specific dates, times, and responsible individuals for each component of the communications plan. For the plan to continue to be useful, there must be a time and method for updating the plan. Finally, communications responsibilities must be incorporated into the performance assessment plan of each individual assigned tasks under the plan. Appendix I contains the proposed communications plan.

DEVELOP RESOURCE ESTIMATES

The goal of restructuring is to improve the EEOC's performance, its resource utilization and its service delivery. To achieve these outcomes will require significant upfront investments. Each action to be taken will require an assessment of the upfront investments and other related costs as well as the benefits to be gained. In addition, the agency will want to capture the metrics of what is currently being done, as well as develop metrics for what is to be done so that it can assess progress toward goal achievement, and make adjustments as needed.

The Academy Panel stresses that to achieve substantive improvements requires real increase in resources each year for several years. This would be over and above the flexibility that can be realized against internal realignment and reallocations.

PROVIDE TRAINING

Training is a key ingredient if the EEOC is to realize the full benefit of the changes and investments it will be making.

The Academy Panel recommends that:

The EEOC develop appropriate training to ensure that staff who use or are responsible for the new methods and policies have the knowledge to fulfill new roles and responsibilities successfully.

Just-in-time training will be a critical success factor for agency employees. The agency must identify what subject matter knowledge and process change knowledge is required for those who will be held accountable. The training should also include any related information about the metrics that will be used to judge performance.

While training will present a significant challenge as well as investment, it also offers the opportunity for the agency to consider a variety of training methodologies. For example, the EEOC may want to consider a combination of traditional training with computer-based learning. Computer-based learning is particularly well suited to helping individuals learn new work procedures. It has the added advantage that it can continue to be accessible on the agency's web site if employees need refresher training.

As the agency develops its training strategy and plan, it should consult with OPM to be sure it knows the latest e-learning available. In addition, the IRS and the federal judiciary (Administrative Office of the U. S Courts and the Federal Judicial Center) have each designed and delivered training associated with significant organizational change initiatives. Each agency has developed a successful model to identify training needs, develop and test training modules, involve agency leaders and employees in the training design and delivery, and assess the return on investment for the training dollars expended. Each agency has also identified which types of training are best delivered through traditional training methods and which through computer-based or distance learning technologies.

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