Diverse recently sat down with Elaine Ho, who, as director of Diversity and Inclusion at the Internal Revenue Service, is charged with implementing the agency’s diversity strategies. At first glance it may appear that diversity issues would take a back seat to the heavy financial and monetary issues associated with federal taxation issues. Not so, explains Ho, whose background as an Asian American lawyer and military officer puts her in a unique position to manage diversity at the IRS.
DI: The IRS is one of the largest agencies in the world. Why is diversity important at a place like this?
Ho: If you look at IRS’ mission, it’s to provide America’s taxpayers with top-quality service, helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities. When we have that diverse population that reflects the taxpayers, we can better understand them and better serve them.
DI: What’s your biggest challenge in recruiting a diverse staff?
Ho: Honestly, I don’t think it’s that big of a challenge. If you’re looking in the right places, you find it. One of the things that I hear is “Well, I know recruiting diverse talent is important, but I can’t find that.” I find that hard to believe. The federal government has some great opportunities. As an example, we have something called a Schedule A hiring authority where we’re able to hire individuals with disabilities without having them go through the competitive process that people commonly associate with the federal process.
DI: Can you tell us more about the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion?
Ho: The office is something that was created when the executive director, Debra Chew, came on board in July of 2009. It wasn’t necessarily a reorganization, but more of a rebranding. There are sometimes negative connotations when people say “EEO,” so we chose to rebrand our office as the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to look at diversity not just in a narrow focus of looking at race and gender, but looking at diversity and inclusion as something very broad, and especially looking at diversity in terms of thought and perspective and ideas.
