The Diversity Strategies Of The U.s. Department Of...

The target of this research is to explore the diversity strategies of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the objective of supporting its efficacy. Accordingly, this paper organizes this exploration into three correlating sections, the first of which introduces an overview of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) within the VA. In addition, this area summarizes the ODI installation of the VA diversity plan. This leads to the second exploration section, which outlines specific focus areas of the VA diversity plan as defined in the Standard University Publication: Best Practices for Managing Organizational Diversity (2007). The third and final segment offers a concluding synopsis along with recommendations for†¦show more content†¦Keywords: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, Pew Research Center, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Office of Per sonnel Management U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Diversity Plan Analysis At present, the diverse composition of the United States Veteran population is disproportionate to that of the total United States populace composition. To be sure, in an examination of one aspect of diversity (race and ethnicity), the contrasting data is compelling. According to the Pew Research Center (PRC), the percentage of racially diverse population in the United States is 36% and is on an upward trajectory. In fact, by the year 2065, our U.S. population will no longer have a dominant racial or ethnic group (2015). On the contrary, according to the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS), the current percentage of racially diverse veterans is approximately 20% and will eventually reach 36%, though not until after 2040 (2010). As such, if proactive measures are not immediately put into action to address this latency, veteran diversity will not achieve parity as it’s significantly lagging behind the racially diverse levels of the nation (refer to Appendices â€Å"C† and â€Å"D† respectively, for PRC and NCVAS