Federal agencies are required to communicate to their employees information about their rights under EEO law and rules and how to go about pursuing appeals, but that can be a difficult task where workers are decentralized, including where many of them telework, EEOC has said.
“EEOC strongly recommends agencies use whatever electronic means available to them, for example, their official websites, phones and employee e-mail accounts as a primary method of communication with its workforce. However, we recognize that under some circumstances agencies may need alternative communication methods. In particular, circumstances in which employees’ workstations are in non-office settings without regular access to the agencies’ computer or office e-mail systems likely present the most complicated communication challenges,” the agency said in a recent report.
It suggested that agencies communicate through means including quarterly emails, information brochures, video messages, postings on agency intranets, posters, articles in agency newsletters, town hall and staff meetings, webcasts, notices on employee pay statements, and more. Also key is holding managers and supervisors responsible for making sure that written information actually reaches employees, for example by posting it “in prominent areas throughout the workplace.”
