SES retirements, attrition could create more diverse senior corps

A projected retirement wave in the Senior Executive Service may give agencies the opportunity to improve the racial and ethnic balance of the government's senior management corps, according to the General Accounting Office.

Senior Executive Service members administer public programs at the top levels of the federal government. Positions are primarily managerial or supervisory and candidates must undergo a rigorous selection process. Because federal employees generally join the SES at the middle of their careers or later, a large percentage of the Senior Executive Service is at or near retirement age, and according to GAO, more than half of those in the SES will opt to leave the government by 2007.

Though recent numbers from the Office of Personnel Management show that governmentwide, actual retirements during the past two years fell short of the number expected, potential SES retirements and separations still present an opportunity to improve the racial makeup of the group, GAO said in its report, "Senior Executive Service: Enhanced Agency Efforts Needed to Improve Diversity as the Senior Corps Turns Over" (03-34).

"SES losses over the next several years present both a challenge for the federal government in filling the vacant positions and an opportunity to affect, through selections to the SES, the diversity of the corps," the report said.

In October 2000, the SES cadre numbered more than 6,100. White males made up 67 percent of that figure, according to GAO. About 19 percent of SESers were white women, and minority men and women made up the remaining 14 percent of the group. But pending retirements will not necessarily result in more diversity in the SES ranks, GAO found after examining SES appointments from fiscal 1995 to fiscal 2000.

"Minorities will be leaving at essentially the same rate overall as white members," GAO found. Thus, any change in minority representation will be the result of new appointments to the SES. If current appointment trends continue, the result of replacing over half of the SES will be a corps whose racial and ethnic profile is virtually the same as it was before."

Lawmakers and agencies have focused on creating a more diverse SES corps. Reps. Danny Davis, D-Ill., Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., Elijah Cummings, D-Md, Albert Wynn, D-Md., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., all of whom requested GAO's report, sent a letter to the Bush administration in 2001 asking for more aggressive promotion of women and minorities in the SES. Last March, a group of African-American federal employees created the African American Federal Executives Association (AAFEA), to help train its members to take on SES positions. According to GAO, the Office of Personnel Management "recently reaffirmed its commitment to diversity in the career SES, and has provided guidance to federal departments and agencies on maintaining and increasing workforce diversity."

While agencies have a sufficiently diverse group to choose from, they will still have to make a concerted effort to increase diversity, GAO found.

"While a large portion of the GS-15s and GS-14s who represent the primary pool of replacements will also have left by October 2007, substantial numbers of minorities and women will be among the potential SES candidates in that pool," the report said. "However, if current SES appointment trends continue, the proportion of the SES represented by minorities will remain essentially unchanged."

In a written response to the report, OPM Director Kay Coles James said the federal personnel agency has been proactive in its efforts to help federal agencies recruit and retain a diverse workforce.

"OPM has placed itself forward as a model of what an agency can accomplish if senior managers support diversity," James wrote. "Over the course of the past year [2002] we have expanded out efforts to attract senior managers from the government and private sectors and have changed our SES performance standards to reflect a priority recruitment of qualified minorities."

In response to the report, officials at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission acknowledged that federal agencies did face challenges in creating a diverse senior management corps. According to EEOC, agencies will need to be vigilant in "ensuring a level playing field for all federal workers and should explore proactive strategies-such as succession planning, SES development and mentoring programs for mid-level employees-designed to ensure a diverse group of highly qualified candidates for SES positions."