Ask the Expert: Jitinder Kohli on diversity in the senior ranks of the federal government

Why is it important to have a diverse workforce in government?

There are two reasons why it's important to have a diverse workforce in government. First of all, surveys show that when businesses have diversity they perform better. And we want a government that performs as well as it can.

Secondly, government has a special responsibility. Government represents the people, so the people who work in government need to look like the people they govern.

How diverse are the senior leaders of federal government?

America is a diverse country. About a third of the American workforce are people of color. And about half are women. So we looked at the top 7,000 federal workers to see how they compared.

About a sixth of those workers are currently people of color. That's about half what you'd expect. And about 30 percent of those workers are women, which is significantly less than you would expect.

Will the diversity gap close over the next 20 years?

The thing to remember is that America is getting more diverse. And so we looked at the top 7,000 officials in federal government to see how they would compare in 20 years time to the rest of the work force.

So there's good news in there. First of all, for African Americans and Asians, we predict that the diversity gap will more or less close. For women we predict that there will remain a gap but it will be significantly smaller than today. By 2030 Hispanics will be about 25 percent of the overall labor force. But they will be only seven percent of the senior ranks of federal government. That's an enormous discrepancy.

What can be done to promote diversity in the senior ranks of the federal government?

We think there are two crucial ingredients. First of all, leaders have to show a real commitment to closing the diversity gap. And in that they need to focus most of all on Hispanic communities.

The second thing we need to do is increase the quality and diversity of applicants for top jobs in government. One way of doing that would be to find brilliant people in the private sector and head hunt them for the top government jobs.