ML23173A140
| ML23173A140 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 06/13/2023 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML23110A700 | List: |
| References | |
| M230613 | |
| Download: ML23173A140 (79) | |
Text
1 UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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BRIEFING ON HUMAN CAPITAL AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
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TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2023
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The Commission met in the ACRS Hearing Room, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, at 10:00 a.m.,
Christopher T. Hanson, Chair, presiding.
COMMISSION MEMBERS:
CHRISTOPHER T. HANSON, Chair JEFF BARAN, Commissioner DAVID A. WRIGHT, Commissioner ANNIE CAPUTO, Commissioner BRADLEY R. CROWELL, Commissioner (remote)
ALSO PRESENT:
BROOKE P. CLARK, Secretary of the Commission BERNICE AMMON, Acting General Counsel
2 NRC STAFF:
DANIEL DORMAN, Executive Director for Operations ERIC DILWORTH, Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO)
KAREN COBBS, Chief, Workforce Management and Benefits Branch, OCHCO STEPHANIE MORROW, Agency Culture Team, Office of the Executive Director for Operations MATTHEW EMRICH, Chief, Human Resources Training and Development, Reactor Technology Training Branch, OCHCO CHRISTINE STEGER, Human Resources Specialist (Knowledge Management) Learning and Talent Development Branch, OCHCO STEPHEN SMITH, Civil Rights Program Manager, Office of Small Business and Civil Rights (SBCR)
OTHERS PRESENT:
DALE YEILDING, Executive Vice President National Treasury Employees Union
3 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 10:00 a.m.
3 CHAIR HANSON: Good morning, everyone. I convene 4 the Commission's public meeting on human capital and equal employment 5 opportunity. Twice a year we meet to get an update on the strategic human 6 capital initiatives and equal employment opportunity activities to strengthen 7 the NRC workforce. Our last meeting was in December.
8 Today, we're going to be discussing topics that are very 9 important to ensuring NRC employees have a safe working environment 10 where they can pursue their career goals and help the Agency fulfill its 11 mission. Before we begin the discussion, I'd like to ask my fellow 12 Commissioners if they have remarks they'd like to make.
13 Commissioner Crowell, no, shaking his head.
14 Okay, with that, I will hand it over to Dan Dorman, our 15 Executive Director for Operations, to make his opening remarks. Dan.
16 MR. DORMAN: Thank you, Chair, and good morning, 17 Chair Hanson, Commissioners Baran, Wright, Caputo, and Crowell. And 18 welcome to the NRC staff and others joining us today. And at the outset here, 19 I want to briefly thank the team in SECY and Admin and OCIO who helped us 20 pivot to this location while we restore the air conditioning in the hearing room.
21 Today we're here to update you on the progress and the
4 1 accomplishments the NRC staff is making in the areas of human capital and 2 equal employment opportunities.
3 One of our Agency priorities and one of our strategic goals 4 is to continue to foster a healthy organization which will provide us with the 5 capacity and capability to enhance the Agency's culture, organizational 6 learning, business practices, and strategic management to prepare for an 7 evolving and uncertain future.
8 Our Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, OCHCO, and 9 our Office of Small Business and Civil Rights, SBCR, are at the forefront, 10 leading in providing critical support to help us achieve these goals.
11 The staff in OCHCO are hard at work supporting our efforts 12 to recruit, hire, and train a new generation of regulators and employees who 13 will bring knowledge and experiences that will work in concert with our 14 experienced staff to build on our successes and help us better prepare for the 15 future.
16 OCHCO is also making sure that we have the critical 17 knowledge management tools, resources, and workforce training to help us 18 meet our future needs.
19 SBCR is doing important work that complements the critical 20 work being done by OCHCO. SBCR helps foster equal opportunity for all 21 employees and promote principles of diversity management that enhance the 22 level of effectiveness and efficiency of our people.
23 We recognize and value the contributions of all our 24 employees and believe that having a diverse workforce at the NRC helps bring
5 1 perspectives and ideas to the table, leading to better decision making and 2 problem solving. SBCR also plays a crucial role in promoting equity, 3 inclusion, and accessibility throughout the Agency to ensure that each of our 4 employees can bring the fullness of their knowledge, skills, and experience to 5 bear on the challenges before us.
6 Many other people at the NRC are working hard to support 7 OCHCO and SBCR by leading and supporting Agency-wide efforts to 8 strengthen our culture. We recognize that a positive organizational culture 9 can be a powerful tool that helps us attract and retain the very best individuals 10 and empower them to bring innovative solutions to our work.
11 Today representatives from OCHCO, SBCR, and our 12 culture team will be sharing many of the exciting activities we are pursuing to 13 help the NRC meet its mission. They are leading the way in creating a work 14 environment that nurtures creativity, teamwork, and continued dedication to 15 being a modern risk-informed regulator that achieves mission excellence in a 16 diverse, inclusive, and innovative environment with a highly skilled, adaptable, 17 and engaged workforce. Next slide, please.
18 Let me know introduce our panel of experts presenting to 19 you today. First, Eric Dilworth, our Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, will 20 provide an overview of strategic human capital management at the NRC. He 21 will be followed by Karen Cobbs, our Workforce Management and Benefits 22 Branch Chief, who will discuss fiscal year 2023 recruitment activities to fulfill -
23 - to fill Agency-wide vacancies.
24 Then Dr. Stephanie Morrow, who led our Agency desired
6 1 culture team and has been a core member of that team since 2019 when it 2 was first established, will discuss retention through the lens of organizational 3 culture. Stephanie will be followed by Matthew Emrich, Branch Chief of the 4 Reactor Technology Training Branch, who will discuss innovations in the 5 training process and future workforce needs.
6 Christine Steger, one of our Human Resource Specialists in 7 the Learning and Talent Development Branch, will discuss knowledge 8 management and the actions being taken to ensure that we are all effectively 9 transferring and sharing knowledge with one another.
10 And finally, Stephen Smith, a Civil Rights Program Manager 11 at SBCR, will provide an update on civil rights and diversity and inclusion.
12 Next slide.
13 And I will turn the presentation over to Eric.
14 MR. DILWORTH: Thank you, Dan. Good morning, Chair 15 Hanson, Commissioners, NRC workforce, and members of the public joining 16 us today. I'm Eric Dilworth, the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, and I'm 17 pleased to share activities our office is focusing on, including recruiting, 18 retention, training, development, and knowledge management. Next slide.
19 OCHCO activities are guided by the human capital priorities 20 and the human capital operating plan. The HCOP is updated annually and 21 submitted to the Office of Personnel Management.
22 The HCOP provides the plan for how the Agency will recruit, 23 develop, and retain a diverse and highly qualified workforce. HCOP also 24 addresses how we will close skill gaps, modernize the Agency's HR
7 1 processes, and enhance data analytical capabilities to inform decision 2 making.
3 OPM also conducts an annual human capital review, which 4 occurred in March of this year. NRC senior leaders in OCHCO, OCFO, 5 OCIO, OEDO, and SBCR discussed with OPM topics in workforce planning 6 and analytics, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, evaluation system 7 development, and immigration.
8 Now I would like to share some analytics with you that help 9 to visualize human capital trends at NRC. Next slide, please.
10 The average numbers of years that employees stay on 11 board past their retirement eligibility has overall remained consistent at about 12 five years. We use this data point in our strategic workforce planning process 13 to project attrition. Next slide.
14 Turning to separations and Agency attrition rates, this 15 graphic shows the outlier years of 2016 and 2017, when early outs and 16 buyouts were offered. It also shows that the attrition rate for 2021 was 17 comparable to recent years, between six and seven percent.
18 In 2022, attrition rates were higher. As expected, many 19 staff continued to work during COVID, and retirement numbers increased 20 when the Agency reentered the office.
21 2023 attrition data is incomplete, but it already includes the 22 attrition spike that recurs each December due to the end-of-year retirements.
23 Attrition rates below ten percent generally are considered acceptable for both 24 retention and stability of the workforce. Next slide, please.
8 1 Comparing gains with separations shows a historically lower 2 hire rate -- hire rates while the Agency was reducing in size and then increased 3 hiring as FTE allocations level off.
4 However, as the size of the Agency has leveled off in the 5 last two years, external hiring has not kept pace with attrition. Our increased 6 focus on external hiring this year aims to reduce or eliminate that deficit. Next 7 slide.
8 Last year, the Executive Director of Operations tasked 9 OCHCO with hiring within one percent of the Agency's allocated full-time 10 equivalent levels identified for 2023. This year, the Agency had an 11 aspirational goal to leverage technology and resources across the Agency to 12 on-board within one percent of the Agency's 2024 allocation.
13 Our aspirational hiring goal for 2023 is 400 external hires.
14 This target was developed using a number of factors, such as projected 15 attrition, including retirements, separations, and transfers.
16 To date, the NRC has successfully on-boarded 128 17 employees with 94 pending on board. In addition, we have completed over 18 172 internal movements through promotions and career development 19 reassignments of current employees. Next slide, please.
20 In FY '22, OCHCO enhanced the strategic workforce 21 planning process to better focus the amount of time -- the amount and type of 22 work for now and in the future and workforce fields needed to perform this 23 work.
24 The first phase of the SWP process conducted an
9 1 environment scan. It's one of the activities that supports forecasting of future 2 skillsets needed to accomplish our mission. The Agency is now in a period 3 where our forecasted workload has begun to increase.
4 To be successful, the NRC needs to have both technical 5 staff and also staff in administrative services, financial management, human 6 resource management, information technology, policy support, and 7 acquisitions.
8 OCHCO developed a strategy to reach their hiring goal that 9 included making changes within OCHCO. The plan was designed to address 10 barriers to meet their hiring target. Some of those barriers included limited 11 senior leader visibility of recruitment strategies, competency gaps in specific 12 areas for Human Resources Specialists, and incomplete hiring and 13 recruitment data.
14 The strategy included more visibility and oversight at the 15 senior level, which is done through monthly coordination with the Agency's 16 Human Capital Council. The HCC and a specific hiring subcommittee work 17 together to prioritize the vacancies in terms of priority and mission impact.
18 This prioritization serves as our ranking for filling critical 19 vacancies and continue to evolve as new vacancies emerge and existing 20 vacancies are filled. The strategy also included changes in leadership roles 21 within OCHCO, closing competency gaps through targeted training, training a 22 new team for targeted outreach and recruitment, developing data analytics 23 and dashboards, and hosting an in-person career expo, which took place May 24 11 here in Rockville.
10 1 To ensure that the NRC has a highly -- a high quality 2 applicant data, OCHCO is working with hiring managers to return their 3 certificates electronically. This change in processing will provide needed 4 data for SBCR to fulfil their reporting requirements to EEOC.
5 The previously mentioned initiatives and work with leaders 6 across the Agency, positions NRC to meet hiring needs for the future. As we 7 onboard new employees, ensure they're immersed into the culture, we also 8 remain focused on our current staff.
9 Knowledge management and cross training continue to be 10 important strategies used to meet mission requirements. Our hiring strategy 11 includes hiring new staff at all grade levels while balancing the need to retain 12 our current staff through professional development and promotion 13 opportunities.
14 OCHCO is committed to position the Agency to meet its 15 important safety and security mission now and into the future by building a 16 diverse and skilled workforce. I am confident that we are on the right path to 17 achieve our recruitment and hiring goals while continuing to foster diversity 18 and inclusion in our workforce. Next slide, please.
19 Now I will turn the briefing over to Karen Cobbs.
20 MS. COBBS: Thank you, Eric. Good morning, Chair, 21 Commissioners. I am Karen Cobbs, the Branch Chief of the Workforce 22 Management and Benefits Branch. My branch is responsible for recruitment 23 activities, and I am pleased to share with you all this morning the outcomes of 24 our recruitment and outreach events. Next slide, please.
11 1 The NRC offers different career paths for our employees, 2 allowing new hires into progressively more responsible positions as their skill 3 levels increase, promoting employee growth and retention. The NRC is one 4 of the few agencies offering senior positions that are non-supervisory.
5 Non-supervisory staff can progress from entry-level 6 positions to mid-level, to a senior level position in their area of expertise. On 7 the supervisory side, staff can progress through entry and mid-level positions 8 and then begin a transition into management positions.
9 The supervisory career path begins with team leads who are 10 25% supervisory, through branch chiefs, division-level management, and 11 finally advancing to senior executive service. Next slide, please.
12 OCHCO has finalized the recruitment outreach calendar of 13 events for the 2023 calendar year.
14 We plan to attend 59 recruiting events this year, to include 15 38 college campus recruiting events, 21 professional events, and eight 16 conferences, to include North American Young Generation in Nuclear, Blacks 17 in Government, Navy Nuclear Power Officer Career Conference, American 18 Indian Science and Engineering Society, Society of Women Engineers and 19 Equal Opportunity Publications CAREERS & the disABLED Science, 20 Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Expo.
21 To increase the diversity of our candidate pool, NRC is 22 conducting targeted outreach with NRC affinity groups and minority-serving 23 institutions. During fiscal year 2023, we have posted two entry-level general 24 engineer/scientist resume repository announcements at the GG-7/9 grade
12 1 levels.
2 During the open period for these job announcements, NRC 3 participated in 17 recruitment events where attendees were directed to apply.
4 Another announcement will be posted at the end of August to support the fall 5 recruitment events. We will also continue to encourage grant recipients to 6 apply to these vacancies.
7 NRC advertises and promotes opportunities on various 8 platforms such as Corporate Gray, Getting Hired, CareerHub, LinkedIn, 9 Professional Diversity Network, American Nuclear Society, and Handshake.
10 Next slide, please.
11 Our spring recruitment events kicked off with a virtual 12 information session focused on resident inspectors. This event was well-13 attended, with 80 participants, and the sessions included an overview of the 14 NRC, NRC benefits, a day in the life of a resident inspector, views from hire 15 managers, and a Q&A from participants.
16 #HireNRC conducted a virtual NRC informational session 17 on April 28, 2023, which drew 150 participants. The informational session 18 provided an overview of the NRC, to include who we are, what we do, and our 19 organizational values.
20 Breakout sessions were offered to allow participants the 21 opportunity to interact with employees and representatives from different 22 disciplines, such as scientists and engineers, acquisitions contracting, 23 information technology, and administrative assistance.
24 OCHCO with support from volunteers across the Agency
13 1 successfully executed the NRC Is Hiring in-person career expo event on May 2 11, 2023, which coincided with public service recognition week. There were 3 approximately 350 interested participants pre-registered for that expo. Of the 4 350, there were 127 attendees. On the day of the event there were 110 5 registrants, totaling the number of participants at 227.
6 This event offered managers and/or designees an 7 opportunity to conduct in-person and virtual on-the-spot interviews and issue 8 letters of intent. There were approximately 69 interviews conducted and 56 9 letters of intent were issued. The letters of intent resulted in extending six 10 tentative job offers so far. Next slide, please.
11 OCHCO maximizes the use of direct hiring authority and 12 non-competitive hiring authority, i.e., veterans, 30% or more disabled 13 veterans, Veteran Recruitment Authority, and military spouse and Schedule A 14 and encourages managers to utilize these authorities. As a result, this will 15 reduce the time-to-hire process, candidate waiting period, and is the most 16 effective recruitment process for the Agency and mission at hand. Next slide, 17 please.
18 In addition to the non-competitive hiring authorities, 19 currently NRC has multiple DHA postings open with USAJobs.gov. These 20 postings include, but are not limited to, general engineering, physical science, 21 mathematics, statistician, acquisitions, information technology, information 22 security specialist, cyber security, computer engineer, computer science, 23 electronics engineer, and reliability and risk analyst. Next slide, please.
24 Now I will turn the presentation over to Stephanie Morrow.
14 1 Stephanie.
2 DR. MORROW: Thank you. Good morning, Chair 3 Hanson and Commissioners. My name is Stephanie Morrow. I'm a Human 4 Factor Psychologist in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. Today I'm 5 here representing the Agency Culture Team. And it's a privilege to represent 6 this team and speak with you today.
7 My presentation addresses the topic of retention through the 8 lens of organizational culture. I'll speak about what we know from research 9 and our own internal data about why people leave and why they choose to 10 stay. I'll talk about the role of culture in supporting retention and activities that 11 help us build and sustain a culture where people want to work. Next slide, 12 please.
13 I'll begin with insights from our Federal Employee Viewpoint 14 Survey, or FEVS, and why I believe we have an imperative to increase our 15 focus on retention.
16 According to FEVS results, more employees are 17 considering leaving the NRC than in years past. As you can see from this 18 chart, we've seen an increase in the percentage of people who report that they 19 are considering leaving their organization within the next year, from 25%
20 responding yes in 2020 to 32% in 2021 and 41% in 2022. Next slide, please.
21 The chart on this slide shows the breakdown of why an 22 employee is considering leaving. The bottom bar in blue shows the percent 23 considering retirement. The bar in yellow shows those considering another 24 job within the federal government. The bar in green shows those considering
15 1 a job outside the federal government. And the top bar in dark blue shows 2 those who said they're considering another option.
3 The percentage of people considering retirement has 4 increased slightly since 2018. This is not surprising as we know we have a 5 growing retirement-eligible workforce. We see more increases in the non-6 retirement categories, and what stands out is that from 2021 to 2022, there 7 was a 7% increase in employees considering transferring to other government 8 agencies.
9 Now, to be clear, these are not necessarily impending 10 departures. We don't expect a 40% attrition rate, just as historically we 11 haven't had a 25% attrition rate. But it's worth taking note when we see 12 changes in employee sentiments and seeking to understand why those 13 changes are happening. Next slide, please.
14 The table on this slide helps to understand differences in 15 sentiments between those who intend to stay and those who are considering 16 leaving. Each row is a different survey question. The values on the scale in 17 the middle column represent the percent of positive responses to each 18 question.
19 The yellow dot represents those who are considering 20 leaving for another federal government job, and the green dot represents 21 those who intend to stay. The right-most column is the difference in scores 22 between the two groups.
23 The questions included represent different aspects of an 24 employee's work experience, from interactions with coworkers to their
16 1 supervisor, their job, perceptions of management, and overall satisfaction.
2 The range of differences in the right-most column is 3 revealing. From minor differences regarding perceptions of coworkers and 4 supervisors to more substantial differences when it comes to use of talents, 5 involvement in decisions, perceived support for work-life programs, and 6 overall satisfaction.
7 The areas with more differences are critical areas where the 8 experience of these employees can be improved and perhaps influence them 9 to stay. Next slide, please.
10 In general, what does research and experience tell us about 11 why employees leave their organizations? In August 2022, the Society for 12 Human Resource Management surveyed over 1500 human resource 13 professionals in the United States to learn what they considered to be the top 14 reasons for turnover at their organizations.
15 The top five reasons were compensation, lack of career 16 development and advancement, lack of workplace flexibility, unsustainable 17 work expectations, and uncaring or uninspiring leaders. Of course, that's in 18 general. What do we know about why NRC employees leave? Next slide, 19 please.
20 The chart on this slide shows the top contributing factors for 21 separations from the NRC based on NRC exit survey data from fiscal year 22 2018 through the second quarter of 2023. As you can see, lack of opportunity 23 for career advancement is the leading contributing factor for separations over 24 the past five years.
17 1 This represents voluntary separations, including 2 retirements, transfers to another federal agency, and resignations. And note 3 that each colored bar in the chart represents the number of people who 4 indicated a factor contributed to their separation by fiscal year. Respondents 5 could select more than one factor.
6 Next, I'll focus in on just the more recent exit survey data 7 from fiscal year 2022 and 2023. That's the last two bars on this chart. Next 8 slide, please.
9 When reviewing just the most recent exit survey data, we 10 see some shifts in the most frequent contributing factors for separations: lack 11 of opportunity for career advancement is the third most frequent, overtaken by 12 those who reported dissatisfaction with telework opportunities and a stressful 13 work environment as contributing factors for their separation.
14 We can also drill a little deeper and just look at voluntary 15 non-retirement separations. Next slide, please. This chart again focused on 16 FY 2022 and 2023 exit survey data, but only includes employees who 17 separated due to transfers to another agency or resignation.
18 Notice that just focusing on recent transfers and 19 resignations, we see lack of opportunity for career advancement as the top 20 factor, followed by dissatisfaction with telework opportunities and pay or cost 21 of living as the third most frequent contributing factor.
22 Other factors we see regularly on each of these charts are 23 stressful work environment, skills not utilized, work not valued or appreciated.
24 Understanding why people leave provides insights into
18 1 challenges we can address to keep people from leaving in the future. Being 2 attentive to changes in sentiments helps keep us ahead of the curve. People 3 taking the NRC exit survey have already left the Agency, but we still have an 4 opportunity to intervene for people who are just considering leaving. Next 5 slide, please.
6 From a cultural perspective, it's also important to consider 7 our strengths, such as why people stay at the NRC. Because that information 8 provides opportunities that can be leveraged. Research tells us that the more 9 embedded employees are in an organization, the more likely they are to stay.
10 Next slide, please.
11 And there are three types of connections that foster 12 embeddedness: links, connections with other people, groups, and 13 organizations; fit, the extent a person feels compatible with their job, 14 organization, and community; and sacrifice, forms of value a person would 15 have to give up if they left the job. This may be compensation, but it may also 16 be other benefits or work-life flexibilities.
17 The first two, links and fit, are where culture can play a 18 significant role. Next slide, please. When talking about reasons why people 19 stay at the NRC, I think it's best to go right to the source. I asked some of my 20 colleagues why they stay at the NRC, and we have a short video with their 21 responses. Let's play.
22 (Video played.)
23 DR. MORROW: I want to express my appreciation to 24 everyone who participated in the video. And what I hope you take away from
19 1 their responses is that the people of the NRC, the mission, opportunities for 2 growth, and work-life flexibilities are some of the most important reasons why 3 people stay.
4 As an agency, we leverage our strengths by focusing on our 5 people. Supporting retention involves many different programs and activities, 6 both formal and informal, to create an environment where all our employees 7 can thrive.
8 Some of the ways we support retention is by offering support 9 and guidance such as through the NRC Ambassador, Mentoring, and a New 10 Employee Immersion Program. Building connection through employee-led 11 communities like our change agent network, NextGen, our affinity and 12 resources groups.
13 Listening to employees through surveys, focus groups, town 14 halls, and open door meetings. Providing opportunities for development 15 through rotations, fellowships, special projects, and our leadership programs.
16 And involving employees in shaping the future through activities like the 17 Futures Jam, Nuclepedia, and our culture teams. Next slide, please.
18 Retention and culture go hand in hand. The culture we 19 create is what makes people stay. The key to retention is fostering an 20 environment where people find purpose and meaning in their work, have 21 opportunities for growth and development, feel respected, valued, and 22 connected, and have flexibility to manage work and life. Next slide, please.
23 Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you today.
24 I'll now turn it over to Matt Emrich.
20 1 MR. EMRICH: Thanks, Dr. Morrow. Good morning, Chair 2 Hanson and Commissioners. My name is Matt Emrich, and I'm the Chief of 3 the Reactor Technology Training Branch, at the Agency's Technical Training 4 Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
5 My segment of this briefing will focus on how Human 6 Resources Training and Development, HRTD, divisional staff have been 7 innovative in the continued execution of the training and employee 8 development mission in the shift to our new hybrid work environment in the 9 wake of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Next slide, please.
10 OCHCO training and development professionals and 11 Technical Training Course attendees were forced to adapt to the impacts of 12 the public health emergency. NRC's instructional staff quickly learned how 13 to deliver technical training courses in a virtual environment and modify 14 delivery methodologies based on initial feedback and observations.
15 To date, our virtual offerings have become robust and are 16 effective in ensuring that our technical staff are getting the information they 17 need to be successful in their qualifications.
18 Throughout the pandemic, we experienced increased 19 course attendance since many courses were offered virtually, and thus did not 20 require staff to travel. Student engagement in courses was more challenging 21 in a virtual environment, which required instructional staff to be more 22 deliberate in providing opportunities for students to interact during 23 presentations. For example, periodic polls related to material, increased 24 open-ended questioning, etc.
21 1 We continue to seek out virtual course feedback from 2 course attendees and regional program office management that we utilize to 3 refine our online delivery methods. Overall, we have observed that engaged, 4 motivated learners continue to be successful during training regardless of 5 training modality.
6 Based on feedback from students and supervisors in 7 calendar year '23, we made a decision to go back to facilitating four of the 8 seven weeks of the reactor series training in person. During the pandemic, 9 five of seven weeks were virtual. This allows for increased networking and 10 aids in improving culture and knowledge management. Next slide, please.
11 This slide and the next slide outline comparative data 12 between in-person and virtual course examination performance for the 13 Westinghouse systems and advanced systems courses, which are the first 14 two phases of reactor technology series training.
15 Virtual offering exam data shows that in most cases, student 16 performance is on par with or better than previous in-person performance.
17 Additionally, attendance in the virtual offerings has been higher than what we 18 previously averaged for in-person courses prior to the pandemic. Next slide.
19 The COVID-19 public health emergency required OCHCO 20 Human Resources Training and Development staff to quickly pivot from 21 decades of traditional in-person training experience to provide necessary 22 technical training to our agency and agreement state attendees in a virtual 23 environment.
24 There was an initial learning curve for our team, but with the
22 1 support of OCIO, the Microsoft Office 365 software suite, access to Webex 2 and Teams, and the collaborative learning environment, we were able to 3 continue to supply high quality qualification training to our regulatory staff in 4 order to perform our agency's public health, safety, and security mission.
5 Instructors utilized Microsoft Teams channels to supplement 6 our in-person training courses. Course managers can create Teams 7 channels for specific course offerings, add students to the channel from the 8 final course roster, and allow a workspace where the attendees can 9 collaborate during the facilitation of a course.
10 Students can interact with each other and with course 11 instructors in this environment and it establishes a location where important 12 files can be shared during the course. Collaborative learning environment, 13 or CLE, is a Moodle-based software platform that allows HRTD instructional 14 staff to facilitate self-paced and instructor-led training more efficiently.
15 It provides one stop for staff and students to access all 16 resources necessary for training, for example, course manuals, presentations, 17 training videos, structured activities, examinations, etc. The CLE is being 18 used for most reactor technology courses and is also used for many of the 19 courses attended by agreement state personnel.
20 CLE is being used by instructional staff in both Technical 21 Training Center branches in virtual instructor-led training courses, self-paced 22 courses, and is also being used to augment in-person training. Next slide.
23 Data from the 2022 GSA Customer Satisfaction Survey 24 indicated that NRC's HRTD staff were rated number three of 23 mid-sized
23 1 agencies in the training and development service area. HRTD is proud of this 2 statistic because it speaks volumes to the hard work and dedication exhibited 3 by our instructional staff.
4 The COVID public health emergency required us to rapidly 5 shift our training paradigm and execute our mission in new ways. We were 6 able to rapidly innovate our instructional processes and still maintain high 7 customer satisfaction levels throughout the pandemic. Next slide, please.
8 HRTD is actively engaged in identifying more effective ways 9 to assess the effectiveness of training provided by our staff. Presently we 10 performed Kirkpatrick Level 1 reactionary surveys for all courses and 11 performed Level 2 learning examinations for some of our courses, i.e., end-12 of-course exams.
13 Finding ways to move to Level 3 behavioral assessments 14 should help us further inform any necessary changes to our current training 15 curricula by seeking to understand if training behaviors have changed as a 16 result of the training received.
17 Level 3 is not always feasible to perform based on when 18 training is taken versus when the knowledge, skill, or ability is needed for job 19 performance, for example, taking a Westinghouse series course prior to being 20 stationed as the resident inspector at a Westinghouse licensee. A move 21 toward competency-based qualification programs should help make 22 behavioral changes more observable.
23 Knowing that hiring is a current focus area, we also realize 24 that we'll likely need to flow to the work to service any high-in-demand training
24 1 based on demographic or job function of new NRC employees.
2 HRTD is currently working closely with our Human 3 Resources operations personnel and regional program office counterparts to 4 make informed decisions related to potential spikes in demand for a specific 5 training. Based on the information we received to date, we do not anticipate 6 any issues with our ability to provide required qualification training to new 7 hires. Next slide.
8 The NRC's Ambassador Program has been improved and 9 then expanded by OCHCO to make it easier for hiring managers to find an 10 NRC ambassador for new NRC employees. NRC ambassadors provide 11 guidance, advice, mentoring, and support for each employee who is new to 12 the Agency or new to an office or region within their first 60 days. They also 13 provide on-the-job training.
14 In April OCHCO launched the NRC Ambassador Program 15 app to make it easier for hiring managers to identify an ambassador or add 16 someone to the list of ambassadors. A program SharePoint site has also 17 been constructed and revised as a one-stop resource for NRC staff, along with 18 an associated Teams channel for knowledge sharing among the NRC's 19 community of ambassadors. Next slide, please.
20 NRC Connect is OCHCO's New Employee Immersion 21 Program, which is a business strategy designed to accelerate an employee's 22 acclimation to the organization, increase the sense of workplace community, 23 and support a healthy organizational culture.
24 The overall goal of the program is to create a sense of
25 1 stewardship for our agency and common purpose in fulfilling our public health, 2 safety, and security mission. The program will be designed with cohort-style 3 training sessions that will bring new employees together to learn about the 4 Agency, how we work together to fulfill our mission, and how the Agency 5 values the new employees as individuals.
6 By building a strong foundation for new employees, the 7 Agency can build trust between management and new staff to improve 8 engagement and retention. This new program is designed to be a 9 collaborative effort between OCHCO and the offices and regions both in 10 technical and corporate offices.
11 Program content will be determined using collaborative 12 activities. For example, IdeaScale, crowdsourcing office and regional staff, 13 and interviewing recent new hires that have been through the onboarding 14 process.
15 The NRAN initial training curriculum is being used as a 16 starting point to help inform initial conversations related to the new program.
17 The framework of the program will be scheduled by the end of June, with an 18 official program kickoff scheduled sometime later this summer. Next slide.
19 Now I'll turn it over to Christine Steger for a discussion 20 related to the Agency's Knowledge Management Program.
21 MS. STEGER: Thank you, Matt. Good morning, Chair 22 Hanson and Commissioners. My name's Christine Steger, I work in the 23 Office of the -- sorry. My name's Christine Steger, I work in the Office of the 24 Chief Human Capital Officer and manage the Agencys Knowledge
26 1 Management Program. It's a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak with 2 you today.
3 During the 2021 Human Capital Commission briefing, we 4 shared the NRC's framework for implementing knowledge management 5 strategies to support knowledge transfer. Today I plan to share our journey 6 for effective knowledge transfer, specifically the steps we're currently taking to 7 address feedback to strengthen our program and initiatives to better measure 8 our effectiveness.
9 There have been concerns expressed with the changing 10 workforce and potential impacts of knowledge retention, which prompted the 11 establishment of the NRC's Knowledge Management Program in 2006. As 12 the program continues to evolve, our approaches and practices have changed 13 with the advancement of technology and our work environment.
14 We believe with continued leadership support, 15 accountability, and a solid foundation in place with our existing tools, 16 resources, and governance structure, we can ensure NRC continues to build, 17 retain, and sustain our organizational knowledge.
18 Going forward throughout my presentation, I'll refer to 19 knowledge management as KM. Next slide, please. One of the KM 20 program's strategic goals is to integrate KM practices into existing Agency-21 wide programs and operations so it becomes seamless and part of our 22 everyday work. Over the years, the Agency has collectively established 23 some recurring practices that have successfully contributed to sustainable 24 knowledge sharing, as seen on the slide.
27 1 For example, since 2006 the Office of Nuclear Regulatory 2 Research has conducted more than 200 technical seminars. Topics and 3 speakers are often determined based on workload priorities, specified 4 technical expertise or an identified knowledge gap.
5 The NUREG/KM publication series was created in 2012 to 6 preserve knowledge of documents and events that shaped our regulatory 7 process or a technical topic. To date there are 17 publications.
8 Since 2009, the Agency has held Knowledge November, a 9 month-long recognition of events to showcase initiatives and good KM 10 practices across the Agency.
11 In 2020, the regions began leading coordinated weekly KM 12 sessions in efforts to enhance knowledge transfer among inspectors. To 13 date, they have held more than 125 events, approximately 40 a year, for an 14 average 140 participants attend on any given week.
15 In 2021, the Employee Journey site was created to provide 16 employees an opportunities to explore careers paths at the Agency, 17 highlighting ten positions that were identified through the strategic workforce 18 planning process as future knowledge gaps. To date, the site has more than 19 3000 visits, and in 2022 the site was also made available to the public to 20 support our recruitment efforts and has since received more than 23,000 site 21 visits. Next slide, please.
22 The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey has begun to 23 collect date in areas that attribute to knowledge sharing and accomplishing 24 our work. In the most recent data, we see positive responses in the questions
28 1 shown on the slide. And we appear equal or above average when compared 2 to government-wide or mid-sized agencies.
3 This indicates that employees feel they have the information 4 and skills needed to perform their work and they are in an environment that 5 cultivates knowledge sharing. To ensure we maintain a strong KM structure 6 that benefits future generations of NRC professionals, we continue to be 7 innovative and proactive in the development and enhancements of tools and 8 methods to support knowledge transfer.
9 In the next few slides, I'll be sharing progress on some of 10 the more recent initiatives that were in part developed as a result of feedback 11 from our KM Steering Committee, staff leads, surveys, and the 2022 capacity 12 assessment, which I will touch on a bit later. Next slide, please.
13 At the direction of the KM Steering Committee, in January 14 2020 we launched Nuclepedia, NRC's internal wiki, to better support 15 knowledge capture and sharing in a more durable and accessible platform.
16 While the platform launched just a couple months preceding 17 the pandemic and closure of NRC facilities, we like to think the tool was 18 launched just in time to further support the Agency in leveraging technology 19 to accomplish our mission. But also it turned out to be the most opportune 20 time as folks were learning new ways of doing business.
21 Over the last three years, Nuclepedia has grown 22 tremendously, and currently it has more than 1300 users who have accessed 23 the platform, over 9000 pages created, and more than 42,000 edits have been 24 made.
29 1 We also see 720 person pages created, which supports the 2 identification of subject matter experts across the Agency. Person pages 3 have been integrated into programs such as the Ambassador and Mentoring 4 Programs to help facilitate matching individuals based on skills and interest.
5 The Nuclepedia team has focused efforts on user adoption 6 and training, including the launch of Wiki Wednesdays, which are monthly 7 virtual training sessions that are offered Agency-wide.
8 And these sessions have evolved into more of a community 9 approach, where we're now seeing our super users sharing their knowledge 10 of the platform with our new users; a form of knowledge sharing at its finest.
11 Today we've held 22 sessions with approximately 25-30 12 users attending per session. In addition, our Nuclepedia team has been 13 working to enhance the features provided in the platform and to provide data 14 collection metrics to allow us to visualize the analytics of the content.
15 With this tool, we hope to gain additional insight on the use 16 of the information as well as what people are searching for in the platform.
17 This will help better inform us of the value of the data and help us identify the 18 needs for our employees going forward. Next slide, please.
19 In an effort to promote and highlight knowledge workers 20 across the Agency for their KM achievements, we established a recognition 21 program in 2021. One of the non-monetary recognitions is receiving a digital 22 KM badge, shown on the slide.
23 Through this process, supervisors nominate their staff to 24 receive a digital badge in recognition for their KM contribution. The badges
30 1 can be placed in an employee's digital signature block and linked directly to a 2 Nuclepedia page that shares information about why the individual received 3 the badge.
4 The badge serves as recognition while also promoting and 5 sharing best practices. In addition, the KM team highlights badge recipients 6 on their achievements in our quarterly KM newsletter, In the Know, that is 7 distributed Agency-wide. To date, we've issued 120 badges, and we 8 continue to encourage and challenge our supervisors to nominate and 9 recognize their staff. Next slide, please.
10 In an effort to continue to advance and market KM resources 11 and have a greater share of understanding of knowledge management, our 12 team is currently developing an interactive online training course for all NRC 13 employees. The course will define KM, what it means at the NRC, and 14 provide information on our resources.
15 In addition, the course will break down different learning 16 paths for employees based on their role and where they are in their career to 17 provide different KM approaches and best practices that best support them.
18 This course will also include an evaluation at the completion 19 of the training to help identify if we are meeting our training objectives. Our 20 goal is to launch the course during November 2023. Next slide, please.
21 Lastly, at the Agency, we are taking a more holistic look and 22 in-depth look at the KM program. In April 2022, the NRC completed a 23 capacity assessment and issued a report.
24 Through this assessment, the KM program was reviewed
31 1 and identified as an area for further evaluation. The program included a 2 finding that specifically noted that the KM tools are not utilized to their fullest 3 extent to ensure successful capture and transfer of knowledge to staff.
4 As a result of the finding, and as specified in the mitigating 5 strategy discussed in the assessment, NRC contracted with Pacific Research 6 Evaluation, PRE, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the program.
7 PRE began a four-phased evaluation in October 2022.
8 This March they began the third phase of the evaluation, 9 during which the team is currently gathering in-depth information from subject 10 matter experts and staff who use KM tools.
11 At the end of Phase 3, PRE will develop the evaluation 12 report, which is expected to be finalized and available by the end of fiscal year 13 2023. The final evaluation report will include findings and recommendations 14 that will aid us in making effective program adjustments and inform us of any 15 new strategies that should be implemented. Next slide, please.
16 Every year we are taking steps to further advance our 17 program and integrate KM practices into our existing efforts across the 18 Agency. This could not be done without our dedicated employees and the 19 advocacy leadership support and work done by our KM representatives in the 20 office and the regions and the individuals leading the charge in OCHCO.
21 Thank you for your time and attention today. Next slide.
22 And I'd like to turn it over to Stephen Smith.
23 MR. SMITH: Thank you, Christine. Good morning, Chair 24 Hanson, Commissioners, and the entire NRC family. I'd like to also give a
32 1 special thanks to OEDO and my SBCR colleagues for their vision, 2 transformational leadership, and organizational commitment to diversity, 3 equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
4 I am Stephen Smith, Civil Rights Program Manager for the 5 Office of Small Business and Civil Rights. And I'm humbly honored to brief 6 you this morning on the status and the progress of the Agency's equal 7 employment opportunity and DEIA program efforts as it's administered and 8 managed by SBCR and our invaluable NRC partners, who include the 9 collateral-duty EEO counselors, EEO Advisory Committee affinity group, 10 employee resource group members and their executive sponsors, dialogue 11 and inclusive ambassadors, and the Agency Culture Team and its culture 12 champions. Next slide, please.
13 The Mission of SBCR is to be support the Agency's mission 14 in protecting public health and safety and the environment by cultivating the 15 Agency's diverse and inclusive workplace to advance equal employment 16 opportunities for employees and applicants to provide fair and impartial 17 processing of discrimination complaints, to afford maximum practical prime 18 and subcontracting opportunities for small businesses, and to allow for 19 meaningful and equal access to the Agency's conducted and financially 20 assisted programs and activities.
21 For today's briefing, I would like to provide you a status and 22 highlight the accomplishments of the Agency through the collaborative 23 partnerships of SBCR, OCHCO, and the Office of the General Counsel.
24 SBCR describes two vital areas of its civil rights and DEIA
33 1 efforts and provides examples of the contribution and shared responsibility we 2 have with OCHCO. I will touch on EEO complaint activities and trends, 3 cultivating inclusion together. Next slide please.
4 In this chart, our EEO complaint activity remains only about 5 one percent of our workforce, with pre-complaints and less than one percent 6 of our workforce with formal complaints. NRC's EEO complaint activity 7 remains extremely low in comparison to other federal agencies of similar size.
8 For the first half of FY '23, there has been no significant 9 increase in the Agency's EEO complaint activity over the past three years.
10 In fact, our EEO complaint activity in the NRC's annual 462 11 reporting for FY '22 to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 12 continues to remain stable for pre-complaints, resulting in 24 in FY '21, to 22 13 in FY '22, and formal complaints of 15 in FY '21 to 14 in FY '22. Currently 14 there are 11 pre-complaints and 8 formal complaints being reported as of 15 March 31 for FY '23.
16 While this EEO complaint activity may appear to be a low 17 reporting to some, please note that these matters are quite complex and come 18 with some extenuating circumstances and nuances due to complaints that 19 include multiple bases. Next slide, please.
20 In reviewing the bases raised in our formal complaints 21 covering the first half of FY '23, religion, age, reprisal, retaliation, disability, 22 and color are currently the most cited, constituting approximately 80% of the 23 formal complaint filings.
24 While reprisal and retaliation has been our most asserted
34 1 basis, generally those having prior EEO activity or opposition to an 2 employment policy or practice over the past few years, it should be noted that 3 religion is a protected basis currently being cited thus far. Next slide, please.
4 Harassment in the workplace remains a persistent problem 5 for the entire federal government, as reported by the Equal Employment 6 Opportunity Commission and continues to be one of our most cited issues 7 alleged.
8 It's reported that workplace harassment too often goes 9 unaddressed where employees who experience harassment fail to report the 10 harassing behavior or valid complaint because they fear disbelief of the claim 11 and action on their claim, blame, or social or professional retaliation.
12 However, we continue to work with our partners in OCHCO, 13 OGC, and the Office of Inspector General to cultivate a civil workplace that is 14 free from all forms of harassing behavior and misconduct, discrimination, and 15 reprisal/retaliation. Next slide, please.
16 True diversity is not about checking the box, it's about 17 recruiting a workforce that includes individuals with different world views, 18 ethnicities, religions, backgrounds, abilities, and ages. Gallup stated a lot of 19 organizations consider lifestyles, personality characteristics, perspectives, 20 opinions, family composition, education level or tenure elements of diversity 21 too.
22 However, diversity only half -- is only half of the equation.
23 Hiring diverse individuals means little when they don't feel included. When 24 organizations focus on building a culture of equity and inclusion at work, we
35 1 help our employees thrive, embrace a sense of belonging and purpose, create 2 deeper partnership connections, and drive positive social change in the world 3 around us.
4 As the workforce becomes more diverse, organizations like 5 the NRC have the opportunity to elevate their employees' work experience by 6 cultivating authentic inclusion.
7 If diversity is the presence of people from various 8 backgrounds and identities, then inclusion is when every single person in the 9 community feels valued, heard, respected, empowered, and a true sense of 10 belonging. By combining the two, then you begin to foster a true culture of 11 equity.
12 What is inclusive leadership? An inclusive leader is 13 anyone who understands their team members' unique strengths, elevates 14 them, uses their platforms to advocate for their employee, and fosters an 15 environment wherein everyone feels empowered to be their full, authentic 16 selves.
17 Inclusive leaders are individuals who are well aware of their 18 own biases and actively seek out and consider different perspectives to inform 19 their decision making and collaborate more effectively with others.
20 Employees naturally gravitate towards leaders who are 21 inclusive and mindful of their personal needs and identity. Inclusive 22 leadership is no longer a nice-to-have leadership style, but a necessary 23 leadership style. Next slide, please.
24 In association with the NRC's leadership model, which
36 1 explicitly defines the expectations that everyone is a leader and was 2 developed to provide a roadmap to communicate in one place how we 3 individually and collectively demonstrate leadership in fulfilling the NRC 4 mission, I would like to offer these quick tips on how we can cultivate an 5 inclusive workplace together.
6 Number one, lead with equity. To cultivate inclusive 7 leadership, integrate equity into everything that you do. Keep equity at the 8 top of your mind in every business decision and relationship by practicing 9 inclusive hiring and being an ally.
10 Number two, have courageous and authentic 11 conversations. A key part of any relationship, particularly a healthy working 12 relationship, is to listen to others with empathy. Listen to understand, don't 13 just listen to respond.
14 Create a safe space where others feel comfortable to voice 15 their true concerns at work. Share you story too. It's important to take the 16 lead and share your own authentic story.
17 Through all of this, understand that at the end of the day, we 18 are all human and all make mistakes. Understand that at times the intent of 19 a message may have been positive, but the impact may be different.
20 Emphasize accountability and forgiveness in your team.
21 Number three, practice inclusive meetings. Consider how 22 your meetings are run and ensure all attendees feel valued and respected. If 23 needed, prompt those who are quieter with questions such as, What are your 24 thoughts, or How would you approach this problem.
37 1 Number four, be fair in your assignments and promotions.
2 Be aware of unconscious bias, any unsupported judgments in favor or against 3 one thing, person, or group as compared to another, when assigning work 4 projects or reviewing promotions.
5 Take the following into consideration. Spread high visibility 6 projects. Ask yourself: are the same people on my team getting high visibility 7 projects getting over and over? Give all members on your team the 8 opportunity to step up.
9 Consider your promotions. Did everyone have an equal 10 opportunity? Were all candidates evaluated fairly? Share the promotion 11 process. Is your promotion process transparent? Do people know what it 12 takes to get promoted? Are professional development conversations taking 13 place all year round?
14 Number five, celebrate the bond with everyone in mind.
15 Celebration and team bonding activities are important parts of our culture and 16 life at work. They bring us closer to our colleagues in a relaxing and fun 17 setting.
18 As a leader, be mindful of the way your team celebrates and 19 bonds. At the end of the day, we all have the power to influence change and 20 help build an inclusive work environment. Practicing inclusive leadership is 21 not only a top-down philosophy but is something that we all can do. Inclusion 22 begins with you.
23 Thank you, and I will now turn this briefing back over to Dan.
24 MR. DORMAN: Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Chair
38 1 and Commissioners, for the opportunity today. Apologize for the technical 2 difficulties with the video, but I'm glad, thankful for the team that was able to 3 make that work and let you hear from those additional members of the staff.
4 We look forward to taking your questions. This concludes 5 our presentation.
6 CHAIR HANSON: Thanks, Dan, and thanks to all of our 7 presenters this morning. Obviously, a lot of salient issues facing the Agency 8 here, and I'm glad for the opportunity to get right into those.
9 Eric, I guess I'll start with you. Just the FY '23 kind of hiring 10 goals, and I think you noted that to date, we have successfully onboarded 11 about 128 employees. We've got 94 pending. Are we tracking or do we 12 have any benchmark data on how long it's taking to onboard employees?
13 You know, I hear occasionally anecdotally about kind of how 14 long that's taking, and for perhaps a variety of reasons. But wondered if you 15 could comment, shed some light on that, any bottlenecks or strategies that 16 we're putting place to kind of shorten that timeframe.
17 MR. DILWORTH: Yes, sir. Thank you. We started really 18 tracking this late last year. We didn't have really good analytics in place to 19 track our hiring. So, we put those in place, and we're still working on that.
20 But what our data shows now is about 120 days from beginning to end, to 21 onboard. And that includes the entire process.
22 But, with that, we are looking at all of that. So, what we do, 23 and when I mentioned HCC, we brief these different analytics to them each 24 month. And that includes all the office directors of the regional offices and
39 1 look at whether it's OCHCO time to issue certs, is that taking time; whether 2 there's a selection, the time to make the selection, where those fall in that.
3 So, we find that those are, you know, some of it's on 4 OCHCO, some of it's on Admin. So, the things we put in place, start our 5 training with managers on the hiring process so they understand what 6 happens before they receive the certificate so that they can be prepared to 7 make those selections.
8 Also, on our OCHCO side, we talked about the training 9 we've done this year. When we have a better trained and better -- and then 10 to be fully onboard having all our positions filled in OCHCO, the process is 11 going to go faster.
12 So, we're working those deficiencies to get our timeline 13 down. You know, the government, OPM has a 80-day hiring month that 14 we've all heard of. And for our tours, that's a lofty goal for all federal agencies.
15 But we wanted to get that down, because the quicker we can get people 16 onboard, of course, we can meet these hiring goals.
17 So, we gave ourself -- and that's the reason we had that 18 hiring expo in May, because it's our intention to try to get all those people 19 onboard by doing that part. So, we'll continue to work those analytics. And 20 the key to that is briefing the senior leaders on a monthly basis so they can 21 see and work with them on the bottlenecks that they may have on their side.
22 But then, also, they give us feedback on the problems that they're seeing in 23 OCHCO. So, it's a process.
24 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you. Just to be clear, when we
40 1 talk about the 120 days -- and I heard about this a lot at the expo, which was 2 a great event, by the way. And I know you had a lot of issues prior to the 3 presentation. I noticed a lot of those were from these folks. But is that from 4 a -- I'm not sure exactly what the terminology is, but is that some kind of a 5 letter of intent to, you know, taking the oath of office?
6 MR. DILWORTH: No. No, sir.
7 CHAIR HANSON: Okay.
8 MR. DILWORTH: That's from the time when we receive 9 their request from the manager of the field division.
10 CHAIR HANSON: I see.
11 MR. DILWORTH: Then we actually bring the person onto 12 our rolls.
13 CHAIR HANSON: Okay.
14 MR. DILWORTH: That's, that's time.
15 CHAIR HANSON: Okay. And are we, are we talking data 16 about kind of where people are falling out of that process in that 120-day 17 period, whether they're getting another offer in that period, or they, you know, 18 --
19 MR. DILWORTH: That's one of the big difficulties, because 20 you know maybe the H.R. specialist will know why the person fell out, or the 21 manager. So, we're working on that, but we don't have a, a good set of data.
22 That electronic certificate that I mentioned, that will give us 23 better data on when a person declines a position. Because now the manager 24 will identify that on that electronic certificate.
41 1 So, we still don't have clear data on when and why people 2 may fall out through the entire process.
3 CHAIR HANSON: Okay. Just lost my train of thought.
4 I'm so sorry.
5 Okay, I'll have to come back to you. Thank you.
6 Karen, thank you for your presentation. And I want to get 7 to Stephanie about why people are leaving. But I wonder, you're, you're 8 doing recruiting. And so, in order to kind of potentially focus our recruiting 9 efforts, are we gathering, or do we have even anecdotal data about why 10 people are choosing to come to the NRC so that we can potentially tailor or 11 refine the messages in recruiting events, et cetera?
12 MS. COBBS: At the moment, no. We are putting some 13 measures in place that will, hopefully, help us capture that. But we do, you 14 know, when people are applying to vacancies, we do pose the questions on 15 USAJOBS, how they heard about us, why they want to do that. It's not 16 required for them to give a reply, but some do, most don't.
17 But for what we can, we are trying to work on, currently working on 18 other ways to capture that data, to be more tied in, for people to feel 19 comfortable with providing us that information.
20 CHAIR HANSON: Yeah. Maybe as part of the 21 onboarding process an entry, an entry survey, the way we do exit surveys.
22 Maybe do an entry survey to help us learn some things.
23 MS. COBBS: Yes.
24 CHAIR HANSON: Just, just a thought.
42 1 All right. Bring the thought back on track here.
2 You mentioned the 80 days that OPM has in terms of 3 onboarding as the goal. Do we have a set of time interim? I think 80 days 4 is, would be pretty great, actually, to come down from 120. Right?
5 MR. DILWORTH: That would be great.
6 CHAIR HANSON: Yeah, it would be great. Okay, good.
7 I'm glad we both agree on that.
8 So, what are the -- so, then, do we have kind of, can we put 9 a set of interim goals in place on that? I mean, you know, fine, it's 120, but, 10 you know, next year it's going to be 110. And then it's going to be 100, et 11 cetera.
12 I mean, how do we -- do we have some, some interim ways 13 of making progress on that?
14 MR. DILWORTH: That's the baselines we're working on 15 now. And we'll have those in place this year.
16 But that, that was the part of us not having a baseline, 17 because we had not done this type of hiring in so many years. So, we know 18 it was just all over the place. So, we do track now monthly.
19 And so, what we didn't want to do is go with a -- try to go 20 from 120 to 80. So, we're setting a baseline for each part of the hiring 21 process, 10 different steps in the hiring process. So, what we're doing, what 22 we're doing is setting, you know, should take us 15 days to issue a certificate 23 from beginning of this.
24 So, we're going to set a baseline so we set up and then
43 1 measure at every step so into all the leadership on a monthly basis. We're 2 not quite there yet. That's, that's one of our goals for this year, because we 3 have to get that in place so that we have something to track against so that 4 we know if we're improving or not.
5 Now, we're doing better at getting people onboard. You 6 can see that from our numbers. But and actually the numbers that, you know, 7 the numbers that we reported are from about three pay periods ago, so our 8 numbers have increased as far as what we've got onboard already.
9 But we have to get more efficient. And the only way to do 10 that is to measure. So, you're exactly right, sir.
11 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
12 Stephanie and Karen, maybe, maybe the two of you.
13 On Slide 23, Stephanie, let me just say I've always -- I've 14 had the opportunity to interact with you a couple of times, and I always 15 appreciate the data that you're able to bring to our discussions and the insights 16 about whether it's through pulse surveys or FEVS, or whatever, to dig a little 17 deeper about kind of what's motivating or irking the Agency's workforce.
18 But, Karen, you noted something that I think we've had 174 19 internal hiring actions. And I don't remember the time frame on that. And on 20 this slide, though, we've got lack of career opportunity and advancement.
21 And it looks like in '22 we had about 19 out of 51 exit survey 22 respondents. But then so far in '23, halfway through '23 it looks like it could 23 be five or six, you know, looking at this. So, if you double it, maybe it would 24 be 10 or 12, which would be a reasonably significant reduction in the number
44 1 of people who are saying -- talking about the lack of career advancement and 2 opportunity.
3 So, I guess is there an opportunity somewhere in there --
4 maybe I'm jumping to conclusions about the number of hiring actions and 5 people feeling like there are more hiring opportunities and advancement 6 opportunities than we've seen.
7 I don't know if either one of you want to comment on that.
8 You can say I'm all wet, you know. Don't be shy.
9 DR. MORROW: Well, I think, you know, when we look at 10 opportunities for career advancement, and we look at the 5-year trend versus 11 just the past couple of years, we see a difference there, where it was a lot 12 more frequent that we would see, you know, lack of opportunity and career 13 advancement as a reason for separation.
14 What, so what I would infer from that is that we do have 15 more opportunities now. And so, for certain people there are more 16 opportunities for career advancement. And that would be less likely to be a 17 factor right now, as it was, I mean, if you look at the rest of our data we were 18 shrinking as an agency.
19 CHAIR HANSON: Yes.
20 DR. MORROW: And now we're growing. And we have a 21 lot of internal transfers where people are able to move around, whether it's 22 laterals or, you know, other opportunities.
23 CHAIR HANSON: Yeah, we're growing modestly. Right?
24 I mean, we have, we've got, I mean, I think, you know, in a lot of ways we're
45 1 trying to, you know, modestly adjust overall FTE levels. But what we have is 2 a lot of turnover in the Agency with retirements and attrition went up to 9 3 percent. That potentially creates some wide space for folks, too.
4 Okay, that's helpful.
5 I would note that our dedicated Secretary over here has a, 6 has a gentle reminder for us as we keep track of time. And thank you, Madam 7 Secretary, for that.
8 We'll keep that in mind as we go along.
9 Thanks everybody. I'll hand it over to Commissioner 10 Baran.
11 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Thanks. Well thank you all 12 for your presentations and your work. With the elevated attrition rates we're 13 seeing, the Agency's aspirational goal of 400 external hires by September 14 30th is extremely important. And I know that it's also challenging.
15 Karen, you talked a bit about direct hiring authorities and 16 non-competitive hiring. Can you tell us more about the Agency's use of these 17 authorities?
18 How much are we doing?
19 How do those numbers compare to our numbers for 20 traditional competitive hiring?
21 And how do those authorities speed up the hiring process?
22 MS. COBBS: Well, as far as the numbers and comparison 23 between our traditional hiring and our non-competitive hiring with DHA, I'll 24 have to go back and do more a deeper dive into the data. Now that we're
46 1 using an electronic certificate it will have more accurate analytics to be able to 2 forecast.
3 As far as why the non-competitive hiring authorities are 4 pretty much more advantageous to the hiring process is because it reduces 5 the time to hire. It reduces the time it takes to draft the vacancy, to post a 6 vacancy, the time to issue a certificate, to conduct interviews.
7 And it will -- and with using the non-competitive hiring 8 authorities we'll be able to hold your candidate's attention a little bit longer 9 because the process speeds up.
10 So, you go from being a candidate in the eligible for non-11 competitive hiring authority or under a direct hiring authority to interview and 12 offer, give an offer and getting them onboard versus the traditional hiring 13 process which probably adds on about an additional could be 30 days to the 14 process.
15 COMMISSIONER BARAN: And so do you, Eric or Karen, 16 do you have a sense of, you know, 120 days is -- handles everything, that's 17 including competitive and non-competitive, or is that just the competitive side?
18 MR. DILWORTH: That's inclusive of both.
19 COMMISSIONER BARAN: That's everything. Okay.
20 Okay. And do you have, do you have a sense, doesnt 21 have to be a precise number, how much quicker is it to do direct hiring 22 process? Is it faster to process than 120?
23 MS. COBBS: Yes.
24 COMMISSIONER BARAN: It is.
47 1 MS. COBBS: It is, yes.
2 The traditional hiring process is more, it's more extensive on 3 the front end versus the non-competitive time that comes in on the middle, it 4 comes on the middle versus what comes on the end.
5 COMMISSIONER BARAN: And, Karen, on the 120 days I 6 was interested in drilling down on one piece, which is, you know, last year we 7 talked about hiring timelines in the sense that it would sometimes take a while 8 for an applicant to hear back about a job with a job offer. And in that time we 9 would have applicants drop off and move on to other opportunities.
10 On that piece, I don't know how much you were able to drill 11 down. Are we making progress there with the kind of time lag between some 12 of the time and someone finding out whether they got an offer?
13 MR. DILWORTH: So, we are, that's one of the areas that 14 we want to set a baseline also. What we have done over the last 12 months, 15 that has been a real, made a real effort in that area.
16 So, a couple things we've done is meeting with the 17 managers consistently to know where they are in the hiring process so that 18 we know when they're on a timeline to selection so we're ready to make that 19 tentative job offer to the applicant. That's one of the things we've done.
20 Also, within OCHCO, we have a problem, that's because, one thing, 21 we didn't have enough people. Then we needed to reorganize. So, we 22 added another branch in our operations area. This branch is working out so 23 we have more people getting those tentative job offers out after the selection.
24 And then what we want to do, the next step is we want to be
48 1 able to give the candidate, you know, they have a reasonable amount of time 2 that they know they're going to receive a tentative job offer after they're 3 selected.
4 So, those are the things we've put in place to continue to 5 work with all of our hiring officials so they know the piece that they need to 6 complete. You know, they make their reference checks after they make the 7 selection. And also we just work with internal OCHCO to track it.
8 So, that has been a concerted effort for another area that 9 we put expectations in place to meet those.
10 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Great. Well, that sounds like 11 good progress. And I look forward to the additional work in that area.
12 Stephanie, I also found your discussion of the reasons for 13 employee departures from the Agency really valuable and informative.
14 I was focused on Slide 22, which looks at the last couple 15 years, and shows that dissatisfaction with telework opportunities is the leading 16 factor. Relocating out of the area and long commute times were not as high 17 on the list but were significant factors.
18 And those factors seem like they could be at least partially 19 addressed by the right telework policies.
20 Is that how you see that data? And, if so, is telework an 21 even bigger factor than what it would seem at first blush?
22 DR. MORROW: Thank you for the question, 23 Commissioner Baran.
24 You know, it's interesting when you look at this data, and
49 1 even look at one slide before this, at Slide 21, at the 5-year trend. And 2 commute length or relocation were actually higher ranked on the list of top 3 contributing factors. Whereas, dissatisfaction with telework opportunities 4 was rarely a factor.
5 And what I think this reflects is as we see those, those are 6 lower on the list compared to dissatisfaction with telework opportunity. It's 7 really that shift in expectations about what's possible with telework, so, exactly 8 your point.
9 And, you know, so that bears out in terms of people who are 10 left saying they're dissatisfied with telework opportunities. Maybe they, in 11 addition, would say something like their commute is too long.
12 In terms of our telework policies, we have a lot of flexibility 13 in our policy. And we have process in place for our full-time telework and 14 how to request that.
15 What I hear from staff, and what's evident from looking 16 deeper into the exit survey responses is that there's uncertainty and a lack of 17 alignment about what goes into telework decisions. And so, I think it's that 18 factor that would be driving us in terms of telework being a more prominent 19 both tool for retention but, also, kind of a point of stress for our agency.
20 COMMISSIONER BARAN: And back on Slide 22, stressful 21 work environment was the second leading factor for departures. I would 22 suspect that for many departing employees this is another way of saying I'm 23 overworked.
24 Do you have a sense of whether underutilized FTEs, in other
50 1 words, unfilled employee positions and our need to hire are a major cause of 2 this stress?
3 DR. MORROW: So, when looking deeper into the people 4 who have left the Agency that say stressful work environment was a 5 contributing factor, I did not see any one kind of predominant factor for that.
6 But what's interesting is if we look at that data from the 7 FEVS and compare people who are considering leaving and people who 8 intend to stay is that workload was one of the areas where there is a big gap, 9 as we know. And that's Slide 19.
10 So, there's a 25 percent difference in between people, the 11 positive responses for people who intend to leave and people who are -- intend 12 to stay.
13 So, you know, that leads me to think that it's maybe it wasn't 14 a factor in terms of people that left, but it is a factor in terms of people who are 15 considering leaving.
16 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Matt, the NRC Connect 17 Program to immerse new employees in the NRC culture, organization, and 18 community sounds like a terrific idea. With hundreds of new employees 19 entering the Agency with a hybrid work environment, I see acclimating new 20 employees as a significant challenge that we all have.
21 What else can you tell us about the program before it kicks 22 off later this summer?
23 MR. EMRICH: Thank you for that question, Commissioner 24 Baran.
51 1 I can tell you, and I'll kind of set the stage historically a little 2 bit.
3 If you go back to the previous hiring surge that we had in the 4 early 2000s here in the Agency, with the nuclear renaissance and, you know, 5 we were going to build a bunch of AP1000 plants, and all this new nuclear, we 6 had a really robust onboarding program at that time. And by and large we, 7 everybody was in person.
8 So, post-Fukushima we kind of drew down how much we 9 were hiring. We haven't hired a lot of people over the last several years.
10 And now as we ramp up we find ourselves in this new environment where by 11 and large we're working a lot of hybrid schedules.
12 We have some people in-person. We have some people 13 that are working hybrid. We're really trying to wrap our hands around how do 14 we best develop these new employees to get them up to speed being direct 15 contributors, in a timely manner, and not lose sight of, you know, regardless 16 of where the individuals are in the Agency, making them feel like they're part 17 of the team, see how they fit the public health and safety mission.
18 So, it's really kind of a collaborative effort between OCHCO, 19 the program and regional offices, both on the technical and corporate support 20 side, to make sure we're doing right by new employees. Which should help 21 us improve organizational health and improve retention numbers in the future.
22 So, we're looking at kind of a cohort-style program very 23 similar to what we've done with EMBRACE and NRAN. And we're planning 24 on piloting something starting here at the end of the summer. It's going to be
52 1 a pilot. We're going to refine it based on what we see initially, and then move 2 on from there.
3 COMMISSIONER BARAN: Sounds like a great idea.
4 Thanks.
5 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Baran.
6 Commissioner Wright.
7 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you, Chair.
8 Still morning. Good morning. This has been very good.
9 Some of the questions have already been asked in maybe 10 a different way, so I may plow a little bit of ground we've already plowed. So, 11 you know, bear with me here.
12 You know, one of the things that I was struck by again today 13 was when we were talking, I think the Chair kind of alluded to it first, is the 14 opportunity part. Right? And when the renaissance happened, we hired a 15 whole bunch of people. So, when we hire a whole bunch of people there's a 16 whole lot of opportunity.
17 Then we had to push it all back down. And that's what 18 we've been doing, even kind of now really. So, when that happened, 19 opportunity went away. And that created frustrations. Because in the five 20 years that I've been here, the number of times that I've talked with employees 21 looking for that, you know, I want that opportunity, and they didn't get it. So, 22 and some of them left because of it. And that's a natural thing.
23 So, now what is really important, and I think from a pretty 24 much as an agency, advanced reactors are coming. That is going to happen.
53 1 And it's going to happen in ways that we're not used to, you know.
2 So, we keep hearing, Are we prepared? And I know we're 3 trying to be prepared. And we're going to be adding employees now. But 4 we're going to have to be adding them in a different way.
5 You know, so we're going to have to, our culture of how we 6 do things, we're not doing one-offs anymore. These first-of-a-kinds may be, 7 but if they're standardized like the industry says -- and we talked about this 8 earlier, I mean late last week, or this week -- it's going to cause a new way 9 of doing business.
10 So, I think the opportunity is coming. That's what I'm 11 saying. We've got the new people who we're hiring. They're not used to 12 doing things the old way, right, so they're not going to be like turtles stuck in 13 peanut butter. They're going to be able, you know, they're going to be able 14 to get moving. And they're going to want to do things a different way because 15 they see a future that they want it to be exciting. And I want it to exciting for 16 them, you know.
17 So, meetings like this are really encouraging to me because 18 you're trying to put your finger on it and to, you know, make things happen the 19 right way. We're not there yet, but I really appreciate the way that you're 20 going about what you're doing. So, thank you.
21 So, with that, I'm going to ask a couple of questions real 22 quick.
23 Eric, you mentioned in your presentation that the Human 24 Capital Council had a hiring session in working to prioritize the vacancies.
54 1 Right?
2 How is the membership for that subcommittee determined?
3 And for those vacancies that they marked as a priority, how are we doing on 4 those?
5 And maybe a follow-up. Are we finding, are we finding 6 quality candidates for those positions?
7 MR. DILWORTH: Sir, I'll start with your last question first.
8 That's the key to all the hiring we're doing and balancing that 9 between internal and external. Managers have not shortened it. They have 10 gone through the process of the interview process, looking across closely and 11 in retrospect. And even with the hiring expo we made sure we kept those 12 candidates in there.
13 So, high quality candidates are being selected for the 14 agency.
15 As far as the Human Capital Council and the subcommittee, 16 at the end of last year we didn't want to go about with, well, we have this 17 aspirational goal of hiring, but we still want to make sure we looked at priorities 18 and bring, you know, try to hire the most important positions first based on the 19 issue and priority.
20 So, we put, we had all the offices, regions put in their 21 priorities. In the subcommittee, the subcommittee which the Agency is made 22 up of representatives, staffing directors also from the regions and the offices.
23 Everyone is represented. But then we put together a smaller subcommittee 24 to look at those priorities and then balance them out.
55 1 So, we came up with over 300 priority one. So, the intent 2 was that we hired those first. But, of course, it doesn't, it's not a one for one, 3 because you're filling, you know, something that's a priority, too, but you can 4 bring 20 people on for one cert. And that was already in process. We're not 5 going to stop it.
6 But we are tracking. We have a subcommittee meeting this 7 afternoon to look at the priorities and where we are on filling all the priorities.
8 And then all along through this we've looked at a new vacancy comes up when 9 someone leaves, then maybe the job that used to be a priority wasn't even on 10 the list, it wasn't even on radar.
11 So, the subcommittee looks at that on a continuing basis to 12 adjust the balance. So, our key is to make sure we, we try to make sure we 13 fill those higher priorities first for those highest missions that we perform.
14 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Okay. Thank you so much.
15 Maybe we should call that progress.
16 Karen, I'll turn to you. And I guess I'm trying to formulate a 17 question putting things together because some of this stuff's been asked and 18 answered. So, bear with me maybe a second here. And this might also 19 include Eric, too.
20 So, during the presentation, if you kind of do the math, it 21 looks like we may project to onboard a little over 300 employees. Which is 22 admirable. It is a large number. But you know me, I'm looking forward to 23 seeing all the new faces around here walking around.
24 So, I really think, though, it's most important that we hire the
56 1 right people. Right? And that's got to fit with our plan. And I know there's 2 been a lot of attention paid trying to coordinate that and get it right.
3 And I know we talked a little bit about with Commissioner 4 Baran and Chair Hanson about the tools that are available to us. Right? I 5 guess my question is do you think that we are really taking advantage of all of 6 our tools that are available to us, especially the direct hire authority, and to 7 bring people on quickly?
8 And what can we do better that we're not going right now?
9 Or is it really just a matter of finding the right people?
10 MS. COBBS: Thank you for your question.
11 I think that we're moving in the right direction marketing 12 ourselves, the Agency, to bring on the right people. We are now leveraging 13 external hiring platforms, social media platforms to market us.
14 We have -- we just created a strike team, force team to 15 include a call for Agency-wide, whole Agency to assist OCHCO with -- at our 16 recruitment events to be able to speak to individuals who initiate the technical 17 aspects of our agency's needs to ensure that we are attracting the, the right 18 type of candidate.
19 In addition to my branch is apparently in a plan base of 20 developing a HR 101 workshop for hiring managers and supervisors to 21 educate them more on the direct hiring authority and the different non-22 competitive hiring authorities, and to also encourage them on how to assist us 23 with marketing the Agency more.
24 And in addition to that, we're also in the middle of doing a
57 1 campaign refresh to kind of bring more pizazz to us, to the Agency, and maybe 2 to be more inviting. So, that's where we are now.
3 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Got time for one more?
4 Matt, I've got to come to you, because I really want to thank 5 you for what you all do at TTC. I've been there. It's been a couple of years 6 when I went down there and took a, you know, 3-day work down there learn 7 some things that were going on. But it's really great and I appreciate it. And 8 please tell everybody thank you. I need to get back down there.
9 So, one thing I read about going into this meeting was the 10 new programs of the competency-based qualifications. You did it with about 11 ten series, I think. Is that right maybe?
12 MR. EMRICH: So, the CBQ program right now, we've had 13 two that have gone completely through the program from start to finish. We 14 have several others that are currently working through the program.
15 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Do you have any preliminary 16 feedback on how things are going, how successful it appears to be?
17 And what, what other areas of you -- I don't know, you think 18 this could be applied to? Right? Is the ultimate vision maybe for it to apply 19 to resident inspectors only or inspectors?
20 Do you think it could apply to others?
21 MR. EMRICH: That's a great question.
22 Commissioner Wright, I'm going to take part of that as a 23 look-up. I don't want to speak, it's not my program inside HRTD, so I want to 24 make sure I get you the information right from the source.
58 1 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: That's fair enough.
2 MR. EMRICH: I'll give you my perspective from an 3 operational side.
4 The two individuals that have completed the program, both 5 have similar background prior to coming into the NRC, both coming from the 6 shipyard. That's kind of one piece of data. Very similar entry level 7 background, very energetic. They were motivated, engaged, worked well 8 with the staff in the field to get everything done that they needed to.
9 But then the final kind of qual process that we just did at the 10 Technical Training Center a couple months ago, it went through an event 11 response practical in the simulator. That went very well. They went through 12 an issue resolution exercise, and they talked about allegations intake.
13 So, they're all things that, you know, somebody who's 14 shown up on site to be a resident inspector, all integral parts, important parts 15 of that job.
16 So, I think as far as content and what folks are taking away 17 from the program, I think it's hitting the mark. But as far as specific feedback 18 from all those parties involved, I'll get back to you on what we've seen from 19 those, the program [audio interference].
20 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Be interesting to know.
21 Thank you so much.
22 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Wright.
23 Commissioner Caputo.
24 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Good morning. Thanks to
59 1 management and staff for pulling together all of this data and these 2 presentations. It's been pretty impressive, I think, to listen, certainly from you 3 today.
4 Matthew, I'm going to add my compliments to your GSA 5 ranking. Number three is pretty impressive.
6 You know, for a technical organization like ours, training is 7 obviously hugely important. So, job well done.
8 Not a lot of room for improvement. Are you sort of checking 9 on the competition to see, see what tips you could learn to, you know, eek out 10 that number one?
11 MR. EMRICH: From my perspective, we are a continuous 12 improvement organization, specifically in the areas of training.
13 I've been with the Agency since 2011. And I will tell you, 14 coming from the industry as an instructor into the group that we have in HRTD, 15 specifically TTC, but also the folks up here at the Professional Development 16 Center, we have been blessed as an agency with some of the most talented 17 instructional staff that I've ever worked with. And I've worked with a lot.
18 But we're always looking for areas to improve.
19 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Awesome. Thank you.
20 I also want to commend everyone who has a role in making 21 progress toward our aspirational goal of 400 new hires. It sounds like there's 22 been a lot of progress made. Maybe we don't hit 400, but that's the nature of 23 an aspirational goal. So, so the numbers are looking great.
24 It's been a tall order. But the hiring is just the first step
60 1 toward welcoming, training, and integrating these new folks into the Agency.
2 So, thanks for everyone who's made these efforts to start them on their paths.
3 But I've said this before, I personally feel that this effort to 4 hire new people really needs to be balanced with sufficient developmental 5 opportunities for our existing staff, including training in positions to put them 6 for future workload needs. Our existing employees have demonstrated their 7 skills and their dedication. And we certainly want them to pursue long and 8 vibrant careers here.
9 So, maybe Stephanie and Eric, how, in trying to balance, 10 you know, promoting internally with hiring new, how do you measure and 11 assess sort of the attrition of mid-career?
12 Because considering we have this retirement wave that, you 13 know, we knew was coming and is, clearly, now here, we really need to 14 preserve our mid-career folks so that they are ready to step into these more 15 senior positions as their careers progress.
16 So, how do you assess whether we're adequately balancing 17 that with the talent that we're bringing in?
18 MR. DILWORTH: I'll take the first shot at that.
19 So, one of the things we did when we talked about the need 20 to do all the external hiring, we made clear to the managers that they need to 21 fill their positions with the best candidates.
22 For a lot of our senior positions, that is our current folks have 23 the experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and force to know the Agency.
24 And those are for the most part you'll see that's where a lot of our promotions,
61 1 that's our internal folks.
2 And you'll see that 175 that include promotions in internal 3 reassignments.
4 When you counter that with the external actions, they're 5 about even. So, we make sure we do not dedicate all our resources to --
6 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay.
7 MR. DILWORTH: -- hiring from outside.
8 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay.
9 MR. DILWORTH: The other part of that is trying to identify 10 doing rotations where our current employees can move and rotate out on 11 detail for 3 months, 4 months, and gain that additional experience that will help 12 them further their career. That's done in most instances.
13 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay. All right.
14 Wonderful.
15 Stephanie, I also want to pay a compliment to you. FEVS, 16 FEVS always has a tremendous amount of data. But I love the way that you 17 really analyzed it and drew conclusions from it, presented it in a way that really 18 helps us get a good picture on what's going on.
19 I have to say it's probably one of the best uses of data that 20 I've really seen since coming back to the Agency. So, thank you for that.
21 This is hiring, and retention, and culture is obviously 22 enormously important to us, you know, here and in the future. And I certainly 23 feel better educated after your presentation today.
24 So, thank you for that.
62 1 DR. MORROW: Thank you, Commissioner Caputo.
2 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Karen, I have a quick 3 question for you. I have something else I want to say here at the end.
4 But, Karen, so the career expo, which sounds like an 5 absolutely fabulous effort, which unfortunately I didn't actually make it to. I'd 6 hoped to visit but I, I missed that. Only yielded six tentative offers. That 7 seems like a lot of work for six possibles.
8 Are there recruitment efforts that are more productive?
9 Like, do you see more bang for the buck when you're visiting universities, or 10 HBCUs, or some of those other organizations? Or is it just we are really --
11 we are fishing in hard waters and we've got to make that level of effort just, 12 just to get a small gain of six?
13 Because when you're looking at a number like 400, if you're 14 trying to get there six at a crack, that's a lot of work.
15 MS. COBBS: So, thank you for your question. And thank 16 you for the expo compliment as well.
17 So, let's start with the six offers that have went out. So, that 18 number was from about two to three weeks ago. As of this morning we have 19 kicked it up to about 14 additional, so we're at 20, 21.
20 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Oh. All right.
21 MS. COBBS: So, we're moving.
22 We did have some bottlenecks in the pipeline as well. Of 23 course, as Eric mentioned, we had to get the reference checks back. We 24 continue to follow the hiring process that the NRC has. So, we just started
63 1 getting the reference checks back. So, we are moving out on extending 2 tentative offers. So, that number will continue to improve.
3 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Wonderful.
4 MS. COBBS: So, we can see that there.
5 As far as the recruitment campus events and just how we're 6 doing on recruitment, I do think that we are making great progress there. And 7 now that we are leveraging external recruitment platforms and social media 8 platforms, we're kind of making ourselves more marketable instead of 9 continuing in the same applicant pool as other agencies just recruiting on 10 USAJOBS.GOV.
11 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay.
12 MS. COBBS: So, now that we've made that, that new 13 transition with strategic recruiting on the external platforms, I think we're 14 heading in the right direction.
15 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: All right.
16 MR. DILWORTH: I have a little more clarification on that.
17 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay.
18 MR. DILWORTH: We actually issued 56 letters of intent to 19 hire. So, we didn't do job offers --
20 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Okay. That sounds better.
21 MR. DILWORTH: Yes. Actual job offers, the tentative job 22 offers we had to finish the reference checks and all that. So, we're building 23 up to that 56.
24 Of course we're going to lose some of those folks.
64 1 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Yes.
2 MR. DILWORTH: But we're hoping 70, 80 percent we're 3 going to bring on eventually.
4 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Since we're going to lose 5 someone, that's why I was worried about six possibles.
6 MR. DILWORTH: No. We expect to do much better than 7 that.
8 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: All right. Much better.
9 I just want to end on another note.
10 So, last December when we had this meeting, I shared 11 some personal stories about being a woman in the workplace. And since 12 then I've had a few other opportunities to, to speak on that subject.
13 And I just want to say staff at all levels of the Agency have 14 reached out to me and my staff to share their experiences, their observations, 15 and other ideas about how we can make our work environment more inclusive 16 to see this point.
17 And I just want to say thank you just for the outpouring of 18 engagement, and brainstorming, and efforts to continue the conversation, 19 particularly with an eye toward the Jam this week.
20 So, thank you for everyone who's engaged in that topic. It's 21 fabulous. I thank you. You're inspiring us I think all to do better.
22 And I'm just, I'm really proud of that. So, thanks, everyone.
23 MR. DORMAN: Could I just leverage off of that?
24 First, thank you for opening that conversation. And just as
65 1 you mentioned the Jam, I think it's the session at 1:00 o'clock tomorrow 2 afternoon, we had a IdeaScale exercise to identify topics for the Jam. And 3 the one that was the most popular was how to continue that conversation.
4 So, I just wanted to highlight that opportunity in the Jam 5 tomorrow afternoon. And thank you for your role in starting that conversation.
6 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Well, that wasn't my idea.
7 But I'm fabulously proud. And I'm absolutely just impressed with the woman 8 that started that. So, thank you.
9 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Caputo.
10 Commissioner Crowell.
11 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
12 And thank you to all my colleagues who have gone before me on the panel 13 today. Ill say that it is somewhat fortuitous, perhaps, that I couldn't be there 14 today and that you're in the ACRS hearing room because it looks pretty cozy 15 up there amongst the four of you.
16 And then I can't really tell if I'm going overtime on this end, 17 and I don't intend to necessarily. But if I do, you can cut me off or just mute 18 me and I'll figure it out eventually.
19 (Laughter.)
20 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: With that, I'm going to ask 21 some just basic data questions first before I get into some more substantive 22 stuff. And I would just would appreciate whomever is most appropriate to 23 answer any of the questions I have today to just go ahead and do so.
24 With respect to the employees that have been brought on
66 1 this year, I think it's about 220 brought on between already onboard and in the 2 process, where does that compare, what does that look like compared to 3 attrition? Are we at a net gain or a net loss at this point?
4 MR. DILWORTH: We're probably at a net eight gain right 5 now, which is better than we've done in the past. So, we're, we're in the right 6 direction of the attrition for this year.
7 So, we made our, the 400 number was based on the attrition 8 we had last year. We have seen attrition to be lower this year. So that would 9 mean our actual hiring, that aspiration goal of 400 would change. But if our 10 attrition stays lower, you know, we hit around 9 percent last year, I believe.
11 And then right now we're at around 5 percent attrition. That may increase.
12 But we are through the big, the big retirement sweep. So, 13 that number, aspirational number will actually be less with less attrition.
14 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Thank you.
15 And with regard to attrition, I know in the FEVS surveys it 16 shows, you know, why an individual may consider leaving. But then in terms 17 of actual attrition, what have we learned from who is actually leaving?
18 Does it end up being more people who are already 19 retirement eligible? Is it at a different grade or job type? Or is it a mix of all 20 those things in terms of who's actually leaving versus what the FEVS 21 sentiment shows?
22 MR. DILWORTH: As far as look at strictly the retirements 23 first, separation or transfers. Retirements are our largest number. That's 24 probably 60 to 70 percent of the people leaving.
67 1 The other, we looked at, you know, transfers, resignations, 2 and those are similar. And even the agencies that people transfer to, there's 3 not any one agency that people are transferring to. It's one here, two there, 4 probably about 24 people who transferred and it's probably about ten different 5 agencies that they transferred to.
6 So, we don't see any really from just strictly that, not taking 7 into account the FEVS survey, but strictly what, you know, the people leaving 8 we don't see any one reason other than the largest reason, eligible for 9 retirement and they decide to retire.
10 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Okay.
11 And then in terms of the employees that we've brought on 12 thus far this year, or whatever picture in time is most helpful here, what does 13 it look like, the breakdown between folks coming from other federal agencies 14 versus coming from, say, state or local government or the private sector?
15 However you want to best answer that question.
16 MR. DILWORTH: I will have to get back to you on that 17 data. I don't have that off the top. We can provide that to you.
18 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Im always somewhat 19 anecdotally curious to know if we're stealing more employees from other 20 federal agencies, or losing them at a greater rate. Because that's, obviously, 21 one big part of where the competition is, especially as work policies begin to 22 change.
23 Karen, a quick question to you on recruiting. And I know 24 the Chair asked this a little bit. But do you have anything youve thought of
68 1 since you want to lean in on, I'm curious to know anecdotally from your, I guess 2 the people who are going to these recruitment fairs, or are they, you know, the 3 front line person interacting with job pros -- prospective job applicants, is there 4 any sense of, like, what selling point is most well received in terms of the 5 NRC's mission, or goals, or role?
6 I mean, is there anything you can offer that would give us all 7 some insight into what's enticing workers about the NRC?
8 MS. COBBS: Thank you for your question.
9 I will have to go back and pull that information. I know that 10 we were moving to a more automated system to be able to capture that. But 11 we haven't had a chance to look at that as of yet. Due to security issues and 12 working those issues out with OCIO, independent.
13 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Okay.
14 MR. DILWORTH: I can add some comments about the 15 expo and the attendance there. It was the mission, the NRC mission that 16 people were most interested in. And that's the reason they came out and 17 really want to come work for this agency.
18 So, I think that's what where we -- and that's what we're 19 working on with the video that Stephanie has, and other things, we want to 20 make sure we promote that mission and make sure people understand that 21 mission.
22 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: And then switching gears 23 here a little bit. And, Dr. Morrow, I think this is probably for you because it 24 came from your slides.
69 1 But, you know, the data from '22 versus '23 is enlightening 2 because I see a mood shift happening where, you know, telework was a 3 predominant concern in '22. But that has faded somewhat here in '23. And 4 I think the '23 number was probably achieved because of how reentry was 5 rolled out and how people were experiencing that versus their colleagues at 6 other agencies.
7 But I kind of see telework fading a little bit. But then what 8 concerns me is the work not valued or appreciated seems to be increasing.
9 That's a big deal, particularly in a technical agency.
10 Do we have anymore commentary or background 11 information about how that is being manifested, how employees feel that their 12 work is not being valued or appreciated?
13 Is it a certain level of employee? Is it a certain type of 14 manager or is it in a certain division? Or anything about how that's 15 manifesting that we could be aware of so that we can actually start to fix it?
16 DR. MORROW: I haven't looked deeper into that data for 17 particularly 2023. So, I would have to get back to you on, you know, what we 18 see, if there's any trends.
19 My experience is from what I hear from staff it's more about 20 particular, you know, their experience versus a, you know, prevailing issue or 21 one single factor that's driving it.
22 But to give you more information I'd have to look deeper into 23 the data.
24 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: It would be interesting to
70 1 know that. And especially I think it's increasingly important as we move into 2 a more permanent hybrid work environment situation.
3 If we're going to be working in new ways where we don't see 4 each other in person as often, the ways, the opportunities and the ways in 5 which you can show your appreciation or value, for someone's value, 6 changes. And, you know, we've got to be mindful of that because this could 7 get worse in a, in a heavily hybrid work environment.
8 So, I want to be mindful of those things in that context.
9 To all of you, I think we're doing great on, you know, our 10 focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And on the raw numbers, obviously, 11 things are turning in a good way.
12 But, you know, with DEI sometimes, you know, some of 13 those are in capitals and some of those letters are in lowercase. And I feel 14 like the "I" is often in lower case because it's, it's the follow-through.
15 You know, we can have, you know, increased our diversity 16 and have more equity. But if we're not being inclusive in our day-to-day 17 practices in our work environment then we're not really overcoming some of 18 the barriers that have been there in the past.
19 So, I was wondering if there was any insight -- and, Stephen, 20 this would probably be you -- about, you know, research on how to achieve 21 inclusion in a telework or hybrid work environment?
22 MR. SMITH: Well, thank you for that question, 23 Commissioner.
24 And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to present all
71 1 cultivating inclusion together. I think it's imperative that we sort of take these 2 tips and think about these as leaders in our own right.
3 I felt that Commissioner Caputo and sharing her story in 4 December, it really spoke and inspired others to open up and to be able to 5 share their stories as well.
6 I think it's more important that we, that we tend to get to 7 know one another, learn from each other's experiences and their stories. It 8 brings us closer together. I'm sure we can probably share in some of those 9 experiences.
10 But more importantly, I think it's imperative that inclusion is 11 a big part. For me, in my opinion I think equity and inclusion are the hallmarks 12 of what DEIA really is. And we should embrace those two factors there.
13 And so, we're continuously doing work in DEIA. SBCR has 14 a number of initiatives going on. We've even restructured our organization to 15 include a new component -- diversity, equity, and outreach -- where we're 16 expanding those, those responsibilities. And so, we will continue to do that.
17 I know dialogue and bringing back dialogue as a best 18 practice across government, we've seen how, how important that was and 19 how successful that that program has been. And so, we'll continue to elevate 20 these principles throughout.
21 But I can tell you that it's, in my opinion, it's making a 22 difference. It's making a difference that we have embraced DEIA.
23 And I mentioned earlier through the transformational 24 leadership and just our commitment to DEIA Agency-wide, it's making a
72 1 difference.
2 Thank you for your question.
3 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Yeah, thank you. Thank 4 you for all that you're doing in that regard.
5 And to elevate, I will just say don't stop at the 16th floor.
6 Make sure you get up to 17 and 18 and catch us, too, because we need to 7 understand and learn about these things as well and have some reflections.
8 So, appreciate that.
9 My last question is going to be a little bit out of left field.
10 And, Dan, I think it's probably you're going to have to field it.
11 But has the NRC ever had an ombudsman and have we 12 thought about having one, and maybe why or why not?
13 MR. DORMAN: I'm sorry, you said ombudsman?
14 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Ombudsman. Yes, 15 exactly.
16 MR. DORMAN: Yes. Yeah, there was discussion. And I 17 don't recall the reasons why we didn't go that direction. But we have, that 18 has come up in the past. But I would have to go back and look at what context 19 that conversation happened and why we didn't go in that direction.
20 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: And I wasn't just curious. I 21 don't know if my suggestion is one direction or another, but it would be nice to 22 know why or why not in the past, and if we need to rethink through that.
23 MR. DORMAN: Yes. Ill take that as a follow-on. So, 24 yep.
73 1 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Okay, thanks.
2 That's all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
3 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Crowell.
4 And thank you all. I'll do more thank yous here in a minute.
5 But first I want to recognize Dale Yeilding. He's representing the National 6 Treasury Employees Union for us.
7 Dale.
8 MR. YEILDING: Thank you. Thank you, Commission, 9 Chair, and for our EDO.
10 I also wish to thank my fellow union members.
11 For our eligible folks who are not members yet, I want to 12 extend an invitation to join us. Together we speak with a stronger voice.
13 It's good to be back. Some of you may remember back in 14 the early 2000s I was the union president for 12 years. The union board 15 recently appointed me to the position of executive vice president. I'm 16 currently filling in for Sheryl Sanchez, our chapter president, while she's out 17 on vacation out of the country.
18 I'm thinking back to when I was president and how our union 19 negotiated the Agency's first established programs for telework, flexible work 20 schedules, and credit hours. These are programs that today we think of as 21 commonplace, but they weren't all back then.
22 During those long past negotiations, NTEU and NRC led the 23 nation with new workplace flexibilities and contributed to NRC becoming the 24 best place to work in the Federal Government.
74 1 Formal meetings.
2 The union's opportunity to speak today and at other all-3 hands meetings is guaranteed by the law under 5 U.S.C. 7114, which provides 4 employees with both a management and union perspective on workplace 5 issues.
6 A little bit about the EEO negotiated grievance process. I'm 7 going to be jumping around to about four or five topics in the next four minutes.
8 It's not surprising that the data on discrimination presented 9 today are only from the EEO complaint process and is completely devoid of 10 information regarding the EEO complaints process by way of the negotiated 11 grievance process.
12 The omission is not surprising because SBCR has instituted 13 a concerted effort to steer staff away from the process that involves help from 14 the union.
15 As such, we have filed grievances because the Agency 16 repeatedly fails to reference the two entitled EEO processes within the 17 Agency's web pages and with regular Agency EEO announcements and is 18 also evidenced by this very meeting.
19 We will work to resolve this because it's important that 20 employees know about their statutory choice. For example, during the EEO 21 discrimination process, EEO counselors are, by definition, neutral. Whereas, 22 union stewards are always the advocate for the employee.
23 The negotiated grievance procedures are not just a union 24 process, it is a negotiated process documented in the collective bargaining
75 1 agreement. The Agency has an obligation to inform and train employees, not 2 steer them away.
3 Past age discrimination reported in two reports years ago.
4 SBCR requested in 2003 and in 2007 that the Agency 5 statisticians report on performance appraisal trends based upon an 6 employee's age. The detailed data from each report was based upon 7 individual employee evaluations of more than 5 years. And showed as 8 employees got older, the occurrence of an improved evaluation reduced, with 9 sufficient data to be statistically significant.
10 The Diversity Advisory Committee on Ageism has been 11 waiting 2 years since these old reports became available to perform follow-up 12 analysis. The Agency withholding the data first said management would 13 perform the follow-up analysis, but later rolled up the data into 10-year groups, 14 withholding the details, and declining to perform the similar analysis.
15 Direct hire authority.
16 Through partnership, the union requested the Agency report 17 which office directors and regional administrators exercised direct hire 18 authority, and for what vacancies. Higher graded employees are concerned 19 that their ability to compete for promotions will be circumvented by direct hiring 20 an outside applicant.
21 Phased retirement.
22 The union has encouraged an investigation into the failure 23 of this program. Within it, employees reduced their work schedule by half, 24 while simultaneously receiving half their retirement annuity. Keeping the
76 1 experienced staff onboard for a few more phased retirement years may be a 2 solution to the Agency's knowledge management concerns.
3 The upcoming Jam may have a topic to consider phased 4 retirement changes such as removal of the 1-year limit that forces full 5 retirement, and also consider an option to allow the phrased retiree to return 6 to full-time employment if they so choose.
7 Telework and presence with a purpose. The Agency has 8 briefed the union on the proposed updates to telework which would allow most 9 staff to telework up to 8 days a pay period along with guidance that attempts 10 to more clearly define presence with a purpose. The union requested pre-11 decisional involvement in these processes to avoid slowing down what we 12 believe is a welcome and necessary change to current Agency practice.
13 The collective bargaining agreement already permits staff to 14 work 8 days a pay period, or even full-time if the work is 100 percent portable.
15 But the Agency has been reluctant to allow the opportunity to be fully realized.
16 As to the currently proposed implementation, the 17 Commission requested an information paper, and the union is keeping an eye 18 out for possible Commission directions. The proposed changes to workplace 19 conditions of employment, even involving those under management rights by 20 statute, must be negotiated with the union.
21 As both the Agency and the union reached agreement to the 22 current telework policy, as documented in the collective bargaining 23 agreement, we are hopeful that the Agency will truly make 4-day-a-week 24 telework more easily acceptable to -- accessible to staff.
77 1 Negotiations.
2 At the conclusion of bargaining a full collective bargaining 3 agreement in November 2021, we were pleased with the progress. Telework 4 bargaining was very contentious, with the final agreement involving removal 5 of the past three management levels of telework approval and agreeing that 6 telework applications would be submitted to the first line supervisor.
7 With the signature ink not even dry on the agreement, the 8 Agency reinstated on the telework website the past three management levels 9 of approval. When questioned by the union, the Agency negotiators cited the 10 telework application is still submitted to the first line supervisor. And in bad 11 faith, the prior hierarchy of approval was reestablished.
12 Eligibility for telework also received extensive debate during 13 negotiations, with the final conditions documented in the contract. Very soon 14 thereafter the Agency issued a secret talking point memo, with office directors 15 and regional administrators in bad faith changing the criteria for telework 16 approval.
17 A recent union arbitration win documented the bad faith 18 nature of this Agency unilateral change.
19 Negotiations of Agency proposed changes to reduce 20 workstation size and begin hoteling have both failed. These negotiations 21 proceeded to the Federal Impasse Panel.
22 Negotiations of pandemic masking requirements while 23 working in an office have also been unsuccessful.
24 NTEU will be transparent with constituents on these
78 1 important disputed matters and will continue to advocate for employees.
2 Thank you for the opportunity to share the union's view.
3 And I encourage both members and non-members to contact the union with 4 suggestions and to seek help on a workplace matter. You can always email 5 NTEU.
6 Thank you very much for the opportunity.
7 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Dale, for your remarks.
8 Thank you, everyone. Presenters, thanks for the questions and comments.
9 Among my colleagues I think we had a really good discussion today of the 10 issues that face the Agency, whether that's hiring, and culture, inclusion and 11 training.
12 Sorry, Christine. I think we've expressed our profound 13 interest in commitment to knowledge management in a previous Commission 14 meeting. So, please don't feel neglected. Or maybe you just feel spared. I 15 don't know.
16 (Laughter.)
17 CHAIR HANSON: But, again, and thanks to ACRS for 18 letting us use their room, for SECY for adapting and the staff for adapting so 19 quickly, for Wes and Angie over there driving, and Leon troubleshooting the 20 technology, and everyone else behind the scenes that really made this work.
21 It really kind of turned on a dime.
22 Two last notes before we go. June is Pride Month. And 23 it's a time to recognize the importance of inclusion. I really appreciated the 24 conversation between you, Stephen, and Commissioner Crowell on this. And
79 1 a time to promote equity for all.
2 At the NRC we remain committed to developing a culture 3 that accepts the importance of diversity and promotes inclusion in everything 4 that we do.
5 Also, I'd like to note that we have a holiday weekend coming 6 up. And I'd like to wish everyone in advance a happy Juneteenth. And while 7 this is a day for celebration, remember Juneteenth is that period of time 8 between the Emancipation Proclamation and when word finally reached 9 enslaved peoples in Texas so many months later. I think it's a good reminder 10 that change comes slow, as our forebears have reminded us. The arc of the 11 universe is long but it bends towards justice.
12 So, I wish everyone a good weekend and a time to reflect 13 on our history. With that, we're adjourned.
14 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record 15 at 12:11 p.m.)