Management Directive 715

Management Directive 715 (MD-715) is a set of guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to help federal agencies create and maintain effective equal employment opportunity (EEO) programs. This is based on Section 717 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. MD-715, which became effective on October 1, 2003, and provides a framework for federal agencies to develop these programs.

The "Instructions to Federal Agencies for Equal Employment Opportunity Management Directive 715" outlines the reporting requirements for federal agencies. All federal agencies, including BIA, BIE, and BTFA, must submit an MD-715 Report to the EEOC annually. Agency or bureau directors sign these reports with help from their EEO and human resources offices.

Federal regulations require agencies to run ongoing campaigns to eliminate all forms of prejudice or discrimination in their personnel policies, practices, and working conditions. Essential Element D of MD-715 sets up a process for identifying and removing barriers to help agencies meet this requirement:

• Agencies have an ongoing obligation to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, [religion], sex, [age], reprisal, [genetic information], and disability, and eliminate barriers that impede free and open competition in the workplace. As part of this obligation, agencies must conduct a self-assessment on at least an annual basis to monitor progress, identify areas where barriers may operate to exclude certain groups and develop strategic plans to eliminate identified barriers. A more detailed explanation of this process follows at Part A (Title VII) and Part B (Rehabilitation Act) of this Directive. 

In the past, agencies focused on achieving parity, but this only provided temporary improvements.  MD-715, however, requires agencies to address the root causes of issues like the failure to accommodate employees or the lack of career development opportunities. The goal of barrier analysis is to find and remove obstacles that prevent equal participation at all workplaces.

Barrier analysis involves investigating unusual patterns or triggers in an agency's employment-related policies, procedures, practices, and conditions. The goal of the investigation is to identify the root cause(s) of those anomalies and developing plans for eliminating the barriers. In particular, agencies should take a close look at all of the agency's employment processes beyond hiring and firings, such as career development programs, disciplinary actions, and performance awards.

The barrier analysis process requires a thorough exploration of the agency's workforce data; however, these statistics are only the starting point of the analysis. Conclusions concerning the existence of workplace barriers cannot be drawn from numerical assessments. To identify specific policies, procedures, or practices, agencies need to explore other sources of data, including EEO complaint data, grievance data, exit interview data, results from surveys and focus groups, anecdotal evidence from various stakeholders, and reports from outside organizations. To conduct a systematic and thorough investigation, agencies must ensure the active participation of its programmatic offices as well as its support offices, such as the Human Resources (HR) office. Once the agency implements an action plan that eliminates the anomalies first observed, then it would be safe to assume that the employment policy, practice, procedure, or condition in question was as a barrier.

The Affirmative Employment Program is guided by EEOC’s MD-715. This policy guidance is used to establish and maintain effective programs of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) for all federal employees as required by Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act.