全球智库信息集成服务系统

• Accessions: Mixed performance against population benchmarks highlights the importance of eligibility requirements and outreach practices on the Coast Guard's ability to tap into diverse talent pools.
• Career development: There are inconsistent trends in career development indicators for enduring improvement. Survey and focus group findings highlighted concerns about the assignment process, particularly for women and black enlisted personnel.
• Advancement and promotion: According to available data, processes appear to treat personnel fairly, but career histories cause disparities. Survey findings show that, across all demographic groups, the majority of personnel understand the advancement or promotion process, but fewer view it as fair.
• Retention: Women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups have lower retention than their majority counterparts across the career life cycle. Focus group and survey findings highlight the importance of leadership as a key retention factor for all groups. These findings are also consistent with the study of retaining women in the Coast Guard previously conducted by Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center researchers.
• Climate: Survey and focus group findings highlight a lack of trust in leaders at all levels about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues and about implementation of processes designed to protect against discrimination.

The U.S. Coast Guard seeks to attract, recruit, and retain a workforce that represents all segments of U.S. society. However, in the current active-duty Coast Guard, representation of women and of members of racial and ethnic minority groups declines as rank increases, ultimately resulting in a less diverse senior leadership. These demographics are largely the cumulative effect of the service's personnel system in which the pool of potential senior leaders narrows at each stage of the career life cycle, along with the number of candidates from underrepresented groups.

To identify the root causes of the underrepresentation of women and of members of racial and ethnic minority groups in the Coast Guard, researchers used a mixed-method approach involving literature reviews, analysis of personnel data, interviews with subject-matter experts, focus groups, and a survey of active-duty personnel. The team examined the factors that shape representation at each phase of the military career life cycle — recruiting, career development, promotion and advancement, and retention — and identified facilitators of and barriers to improving diversity in the Coast Guard. The report includes recommendations to help the Coast Guard achieve its ultimate goal of a workforce that looks like the nation it serves.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Improving the Demographic Diversity of Accessions Through Outreach and Recruiting

• Chapter Three

  Improving Career Development of Underrepresented-Minority Personnel

• Chapter Four

  Improving the Advancement and Promotion of Underrepresented-Minority Personnel

• Chapter Five

  Improving Retention of Underrepresented-Minority Personnel

• Chapter Six

  Active-Duty Personnel's Perspectives on Coast Guard Climate

• Chapter Seven

  Implementation Considerations

• Appendix A

  Demographics of Coast Guard Personnel Versus Department of Defense Military Personnel

• Appendix B

  Potential Lessons Learned from Civilian Organizations

• Appendix C

  Quantitative Methods for Advancement, Promotion, and Retention Analyses

• Appendix D

  Coast Guard Administrative Data Sources and Data Gaps

• Appendix E

  Focus Group Methodology

• Appendix F

  Focus Group Protocol

• Appendix G

  Survey Methodology

• Appendix H

  Survey Instrument