| Diversity
in Action OSHA
beefs up diversity to mirror America's workers The
strategic plan calls for a diverse staff, able to reach workers from all over
the world and help them understand their right to a safe workplace The
mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to save
lives, prevent injuries and protect the health of America's workers. To accomplish
this, OSHA folks check out the jobsites of more than 111 million working men and
women at seven million employers.  | | Davis
Layne of OSHA: "a large population of workers from all over the world." |
Working
Americans are a diverse lot. When OSHA launched a national strategic management
plan earlier this year, developing its own internal diversity initiative was high
on the agenda, says Davis Layne, OSHA's deputy assistant secretary. "We
have a large population of workers from all over the world," he explains.
"To reach them and help them understand their right to a safe workplace,
OSHA needs to understand their cultures and, perhaps, their hesitancy in talking
to a federal official. "We're
reaching out to local community-based groups to gain their confidence. The focus
is on diversity within our organization, but we're going beyond that to look at
the value it adds to reaching diverse workers," Layne says. Developing
ever-better technical competencies is also part of the strategic plan. OSHA offers
many opportunities for technically trained folks. MEs, EEs and IEs, for example,
qualify for safety engineering positions. Typically,
safety engineers go into jobsites to evaluate working conditions and make sure
that employers are complying with the OSHA Act of 1970, the landmark legislation
that created the organization. While
safety engineers look for safety violations such as inadequate ladders, improperly
guarded moving machinery and hearing-damaging ambient surroundings, industrial
hygienists look for health violations like contaminated air.  | | MEs,
EEs and IEs qualify for field safety engineering positions at OSHA. |
Most
OSHA engineers are field workers in the agency's fifty-eight regional offices.
Engineers also work at the OSHA lab in Salt Lake City, UT, developing new test
procedures and evaluating new safety and health equipment. And some work in the
OSHA maintenance facility in Cincinnati, OH, refining and calibrating OSHA's safety
and health testing equipment. "It's
hard to predict our needs, since they depend on turnover," says Layne. OSHA
will continue to fill jobs as vacancies occur. Like other federal agencies, it's
expecting a good number of retirements this year, although, "As the economy
gets tougher in the private sector, not as many people are ready to leave the
comfort of the federal government," Layne says. As
vacancies do occur, diversity will play a key role in hiring decisions. "Our
employees have one-to-one involvement with workers, so in many cases a diverse
workforce adds to the value of what we do," Layne says. For
example, a second language can help when interacting with workers. "In northern
Maine we're looking for people to speak French. And the San Francisco office,
which covers the Pacific Rim and U.S. territories, recruits people who can communicate
in the languages and dialects of the islands." The
need for Spanish-speaking OSHA folks is especially pressing because workplace
accidents to Hispanics seem to be on the rise, bucking the national trend. The
agency's Hispanic Task Force zeroes in on Hispanic worker, safety and health issues.
www.osha.gov
| Headquarters:
|
Washington, DC | |
Employees:
|
2,300 + | |
Budget: |
$450 million requested for FY 2004 | |
Mission: |
Ensuring on-the-job safety and health for America's workers | |
|
OSHA
also has a Spanish-language website (www.osha.gov/as/opa/spanish/)
to communicate with Hispanic employers and workers. To recruit Hispanic techies,
OSHA is working with Hispanic professional organizations, chambers of commerce
and Hispanic-serving schools. Overseeing
the whole diversity question is the OSHA diversity management council, which pulls
together management level folks from all over the U.S. "We look to develop
solutions for diversity," says Layne, who chairs the group. Betty
Gillis-Robinson, director of OSHA's Office of EEO, says the group will play an
ever larger role as it focuses on the agency's strategic plan and expands into
subcommittees. "As
we move forward, the council will be looking for areas where we should focus our
efforts. We're planning to investigate retention, recruitment and a variety of
other areas," she says. D/C
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