SUMTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SUBJECT: Adopt the Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEOP) for April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2023 (Staff Recommends Approval). REQUESTED ACTION: Staff Recommends Approval Meeting Type: Regular Meeting DATE OF MEETING: 4/13/2021 CONTRACT: ☒ N/A Vendor/Entity: Effective Date 04/01/2021 Termination Date: 03/31/2023 Managing Division / Dept: Employee Services BUDGET IMPACT: None FUNDING SOURCE: Type: N/A EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT: HISTORY/FACTS/ISSUES: The Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEOP) defines the Board of Sumter County Commissioners commitment to the principles of equal employment opportunities. This plan reaffirms that commitment and is implemented to ensure compliance with all federal, state, local, and all other applicable laws governing equal opportunity in employment. This plan is updated every other year. Staff recommends approval. Prepared by: Kitty L. Fields Grammarly Check ☒ April 13, 2021 Page 1 of 1  EEOP Equal Employment Opportunity Plan April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2023 Board of County Commissioners Sumter County 7375 Powell Road Wildwood, Florida 34785 352-689-4400 INTRODUCTION The Board of Sumter County Commissioners (BOCC) is committed to the policy of equal employment opportunity. This plan reaffirms that commitment and is implemented to ensure compliance with all federal, state, and other applicable laws governing equal opportunity. The BOCC is committed to harnessing its diverse workforce talents and continuing its recruitment efforts to enhance workforce diversity. This self-analysis enables the BOCC to examine the impact of its recruitment, hiring, and employment practices on the male and female population of its current and future workforce. It also provides an opportunity to enhance the ability of the BOCC to recruit and retain a qualified, diverse workforce that can deliver quality services to the citizens of Sumter County. The BOCC will prepare, establish, and disseminate its Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEOP) on a two-year cycle. This plan includes goals and strategies for April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2023. The BOCC will monitor the program throughout this two-year period. POLICY The BOCC is an equal employment opportunity employer. The BOCC employs, retains, promotes, terminates, and otherwise considers all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, and competence without regard to an individual's sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or disability. Employment decisions are consistent with the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity. Departments of the BOCC comply with all federal, state, and other applicable laws prohibiting illegal discrimination. PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT & OPERATIONS OVERVIEW A. Board of Sumter County Commissioners 7375 Powell Road Wildwood, FL 34785 (352) 689-4400 B. Employer Identification: 59-6000865 C. Bradley S. Arnold, County Administrator Board of Sumter County Commissioners 7375 Powell Road Wildwood, FL 34785 (352) 689-4400 D. The BOCC is an equal employment opportunity employer. The BOCC employs, retains, promotes, terminates, and otherwise treats all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, and competence. This policy shall be applied without regard to any individual's sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or disability. It is the policy of the BOCC to afford equal opportunity to all employees, regardless of any physical or mental disability. All employees with such disabilities are expected to perform the essential functions of their positions as defined in their respective job descriptions or as performed regularly as part of their typical responsibilities. 1 All employees with covered disabilities are eligible for accommodations per the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Such requests must be made to Employee Services. The employer will communicate with the employee to determine reasonable accommodations, if applicable . The BOCC may not be able to grant all requests but will work with the employee to define reasonable terms and supply such terms to the employee. If the employee cannot perform the job's essential functions with or without reasonable accommodations, the employee may be terminated. Employees with life-threatening illnesses, including but not limited to cancer, heart disease, AIDS/HIV conditions, or infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or influenza, are treated the same as all other employees. They are permitted to continue working as long as they can perform the essential functions of their positions with or without a reasonable accommodation and medical evidence shows they are not a threat to themselves or their co-workers. The BOCC will preserve the safety of its employees' safety and reserve the right to reassign employees or take other actions when a health or safety risk to fellow employees or the public exists. The BOCC continues to make a good faith effort to comply with the mandates set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-Title I/Employment. These mandates apply to all personnel administration areas , including applications , recruitment, hiring, discharge, advancement, job assignments, job training , compensation and benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. Also , every effort has been made to accommodate employees and the public by installing elevators, ramps, and automatic doors to make county buildings accessible . Supervisors are expected to abide by the Employee Manual and various policies and procedures to ensure that equal employment opportunity is being actively implemented and that no employee, or applicant for employment, suffers from any form of illegal discrimination. The County Administrator is designated to oversee civil rights compliance. CLc.~~-- -,- , Garry D. Breeden , Chairman (Date) 4/13/.2\ Sumter Board of County Commissioners 2 PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AND OVERVIEW The Classification and Compensation Schedule of the BOCC groups positions having similar duties and responsibilities, knowledge, skills, abilities, training, and education, into grades with ranges of pay. The Classification and Compensation Schedule is updated and adopted annually to keep current with changes in job positions, job functions, and market conditions. The Classification and Compensation Schedule is also updated to reflect changes in the community's job market to ensure fair and equal compensation opportunities for equal contributions to the efficient and effective operations of the BOCC. The Classification and Compensation Schedule establishes and maintains standard lines of promotion to and from various positions in the personnel system. Job openings are posted on: BOCC website BOCC job bulletin board Internet job sites Professional occupation websites (as warranted) Job openings posted through the following means historically have proven ineffective: Newspapers Employment agencies The BOCC strives to attract the best-qualified employees. The BOCC accepts applications when vacant positions are posted. Applications are accepted via the BOCC website and in the Employee Services Division at 7375 Powell Road, Wildwood, FL, 34785. A review committee reviews applications, interviews applicants, and recommends employment. The review committee is defined in the Employee Manual. Generally, it is comprised of the Division Manager, or Department Head (or their designee), and a representative of the Employee Services Division. The composition of the review committee changes to give diverse input into the Employment Recommendation process. Analysis of the employment process is made periodically and changes are incorporated into revised procedures. Also, employment trends are identified and addressed accordingly. 3 UTILIZATION ANALYSIS Officials & Managers – The community workforce for female officials and managers is 38.8%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. Sumter County’s workforce for female officials and managers is 25%. While female utilization in this category remains below the community workforce percentage, The Board of Sumter County Commissioners (BOCC) demonstrates a 4.2% improvement in the category over the 2019 figure of 20.8%. Female utilization in this category is 25%. This improvement results from the following actions: 1) reclassification of positions within the EEO categories due to job duties changes. For example, regrade and reclassification of the Purchasing Agent position from the Administrative Support category, reclassifying the Building Official from this category to Professionals and 2) hiring strategies taken during the recruitment process resulted in a a qualified female candidate from within the organization for the Animal Services Manager position. 4 Professionals/Paraprofessionals – The community workforce for female professionals is 64.9%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. Sumter County’s workforce for female professional and paraprofessional workers is 45%. This is a significant increase over the 19.6% combined utilization in 2019. Paraprofessional positions have been historically included in this category as no community workforce value was available. The individual utilization rates for Professionals and Paraprofessionals are as follows: Professionals - 39.1% Paraprofessionals - 52.9% It is concluded that the increase in utilization is primarily due to the reclassification of positions from other EEOC categories to the Paraprofessional category, i.e., Veterans Services Officer, Veterans Services Counselor, Employee Services Specialists, Housing Coordinator, Budget Technicians due to their job duties aligning closer with the EEOC definition of Paraprofessional. Strategic recruiting techniques continue to be used to attract and hire qualified candidates as needed to fill new or vacated positions due to attrition or through the consolidation of services. 5 Technicians – The community workforce for female technicians is 73.2%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. Sumter County’s workforce for female technicians is 60%. While females in this classification continue be below the current community workforce level, Sumter County’s female technicians increased from 24.1% to 60% due to the reclassification of certain positions into other EEOC categories (i.e., Fleet Maintenance Technician, Traffic Engineering Technician, positions were moved from the Technician classification to Skilled Craft and the Equipment Operator position was moved to the Service/Maintenance classification). Consolidation of services and streamlining of personnel in this classification were also contributing factors. Protective Services (Non-Sworn) – The community workforce for female protective services (non-sworn) is 0%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. The BOCC has no areas of concern in this category. In 2019, our utilization of females in this category was at 19.8%. Sumter County’s workforce of female protective services (non-sworn) workers is now at 22.1%. The BOCC continues to demonstrate a strong representation in the category of female protective services (non-sworn). It is concluded that the impact of the growth of several public safety divisions has affected this category. 6 Administrative Support –The BOCC continues to underutilize males in this category, with a current utilization of 13.3%. It is concluded that this reduction is due to attrition, the reclassification of certain positions from Administrative Support into the Technician and Paraprofessional categories whose definitions aligned more closely with the position job duties, and consolidation of services and staff. Skilled Craft – The female skilled craft's community workforce is 6.3%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. The BOCC demonstrates an underutilization of females in this category, as their representation at our agency is 0%. It is concluded that this is due to the reclassification of certain positions into different EEOC categories, consolidation of services, and streamlining of personnel. 7 Service Maintenance – The community workforce for female service maintenance is 41.3%, as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. Sumter County’s female workforce in the service maintenance classification is 0%. It is concluded that this is due to the reclassification of certain positions into different EEOC categories, consolidation of services, and streamlining of personnel. Overall Upon review of the utilization documentation, the BOCC has an underutilization of female workers in five areas as noted in the following chart. 8 The BOCC is committed to remaining in compliance with the EEOC. After careful investigation, utilization rates were significantly impacted by the reclassification of certain positions into different EEOC categories, consolidation of services, and streamlining of personnel. The effect of the various changes over the last evaluation period, combined with a comparison to 2010 U.S. Census information, leads our organization to believe that future studies with current Census information will display a more accurate picture of our utilization of the workforce. GOALS  To have a qualified BOCC workforce that reflects the available community workforce as closely as possible.  To address areas of underutilization by continually evaluating the County's recruitment, hiring, and promotional practices to ensure that all persons receive an equal opportunity to advance and/or become employed. STRATEGIES To achieve these goals, the Employee Services Division will:  Regularly review personnel recruitment policies to ensure that all qualified candidates have an equal opportunity to compete for open positions.  Post and advertise job openings on the BOCC website and Professional Occupational websites as applicable.  Plan for, and encourage professional growth and development for all employees, including diversity (discrimination) and practical communication training.  Continue to offer, and promote an Education Assistance Reimbursement Program to our employees to assist them in bettering their education.  Continue to provide annual training programs for Division Managers, Department Heads, and other supervisory staff on Diversity in the Workplace.  Provide annual training programs for managers, supervisors, and other employees to improve their managerial and leadership skills.  Provide training programs for Division Managers, Department Heads, and other supervisory staff on effective interviewing and hiring practices. 9 PROGRESS SUMMARY The Employee Services Job Hotline is available 24 hours a day and provides applicants with instructions on accessing the job board link on the BOCC website. The applicant can submit a completed application for any available positions via the website. A review of the effectiveness of this resource is performed by gathering information taken from employment applications. During the 2017-2019 period, 1,472 applications were received; 100% were received via the website. Applicants noted their job information source as 76% internet/job board, 9% company website, and 15% other. During the 2019-2021 period, 2,258 applications were received; 100% were received via the website. Applicants noted their job information source as 76% internet/job board, 13% company website, and 11% other. Employee Services Division provides mandatory annual supervisory training programs, covering such topics as Documentation, Interviewing Skills, Diversity, Discrimination and Retaliation, Harassment Avoidance, Workplace Violence, Excelling as a Manager or Supervisor, National Incident Management, and Performance Evaluation to all managers, supervisors, and other employees seeking to improve their managerial and leadership skills. Employee Services offers classes on harassment avoidance, workplace violence, customer service, ethics, and diversity to all employees. In addition to these classes, we also offer Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) classes, time management, effective communications skills, handling conflict, nutrition, and other work/life balance topics. The BOCC continues to offer our Educational Assistance Reimbursement Program (EARP), to encourage the professional growth and development of all employees. Thirty-one employees utilized the EARP program from 2017 to 2019. During this reporting period (2019 to 2021), 40 employees have or are currently utilizing the EARP program. 10 DISSEMINATION A copy of the EEOP will be distributed to each BOCC Department and made available in County Administration for members of the public. The County Administrator of Sumter County is designated to implement the EEOP for the Board of County Commissioners. 11