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Employment Plan Survey Instructions

These are the instructions provided to all survey respondents:

This survey is distributed to all agency HR Directors, Personnel Managers, EEO Officers and other agency representatives who may partner with CMS Diversity & Inclusion. We invite HR Directors to connect with the multiple stakeholders at their agencies, gather the data, and then submit all answers through this online survey. Some questions pertaining to Bilingual Needs & Bilingual Pay will need to be rendered to all employees. For this, HR Directors may need to create their own systems for gather information from agency employees. One example is to create a forms survey as this one with only pertinent questions. To help, this email includes an attachment with all survey questions.

  1. Deadline to Complete the Surveys
    Agencies must complete the Survey no later than Wednesday, October 1, 2025, to guarantee inclusion in the respective Employment Plans. The survey must be completed electronically as it is a direct path for data automation that feeds into a multiple-production team processes.
  2. Time period
    Survey questions cover fiscal year 2025: July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
  3. Coverage
    This survey is required for all "coded" agencies. Unless otherwise noted, survey questions apply to all full-time employees at your agency. This includes but is not limited to, bargaining unit employees, salary grade employees, merit compensation employees, and all other employees exempted from the Personnel Code.
  4. Demographic Definitions
    This survey follows statutory language* that uses the below definitions. CMS continues to work on finding ways to better align language use to fit today's best practices.
    1.  American Indian or Alaska Native: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America, including Central America, and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
    2. Asian: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, but not limited to, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
    3. Black or African American: a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro" can be used in addition to "Black or African American".
    4. Latino: a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

*Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/1-101.