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News Release
Friday, July 2, 2004
Tel: 202-606-2402
Interagency Task Force on Hispanic Employment in the Federal Government Meets to Review Year's Progress and Map the Road Ahead
Washington, D.C. - The Interagency Task Force on Hispanic Employment in the Federal Government, under the leadership of U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James, met with representatives from various Hispanic organizations.
OPM Deputy Director Dan G. Blair, on behalf of Director James, used the opportunity to remind participants of the call-to-action last year for community serving institutions to address the challenge of under-representation of Hispanics in the Federal government.
At last year's Task Force meeting, Director James invited Hispanic serving organizations to attend and James encouraged them to spread the word about opportunities in Federal service, just as Federal agencies were again encouraged to increase their outreach and recruitment efforts to draw on the strengths of America's diversity.
Blair indicated, "Director James has been clear in her resolve on Hispanic outreach and how to most effectively and efficiently implement this and other recruitment plans." He continued, "Last year, Director James issued a call to action - a call for Hispanic serving organizations to strategically utilize their unique resources to reach out to Hispanics and to attract Hispanics to public service. Hispanic organizations have a responsibility to not only look for results but to play an active role in achieving them."
Therefore, participants at the meeting were invited to discuss what Hispanic serving organizations are doing to attract Hispanics to the Federal workforce.
Brent Wilkes, Executive Director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) committed to link the LULAC website to www.usajobs.com, so visitors can readily access the jobs information. There have been 68,799,544 visitors since the launch last August, 666,639 pages viewed, and 624,188 resumes created.
Manuel Oliverez, the President of the National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives (NAHFE) said, "I'd like to congratulate Director James on the success of intern programs to get new talent into the Federal government and look forward to further cooperation between Hispanic organizations and federal agencies. The benefits of these partnerships are immeasurable, and I encourage more Hispanic serving institutions to fully engage the process."
OPM senior officials have been deployed nationwide to share the opportunities available through recruitment fairs and Hispanic sponsored events.
· High schools with large Hispanic populations in Milwaukee were visited during the month of December, 2003. These included:
o South Division High School,
o Pulaski High School,
o United Community Center Alternative Middle School,
o William Horlack High School, and
o Riverside High School.
· In 2003 and 2004, recruitment fairs were held in locations with large Hispanic populations:
o Los Angeles, CA
o San Antonio, TX
o Tucson, AZ
o Las Cruces-El Paso, TX
o Albuquerque, NM
o Miami, FL
o San Diego, CA and
o New York.
· OPM worked closely with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Miami, and bi-lingual staff was present at the fairs and distributed brochures in both English and Spanish.
· Director James spoke at the League of United Latin American Citizens' annual conference in 2003.
OPM's efforts are two-fold. Outreach to the Hispanic community is part of an overall strategy to bring the best and brightest into Federal service. Additionally, many of the initiatives being undertaken are specifically designed to fix the Federal hiring process by making it easier to apply for and obtain a job with the civil service once the connection to qualified candidates has been made.
The Interagency Task Force on Hispanic Employment in the Federal Government was created by Executive Order 13171. Director James convened its first meeting in October 2001.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the leader in workforce management for the federal government. Our agency builds, strengthens, and serves a federal workforce of 2.2 million employees with programs like hiring assistance, healthcare and insurance, retirement benefits, and much more. We provide agencies with policies, guidance, and best practices for supporting federal workers, so they can best serve the American people.