USPTO Performance and Accountability Report - U.S. Patent and ...

ment Council. The reorganization resulted in a more
strategic, proactive, and organizationally independent
functional unit than its predecessor, the Office
of Civil Rights. Notably, the USPTO is 28 percent Asian,
21 percent African-American, and 3 percent Hispanic
(Figure 31). Also, females comprise 35 percent of the
USPTO’s employee population.
The reorganization has improved the prominence of
the USPTO’s diversity program. Perhaps most importantly,
on April 17, 2012, the USPTO hosted the firstever
White House Initiative on the Asian American
and Pacific Islander Federal Employee Conference.
OEEOD led the drafting of the agency’s first Diversity
and Inclusion Strategic Plan (D&ISP) under Executive
Order 13583. The D&ISP outlines of the agency’s
efforts to attract and engage a diverse workforce,
and to equip managers with the tools they need to
manage diversity and institutionalize a culture of
inclusion.
OEEOD also managed the agency’s National Engineering
Week event in partnership with the Office of
Education and several of the agency’s affinity
groups. The interactive, hands-on program focused
on bringing in local students to build robots, with the
hope of inspiring them to pursue careers in engineering
and science.
OEEOD expanded the New Examiner Mentoring
Program from 50 mentoring pairs to over 100 pairs,
after the initial pilot demonstrated overwhelmingly
FIGURE 31 Total USPTO Employees
by Race and National Origin
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
positive results – the attrition rate for mentees was
half that of new examiners who did not participate.
The program’s goal is to help new patent examiners
acclimate to the agency and improve retention
past the initial probationary period.
OEEOD actively supports a network of 12 affinity
groups. To improve the institutional support, OEEOD
created a Diversity Outreach Coordinator position
whose function is to oversee and conduct the efforts
of the agency’s volunteer employee groups.
OEEOD’s work includes conducting quarterly
meetings with the leaders of the affinity groups to
discuss joint projects, delivering a leadership training
retreat for the affinity group leaders, assisting with
events, and hosting an annual International Food
Sample Festival that allowed the affinity groups to
showcase diversity through food.
On May 10, 2012, the agency hosted its annual
capstone diversity event, Community Day.
On Community Day, USPTO offices, unions, employee
resource groups, and civic groups showcase their
organizations through table-top displays in the
outdoor area surrounding our main campus in Alexandria,
Virginia. On Community Day, the agency’s
Director initiated the event, expressed a commitment
to a diverse workforce, and presented the
agency’s Equal Employment Opportunity Award.
The event also engages with our broader community,
as the event is open to the public and is coordinated
with the City of Alexandria.
Community Day has four core purposes: (1) inform
employees of the agency equal employment
opportunity policy and program; (2) provide
recognition, in the form of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Award, to employees that demonstrate
superior accomplishments in support of the
agency’s diversity program, as required; (3) promote
active engagement in recognized employee
resource groups, and educate the workforce on
office initiatives (e.g., employee viewpoint survey,
computer security, wellness programs, green
initiatives, etc.); and (4) expose employees to civic
organizations in the broader community (City of
Alexandria) to improve community conditions that
affect employability.
www.uspto.gov
53