WASHINGTON UPDATE

Federal Official Pushes for More Diversity in Government In an exclusive interview with Diverse, hiring leader talks about federal government plans to boost diversity hiring, especially among disabled individuals.

As the incoming deputy director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Christine M. Griffin is anxious to begin the process of developing a blueprint to improve federal government work-force diversity.

The Obama administration appointee seeks to expand minority college recruitment efforts, break the glass ceiling for African-Americans in government seeking advancement, attract under-represented groups such as Asian-Americans and Latinos, and tap into the large pool of educated and qualified disabled workers.

“Borrowing a phrase from President (Barack) Obama, ‘We want to make working in the federal government cool again,'” Griffin told Diverse. “I hope to put plans in place that can continue (past Obama’s term) and can make the federal government an employer of choice. … There is an urgency to get things done. We want it to be a model employer that reflects the society that we serve.”

Griffin, the acting vice chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), will work under OPM Director John Berry and have responsibility for recruiting, hiring and setting benefits policies for 1.9 million federal civilian employees. She will take her post at OPM once her replacement at EEOC, Jacqueline A. Berrien, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is confirmed by the Senate.

Since joining the EEOC, Griffin has been vocal in her support of increasing diversity in the federal work force, as well as promoting greater efficiency and fairness in the federal hiring process. She has also been a strong advocate for women’s rights and the rights of individuals with disabilities. In June 2006, Griffin launched the LEAD Initiative — Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities — to address the significant underemployment of individuals with severe disabilities in the federal government.

“They are the only group that is not only not gaining ground, but actually losing ground with 0.88 percent of the federal work force being people with severe disabilities,” Griffin said, referring to EEOC data on federal employees who require wheelchairs, are blind or live with any other severe disability. “That number has gone down steadily every year for the last 15 years. We don’t really know why except that there is not any urgency on the part of any agency to do it. (Former) President (Bill) Clinton tried to get it going in his second term, but no one ran with anything. It was something I found extremely frustrating. The new administration renewed focus on this issue. That’s what it takes. If we don’t have leadership, it won’t get done.”