ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA did not meet over half of its employment diversity goals for 2013, hitting only 40% of its target achievements in this category, according to the agency's annual report, released Monday.
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The agency's 2012 report noted in that year NCUA met or exceeded levels for nearly every measure in this category, but that report did not break down the goals or targets in specific detail like it did in its most recent disclosure.
NCUA was unable to provide comment to Credit Union Journal Monday.
It is unclear why the agency went into so much detail in this annual report.
The NCUA's 2013 report noted that the credit union regulator is "committed to creating an environment that fosters a diverse, well-trained and motivated staff and will continue to set ambitious targets to support this objective."
The first annual performance goal, "Recruit, hire and retain a larger, more diverse pool of potential candidates and employees" — which included increasing diversity from 2% to 5% at various levels throughout the organization, including among senior staff and adding disabled employees to the ranks — was only achieved in the area of increasing "veteran representation" at the agency, where NCUA hit its target of a 2% increase.
While the agency failed to meet most of those goals, it also did not slip in any of those areas during 2013. Additionally, while it fell short of its goal to boost senior staff diversity by its 5% goal, there were significant gains in that area during 2011 and 2012, rising each year by 7% and 8%, respectively.
Those gains were even more significant given that in 2010 NCUA's senior staff diversity dropped by 7%.
The second goal, to "Enhance communications within the agency vertically and horizontally," was also not met, with the agency looking for a 68% improvement in positive responses to the OPM Employee Viewpoint survey question: "How satisfied are you with the information you receive from management on what's going on in your organization?"
The agency received a 59% positive response rate for 2013, following 65% in 2012 and rates ranging from 41% to 57% during the preceding three years.
The one goal where the agency hit 100% of its marks was the goal to "Improve agency succession planning for staff, mid-level managers and senior managers." The agency met both performance metrics it set for itself, including introducing an executive leadership development program at the agency, and a 10% increase in the number of employee leadership development programs.
The final goal was to "Develop and implement a comprehensive, integrated and strategic focus for diversity," in part by using civilian labor force demographic data to benchmark and measure diversity at all staff levels. The indicator for that achievement was to meet or exceed those civilian labor force figures where low participation exists, which the agency did not achieve.
One area where the agency did see significant improvement was in its goal to enhance the usage of women- and minority-owned businesses when contracting for goods and services. The NCUA aimed to boost that number by 2%, and sailed past that goal with a 137% increase.
NCUA's 2012 Annual Report noted that the regulator "continued to enhance its diversity at the agency in 2012," including approving an agency specific diversity and inclusion strategy.
Executing that plan resulted in slight year-over-year increases in multiple areas, such as a 12% increase in the number of female employees on NCUA's workforce and a 5% uptick in African-Americans working at the agency, from 2% to 7%.
NCUA's 2014 report to Congress said 14.5% of employees at the agency today are African American, along with 43.7% female. The former number is static compared to 2012 and a 0.6 percentage-point rise from 2011, while the latter continues a slight decline in women's representation at NCUA, from 45.2% in 2011 and 44.8% in 2012.
NCUA is currently seeking a director for its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion,
