ML20303A229
| ML20303A229 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/29/2020 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| M201021A | |
| Download: ML20303A229 (73) | |
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1 UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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BRIEFING ON HUMAN CAPITAL AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2020
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The Commission met via Videoconference, at 9:33 a.m.
EDT, Kristine L. Svinicki, Chairman, presiding.
COMMISSION MEMBERS:
KRISTINE L. SVINICKI, Chairman JEFF BARAN, Commissioner ANNIE CAPUTO, Commissioner CHRISTOPHER T. HANSON, Commissioner DAVID A. WRIGHT, Commissioner ALSO PRESENT:
ANNETTE VIETTI-COOK, Secretary of the Commission MARIAN ZOBLER, General Counsel
2 NRC STAFF:
MIRIAM L. COHEN, Chief Human Capital Officer MARGARET DOANE, Executive Director for Operations BRENDAN CAIN, Senior Program Administration Specialist, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer LAURA DUDES, Regional Administrator, Region II BRIAN GREEN, Reactor Operations Engineer (Human Factors), Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation STEPHEN SMITH, Civil Rights Program Manager, Office of Small Business and Civil Rights ALSO PRESENT:
SHERYL SANCHEZ, National Treasury Employees Union
3 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 9:33 a.m. EDT 3 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: It is nice to see people. Good 4 morning, everyone. Im confident we have, in addition to external viewers, a 5 large contingent of NRC staff who cannot be waved at by us but who are 6 watching remotely. And a special good morning to all of them.
7 Wish you were here. And someday you will be again. And 8 were confident of that. But it is good to see those who are gathered here 9 today.
10 So, the Commission convenes this morning in public 11 session for the Commission to conduct a meeting that I know we all find very 12 meaningful and important. Twice a year we convene to look at a set of issues 13 that are similar, but today we will be receiving an update on significant human 14 capital initiatives and equal employment opportunity.
15 And I have, as a member of the Commission, had a chance 16 to see a little bit of a preview of the richness and full content that the staff is 17 presenting here today. And Im excited to hear it, and excited that we were 18 able to kind of catch up to some of our public meetings that got deferred and 19 postponed earlier in the year.
20 21 So, my thanks to all my colleagues, so collegially we worked 22 together on getting the meetings caught up and reestablished. This one was 23 important, and I know mattered a lot to every single member of the 24 Commission that we have this opportunity virtually and in a hybrid format. But 25 were excited to be here today.
26 And before I turn it over to our Executive Director for
4 1 Operations to lead off the staff presentations that Ive been teasing you all 2 about, I will ask if any member of the Commission. Commissioner Baran.
3 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thanks, Chairman.
4 Ill have some thoughts to share during my Q&A time, but I 5 wanted to, just to emphasize up front this is a very important meeting. As the 6 Chairman mentioned, its been delayed a few months because of the 7 pandemic, but we made it a priority to hold it today.
8 During this time of national soul searching on issues of racial 9 inequality, diversity and inclusion efforts have never been more valuable. So, 10 I look forward to a good discussion this morning and later this afternoon at the 11 All Employees Meeting.
12 Thanks.
13 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you, Commissioner Baran.
14 Anyone else?
15 (No response.)
16 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Okay, no. I know were all eager to 17 dive right in. So, Margie, the floor is yours. Thank you.
18 MS. DOANE: Okay. Good morning, Chairman and 19 Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to share the agencys 20 progress in areas of human capital and equal employment opportunity. We 21 are pleased to have this opportunity to update you on our program 22 achievements, including reaffirming our commitment to ensuring the NRC is 23 an organization that welcomes and appreciates diversity and inclusion.
24 We have done this while remaining engaged in a highly 25 productive, in an unprecedented and continuously evolving COVID-19 public 26 health emergency environment, while simultaneously experiencing periods of
5 1 marked civil unrest occurring throughout our country.
2 Next slide, please.
3 One thing that has remained steadfast in this dynamic 4 environment is the agencys continued focus on its greatest and most valuable 5 resource -- its employees. In fact, the NRCs ability to fulfill its important 6 safety and security mission depends on the ability of each and every employee 7 being able to fully engage and bring their whole selves to work.
8 Essentially, it was this realization that informed our actions 9 to implement maximum telework and allow flexible work schedules to protect 10 the health and well-being of our employees, and support them as they balance 11 work with home/life responsibilities.
12 We also made it a priority to engage regularly with 13 employees through various communication mediums that focused on 14 encouraging employees and ways to enhance our NRC community. We did 15 this by ensuring regular EDO updates, publishing the weekly Staying 16 Connected feature, airing agency-wide contests, and sponsoring agency-wide 17 forums to promote open and respectful discussion.
18 Additionally, we made it a top priority to ensure employee 19 assistance program services were available and easily accessible to all 20 employees in the remote environment.
21 Despite the numerous challenges NRC employees have 22 faced over the last months, they have consistently demonstrated their 23 resilience and adaptability. They have identified innovative solutions to the 24 challenges of working remotely, adopted new technologies to facilitate 25 collaboration, implemented new processes to ensure NRC remain productive 26 in its new virtual environment, and openly shared their ideas and perspectives.
6 1 Weve learned from these experiences and we are making 2 sure to capture and draw on these valuable lessons to inform and focus our 3 future efforts.
4 Outside of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the 5 Office of Chief Human Capital Officer has also achieved many significant 6 successes over the past year. And Id like to take a moment to highlight just 7 a few of them.
8 OCHCO has played a central role in helping ensure the 9 NRC has a pipeline of talent to draw on well into the future. It has focused its 10 efforts on redefining NRCs approach to hiring, retaining, and developing 11 talent by applying innovative strategies to attract, engage, and support 12 employees at all stages of their career.
13 For example, OCHCO has experienced remarkable 14 success in bringing new talent to the agency, resulting from a structured new 15 hire program that has supported transformation through the Career 16 Enhancement Initiative.
17 NRC is also committed to fostering an environment that 18 recognizes the importance of diversity and inclusion that is welcoming of all 19 employees.
20 The Office of Small Business and Civil Rights has taken 21 constructive measures in reaffirming this commitment.
22 First, its recently launched the Initiative on Civility, 23 Awareness, Respect, and Engagement, or iCARE, which you will hear more 24 about later during the presentation.
25 Secondly, in September, the Office of Small Business and 26 Civil Rights held a virtual, agency-wide equal employment opportunity summit
7 1 embracing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. I would like to thank 2 everyone involved for their dedication and hard work in planning and 3 facilitating the summit. There are simply too many to recognize here.
4 The examples I noted above, as well as numerous others, 5 demonstrates how we are continuing to improve the work experience and 6 environment for the NRC employees and contributing to the NRC remaining a 7 great place to work.
8 To say that I am proud of what we accomplished as an 9 agency over the last year is an understatement. I believe this success is due 10 in part to the diligence, foresight, and hard work of staff and management in 11 OCHCO and SBCR who work tirelessly to provide opportunities, services, and 12 support for all employees, while striving to take meaningful actions to enhance 13 NRCs work environment.
14 Next slide, please.
15 And, with that, Id like to introduce my fellow speakers.
16 First is Mr. Stephen Smith from the Office of Small Business 17 and Civil Rights who will discuss equal employment opportunity activities and 18 trends at the agency.
19 Followed by Miriam Cohen, Chief Human Capital Officer, 20 who will be discussing the programmatic aspects of the recent successes of 21 the agencys Human Capital Program.
22 Next is Mr. Brendan Cain from OCHCO, who will discuss 23 our agencys workforce trends and analysis, followed by Mr. Brian Green from 24 the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, who will discuss the Employee 25 Journey initiatives to obtain and develop talent needed to drive transformation.
26 And, finally, Ms. Laura Dudes from Region II, Regional
8 1 Administrator, who will provide Region IIs perspective on talent management.
2 Next slide, please.
3 So, before I turn it over to my fellow presenters, I would like 4 to take a moment to recognize someone who has been a driving force and 5 influential inspiration behind NRCs success in the areas of human -- in the 6 area of human capital.
7 Ms. Miriam Cohen has been with the NRC since 2004, the 8 last 10 years serving as the Chief Human Capital Officer. I dont know if you 9 saw it, but I think it was in the Federal Executive this week, she was captured 10 for this length of service that really is throughout the Federal Government quite 11 impressive.
12 Her unparalleled experience and forthright manner, coupled 13 with her people-centric approach, has helped successfully guide our 14 organization through many transitions. She has tackled many complex 15 challenges over the years.
16 And so, with much gratitude on behalf of the staff, and on 17 behalf of me personally, I offer her my very best wishes as she departs NRC 18 at the end of the month to begin a new journey. And I know that we remain 19 in her very capable hands with Ms. Mary Lamary to guide us into the future.
20 This concludes my introductory remarks. And I would like 21 to now --
22 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Before you turn it over can I just ask 23 again, and Miriam has got this wonderful position right behind Margies which 24 is kind of --
25 MS. COHEN: Ive got her back.
26 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Youve got her back in every sense
9 1 of the word.
2 (Laughter.)
3 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: But it is just a reminder of how the 4 years go by. Feel like you just got here. But Im sure it doesnt feel that way 5 to you when I say that, for good, bad. But, you know, we appealed to you, 6 we got you. You stayed beyond to help us with COVID and everything. So, 7 you have in every sense of the word gone above and beyond. And I know 8 we all wish you well.
9 And across the virtual sphere were going to hear a 10 thunderous applause joining the small applause in this room, but lets just, 11 please, wish Miriam well.
12 (Applause.)
13 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Okay. With that, we will all 14 probably engage you in the Q&A and other fun things, and wish you well 15 individually, but I just wanted to interrupt.
16 And, Margie, I think you were about to turn over to the next 17 presenter. Thank you.
18 MS. DOANE: Right. To Mr. Stephen Smith.
19 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you.
20 MS. DOANE: Thanks, Chairman.
21 MR. SMITH: Thank you, Margie.
22 Good morning, Chairman Svinicki, Commissioners, and to 23 the entire NRC family. And a special thanks to Margie, to Vonna, and Jeanne 24 for their unmatched leadership.
25 My name is Stephen Smith. Im the Civil Rights Program 26 Manager for the Office of Small Business and Civil Rights. And Im deeply
10 1 honored and humbled to brief you this morning on the progress and the status 2 of the agencys EEO and diversity inclusion program efforts as its 3 administered and managed by SBCR and its NRC partners, which includes 4 our collateral duty counselors, our advisory committee members and 5 executive sponsors, our dialog ambassadors, and the NRC culture team and 6 champions.
7 I was elated to join NRC Office of Small Business and Civil 8 Rights in January of this year where I have the responsibility for administering, 9 managing, and ensuring compliance and oversight of NRCs internal civil 10 rights program. Prior to that assignment I served as the Director for the Equal 11 Employment Opportunity Division at the U.S. Department of Housing and 12 Urban Development.
13 In addition, I also served as an associate director for the 14 Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the U.S. Department of Treasury, 15 at headquarters, where I was responsible for carrying out all matters related 16 to diversity in management, employment, and business activities.
17 Next slide, please.
18 For todays briefing I would like to provide you a status and 19 highlight the accomplishments of the agency through its collaborative efforts 20 with the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, commonly known as 21 OCHCO.
22 SBCR programs continue to provide leadership for the 23 agencys efforts to carry out the obligations under various civil rights and small 24 business statutes. And touching so many areas of their daily life here at the 25 NRC, SBCR continues to support the agencys mission, and protecting public 26 health and safety and the environment by cultivating the agencys diverse and
11 1 inclusive workplace to advance equal employment opportunity; to afford 2 maximum practical prime and subcontracting opportunities for small 3 businesses; to provide fair and impartial complaint processing of 4 discrimination complaints; and to allow for meaningful, fair, and equal access 5 to the agencys conducted and financially assisted and conducted programs 6 and activities.
7 I would like to detail for you today three vital areas of 8 SBCRs civil rights and diversity inclusion efforts that provides an example of 9 the contribution and shared responsibility that we have with OCHCO in 10 advancing equality and opportunity. I will touch on EEO complaint activities 11 and trends, our framework to diversity and inclusion.
12 Care about iCARE, an Initiative on Civility, Awareness, 13 Respect, and Engagement.
14 Next slide, please.
15 Moving into the areas of EEO and over the past two years, 16 our EEO complaint activity has increased slightly where we are now averaging 17 about 33 complaints, and 20 formal complaints per year. Although the source 18 of this uptick is unknown at this point, the agency remains committed to the 19 principles of EEO and to eliminating unlawful discrimination in the workplace.
20 In this chart, our EEO complaint activity is trending slightly 21 upward even as our agency staffing levels continue to decline. But it should 22 be duly noted that our agency is still only averaging about 1 percent of its 23 workforce with pre-complaints and less than 1 percent of its workforce with 24 formal complaints.
25 Next slide, please.
26 In analyzing the basis of our formal complaints, reprisal,
12 1 race, age, and sex are the most commonly citing -- cited, constituting 2 approximately 82 percent of the formal complaint filings. While reprisal is our 3 most asserted basis, generally those having prior EEO activity or opposition 4 to a policy, to employment policy or practice, it should be noted that reprisal is 5 also the basis most raised throughout the federal sector.
6 This chart reflects all bases cited in a formal complaint, 7 which may include multiple bases.
8 Next slide, please.
9 Workplace harassment remains a persistent problem in the 10 Federal Government, as reported by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity 11 Commission, and continues to be one of our top three issues alleged.
12 In the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment 13 in the Workplace they reported that the workplace harassment too often goes 14 unaddressed, where employees experience harassment, fail to report the 15 harassing behavior, or file a complaint because they fear disbelief of their 16 claim, inaction on their claim, blame, or social or professional retaliation.
17 However, we continue to work with our collaborative 18 partners in OCHCO and the Office of General Counsel to cultivate a civil 19 workplace that is free from all forms of harassing behavior and misconduct, 20 discrimination, and retaliation.
21 Next slide, please.
22 The objectives of diversity and inclusion are fundamental to 23 ensuring that all levels of our organization, including managers and 24 employees, are equipped with the skills for treating others fairly, and creating 25 a healthy workplace culture. The agencys overarching strategy and 26 framework underscores the business imperatives associated with diversity
13 1 and inclusion, and offers insights for maximizing the benefits of a workforce 2 made up of many cultural backgrounds, personal characteristics, and unique 3 experiences.
4 Please note that this is in keeping with the Executive Order 5 13583, establishing a coordinated, government-wide initiative to promote 6 diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce, which informs our Inclusive 7 Diversity Strategic Plan, and remains as a valid and important part of our 8 guidance.
9 Our Inclusive Diversity Strategic Plan is made to increase 10 the transparency of human capital processes for the many initiatives and 11 efforts that are currently underway, and it includes a focus on data-driven 12 decision making through the strategic use of applicant flow data; emphasizing 13 and identifying potential areas of implicit bias; training on the new inclusion 14 quotient, the new IQ; creating a more interactive federal equal opportunity 15 recruitment program, FEORP; and intensifying and accelerating the agencys 16 communication techniques.
17 To show our agencys commitment to diversity and 18 inclusion, this link that you see on the slide provides our very first diversity 19 inclusion policy statement that was signed by Chairman Svinicki on May 18th 20 of this year.
21 Next slide, please.
22 We continue to foster inclusion and engagement in the 23 agency through the dialog project and many other initiatives. However, we 24 have currently suspended some diversity and inclusion initiatives, including 25 trainings, forums, and other similar programs and activities consistent with the 26 Executive Order 13950 and its implementing guidance. We hope to get our
14 1 programs to the Office of Personnel Management soon to obtain approval and 2 re-start these important initiatives.
3 Over the first few months, in a fully virtual environment 4 Vonna and Margie had several discussions on how to best provide an 5 immediate and unified approach to supporting the agency during a time when 6 injustice and unrest weighed heavily on us all. Upon reflection, and realizing 7 the events would have a lasting effect on the NRC community, SBCR 8 established the Initiative on Civility, Awareness, Respect, and Engagement, 9 known as iCARE.
10 The purpose of iCARE is to assist with the agencys efforts 11 and facilitating deeper understandings and appreciation of cultural and 12 diversity and inclusion-related issues among agency employees, and promote 13 individual, personal, and professional growth and effectiveness through the 14 processes of listening, introspection, and building acceptance for differing 15 perspectives.
16 iCARE was built on the dialog model of creating a safe 17 space, encouraging individuals to meet with open minds and hold 18 conversations where questions can be asked of those who are thought to be 19 different, and experiences could be shared without judgment or hostility.
20 The ultimate goal of iCARE is for us to overcome 21 communication gaps and learn about one another so we feel more 22 comfortable bringing our whole selves to work, feeling respected for being 23 engaged in the workplace.
24 As we look ahead, the progress and successes described 25 are encouraging, an ultimate reminder that results are achieved only through 26 taking seriously our commitment to civil rights and diversity and inclusion.
15 1 I want to thank you. And I would like to now turn it over to 2 Miriam Cohen, who I want to personally thank on behalf of SBCR for your 3 longstanding leadership and invaluable support to our organization.
4 Thank you, Miriam.
5 MS. COHEN: Thank you, Stephen.
6 Good morning, Chairman, Commissioners, and NRC staff.
7 I am pleased and honored to be here for my tenth and final appearance at the 8 agencys human capital briefing. Believe it or not, I spent some time over the 9 pandemic reading through the transcripts from all the prior human capital 10 meetings and was quite amazed at how much change the agency has gone 11 through, and how successful we have been as an agency to what was through 12 some pretty turbulent times.
13 When I became the CHCO almost 10 years ago, the NRC 14 was rated among the best places to work. But, starting in 2011 we 15 experienced the beginning of a lengthy period of downsizing. It was not 16 always easy to be the CHCO during those times, but the ability to help guide 17 our people activities was truly a privilege for me.
18 Over the years we briefed the Commission on significant 19 and substantive topics, including maintaining critical skills, transforming 20 business assets into solutions, Project AIM, learning transformation, 21 competency modeling, change management, sustaining employee 22 engagement, corporate support reductions, strategic workforce planning, and 23 preparing for a 21st Century workforce.
24 Many of these topics are still relevant today and will likely 25 guide our human capital programs into the future. During todays briefing 26 youre going to hear about some initiatives that address our continued focus
16 1 on data analytics, career enhancement and development, regional insights on 2 strategic workforce planning, and agency investments in developing future 3 talent.
4 I want to take a few minutes to say thank you to current and 5 former chairmen, commissioners, executive directors, deputy executive 6 directors, deputy CHCOs, and all my current and former OCHCO staff that 7 have supported me and the human capital programs over the years.
8 When I came to the Office of Human Resources in 2008 as 9 the deputy to Jim McDermott, I always felt that we had a seat at the table, that 10 our views and concerns were heard, and that we could advance the many 11 positive human capital programs that made the NRC such a great place to 12 work. Its not like that across all agencies, and it is truly a gift that we have 13 here.
14 We care about people, their development, their careers, and 15 actively promoted work/life balance way before it was popular to embrace it.
16 Our technical training programs are widely regarded, and our robust rotational 17 programs provide employees an opportunity to work in a new area to develop 18 new skill sets.
19 We are also modernizing HR systems to improve customer 20 service and eliminate manual processes. Its an exciting time to work in the 21 human capital arena, both within our agency and across the Federal 22 Government.
23 Despite some recent downturns in employee survey results, 24 we should be proud of our enduring commitment to NRC values, diversity and 25 inclusion, and our continuous improvement focus. We are at unique period 26 in our agency, in our history as an agency, and we have a bright future.
17 1 We are, in fact, rebuilding and developing talent, from our 2 newest entry level hires who just joined us this past summer, to the 3 competitive selections of new first line supervisors, and placement of our SES 4 CDP candidates. It is a time of opportunity once again in the agency.
5 I am grateful and honored to have served as the agencys 6 Chief Human Capital Officer during these eventful years.
7 I will now turn the presentation over to Brendan Cain who, 8 you may not know, is the man behind all the numbers you have seen in the 9 background binders for years, and someone who has personally supported 10 me over the years that Ive been in OCHCO.
11 Brendan.
12 MR. CAIN: Thank you, Miriam.
13 Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. Thank you 14 for the opportunity to speak to you about the current status of workforce 15 analytics at NRC.
16 I work in the Human Capital Analysis Branch in OCHCO, 17 and I work mostly in a back office capacity preparing reports and analyses of 18 human capital data for OCHCO and other managers throughout the agency.
19 Although youve probably seen some of my work products, as Miriam 20 mentioned, this is my first time addressing the Commission directly, and its 21 an honor to do so.
22 Workforce analytics is used to provide information on the 23 state of the workforce at a point in time, over the course of time, to show 24 trends, measure progress toward objectives or goals, or to indicate the 25 potential future state of the workforce in terms of size or makeup.
26 Why do data analytics for human capital?
18 1 Well, it informs management about whats going on with the 2 workforce; 3 It provides a basis for setting human capital goals; 4 Shows progress toward those goals; 5 Identifies areas of concerns; 6 And, potentially, can suggest a course of action, for 7 example, by informing the strategic workforce planning process.
8 Next slide, please.
9 Among the goals of analytics tools are to provide meaningful 10 information in an easy-to-understand format; to provide information thats 11 relevant to the audience; and to provide actionable information thats useful to 12 managers and leadership.
13 Visualizations are a newer tool for workforce analytics for 14 presenting data. What do they offer?
15 They enhance the way that information is conveyed; 16 They allow for some degree of user interaction, for example, 17 by filtering sets within visualizations for a fiscal year or a specific population, 18 or highlighting a subset of data across multiple visualizations on a page.
19 They also offer the potential for sophisticated analysis of 20 data from multiple sources.
21 OCHCO was among the first to adopt a visualization tool at 22 the agency with our new Human Capital Dashboard. In preparing for that, we 23 researched available software to see what would meet our needs and found 24 Power BI. We partnered with OCIOs Enterprise Platforms Team to get 25 approval for its use at NRC.
26 Being part of the Office 365 suite makes it easily accessible
19 1 to the NRC community. And internally, version of the dashboard is used 2 across the agency by managers, part of which, excerpt of which Ill be showing 3 you later. And there are even plans to incorporate some of our visuals from 4 our dashboards into the agency mission analytics portal.
5 The Commission will be hearing a little bit later from Laura 6 Dudes of Region II about how offices are actually using data to inform their 7 human capital decisions.
8 In looking at the workforce data there are certain items that 9 Im only going to touch on to show that there is no need for concern in those 10 areas, but looking more closely at what is significant, examining some recent 11 trends, the current state of the workforce, and some implications for the future.
12 Now Id like to provide a demonstration of the Human 13 Capital Dashboard and discuss current trends.
14 As we can see -- where is my cursor? There it is. Sorry.
15 As we can see in the workforce data, employees onboard 16 by fiscal year, the agency continues to get smaller over the last few years, 17 from 3,383 in 2016, to 2,728 in 2020, a net reduction of 655 employees over 18 four years.
19 All of these reductions have been through attrition, and 20 primarily through retirement. This has allowed us to reach our budget and 21 staffing size goals without the need for adverse actions.
22 However, the composition of the agency in terms of gender, 23 ethnicity, and race has not been negatively affected. In fact, there is slight 24 improvement in both areas.
25 Looking at the gender progression over time, we can see 26 that the percentage of females has actually increased from just over 39
20 1 percent to just over 40 percent over the last five years.
2 Likewise, the total representation of minorities in the agency 3 has increased from just over 34 percent to about 36.5 percent in 2020.
4 Looking at separations, we see that the attrition rate for 5 2020 is comparable to that of recent years: between 6 and 7 percent, with 6 engineers and scientists somewhat lower. Though attrition bodes well for 7 both retention and stability of the workforce -- as I mentioned, most 8 separations are due to retirement, and well see those details a little bit later -
9 - this confirms the need for knowledge capture tools in the agency.
10 Looking at employees onboard by retirement eligibility, in 11 the upper corner, we can see that percentages are increasing as retention --
12 as attrition remains low, approximately 44 percent of the staff eligible within 13 the next five years currently. However, the actual numbers have decreased 14 from 1,350 in 2016 to 1,210 this year. The percentages are increasing as the 15 size of the agency overall has decreased.
16 This may serve to temper concerns about the retirement 17 tsunami weve heard about over time.
18 Looking at employees onboard by fiscal year and age group, 19 this ribbon chart shows the change in relative position of various age groups 20 through the agency over time. For example, this purple ribbon shows that the 21 number and position of employees in the 30 to 39 age group has gone from 22 the second most populous to the second least populous.
23 Likewise, the group age 60 and over has gone from the 24 second least populous to the second most populous in the agency. This 25 reflects an overall growing trend in the age demographic upward.
26 Even though the majority of separations, as shown in the
21 1 bottom chart here, are in the higher age groups, as we know, everyones a 2 year older than you were last year, so there are natural shifts from one age 3 group to the next.
4 However, as the size of the agency has leveled off, 5 opportunities for external hiring have actually increased in 2020, and will 6 increase again next year as replacement hiring resumes. This makes it 7 easier to recruit to fill positions with growth potential, as well as those critical 8 positions which weve filled all along.
9 Because of these increased hiring opportunities, the age 10 demographic of external hires is beginning to trend toward a better balance.
11 As we can see in this graphic, along with the overall 12 increase in hiring in general, we see a more even mix of age groups in 2020.
13 A more balanced age group demographic enhances the diversity of 14 perspective and thought in the agency, and the long-term stability of a 15 technical knowledge basis of the agency.
16 As Miriam mentioned, the agency long had a consistent 17 focus on entry level hiring, but especially in fiscal year 2020 with the new 18 Nuclear Regulator Apprenticeship Network Program. In fact, NRAN program 19 hires in 2020 have actually increased the number of staff onboard who are 20 under 30 by 50 percent in this year alone.
21 These will eventually become our mid and senior level 22 professionals.
23 The summer program has also grown steadily in the last few 24 years, giving students an opportunity to experience firsthand. And I believe 25 this will continue in future years.
26 Although I dont have a graphic to represent this, retention
22 1 rates also remain high since 2016, with 44 out of 55 hires of our professional 2 staff in 2016 and greater than 17 staying at least until their third anniversary.
3 This represents an 80 percent attrition rate -- retention rate, excuse me, 4 another indication that NRC remains a great place to work in the Federal 5 Government.
6 Resignations and transfers combined have remained 7 steady at about 60 per year. Looking at the attrition rates by type, about 60 8 per year, as I said, between 2017 and 2020, a combined rate of about 2.1 9 percent, with a shift toward transfers to other agencies in the last year.
10 Theres hope that increased opportunities going forward will 11 stem voluntary separations of those seeking advancement.
12 In summary, the agency is poised to offer opportunities for 13 balanced external hiring and for internal advancement. This will allow 14 managers and supervisors to recruit the talent that they need from both 15 internal and external sources, to meet the human capital needs of the 16 respective programs by the agency. As we develop new and better ways to 17 share analytics information and tools, we will share them with the agency and 18 will solicit feedback so that we can continually improve our human capital 19 analytic support to the agency.
20 I will now turn it over to Brian Green who will provide a 21 presentation and demo on the Employee Journey Initiative regarding retaining 22 and developing talent to drive transformation.
23 Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
24 MR. GREEN: Good morning, Chairman, Commissioners, 25 and staff. I am excited to be back in the office today to show you some of the 26 progress the staff has made and is continuing to make to develop and retain
23 1 staff, and to ensure that we have the talent and skills necessary to meet our 2 mission in the years to come.
3 Next slide, please.
4 This is my first time speaking to the Commission, so Id like 5 to begin by introducing myself. My name is Brian Green. I earned my Ph.D.
6 in industrial engineering and human factors from the University of Buffalo in 7 2010.
8 After graduation I entered the NRC through the NSPDP, or 9 the Nuclear Safety Professional Development Program. Since then I have 10 worked primarily in the offices of NRO and NRR as a human factors engineer.
11 I recently became the team lead for the Human Factors Team.
12 About a year ago I volunteered to support the Futures 13 Initiatives, and I was selected to be part of the Horizon 1 Career Enhancement 14 Team. I will tell you a little bit about this initiative in a few moments.
15 As a result of my efforts on that team, I was selected for a 16 developmental rotation as the Acting Chief for the Workforce Management 17 and Benefits Branch in OCHCO.
18 Id like to take a moment to thank Miriam Cohen, Mary 19 Lamary, Susan Salter, and Dafna Silberfeld for providing me with this unique 20 development opportunity. I also want to thank my management in NRR, 21 Chris Cowdery and Chris Miller, for supporting this rotation and continuing to 22 support it once the pandemic hit and changed so many things about the way 23 we do work.
24 They could have recalled me but, instead, they worked 25 together to help find the creative ways to get the work done without truncating 26 the opportunity. Commitment from all of these people, as well as my peers
24 1 in NRR and the staff in OCHCO, were necessary to make this rotation work.
2 Thank you to all of you for your commitment to help me develop new skills.
3 Now Id like to take a few moments to show you how two 4 staff initiatives are helping to improve career development tools at NRC. Our 5 hope is that we can use these tools to better support staff in making career 6 decisions and, in doing so, we will help increase job satisfaction and we will 7 ultimately help support retention.
8 Next slide, please.
9 The greatest asset that the NRC has is its people. It would 10 not be possible for the NRC to complete its safety and security mission without 11 the knowledge, expertise, and dedication of the staff. In 2019, the Future 12 Core Team created a series of initiatives to drive improvements at the NRC.
13 Im going to describe the efforts associated with these two initiatives dedicated 14 to improving our focus on our people.
15 Next slide, please.
16 The first initiative is called Horizon 1 or Career 17 Enhancement. The mission for this initiative included two key points.
18 The first part of our mission was to perform a human capital 19 assessment to better understand the connections between human capital 20 programs. We reviewed nearly 60 programs and policies and mapped the 21 connections between various sources of data and tools and methods that are 22 used to support these programs. Ill show an example of this in a 23 moment.The second part of our mission was to develop a tool to help 24 communicate the many human capital programs available to staff so that they 25 can be well-informed while performing career planning activities. In the end, 26 we developed an infographic called the NRC Guide to Career Enhancement
25 1 that serves as a one-stop shop directory to human capital resources.
2 Now Id like to give a brief demonstration of the features in 3 the NRC Guide to Human -- Im sorry -- the NRC Guide to Career 4 Enhancement.
5 Recognizing you probably wont be able to see the details 6 on the screen, but thats okay, Ill give a real high-level overview here. This 7 is the home page for it, for the guide. On this slide youll see in the center 8 here theres kind of an icon, and around it are links to six high-level career 9 planning steps that staff can click on and find more information.
10 The bottom of the page there are links to Microsoft Stream 11 videos. Weve created a Microsoft Stream channel, and on that channel staff 12 will find testimonials from former senior executives, different career planning 13 videos that weve created, and some that we found in the knowledge 14 management thats been going on for years, weve been able to link and sync 15 in them.
16 When staff click on one of the links -- Ill click on here here.
17 You cant see it, but it says, AIdentify where future work is expected. It takes 18 them to the next page. On pages like this well have a brief description about 19 what we intend here. And in this case, we dont want staff planning for a job 20 that isnt going to be necessary in five years, so we want to point them in a 21 good direction towards where we think there will be opportunity.
22 Give a brief description in the center.
23 At the bottom of the page youll see frequently asked 24 question. These are direct responses to questions and comments weve 25 collected through the 2019 Jam data. Clicking on any one of these links will 26 take you to a description of the response and the answer to those questions
26 1 directly.
2 Perhaps the most important feature on this page is on the 3 right side. These are real difficult to see on these screens. But these are 4 icons to our staircase pages. And these are essentially the description of the 5 human capital assessment we performed.
6 In this case, this, this diagram shows how the NRC tries to 7 anticipate future workload.
8 On the left, left-most, the left-most step or the lowest step is 9 a link to the plan that is used to identify future workload, in this case strategic 10 workforce planning.
11 The second step describes different data sources that are 12 used to inform the strategic workforce planning process.
13 And the third step are different activities that the NRC uses 14 when we need to make an adjustment to the size of the staff based on 15 workload. For instance, here we say hiring, training, reassignment, re-skilling 16 or up-skilling, contracting out for services, and interagency details.
17 And what this really shows is the connection between 18 planned data sources and the activities we do to make adjustments.
19 This in and of itself is not of particular use to somebody 20 trying to plan their career. However, at the bottom of the page weve written 21 a series of essays that describe how information in the strategic workforce 22 plan, strategic workforce plan reports, and the different data sources are 23 accessible to staff so that they can inform themself about where the 24 opportunities of the future may ultimately be and use that in their career 25 planning process.
26 We use links to these documents and to various SharePoint
27 1 sites.
2 And what were really trying to do is paint the big picture 3 about the resources that are available to them to help inform their decisions.
4 And Id like to return to the slides, please.
5 The Guide to Career Enhancement is built in SharePoint.
6 And, as such, there are some automated statistics that are gathered about 7 staff use of the system which we use to gauge our success. Since the site 8 was made available on April 1st, more than 19 percent of staff have visited the 9 guide at least one time.
10 And I actually just looked at the information this morning, 11 and we have more than 5,200 hits on the site as of this morning.
12 The Microsoft Stream channel that hosts the career 13 development videos has had more than 684 views. And we believe these 14 numbers are indicative that this has been a helpful tool for the staff.
15 Next slide, please.
16 The second initiative Id like to describe is known as Horizon 17 2, or Employee Journey. We believe one thing we can do to help improve 18 job satisfaction and, ultimately, retention is to help staff find the best possible 19 fit between their interests, experience, and the needs of the agency. We 20 used the strategic workforce planning results to identify positions where we 21 expect there to be gaps in the workforce in the next five years. And now were 22 using this information, along with the information in the various career levels, 23 and it will include video testimonials from staff to describe the job, and explain 24 how they found success in the position.
25 Next slide, please.
26 In summary, the NRC human capital resources are evolving
28 1 because we have learned from the various assessments, like the Jam and the 2 Futures Initiatives. Were trying to help staff identify fulfilling and appropriate 3 career opportunities and are hoping by doing so staff will find greater job 4 satisfaction, and this will ultimately support retention and recruitment.
5 Horizon 1 NRC Guide to Career Enhancement focuses on 6 ensuring staff readiness for future opportunities by providing a one-stop shop 7 for career planning tools and is currently available to staff.
8 Horizon 2 Employee Journey Initiative is creating an online 9 explore career platform that focuses on finding a good fit between the staff 10 and agency needs. Its currently under development, and we expect it to be 11 ready in December of this year.
12 Before I conclude, Id just like to thank the members of both 13 the Horizon 1 and Horizon 2 teams for their support in this. There were many 14 staff involved, and Id like to give them credit.
15 I will now turn it over to Laura Dudes, who will provide a 16 regional perspective on talent management.
17 Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
18 MS. DUDES: Hi. Good morning, Chairman, 19 Commissioners, and NRC staff. Thank you, Brian.
20 So, before I start, I do want to take the opportunity to thank 21 Miriam and wish her well in her retirement. Shes a great mentor and friend.
22 The human capital tools and usability that Im going to talk 23 about today, and that Ive experienced over the past 10 years, are really 24 reflective of Miriams leadership and commitment to transforming this agency.
25 So, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
26 And on behalf of Region II, we will miss you. But we look
29 1 forward to working with Mary as well.
2 Okay. So, today youve heard about some of the 3 processes and the system that OCHCO has delivered to support a modern 4 approach to human capital management. Im going to share some insights 5 on behalf of the leadership that uses these tools and processes to maximize 6 organizational capacity.
7 Specifically, I plan to talk about the Power BI human capital 8 dashboard, -- I love your dashboard, Brendan. Very nice. Im so glad youre 9 up here today. -- strategic workforce planning, competency modeling, 10 individual talent development, and the Nuclear Regulator Apprentice Network, 11 or NRAN.
12 Slide 24, please.
13 So, first Im just going to give you a brief introduction to 14 Region II. I was going to put the map up there, but I like seeing the faces a 15 little bit more.
16 So, we have responsibility in Region II for the oversight of 17 33 operating nuclear reactors, 7 fuel cycle facilities, and the responsibility for 18 the construction oversight of the first AP1000 reactor at the Vogtle site.
19 We have 222 employees, the largest staff in any region, and 20 the most diverse regional staff with nearly 40 percent African American, Native 21 American, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific.
22 We also have a 35 percent veteran population in Region II.
23 So, some of our staff are pictured here working remotely and 24 continuing to create opportunities throughout this pandemic to celebrate 25 diversity and inclusion and support our mission.
26 Slide 25, please.
30 1 I would like to acknowledge the great work by OCHCO to 2 deliver modern management tools. As noted in the Power BIs dashboard on 3 the upper corner of this slide, we now have real-time data at our fingertips to 4 monitor and adjust human capital strategy, guided by data analytics.
5 One area we would like to see advance, and my ask for 6 OCHCO and NRR, is to see, you know, next generation human capital data 7 and more information on our resident inspectors and their work experiences 8 so that we can report data-driven decisions not only for the current program 9 and its development but the future of the resident inspector program.
10 So, moving to strategic workforce planning.
11 In 2017, Region II was part of the strategic workforce 12 planning pilot effort to enable data-driven solutions to inform our hiring, 13 training, and development strategy for the workforce of today and the 14 workforce of tomorrow.
15 This was of importance to us because in 2017 we had to 16 make a significant workforce adjustment due to the cessation of the V.C.
17 Summer construction project, and still remain focused on retaining our highly-18 skilled workforce to complete the Vogtle project.
19 By building data through the strategic workforce planning 1-20 and 5-year workload projects, which are based on agency-wide environmental 21 scans, by matching those, our specific skill sets to those workload projects, 22 and identifying skill gaps, the region is far better positioned to make hiring and 23 training decisions in a timely manner.
24 Since 2017, continued annual assessments using strategic 25 workforce planning has resulted in a 6-year agency-validated workload project 26 that, again, promotes hiring and cross-training strategies and decisions to
31 1 support mission, and to keep the critical skill pipeline moving.
2 This 6 years of data, the data-drive visualization, has really 3 changed the way the leadership in Region II looks at human capital strategies.
4 And I would say mainly that because of the different 5 workloads that we anticipated changing in the future, when we look at the data 6 in total, after building 2, 2 years worth of data, our first line supervisors 7 immediately, you know, got engaged and said, we need to be part of this.
8 And they created a branch chief council to proactively work across the 9 boundaries in the organization to assure that we can maintain the critical skill 10 sets to complete our Vogtle construction oversight, but also to plan and be 11 proactive in terms of transitioning credible construction talent into other 12 business line work activities.
13 This council has developed a number of strategies to 14 address this large changing workload, most notably the hire now, place later, 15 and also a hybrid business line inspector position. These will allow the 16 construction staff to compete and get placed in a position in the agency but 17 remain in their construction support role until they are no longer needed for 18 that work.
19 Slide 26, please.
20 So, in addition to workload management tools, OCHCO has 21 also transformed our approach to staff development through the 22 implementation of the talent management system.
23 Intentional individual talent development is a Region II focus 24 area, and one that is really dear to my heart because it emphasizes a leaders 25 role to be engaged in the development of all staff, and recognize the 26 individuals capabilities, the individuals need and desired career path, and to
32 1 prioritize that as part of our daily work as leaders.
2 Region II is a leader in working with OCHCO to develop and 3 implement competency modeling or competency models. A competency 4 model is a collection of tasks and behaviors that define an employees ability 5 to do their job successfully. A competency model describes what people 6 need to know and be able to do in order execute their responsibilities 7 effectively.
8 Region II has a 100 percent participation in the competency 9 modeling process, which involves the employee and the supervisor having 10 very specific discussions on skills and ability and the best way to address or 11 close any gaps identified.
12 A great example of how this works in practice -- and I heard 13 this story about a year ago, maybe 6 months ago -- a senior resident inspector 14 used his own competency modeling to help prepare his resident inspector to 15 close any gaps or perceived gaps such that that person would be more 16 competitive when applying for a senior resident inspector job. Well, having 17 that consistent set of skills and behaviors described made that interaction 18 more specific, and it made the resident more competitive for a senior resident 19 inspector job for which he was selected a few months later. So, it was a really 20 good news story.
21 So, competency modeling identifies gaps and helps staff 22 develop more informed individual development plans.
23 Our next goal in the region is to have 100 percent staff 24 participation in creating their own individual development plans to facilitate the 25 employee journey in a more systematic way.
26 Competency modeling begins the dialog, and the individual
33 1 development plan then becomes the roadmap for clear and specific actions 2 needed, such that employee growth is nurtured in a very intentional way.
3 Slide 27, please.
4 So, as a former NRC intern, and over the years weve 5 created more and more complicated titles for them, and now we have the --
6 although I think this ones better than the last -- the Nuclear Regulator 7 Apprenticeship Network. But I was an intern in a similar program. And my 8 experience with the NRCs training, mentoring, and on-the-job learning has 9 been so invaluable in my career. And so Im so proud to be part of this next 10 generation nuclear professionals as their senior executive champion, and 11 even more proud of the program that the agency and OCHCO have developed 12 to support this effort.
13 And rather than me telling you about the program and the 14 information on this slide, the participants have created a video that they 15 wanted to share this morning.
16 So, I would like to introduce you to this, the new class of 17 Nuclear Regulator Apprenticeship Network.
18 (Video Played.)
19 MS. DUDES: Thank you so much. I, like, smile ear-to-ear 20 when Im watching that.
21 I just want to thank Susan Abraham, Diane Jackson, and 22 Brian Doane for their leadership on this program and for bringing these folks 23 onboard in extraordinary times and doing such a great job.
24 So, this concludes my remarks. And I will turn it over to 25 Margie.
26 MS. DOANE: Okay, thanks, Laura. That video just tells it
34 1 all, doesnt it? Its really very, its an enthusiastic and great way, I think, for 2 the staff to end its presentation.
3 So, let me just say a few additional words.
4 Id like to thank the staff and management in the office of 5 OCHCO and SBCR -- weve done a lot of that, but we should conclude with it 6 -- who played a central role in helping to realize the achievement weve 7 discussed during the briefing.
8 Im appreciative of the efforts of my fellow presenters here, 9 and the numerous staff who helped prepare for todays briefing, and all the 10 staff that really support these programs. Obviously, this is just a few people 11 out of this enormous program that makes this program a success.
12 Weve achieved so much over the past year that directly 13 contributed to NRCs ability to meet its mission now and well into the future, 14 and were committed to building off this success to further enhance our 15 support of NRC staff and management to attract, develop, and retain high-16 performing, diverse, inclusive, and an agile workforce in support of their 17 missions.
18 This concludes our presentation. And Ill turn it over to you, 19 Chairman.
20 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you so much, Margie. And 21 those were excellent presentations. And it's clear you all have been 22 supported by others.
23 But I just to note and comment on the fact that when I joined 24 our Commission there seemed to be somewhat of a default for the 25 composition of staff panels. And I just want to complement the Staff.
26 I think in recent months you've really been bringing forward
35 1 really kind of creative ways of thinking about what the topic is, who from the 2 Staff should present.
3 And the opportunity, I think, to hear from managers using 4 tools, from developers, from analysts who are compiling things, I think is really 5 enriching these meetings. And I just wanted to take a moment to comment 6 on that.
7 So thank you, as the Staff, for really taking that extra time to 8 think about, how can we really get to a good dialogue with our Commission 9 about these topics. I wanted to compliment you on that.
10 And with that, we will begin our questioning, as we do, by 11 rotating the order. And hopefully Commissioner Hanson is aware that he is 12 first today. I hand it over to you. Thank you.
13 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Thank you, Chairman 14 Svinicki. And thank you for your remarks about the presentations of the staff, 15 I completely agree.
16 Thank you all for being here this morning. Let me add my 17 voice among what I know will be many rounds of thank you's and 18 congratulations to Miriam for her long career in public service.
19 Like Margie, I recommend the Government Executive to 20 interview for something that really encompasses the breadth of your career 21 and all the things you've achieved. The NRC, and really the country, have 22 been better off for it. And I want to add my thanks to you.
23 And also, congratulations to Mary Lamary on her new role.
24 And I look forward. I know along with all my colleagues, look forward to 25 working with Mary going forward.
26 2020 has put a lot of pressure on the NRC workforce.
36 1 Pandemic, working from home, personal and family health anxiety, the lack of 2 school and childcare on many cases, with social justice questions looming 3 over it all and the pandemic highlight and exasperating inequities and 4 divisions.
5 And I appreciate the ongoing efforts to stabilize the agency's 6 workforce with hiring and planning. But it's also extremely important to 7 ensure the current workforce is able to fully engage in its work and fulfill the 8 mission.
9 My impression is that the efforts to hold virtual meetings, the 10 Staying Connected at a Distance, hold seminars to bring people together have 11 been pretty successful.
12 I want to talk about something this morning I wish I didn't 13 have to talk about and something that's hard to believe is a topic of 14 conversation given all the Agency's good work on diversity and inclusion.
15 Particularly given Stephen's presentation this morning.
16 The Administration recently issued Executive Order 13950 17 Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping on diversity and inclusion training.
18 Which requires that agencies, federal employees and contractors do not 19 provide training workshops, forums or similar programming where certain 20 concepts are discussed.
21 It further requires that the Office or Personnel Management 22 review and approve all diversity and inclusion training before it can take place.
23 As a result, all diversity and inclusion training at the NRC 24 has been postponed pending OPM review. Potentially cancelled.
25 And an IG hotline has been established to report so called 26 un-American or devise training activities. I understand we're required to
37 1 comply with the executive order, but I have serious concerns with it and what 2 we're doing to comply.
3 Namely that I worry we might be inadvertently silencing Staff 4 and indicating that they can't speak freely at work. That's essentially the 5 definition or a chilled work environment, which we must guard against. We 6 wouldn't tolerate that from our licensees.
7 Central tenants of the culture at the NRC include an open 8 and collaborative work environment, which necessarily includes employees 9 bringing their whole selves to work and being able to raise concerns without 10 fear of reprisal.
11 Diversity is a critical element to our safety mission.
12 Particularly in the area of risk-informing our decisions. We will be affecting 13 our safety mission if we don't allow a diverse set of views to contribute to our 14 decisions.
15 The executive order and the OMB and OPM guidance are 16 so broad as to create ambiguity about what's permitted and what isn't. This 17 ambiguity has exactly the effect that we don't want, leaving many employees 18 with the sense that while we may say we want people to bring their whole 19 selves to work, in fact, our policies point in the other direction.
20 If I were staff running diversity inclusion programs, I'd worry 21 about what kind of trouble I'd be in if I discussed my perspectives based on 22 race or proposed a training course that was later determined by OPM to be 23 "un-American."
24 Many Staff are upset and understandably so. I am upset 25 too. I don't like the idea that we have to think for more than a nanosecond 26 about whether or not groups like Blacks and Government are allowed to meet.
38 1 I'm frustrated that the organizers at the Hispanic Heritage 2 luncheon felt they had to postpone their event rather than censor it. Although 3 I understand that this is still on schedule pending review.
4 And I'm deeply dismayed that we're asked to accept the 5 premise that any event, where anyone might learn anything about what it's like 6 to be someone different from ourselves is suddenly on hold because it might 7 be divisive.
8 I recognize that this direction is coming from outside the 9 Agency. But where we do have flexibility, we should do what we can to foster 10 diversity and inclusion efforts.
11 At the NRC we've been encouraging Staff for some time to 12 have tough conversations with each other. And now those efforts seem to 13 have been thrown into limbo, and it's a shame. It's a shame, certainly, for the 14 organization at large, and for me personally it's a shame.
15 I try to be aware of my own blind spots and biases based on 16 my background and experience, but I know it's not possible all the time to do 17 so. As a Commissioner, how can I listen and learn if people don't feel like 18 they're allowed to talk.
19 When these kinds of trainings are put on hold, when people 20 feel like they can't raise certain topics with regard to race and gender, I know 21 I am missing valuable feedback about the organization or policy matters.
22 And just as important to me, I am missing human 23 connection. The NRC's greatest asset is its people after all, and as we 24 recognized this morning.
25 So I'd like to ask some questions to help assure the Staff 26 that they are free to speak up without fear.
39 1 Mr. Smith, if one person in a meeting says something that 2 makes another person uncomfortable, should that person speak-up about 3 being uncomfortable and explain why, even if they might raise issues like 4 stereotypes, privilege or bias?
5 Will they get in trouble for raising their concerns?
6 MR. SMITH: Thank you for your question, Commissioner.
7 We want employees to speak-up. We want to have those conversations.
8 We want to know what they're experiencing, what's on their mind. And so, 9 they will not get in trouble if that should occur.
10 We also have mechanisms in place to address when those 11 employees do raise concerns. Where they can go.
12 They can come to SBCR, they can go to OCHCO under the 13 anti-harassment policies and procedures. There's options there.
14 If they're experiencing some type of challenge, coping 15 mechanism that they need to have addressed. We want to stay encouraged.
16 Despite the executive order, we want to continue to encourage our workforce.
17 As you mentioned earlier, the greatest asset that we have is 18 our people. And I mentioned earlier in my presentation, in my intro, that we 19 are a family. And that's true. NRC is a family.
20 Families stick together. Families encourage one another.
21 Families help one another. So we don't want to silence our employees or 22 have them believe that they have to be silenced because of the executive 23 order.
24 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Thank you, I appreciate that 25 very much. Are affinity groups and advisory committees, such as the 26 Advisory Committee for African American Employees or Advisory Committee
40 1 for Employees with Disabilities going to be allowed to meet under the auspices 2 of the scriptures of the executive order?
3 MR. SMITH: Yes. The advisory committees, groups, 4 employee resource groups, they are able to meet. Yes, sir.
5 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Okay. If someone says or 6 brings up Black Lives Matter in a conversation, will they get in trouble for that?
7 MR. SMITH: They will not get in trouble. No, sir.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSON: If someone asks to be called 9 a pronoun that differs from their assigned gender or birth, will they get in 10 trouble?
11 MR. SMITH: Absolutely not, sir.
12 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Okay. So, one of the big 13 issues that we've had as part of ongoing diversity efforts is the Diversity 14 Dialogue Project. I've gotten emails from the staff that have the email 15 signature line that says, Diversity Dialogue Project, engage me in dialogue.
16 If someone has that signature line, will they get in trouble?
17 And what if someone sees the signature line and engages them?
18 MR. SMITH: Absolutely not. In fact, sir, I have the 19 dialogue as a part of my signature blocks.
20 (Laughter.)
21 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Okay. Well, that's good to 22 know. You have firsthand experience.
23 MR. SMITH: Yes.
24 COMMISSIONER HANSON: And what about iCARE 25 activities? You touched on those, and I appreciated your comments about 26 that very much.
41 1 I think that iCARE, particularly in these difficult times, is 2 exactly the kind of thing we should be doing. Can you speak about those 3 activities and how they fit under the auspices of what we're facing here?
4 MR. SMITH: Yes. So while we're excited, we're truly 5 excited about the iCARE initiative, as well as many other initiatives, we have 6 paused those initiatives for such time. Until we receive review and approval 7 from the Office of Personnel Management.
8 COMMISSIONER HANSON: But people can engage each 9 other, right?
10 So, there's the distinction here, right, between formally 11 organized trainings that are used, that are performed with taxpayer dollars, 12 maybe done with contractors or whatever, and employees interacting with 13 each other. Can you, I think there's a distinction there, can you talk about 14 that for just a second?
15 MR. SMITH: Yes. Well, we want, again, we want to stay 16 encouraged. We want employees to bring their whole selves to work.
17 And so, if they feel that they want to engage with their 18 colleagues, we want that. We don't want that to cease and desist. We want 19 to continue with those. Those efforts.
20 It's not formalized training that the conversations are taking 21 place, it's having a conversation. And so, we see it as quite different. It's 22 not formal training, it's not forums, it's not activities that's being conducted at 23 this time, it's conversations amongst colleagues and stakeholders.
24 COMMISSIONER HANSON: So it's people who see 25 themselves as ambassadors for those kinds of efforts, they can still start 26 playing those, keep playing those informal roles within the organization?
42 1 MR. SMITH: We would like them to.
2 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Okay.
3 MR. SMITH: Yes.
4 COMMISSIONER HANSON: Thank you very much.
5 Thank you, Madam Chairman.
6 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you. Thank you very much 7 for that, Commissioner Hanson, I think that those were very important 8 clarifications. And I appreciate you using your time today to cover that. And 9 our powerful statement as well.
10 Maybe I will build off that with Mr. Smith and just ask you, I 11 appreciate the, we typically hear a status on complaint activity, you've 12 provided that today. Thank you for that.
13 But we also know that we're working in a very distributed 14 capacity. So you may have individuals whose most routine day-to-day 15 contact with any NRC employee is their supervisor. They may have concerns 16 with that individual or concerns about an action. Or you've mentioned 17 concerns about reprisal.
43 1 As an expert in this area, is there discussion or a look to say, 2 do we need adaptive approaches to make certain that employees avail 3 themselves of opportunities to bring forward informal complaints or proceed 4 to formal mechanisms?
5 They may feel very isolated and cut off. Could you talk 6 about that a little bit?
7 MR. SMITH: Yes. One of the things that we recently did, 8 my director, Vonna Ordaz, we provided an announcement, and this will 9 become an annual announcement to all of NRC, reiterating their rights under 10 the No FEAR Act. We did this a few weeks ago.
11 And that's to, again, communicate what the rights of 12 employees are. And we feel very strongly about continuing to educate and 13 bring about greater awareness to the rights and responsibilities of our 14 workforce. And so we will continue to do so.
15 We will continue to have trainings once we sort of do the 16 restart. And it's because, I will just add this real quick, because our trainings, 17 our EEO and diversity trainings are somewhat intertwined, the diversity and 18 inclusion in the EEO statutory and regulatory piece. Which it kind of feeds, 19 it's a great message.
20 We could continue with just the statutory and regulatory 21 requirements of the EEO program and its process, but we feel that it's a 22 disservice to some of our employees when we do that because of just how 23 things are interwoven. And we want that message, that story, to be so 24 profound as we deliver that.
25 And so, we will continue to find innovative ways to continue 26 to make our employees, our workforce, aware of their rights and
44 1 responsibilities. How the process is being administered and the NRC, with 2 respect to the EEO complaint process, our policies and procedures, the anti-3 harassment policies and procedures, our EEO complaint process, the 4 diversity and inclusion policy statement, the EEO policy statement, that we 5 have promptly displayed on our web page, we will continue to communicate 6 that.
7 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you for that. And I just 8 want to say that with your statement, maybe it sounded very organic and very 9 natural from you when you mentioned in response to Commissioner Hanson 10 that we're a family here, I say that a lot.
11 I think people think maybe it's become like a little trite, but I, 12 like you, Mr. Smith, I have experiences with other government agencies in 13 other parts of government. I've had a long, it's so grateful to work with 14 different parts of the federal government in a very long career. It's been a 15 great privilege.
16 But I really find NRC's culture unique. And Miriam was 17 mentioning all the changes in her time here, and I've witnessed that same 18 thing. But there is something very unique and real.
19 I would tell people who don't know NRC about the fact that 20 people really care about each other. It's just, it's a unique atmosphere.
21 And I'm not saying that other places, they might be different 22 and have, emphasize other points of culture. But I think that has been my 23 enduring experience here. So, there will be events that originate, as 24 Commissioner Hanson said, from outside of the NRC.
25 And what I've so enjoyed experiencing here is people kind 26 of adapting. Or occasionally just kind of closing inwardly and going, well, that
45 1 is happening there, but we still have our culture that we value. So, I see the 2 same thing happening here.
3 But again, thank you. And thank you for your presentation 4 and for the important clarifications that Commissioner Hanson's Q&A with you 5 made clear for us.
6 I do need to just spend just a few minutes on a topic that is 7 so important to kind of continuing on with our culture, with our important work, 8 which is the discussion of workforce composition between Brendan's tools that 9 he presented, Laura's commentary on how managers have fundamentally 10 reoriented how they go about creating the workforce that we need to do the 11 work today and building into the future with the demographics that were 12 presented.
13 We have attrited, in a very noteworthy and substantial 14 amount, the NRAN class, as wonderful as they are. And I have previously 15 watched the video, and I thought of a really bad pun which is, we can count 16 on none of them to drop the ball. That was my bad pun about the NRAN 17 class --
18 (Laughter.)
19 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: -- because there might have been 20 some flubs but I'm betting they got to have retakes. But what a great group 21 of people.
22 And each of them, I assume, got to emphasize in their brief 23 message what they really wanted to say. So it was a great insight into each 24 of them.
25 But even with that and targeted to external or mid-career 26 hiring, we're not at any kind of a replacement rate. But I say that knowing
46 1 that that may not actually be the objective because the objective is to have the 2 competencies and the workforce that allow us to do, not what we historically 3 did, but whatever is coming next.
4 And we know it's different, we're keeping an eye on that.
5 And we are developing workload projections. And they'll be as good as we 6 can make them, but they won't be perfect.
7 And we also have an element of surprise, so we don't want 8 to plan so thinly that it has to turn out exactly like we thought or we're not going 9 to be anywhere close.
10 But I'm glad to hear that we're reanimating. Well of course, 11 wonderful to add the NRAN cohort onboard, but I'm glad that we are 12 reanimating kind of mid-career.
13 And external hiring either from other government agencies 14 or from just outside government entirely, but to compliment all of that.
15 Something that we heard, only about at a high-level, because there was so 16 many topics today.
17 I'm firmly convinced though that often the most effective and 18 efficient thing to do will be to substantially kind of train someone for additional 19 competencies, who already works here, because we are not starting at the 20 entry level of, I don't understand regulatory frameworks. I need to understand 21 how we operate and what we do when it is the retraining and re-scaling of a 22 current member of the workforce.
23 We already get the benefit of them knowing all of that. So 24 I'm wondering who particularly may, maybe Miriam can talk a little bit about, 25 how are we thinking about that.
26 But I also would be interesting to hear maybe from Laura
47 1 really quickly about, you lose a person of substantial expertise, they're not the 2 most senior person, but are we looking at an entire range of approaches to 3 go, how could we get that competency back in this group as quickly as 4 possible, so, Laura, do you want to start?
5 MS. DUDES: Yes. So thank you for that. Yes.
6 And I think it's, what you're describing is absolutely, it's 7 necessary. It's not as difficult to do.
8 I think in our own minds sometimes we create barriers that 9 don't exist. I mean, when you have Staff, we're looking at cross-training, I 10 think we've completed a full cross-training on all of our construction staff and 11 gave them time to complete the qualification for the operating reactors.
12 We are training people, a radiation professional who 13 understands fuel facilities can also understand radiation in the context of a 14 operating reactor or a materials licensee.
15 So I think one of the things that we do, which is what I really 16 like about the competency model, and I think they're moving towards 17 competency based qualifications versus these long qual cards that have been 18 built over the years for various reasons.
19 So you're engaging the individual. What do they know, 20 what can they do. The regulatory piece is huge.
21 And so, if they've already got that and they understand how 22 to adapt the enforcement policy, I mean, what they're looking at, the beauty of 23 the NRC, and you can see it with the folks there, we hire great people, super 24 smart, with the capacity to train them for a specific technical activity. I think 25 they have the full capacity to do that in most of our work effort.
26 And we need to unleash our leadership thinking about how
48 1 do we do that most effectively. And I'm not sure if I've answered that or not.
2 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: You have. But you also reminded 3 me of something that you had mentioned, and I scribbled a note about.
4 It was your example about competency modeling. Helping 5 a resident inspector be extremely competitive, so much so that he or she was 6 selected for the senior resident inspector.
7 I want to though add to that and broaden it really 8 substantially. Is that the history of my experience here is that senior 9 managers often begin, not just as resident inspectors but the inspection cohort 10 in this Agency has such a body of experience and real-world application of the 11 regulatory framework.
12 Whether it be enforcement, interpreting licensing bases and 13 things like that. And I think that it strengths NRC, and has strengthened it 14 historically, that those who begin, or choose to begin their careers in resident 15 inspectors or inspectors broadly, that functionality here, I have seen the most 16 senior executives here in a moment, a strategic decision making at an 17 executive level, draw on that early career experience of being an inspector at 18 the U.S. NRC.
19 And so, I think beyond the example you have given, we 20 need to also be challenging ourselves to say, how do we get a smooth and 21 functional flow, breakdown the barriers we put for ourselves, as you said, by 22 very stovepipe thinking, how do we move folks between programs and 23 inspection and back and forth because I just think that that brings an incredible 24 rigor and strength to decision making in the Agency as a whole.
25 And I have run out of time so I will now turn it over to 26 Commissioner Baran. Thank you for your patience.
49 1 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thank you. And I wanted to 2 echo the Chairman's remarks about appreciating the Staff, making an effort to 3 mix up the panels a little bit. The panelists we hear from, hear from some 4 Staff that we otherwise normally wouldn't hear from.
5 We had three first time presenters today, I think. Stephen 6 and Brendan and Brian. You all were terrific. Thank you.
7 We held our last Human Capital and Equal Employment 8 Commission meeting last December. It has only been ten months, but in that 9 time the discussion of race in this country has changed dramatically.
10 George Floyd's death, after a White police officer knelt on 11 his neck for nearly nine minutes, launched protests and new discussions about 12 racial and equality. Those protests and discussions continue today across 13 the country.
14 George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many other Black 15 men, women and children who are killed as a result of violence fueled by racial 16 injustice expanded the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that was 17 previously unimaginable.
18 Some say that the phrase, Black Lives Matter, is an insulate 19 to everyone else. A statement that only some lives matter.
20 I think that reaction misses the point. No one needs a 21 reminder that White Lives Matter. But the sad reality is that America actually 22 does need to be reminded that the lives of Black American's matter. It should 23 be obvious.
24 Yet we find ourselves at a point in history where we need to 25 reaffirm that Black lives have, and deserve to have, the same worth and 26 human dignity afforded to all others.
50 1 Why does this matter for NRC? What does it have to do 2 with us?
3 The answer is that we are all Americans, and our need Black 4 colleagues need our support now more than ever. They should know that we 5 see their pain and want them to feel comfortable bringing their whole selves 6 to work.
7 This isn't a partisan issue or extraneous social commentary.
8 It goes to the heart of our Agency's effectiveness and the health of our 9 workplace.
10 NRC can only achieve its vital public health and safety 11 mission if we are able to work together as a team, value in our diversity and 12 different life experiences.
13 Margie, I'd like to ask you, how is your leadership team 14 approached discussing these issues in our workplace over the last several 15 months?
16 MS. DOANE: Thanks, Commissioner. So we have had a 17 number of forums, and you know that we, and you participated in, I believe, 18 the Diversity Summit. So we've had a number of opportunities to really look 19 hard at the various issues that have been so apparent with the country over 20 the last several months and how they have had an impact on our employees.
21 And we provided our employees with the opportunities to 22 share those perspectives so that we can understand and learn how to support 23 them better in our work at NRC. So that's the first thing.
24 And while we've talked about here that we can't do training, 25 we can certainly continue to provide opportunities to share good behavior.
26 We can make sure that our forums are, I'm sorry, that our processes for
51 1 reporting those types of issues that run afoul of these behaviors that we have, 2 that we insist upon, we have those mechanisms for employees to still report.
3 So we're having forums. We have mechanisms for them to 4 still report. And we're also encouraging affinity groups to continue to meet.
5 There is, I will be honest, there is a lot of confusion, as there 6 always is, when something first comes out about how to meet it. And that 7 really says something about our employees.
8 We are, as a whole, we are rule followers. And we get very 9 worried when we know there is a bar and we don't quite understand it. So 10 that's just what this agency does.
11 We're regulators, it's understandable. So we are out there 12 talking about, as best we can. And this forum has really been very useful.
13 I'm so appreciative to all of you for commenting, to make sure the Staff 14 understand. That these mechanisms are still available, and we want to 15 continue these discussions.
16 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Well, thanks for that. These 17 aren't easy issues, but I appreciate that the Agency, and the leadership of the 18 Agency, is trying to create safe spaces to discuss them. It's important.
19 I also want to ask about hiring. We had about 100 new 20 external hires this past fiscal year, which is definitely an increase from the last 21 few years.
22 On the other hand, the Agency has had over six percent 23 staff attrition during the fiscal year. I think that's about 185 from Brendan's 24 conversation.
25 And that's not an unusually high level of attrition, but what it 26 means is that our workforce is still shrinking pretty rapidly. Margie or Miriam,
52 1 what more do you think we should be doing to offset our staff attrition to 2 stabilize our staffing levels?
3 MS. COHEN: So thanks for raising how many hires we had 4 last year because for a number of years we were like in the single digits, so it 5 wasn't a whole lot of activity.
6 So, I think when we were in a period of downsizing we didn't 7 have a lot of choice but to sort of regulate the amount of hiring that we've done.
8 But then about 12 to 18 months ago we kind of said, hey, we really need to 9 build the pipeline up. And as you know, it takes a while to bring new hires 10 into the organization.
11 And so, I think if you look at what we've done last year, even 12 moving into this year, we have about 200 actions in the system right now.
13 You know, probably half of them will be externally hired. The rest of them 14 might be internal. And some of those will actually wind up being on merit 15 promotions for people in the Agency.
16 So, when I was speaking earlier about a time of opportunity, 17 I actually think that's really what we're going to experience. Because even 18 when we hit whatever the bottom is going to be, people leave. Right? And 19 that creates opportunities.
20 And it may not be a one-for-one, but the reality is, is that we 21 now are posting supervisory positions. Before we were just reassigning 22 people at that level.
23 There actually, I looked, in preparation for this meeting, I 24 looked at the amount of 14s and 15s since about 2010. And believe it or not, 25 it's about the same percentage wise.
26 So even though we weren't replacing people one-for-one,
53 1 we still have a high percentage of 14s and 15s. And as more people 2 matriculate out, primarily due to retirements, there will be opportunities for 3 people. And that, coupled with all the actions that we have I think will help 4 replenish the pipeline.
5 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Well, it's great to hear that.
6 And I think it's really an important message for the Staff to hear because it's 7 an optimistic message. And it's different really, then it has been for the last 8 few years, so that's important.
9 I saw in one of the pie charts, three percent of our 10 employees are now age 29 or younger. That's a very low percentage. But 11 it's actually an improvement over the previous year.
12 (Laughter.)
13 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Is there a view about what 14 demographic balance is healthy for an organization like ours in the long-term?
15 MS. COHEN: Not what it was. So, I mean, I think that's 16 not, I mean, Brendan might have more scientific information that we could get 17 back to you about what it was when we were actually not in a downsizing 18 mode.
19 But I think if you look at the current NRAN cohort that we 20 have now and the likelihood that they'll have a new cohort in a couple of years, 21 I think that percentage in the entry level is really going to help balance things 22 out.
23 COMMISSIONER BARAN: I was going to ask about that 24 kind of, how long do, how many cohorts of NRAN will we need to really kind 25 of increase those numbers substantially. We saw an increase right away with 26 even just the first cohort, but if we have a sense of where that's going.
54 1 And I guess it kind of goes to one of the discussions we're 2 having which is, how much do you retrain people within the Agency, how much 3 we bring in people externally, and then of the folks we bring in externally, how 4 many of those are lateral versus entry level.
5 And so I guess I'm just kind of wondering, do we have a 6 sense of, if we kind of think about demographic pie chart in the pipeline going 7 forward, is there some sense of what an organization should look like if it's 8 going to be healthy going forward and how does that inform how much entry 9 level hiring we do versus other ways in which to make up for a gap we might 10 have?
11 MS. COHEN: Well, the only thing I would add, and 12 Brendan is very close to the data, but people come here and they generally 13 stay here. So when you look at an organization that is skewed to the upper 14 age range, it's because people come here and they're here for 20, 30 years.
15 So that's actually a testament to how well the Agency does 16 in terms of developing its employees. But at the same time, we need to be 17 prepared for the replacement of people through knowledge, management and 18 in our other programs for development.
19 COMMISSIONER BARAN: The, I don't know if anyone 20 else wanted to chime in on, okay.
21 The enhanced strategic workforce planning efforts have 22 identified anticipated high priority skill gaps at NRCs various offices. So for 23 example, NRR and research will need more risk and reliability analysts while 24 several other offices will need more health physicists.
25 Different offices have different strategies for addressing 26 these gaps, but most seem to contemplate a mix of external and internal
55 1 hiring. Are there certain skill gaps or positions where we expect to see a 2 significant amount of external hiring in the coming years?
3 MS. SULLIVAN: So, on the external versus internal, I think 4 it's going to be a combination. So for example, we know we need some folks 5 in materials, engineering. We know we need some more folks in HP.
6 So what's happening is, is that we are posting 7 announcements internally that provide people merit promotions. And then 8 that results in the need to go external for those replacements at the 13 level.
9 And then also, we would expect in the areas of IT, data 10 analytics, data visualization. Those folks will likely come from the outside to 11 enhance the skill sets in OCIO.
12 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Okay. Well thank you very 13 much. We will definitely miss you, Miriam. Thanks for everything you've 14 done.
15 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you, Commissioner Baran.
16 Next we will turn to Commission Caputo.
17 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Good morning. I'd like to 18 start by just saying I really appreciate Commissioner Hanson's questions, 19 Chairman's statements, Margie's answers to Commissioner Baran. I think 20 this is a really good discussion for us to be having in spite of the confusion 21 and uncertainty created by the executive order at this point.
22 I also want to reach out to Stephen and just say, thank you 23 to you and your team. I hope more than anything your team brings their 24 whole selves to work every day. Because the work that they do to cultivate 25 civility and diversity and inclusion here in our family, is an incredibly important 26 role.
56 1 And I hope that they feel free to use their creativity. Even 2 though we're seeing an uptick in complaints.
3 Obviously the desire would be zero, which may not be 4 practical, but I hope your team feels like they can use their creativity to find 5 perhaps new ways for us to just improve the welcoming nature of our 6 workforce and work environment in trying to bring those numbers down.
7 Considering your experiences outside the NRC, this may 8 not necessarily be a fair question to somebody who started in January and 9 two months later was in a pandemic working from remotely, I would like to just 10 ask you a question. Aside from the uncertainty created by the executive 11 order, do you have any thoughts or views about sort of our portfolio training in 12 this area?
13 Are there things that are perhaps dated in atrophy that are 14 not used and as valued by or utilized by the Staff?
15 Are there other new trainings that we should perhaps 16 consider?
17 Do you have any thoughts about how to sort of maybe 18 update our portfolio of training?
19 MR. SMITH: So, thank you, Commissioner, for that. First 20 off, let me start by saying, I have worked at several agencies. But there is no 21 question that NRC is the best place to work. Let me just say that.
22 There are some other trainings that we, SBCR, are 23 considering adding to our portfolio. We have not rolled that out, but we have 24 included that on our lists that will go to the Office of Personnel Management 25 for review and approval.
26 And so, once that happens, we will start to incorporate that
57 1 and implement that in some of our trainings and offerings to the workforce.
2 As I mentioned earlier, the iCARE that Margie and Vonna, 3 during the social unrest and injustices that we were experiencing throughout 4 the country, came up with the initiative, the iCARE initiative that really hit 5 home. And I think it covers and it shows the Agency's compassion and 6 empathy to start these type of trainings and initiatives.
7 And so we're excited about that. We're excited about 8 receiving approval from OPM on that. In addition to some of the other 9 trainings as well.
10 I don't want to kind of add or share some of those things at 11 this time, but we have really gotten outside of the box here to think about other 12 trainings that would be hugely beneficial to the NRC workforce. And we look 13 forward to launching those soon.
14 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Wonderful. Thank you very 15 much.
16 One thing in some of my travels, albeit not recently for 17 obvious reasons, one of the things that comes up when I'm able to talk with 18 NRC Staff, whether it's at the plants or in the regions, is sometimes an error 19 frustration that we have surveys, they're not necessarily clear what 20 management does to address concerns that gets raised in some of these 21 surveys.
22 And so, one of these I think that's sort of is aligned with 23 some of Commissioner Baran's questioning has to do with attention, attrition 24 retention career development. And I think one of the things that jumped out 25 to me in our safety culture survey is how, whether it's an age group of 30 to 26 39 or maybe grade levels 13 and 14, there seems to be a fair amount of
58 1 frustration in human capital and concerns about attrition, retention and career 2 development.
3 So, I guess, Miriam, I'd like to ask you, I haven't seen a chart 4 of attrition rates by age group for a while. The last time I saw one I noticed 5 that certainly the youngest band actually had an attrition rate that exceeded 6 the retirement eligible band. Which I think raises concerns.
7 I'd also be curious about sort of those mid-career bands 8 because, obviously, as our more experienced employees leave and take their 9 expertise with them, we need those mid-career folks to be ready to step into 10 their shoes.
11 What can you tell me about the attrition rates that we're 12 seeing in that level, because I look at those people and I think there is a fair 13 amount of expertise there already and if they are not yet seeing the 14 opportunities that Miriam is talking about, they may find it quite attractive to 15 leave and go somewhere else. And that would be horrible to lose those 16 valuable people.
17 So what can you tell me about what you see in those attrition 18 rates?
19 MS. COHEN: Thank you, Commissioner, for the question.
20 So we look really at retirements and transfers as the things that would be the 21 warning signs. Because the bulk of our attrition is through retirements.
22 And so, we looked at the data for the past three years for 23 people that have resigned or have transferred. And there is, in Fiscal Year 24 '20 there was a slight uptick in people at the GG-13 level that have gone to 25 other agencies.
26 And I don't have the data in front of me to say of which
59 1 positions by person, but it's not a number yet that I'm alarmed about, but it's 2 also something to keep our eyes on.
3 And so, one of the things that we did see at the age group 4 that you talked about, the Ages 30 to 39, is that there has been attrition 5 through transfers to other agencies, and it's been a little bit more prevalent in 6 the regions versus headquarters.
7 I would remind folks that a few years ago, when we had the 8 corporate support reductions, we had a fair number of people in the corporate 9 office transfer to other agencies. So at the time we didn't view that as 10 problematic because we were looking to place people because we had to hit 11 certain FTE numbers.
12 I think now what we're seeing at the age group that you talk 13 about, is that's the prime age group where people are looking for opportunities.
14 So I do believe, and we can probably follow-up when we had data moving in 15 from this year into next year, about the people that receive the internal merit 16 promotions to the 14s that in years past were not able to get those promotions.
17 And then they move to the next level, and then we have new positions for 18 other people to aspire to.
19 So, I think the data now doesn't indicate that we have a big 20 problem, I think it's something that we have to be mindful of. But again, with 21 a hundred actions in the system now that will likely result in internal 22 opportunities for people at some level, I think time will tell.
23 So I think we just have to be patient but be mindful.
24 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay, thank you. I have 25 another question, sort of in that flavor.
26 Brendan, I'm really impressed with the analysis and the
60 1 dashboard. Really, I think modernizing the way we look at human capital, 2 and I thank you for that.
3 But one of the comments you made, I have to admit, I'm 4 pretty curious about. I think you said 44 percent are eligible to retire in five 5 years. And our age demographic is still trending upward.
6 But the Agency's decrease in the size may temper concerns 7 about a retirement wave. So, until those numbers, I feel like decrease to a 8 more balanced and sustainable profile, I would still be cautious about a 9 retirement wave.
10 So, if these are percentages but the overall size goes down, 11 why do we still might have to worry about having a retirement wave because 12 we still have work that we need these very valuable people doing and we still 13 have mid-level folks that we need to develop and bring along, so, why should 14 we not be as concerned?
15 MR. CAIN: So, thank you, Commissioner. So the 16 percentage is going up because the number of staff total is going down faster 17 than the number of retirement eligibles is dropping.
18 So as I mentioned, the total number of retirement eligibles 19 has gone down as well, just not as quickly as the total staff numbers has.
20 This is why the percentages are rising.
21 So, as Miriam said, it's something we want to watch, but I'm 22 not sure we should be to, to concerned about it.
23 Several years ago we did a study of the percent of 24 retirement eligibles who actually did retire in a given year. And it's probably 25 time to redo that study and see where we're falling.
26 At the time, this was five, six years ago, we saw a pretty
61 1 consistent rate of 16 percent of eligibles who actually retired in a given year.
2 So I think it would be a good time to redo that study and see where we fall.
3 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Well, I agree. I think that it's 4 a hugely important thing for us to keep our eyes on because it's this, I don't 5 want to say no man's land, but we're struggling to balance the fact that we 6 have a lot of expertise that could leave if they choose to. Which is a little hard 7 to predict.
8 And we have people who may or may not have felt like there 9 is adequate opportunity because we have this substantial cohort of very 10 experienced, very capable people. So it's, we're straddling this line.
62 1 And I guess the need to maintain a measure of balance and 2 try to predict these changes as best we can, I think is a huge HR challenge.
3 And I'm really glad that you're bringing this level of analysis to it. But I do 4 think you're right, we probably need to reassess and execute that survey 5 again.
6 MR. CAIN: Thank you.
7 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: So, thank you.
8 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you, Commissioner Caputo.
9 And now we will hear from Commissioner Wright.
10 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you, Chairman. So 11 good morning and thank all of you for your presentations.
12 It's really good, Laura, to see everybody in person. I agree 13 with you. I've missed that a lot. So, when we talk about bringing our whole 14 selves to work, I can't wait for that to be not virtual anymore, right?
15 (Laughter.)
16 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: And, Chris, I appreciate your 17 statement and your comments and the questions earlier in response to the 18 executive order. And also appreciate the responses, just like the rest of the 19 people here at this table.
20 I would like really to tie this into Miriam a little bit. So, 21 Miriam, congratulations on your retirement. I hate to see you go myself 22 because, and I do wish you the best as you go forward. I know you probably 23 have some things planned so hopefully we'll get to see you again.
24 I can tell you personally you've been available to us and to 25 me. Anytime we've had a need and reached out. And we're very grateful 26 for that. And I know Mary has got some huge shoes to fill.
63 1 Because when I first came to the Commission, you know, 2 like everybody, more than anybody else probably, that I started walking the 3 halls and cubicles and all the floors to meet everybody from the security 4 guards out at the gate to back when I talked to the supply room all the way up 5 to the 18th floor, meeting staff, the people. Meeting our human capital, 6 meeting the people who are here every day doing what they do, right.
7 And I firsthand got to see everybody in the places that they 8 work. Diversity of this Agency is obvious. We are family in this Agency.
9 That was recognized, well, from the first day.
10 Everybody here is very real. But we are a product of where 11 we came from, how we were raised. Our personal like and like experiences, 12 be they good or bad.
13 And that's what I really love about going around and meeting 14 everybody is that I can meet you, I can share with you, I can learn from you.
15 And if we take that experience, just that, and we build on that, that encourages, 16 it builds trust. It builds relationship, which makes us stronger as an Agency.
17 And I see that here. Okay. I don't just see it; I feel it when 18 I go around. I know that's what's going on.
19 That's why I miss not having everybody in the building, right.
20 Where you can just talk to everybody casually and learn what's important to 21 them. Because it does make, it makes me better, it makes me understand 22 better what I need to maybe focus on.
23 It helps me learn maybe what needs to happen. And it 24 gives me a really good idea of things I need to pray about going forward too.
25 So, I do appreciate that. And I miss it. So I look forward to that happening 26 again.
64 1 So, just very quickly, I have a couple of simple questions 2 that I think that, Margie, you or anybody else can answer.
3 On the executive order, and the related guidance, is our 4 response, has it been consistent with other federal agencies, and if it's been 5 different, how so?
6 MS. DOANE: So, as far as I know, we have been 7 consistent because we have made an effort to speak with other agencies, and 8 with OPM, to make sure that we're really, that our understanding is consistent.
9 So yes, we've been consistent with other agencies.
10 But this is an ongoing activity. So we'll continue to see like, 11 if there is a best practice by another agency, we'll continue to look through 12 that.
13 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Okay. And I guess just 14 another question, another area.
15 So, for everybody who is listening, Staff wise and everybody 16 who's in this room, one, I thank you for the important work that you've been 17 doing remotely. Because there has been a lot of challenges to working 18 remotely.
19 I've really been personally impressed with how well its gone.
20 I've seen, in just this few Commission meetings that we've had here where we 21 had to bring people in, like today, how well prepared they've been, how 22 accessible everybody has been during this whole pandemic phase.
23 And I guess I just want to know, do you have the technology 24 and resources that you need to continue to operate under these 25 circumstances and if not, what would those needs be?
26 MS. DOANE: Do you mean from a technical perspective?
65 1 I'll just talk and then you guys can add.
66 1 So we are constantly reassessing what we need from a 2 technology perspective to continue to be, continue to be successful. And so 3 far we haven't identified anything in the short-term that we need.
4 You know, we didn't need to expand our bandwidth and 5 things like that. But other than that, we have what we need. And we are 6 continuing to innovate and think about innovations.
7 Like for example, we are moving the MAP. Everybody likes 8 to talk about Mission Analytics Portal that is in NRR, for example. We're 9 moving that now, that effort, to NMSS. NMSS is actively working with OCIO.
10 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Right.
11 MS. DOANE: So we have, at this time we have what we 12 need, Commissioner.
13 I think our communication tools are being enhanced through 14 Teams and other software programs like Teams. Because we have Webex 15 as well to hold these meetings.
16 But I think we have to continue to look for ways of using that, 17 look for ways that continue to include as many people as possible. So we 18 can improve, and we're continue to look for those ways because 19 communication is really hard and fatigue is settling in. It absolutely is. And 20 so, we have more work to do.
21 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: So that's a good area of 22 focus that we can have further discussion about is how to keep people 23 motivated.
24 MS. DOANE: Absolutely.
25 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Okay, very good. And, 26 Miriam, what we haven't talked about, at least I don't think it was mentioned
67 1 here today, I mean, we're in COVID, right, we're all working remotely.
2 And as we come out of it, depending on who you listen to, 3 is it going to be this year, is it going to be next year, I don't know, but as we 4 come out of it, we're not going to be the same probably as an Agency. I 5 mean, we're still going to have the same work, we're still going to be doing 6 things but it's going to be done very differently.
7 Have you all started looking at how that's going to impact 8 our workforce?
9 And looking at that potential tsunami that you were talking 10 about of retirements and is there a plan in place to, where are we at in that 11 plan to --
12 MS. COHEN: Well, I'm just going to say a couple of things 13 and then Marty can just obviously correct me as I walk out the door.
14 But I think, it's going to tie all together with, I think the 15 Agency really has to focus on culture because I think sustaining employee 16 engagement the longer we stay in our virtual telework situation I think is 17 something that I would pay attention to if I was still here.
18 And then I think we need to really think about, let's talk about 19 the NRAN cohort, right. How do you develop the next cadre of regulators --
20 oh, I was just going to say, so how do you develop the future of cadre of 21 nuclear regulators when you're in a virtual environment?
22 I mean, they need to be coached and mentored by people 23 that are in the workplace. So I think that is definitely a challenge that we have 24 to pay attention to and to focus on.
25 And then just finally, some food for thought. And I don't 26 know, based on Commissioner Caput's comments is, if you look at some of
68 1 the trending data now about where people might go is that we might actually 2 see attrition slow down.
3 There might be people that are retirement eligible that are 4 like, wow, I don't have to commute anymore, I'm saving money on gas, I'm 5 really comfortable, I'm still engaged in my work. So we might not have 6 attrition.
7 So I think we have to just be mindful of that because it could 8 slow down as well. At the same time, if people can work from anywhere, 9 people that maybe weren't interested in us before, maybe because they may 10 be able to work from another location. So I think there is challenges but 11 probably likely more opportunities.
12 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Okay. Thank you. So, to 13 wrap-up, just want to thank you for that as you go out the door. That's good 14 information, food for thought. And I do wish you the best.
15 And, Laura, knows walking around the Agency, out in the 16 regions too, I got all kind of questions. Especially when I first got here. Like, 17 who let you in --
18 (Laughter.)
19 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: And then one question I did 20 get was, so where are you from. And I said, well, technically I guess I'm from 21 Region II, so, that's where I came from.
22 So thank you for your presentation, thank you for the 23 questions, it's been great. And to be able to wrap it up, I wish I had the world 24 ball because I would pass it to you.
25 (Laughter.)
26 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: All right. Well, thank you for that.
69 1 And as I think I've done since I became Chairman, when it is someone's very 2 last meeting, well first I'll just, ten-of-ten, Miriam, it's your tenth presentation 3 here in the books.
4 But I might just give you, is there any kind of last word that 5 you, and again, there is an abundance of gratitude for all your work here.
6 You're also quasi-famous on the CHCO Council, which is how we know what's 7 going on in other Agencies.
8 The Chief Human Capital Officer Council across agencies.
9 You represent us on that. You'll be turning that over to Mary who will do, I 10 think you've made some introductions for her with other agencies. But just 11 reflecting on your long journey.
12 And before I turn to NTEU, which will be the last component 13 of the meeting, before we left this group of presenters, I just wanted to give 14 you a second.
15 MS. COHEN: No, I just wanted to say thank you. I've had 16 the greatest job I think in the Agency working with the best people and having 17 the greatest support of the senior leaders and at the Commission level. So 18 I'm thankful and grateful, appreciate it.
19 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Okay, thank you again so much.
20 And again, all our best wishes to you.
21 So, as I referenced, the final component of today's meeting 22 will be that we will hear from the representative of the National Treasury 23 Employees Union. NTEU will be represented today.
24 I am informed by Sheryl Sanchez, and she is joining us 25 remotely via Teams platform. So there is someone expert who will, oh, there 26 you are. Okay, great. Well, I'm looking up at the monitor. Sheryl, please,
70 1 go ahead and make your remarks.
2 MS. SANCHEZ: Good morning, Chairman Svinicki, 3 Commissioners, EDO Doane, managers and Staff and most importantly, NRC 4 Bargaining Union Employees.
5 I am Sheryl Sanchez, President of NTEU Chapter 208 and 6 I'm pleased to be able to provide the Union's comments this morning.
7 NTEU is the exclusive representative of bargaining union 8 employees here at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I am joined virtually 9 by a large number of employees on our NTEU team who work hard every day 10 on behalf of bargaining union employees. Such as our stewards, labor 11 partners and executive board members.
12 Without such a dedicated team, NTEU would not be able to 13 strive to achieve our mission to work together to ensure that ever federal 14 employee is treated with dignity and respect.
15 It is important that all federal employees are treated with 16 dignity and respect. And as such, our current contact with the Agency or our 17 collective bargaining agreement, dated November 9th, 2015, contains a 18 dignity clause in Article 2. Which states that, relationships in the workplace 19 should be conducted in a civil businesslike manner.
20 NTEU has been representing NRC employees since 1978.
21 And this is the first contract that specifically contained the dignity clause.
22 However, NTEU has stood by this mission statement for over 80 years.
23 Respect, dignity and civility are at the heart of any effort to 24 ensure diversity and inclusion. Sadly, a lack of civility is often the result of a 25 lack of respect.
26 If you do not feel respect for someone you may find it more
71 1 acceptable to treat them badly or uncivilly. But as our contract specifies, it is 2 never acceptable not to conduct ourselves in a civil manner. This is 3 commonsense but sometimes it's easier said than done.
4 Although it has been less than a year since we gathered for 5 our last EEO briefing, so much has changed since we last met. So much has 6 changed. And also, so much is still in the need of changing.
7 It is undeniable that the world has been changed forever by 8 the COVID-19 pandemic. And in some ways, at some point in the future, we 9 will all be better for this.
10 Currently, our employees are feeling a lot of anxiety and 11 stress due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, as well as other events 12 occurring in our country.
13 Our new mostly virtual work environment, although 14 incredibly convenient and efficient in many ways, has also created 15 opportunities for misunderstandings and incorrect perceptions, which can lead 16 to false conclusions.
17 For example, a first level supervisor may send a rather 18 innocuous email to an employee asking them what they're doing. The 19 employee, already overwhelmed with running a household, working a 24/6 20 schedule, having a spouse that is not working or is forced to work outside the 21 household, navigating the challenges of elementary school and common core 22 math, and who knows what else, interprets this as, "what are you doing," and 23 worries that the supervisor is accusing them of not doing their job.
24 Add to this that we're knee-deep in performance appraisal 25 season and anxious about the possibility of a second wave of COVID, and 26 hurt feelings, fear, worry and anxiety can occur even when this was not the
72 1 supervisor's intention.
2 There is also the possibility that the supervisor is dealing 3 with their own issues and overacts. Possibly being unreasonably harsh.
4 In this case, the employee is the one who, due to the 5 imbalance of power, is more likely to be harmed.
6 Honestly, a lot of our employees are struggling. And for 7 those who are in certain groups that have been historically discounted and 8 perhaps disrespected prior to current reality, these employees are being 9 impacted more severely because they were already disadvantaged prior to 10 the world being turned upside down.
11 What can we do? Obviously there is no easy answer. But 12 we have to find a way to speak up for those employees who may feel voiceless 13 and speak out in support of all federal employees.
14 It is essential that we strive to protect employees from 15 harassment, discrimination and targeting. We must do all that we can to level 16 the playing field so none of our employees feel like they are not valued.
17 This is the only way we can move forward and be truly 18 successful as an Agency. Our employees deserve no less.
19 In conclusion, we are all handling the current reality 20 differently. And some of us may do well one day but the next day not so 21 much.
22 If there was ever a time when we should all strive to be extra 23 kind, empathetic, understanding and helpful to our NRC family, this is the time 24 you all. Please, let's try every day to be nice humans.
25 And for our bargaining union employees, NTEU is here to 26 help get you through this. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us, we are
73 1 here for you.
2 Thank you all for listening. And please vote.
3 CHAIRMAN SVINICKI: Thank you very much, Sheryl.
4 And again, my thanks to all of the Staff, the presenters and my colleagues.
5 And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you.
6 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record 7 at 11:34 a.m.)