Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Additional Actions Needed to Support a Fair and Inclusive Workplace, GAO-16-62: Published: May 19, 2016. Publicly Released: Jun 20, 2016.”

“Nonexecutive employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) who responded to GAO’s survey identified strengths and areas for improvement in CFPB’s personnel practices and culture. Most respondents agreed that enthusiasm for CFPB’s mission is high and that immediate supervisors respect and value differences among individuals. However, GAO’s survey found heightened concerns related to fair treatment, trust that employees can raise concerns without fear of reprisal, confidence in complaint processes, and other matters. For survey items on these issues, more than 25 percent of respondents bureau-wide had unfavorable views, and dissatisfaction was above 35 percent in some CFPB offices and demographic groups. For example, about one-third of respondents disagreed with the statement that success at CFPB is based more on merit than on personal connections or favoritism. Disagreement was 40 percent or more for a few offices that focus on examining institutions and among black respondents. As part of ongoing improvement efforts and in response to challenges it identified in late 2013 and early 2014, CFPB has worked to strengthen personnel management practices and enhance its diversity and inclusion efforts. In part to address weaknesses in personnel practices that may have contributed to perceptions of unfair treatment, CFPB has expanded management training, developed new guidance on personnel practices, and developed a new performance management system. CFPB has made progress in adopting leading diversity management practices identified in prior GAO work, such as finalizing a diversity strategic plan, creating employee diversity groups, and expanding diversity training. In addition, CFPB launched a new initiative to strengthen its organizational culture that includes obtaining employee input on ideas for improving CFPB’s culture and addressing employee concerns. Finally, CFPB has strengthened its employee complaint processes by providing new training and guidance and creating feedback mechanisms to help evaluate progress in some areas. CFPB has taken steps to measure and communicate progress on these efforts, such as through its process for analyzing feedback from employee surveys. However, without additional steps in these areas, CFPB may miss opportunities to help ensure sustained commitment and accountability for its initiatives.

• CFPB’s diversity, inclusion, fairness, and culture efforts represent a significant change management initiative, but CFPB does not comprehensively report on its implementation goals and progress across these efforts.
• CFPB has created some feedback mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of its equal employment opportunity complaint process, but has not done the same for its employee grievance processes…”
• See also Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Survey Results from Employees and Executives on Personnel Management and Organizational Culture (GAO-16-138SP, May 2016), an E-supplement to GAO-16-62 GAO-16-138SP: Published: May 19, 2016. Publicly Released: Jun 20, 2016. E-Supplement. This is an e-supplement to GAO-16-62. It presents the results from GAO’s survey of 57 senior CFPB executives as of January 31, 2015. A total of 36 senior executives responded to our executive survey for a response rate of 63 percent. GAO excluded responses to demographic and open-ended narrative questions.”