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Intelligence Community senior leaders believe strongly that diversity is a mission-critical imperative, essential to ensuring our Nation's security and success in the war on terror. The IC is united in protecting and preserving national security. This could not be accomplished without a talented workforce that embraces "Diversity" as a core values of its Principles of Professional Ethics for the Intelligence Community.

 

To combat emergent global, and increasingly complex national security threats, the IC must employ, develop, and retain a dynamic, agile workforce that reflects diversity in its broadest context: cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, race, gender,  age, disability, gender identify, heritage, language proficiency, and perspectives.

### AN ENTERPRISE STRATEGY

To that end, in early 2006, the Director of National Intelligence appointed the first Chief of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) for the IC and made the decision soon thereafter to merge this office with the IC Diversity Strategies Division (formerly in the IC Chief Human Capital Office) to better integrate EEO and diversity functions and leverage resources.

 

This Office of IC EEO and Diversity (EEOD) reports directly to the DNI. In addition to its IC-wide responsibilities, IC EEOD also provides these services for the ODNI workforce and organization. In July 2005, the DNI issued his first DNI's Policy Statement on Diversity to the IC.

 

In 2015, ODNI launched the IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Enterprise Strategy, 2015-2020, which sets the strategic direction for numerous ongoing efforts across the community.  Now, senior executives are held accountable through performance plan objectives that require they describe how they are creating a more inclusive organizational culture.  All senior executives must also complete unconscious bias training.

### DEMOGRAPHIC REPORTING

In June 2016, the ODNI released its first public report on Intelligence Community workforce demographics, the latest in a series of steps shedding light on the IC’s struggle to recruit talented officers who mirror the diverse country they serve.

 

 

The report, the *Annual Demographic Report: Hiring and Retention of Minorities, Women, and Persons with Disabilities in the United States Intelligence Community Fiscal Year 2015*, provides an in-depth examination of IC diversity as of Sept. 30, 2015. The report is required by Congress and has been provided to oversight bodies annually since 2005 but had never been publicly released.

 

The report highlights key initiatives and accomplishments and tracks the IC's progress and areas for improvement in diversity hiring, promotion, career development, and attrition. Overall, the FY 2015 analysis indicates that the IC continues to make progress in increasing the representation of minorities, women, and persons with disabilities.

### EXAMINING BARRIERS

In January 2017, the IC Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Office released Diversity and Inclusion: Examining Workforce Concerns within the Intelligence Community. This report provides an in-depth examination of barriers pertaining to hiring, retention, and career development of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in the IC.

 

This report builds upon extensive prior data analysis and reporting conducted annually  across the IC and examines underrepresented groups’ concerns in the workplace through the lens of an extensive literature review, with the goal of determining why these issues continue to exist despite numerous attempts to break them down.

 

The result is a first-of-its-kind effort to look at diversity and inclusion across the entire IC as an integrated entity, which highlights six major areas where the IC can take an integrated approach to reduce or eliminate workplace challenges to hiring and retaining a more diverse workforce.

### THE CULTURE WE MAKE

All employees are accountable for cultivating a performance-driven culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness without the fear of reprisal. To meet these objectives, the IC will:

 
      - Shape a diverse and inclusive workforce with the skills and capabilities needed now and in the future  
      - Provide continuous learning and development programs based on a mutual commitment between managers and employees to promote workforce competency, relevance, and agility  
      - Nurture a culture of innovation and agility that advocates the sharing of ideas and resources adaptable to the changing environment, and promotes best practices across the IC  
      - Provide a workplace free of discrimination, harassment, and the fear of reprisal, where all are treated with dignity and respect and afforded equal opportunity to contribute to their full potential.

The IC will continue to attract, develop, engage, and retain a workforce that possesses both the capabilities necessary to address current and evolving threats and a strong sense of integrity.

 

Special emphasis is needed to recruit, retain, develop, and motivate employees with skills fundamental to the success of the intelligence mission, including foreign language, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.