Template revised April 12, 2018.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No.
11d
BRIEFING ITEM
Date of Meeting
January 4, 2022
DATE: October 28, 2021
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: Cynthia Alvarez, Sr. Manager Employee Relations, Human Resources
Sanders Mayo, Sr. Employee Relations Consultant, Human Resources
SUBJECT: 2021 Port of Seattle Affirmative Action Program
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this briefing is to present the Port Commission the key results of the Port of
Seattle’s 2021 Affirmative Action (AA) Program.
2021 Key Highlights:
• To meet the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) AA reporting
requirements, the Port creates annual AA plans for Women & Minorities (Executive Order
11246), Individuals with Disabilities (Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act) and Protected
Veterans (VEVRAA - The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act).
• Women at the Port of Seattle represent 33% of the workforce which is consistent with
the representation of women in the 2020 AAP for Women and Minorities.
• Minorities at the Port of Seattle represent 34% of the workforce, which is a 3% increase
from 2020. The increase in the representation of minorities is aligned with more
employees choosing to self-identify race in HCM.
• In the 2020 AA Plan for Women & Minorities, 20% of employees did not self-identify race
in HCM. This number decreased to 16% in our 2021 AA Plan for Women & Minorities.
• The Port’s AA Plan for Individuals with Disabilities includes an aspirational goal of 7% set
by OFCCP for the representation of individuals with disabilities within each of the Port’s
17 EEO Job Group. The Port increased the representation of individuals with disabilities
to 6.57%, a 1.63% increase from last year. Eleven out of our 17 EEO Job Groups align with
the 7% aspirational goal, an increase from 7 in 2020.
• OFCCP set a 5.7% benchmark for the representation of VEVRAA-protected Veterans
within each EEO Job Group. Port-wide, the overall representation of VEVRAA-protected
Veterans is 9.50%, a .25% increase from last year. Fifteen of the Port’s 17 EEO Job Groups
meet or exceed the 5.7% benchmark, an increase from 13 EEO Job Groups last year.
• For the first time since 2013, the Port has an underrepresentation of women in the
Professionals 2 EEO Job Group, which includes positions within Salary Grades 25 – 28 that
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. _11d__ Page 2 of 5
Meeting Date: January 4, 2022
Template revised September 22, 2016.
require specialized or theoretical knowledge usually acquired through college training or
through work experience and other training which provides comparable knowledge. In
2020, promotions rather than hires made up 56% of the movement into the Professional
2 EEO Job Group, an increase from 45% in 2019. This is a positive affirmation of the Port’s
commitment to employee development. The 2020 increase of internal movement
(promotions and transfers) into the Professionals 2 EEO Job Group resulted in the
availability calculation to weight internal availability of qualified women within the Port
more than external availability. Another factor contributing to the placement goal for
women in the Professionals 2 EEO Job Group is the availability of qualified women within
the EEO Job Groups that feed into the Professionals 2 EEO Job Group. The feeder EEO Job
Groups for the Professionals 2 EEO Job Group include Professionals 3, Administrative
Support 1, Protective Services and Protective Services – Command. The increased
availability of qualified women in the feeder EEO Job Groups reflect the Port’s
commitment to hire and develop female employees and raises the bar for us to meet.
• A placement goal serves as a target for the Port to utilize good faith effort to meet. The
placement goal for women in the Professionals 2 EEO Job Group is not a quota or set-
aside, nor is it a requirement that the Port fill any vacancies in this EEO Job Group with
women. We are partnering with our colleagues in Talent Acquisition and Emerging Talent
to identify recruitments for positions within the Professionals Group 2 EEO Job Group.
Once identified, they will target outreach and recruitment of women to ensure diverse
applicant pools.
• The Port’s 2021 EEO Compensation Analysis showed salary differences of more than 7.5%
needing further analysis. These differences impact employees regardless of race and
gender. Further analysis will be completed as part of our Compensation Study.
BACKGROUND
As a federal contractor, the Port of Seattle is required meet OFCCP’s AA reporting requirements,
which includes the following:
• Develop annual AA Plans for Women & Minorities, VEVRAA-Protected Veterans, and
Individuals with Disabilities.
• Conduct an annual EEO Compensation Analysis.
• Monitor the effectiveness of the Port’s AA Program on a continuing basis through the
development and implementation of an internal audit and reporting system that
measures the program effectiveness.
• Provide annual AA compliance training to employees involved in the recruitment,
selection, promotion, performance management and related processes to include review
of the three AA Plans, and their roles and responsibilities in its implementation to ensure
women and minorities, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans are treated in
a non-discriminatory manner in all employment practices and business decisions.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. _11d__ Page 3 of 5
Meeting Date: January 4, 2022
Template revised September 22, 2016.
HOW RESULTS ARE MEASURED
In accordance with OFCCP guidelines, on October 31
st
of each year the Port extracts employee
data from our HRIS/Payroll system to compare the percentages of women and minorities in each
of our 17 EEO Job Groups to the percentages of qualified women and minorities within the Port’s
general recruitment area (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, and Kitsap counties). This type of
review, comparing incumbency to availability (internal and external), is called a Utilization
Analysis and is required for only the AA Plan for Women & Minorities.
An underutilization exists when the Utilization Analysis shows the percentage of women or
minorities within an EEO Job Group is less than would be reasonably expected given the
availability of qualified women and minorities within the employer’s workforce and externally
within the employer’s recruitment area. Placement goals are set when an employer has an
underutilization within an EEO Job Group. A placement goal serves as target, not a quota or set-
aside, that employers make good faith efforts to meet.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. _11d__ Page 4 of 5
Meeting Date: January 4, 2022
Template revised September 22, 2016.
2021 Utilization Analysis for Women & Minorities
EEO JOB GROUP
TOTAL
EMPLOYEES
2,084
WOMEN
Total: 678 - 32.53%
MINORITY
Total: 707 – 33.93%
Utilization
Availability
Difference
Utilization
Availability
Difference
Officials/Administrators
1
26 8 10 -2 7 6 1
Officials/Administrators
2
40 20 18 2 12 10 2
Professionals 1
257 93 96 -3 66 65 1
Professionals 2
380 156 179 -23 129 117 12
Professionals 3
67 37 36 1 29 17 12
Admin. Support 1
3 3 2 1 2 1 1
Admin. Support 2
53 47 47 0 22 18 4
Admin. Support 3
7 6 5 1 1 2 -1
Paraprofessionals
74 60 54 6 31 27 4
Technicians
135 51 60 -9 59 42 17
Skilled Craft 1
117 6 7 -1 25 29 -4
Skilled Craft 2
334 16 20 -4 87 91 -4
Service-Maintenance
151 64 71 -7 71 59 12
Commissioned Police
88 9 15 -6 16 18 -2
Commissioned Police
Command
27 5 3 2 6 5 1
Non-Commissioned
Protective Services
302 96 89 7 136 94 42
Non-Commissioned
Protective Services
Command
23 1 4 -3 5 8 -3
MOVING FORWARD
The Port of Seattle’s Affirmative Action Program is aligned with our Port-wide Goals to
Demonstrate Strong Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Port and Across the
Region and to Operate as a Highly Effective Public Agency.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Briefing Item No. _11d__ Page 5 of 5
Meeting Date: January 4, 2022
Template revised September 22, 2016.
The Port of Seattle will continue to improve its AA Program by doing the following:
1. Continuing ask employee to self-identify race, gender, disability status, and veteran
status to reflect our workforce demographics more accurately within our 3 AA Plans.
2. Continue to partner with our colleagues in Talent Acquisition and Emerging Talent to
identify recruitments for positions within the Professionals Group 2 EEO Job Group.
Once identified, we will conduct targeted outreach and recruitment of women to
ensure diverse applicant pools.
3. Expanding outreach and recruitment of individuals with disabilities.
4. Continuing the targeted recruitment of minorities, and Protected Veterans to ensure
diverse applicant pools by attending job fairs and community events, offering
internships, and evaluating job descriptions to remove requirements which create
artificial barriers.
5. Continue with Human Resources’ Compensation Project to address and resolve
systemic pay equity issues.
6. Maintaining and expanding the Veteran’s Fellowship Program.
7. Conducting annual audits of the 3 AA Plans to measures the program effectiveness.
8. Providing annual AA compliance training to employees to ensure women and
minorities, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans are treated in a non-
discriminatory manner in all employment practices and business decisions.
It’s important to note that moving forward the success of the Port’s AA Program is connected to
the success of the important work underway in Human Resources and the Office of Equity,
Diversity, and Inclusion (OEDI). Human Resources will continue to partner with OEDI to create
action plans from the OEDI survey results and those coming out of the Women of Color
Assessment currently underway. Addressing institutional oppression within the Port and infusing
equity in all our programs, including compensation, policies, and business practices supports the
fundamental purpose of affirmative action, which is to attract, hire, develop and retain a
workforce that reflects the diversity of our community at all levels of the Port.
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS BRIEFING
(1) Presentation slides
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS
September 8, 2020 – 2020 AAP Commission Briefing
September 24, 2019 – 2019 AAP Commission Briefing
October 9, 2018 – 2018 AAP Commission Briefing
