ML23356A009
| ML23356A009 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/14/2023 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML23307A079 | List: |
| References | |
| M231214 | |
| Download: ML23356A009 (68) | |
Text
1
UNITED STATES
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
+ + + + +
BRIEFING ON EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY, AFFIRMATIVE
EMPLOYMENT, AND SMALL BUSINESS
+ + + + +
THURSDAY,
DECEMBER 14, 2023
+ + + + +
The Commission met in the Commissioners' Hearing Room,
at 10:00 a.m. EST, Christopher T. Hanson, Chair, presiding.
COMMISSION MEMBERS:
CHRISTOPHER T. HANSON, Chair
DAVID A. WRIGHT, Commissioner
ANNIE CAPUTO, Commissioner
BRADLEY R. CROWELL, Commissioner
ALSO PRESENT:
CARRIE SAFFORD, Secretary of the Commission
BERNICE AMMON, Deputy General Counsel for
Licensing, Hearings, and Enforcement
2
NRC STAFF:
DAN DORMAN, Executive Director for Operations
LAURA DUDES, Regional Administrator, Region II
MARY LAMARY, Chief Human Capital Officer, Office of
the Chief Human Capital Officer
LARNIECE McKOY MOORE, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,
and Outreach Program Manager, Office of Small
Business & Civil Rights (SBCR)
VONNA ORDAZ, Director, SBCR
CELIMAR VALENTIN-RODRIGUEZ, Chair, Hispanic
Employment Program Advisory Committee
ALSO PARTICIPATING:
SHERYL SANCHEZ, Presiden t, National Treasury
Employees Union, Chapter 208
3
PROCEEDINGS
10:00 a.m.
1 CHAIR HANSON: Good morning everyone, I'll try that
2 again, thanks. I convene the Commission's public meeting on eq ual
3 employment opportunity, affirmative employment, and small business. Twice
4 a year we get to meet and get an update on the progress and opp ortunities
5 related to equal employment opportunity, diversity, equity, inc lusion and
6 accessibility, and the NRC small business program.
7 Our last meeting was in June of this year. Today we're going
8 to discuss topics that are very important to ensuring NRC emplo yees have a
9 safe working environment where they can pursue their career goa ls, and help
10 the agency fulfill its mission. On that note, I think this may be the last public
11 Commission meeting before the retirement of Cathy Haney, our De puty
12 Executive Director for Materials, Waste, Research, State, Triba l, Compliance,
13 Administration, and Human Capital Programs.
14 On your way out, Cathy, I'm going to get it all in there. So,
15 she's going to retire on January 12th, and for her more than th ree decades of
16 public service, Cathy, it's been a real pleasure to work with y ou, and I want to
17 thank you sincerely, and wish you a really happy, and healthy, and long
18 retirement. So, thank you very much.
19 Also I'd like to recognize today, Linda Linn from our Region
20 III office, who will retire at the end of the month after 51 ye ars of service. Now,
21 get this, Ms. Linn is the last NRC employee who started when th e NRC was
22 still the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As the last AEC/NRC c harter 4
1 member, Linda, we wish you all the happiness, and a well-deserv ed
2 retirement. Thank you again.
3 So, with that, before we begin our discussion, I'll ask my
4 colleagues if they have any comments they'd like to make?
5 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Real quick.
6 CHAIR HANSON: Please.
7 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: So, Cathy Haney, your
8 business card is getting a little bigger now because you've got to add the word
9 retired.
10 CHAIR HANSON: All right, with that, I'll hand it over to Dan
11 Dorman, our Executive Director for Operations to provide his op ening
12 remarks, followed by the NRC staff. Dan, over to you.
13 MR. DORMAN: Thank you, Chair. Good morning Chair
14 Hanson, Commissioners Wright, Caputo, and Crowell. The NRC str ategic
15 plan for fiscal years 2022 through '26 outlines three strategic goals that the
16 agency must achieve to carry out our mission successfully. Ens ure the safe
17 and secure use of radioactive materials, continue to foster a h ealthy
18 organization, and inspire stakeholder confidence in the NRC.
19 As dedicated public servants, we are committed to
20 achieving these goals, and accomplishing our safety and securit y mission with
21 excellence and integrity. Today we will be discussing our effo rts to foster a
22 healthy organization by promoting a culture that embraces equit y, inclusion,
23 and accessibility, and recognizes the importance of a diverse w orkforce.
24 We are two years into the strategic plan, and the agency 5
1 continues to experience some negative trends in this year's Fed eral Employee
2 Viewpoint Survey, or FEVS, that require focused and sustained a ttention.
3 The FEVS indices pertaining to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
4 show a small increase in results for inclusion and accessibilit y, but a small
5 decrease in diversity and equity.
6 Additionally, results of the 2023 Organizational Culture
7 Inventory indicate that the agency is making less progress than we would like
8 towards achieving our desired culture. We have room for improv ement and
9 are committed to taking the necessary actions to address the is sues raised in
10 these surveys.
11 For example, we've recently updated the draft agency
12 culture improvement strategy to include implementation of a new culture
13 leader model. Designated senior leaders assigned to each offic e and region
14 will help drive cultural improvements by engaging with the staf f in their work
15 units to identify and address their specific challenges and opp ortunities.
16 The agency culture team, and diversity, equity, inclusion,
17 and accessibility activities will be integrated to efficiently improve desired
18 culture, and diversity within the offices and regions. In addi tion, offices and
19 regions will be submitting action plans on the 2023 FEVS and Or ganizational
20 Culture Inventory results.
21 We are committed to doing business differently to foster a
22 healthy organization that supports diversity and inclusivity, e qual opportunity
23 for all employees and job applicants, and an open and collabora tive work
24 environment. These values, coupled with our efforts to innovat e work 6
1 processes, improve organizational effectiveness, recruit and re tain a highly
2 skilled and engaged workforce, and partner with small businesse s, are vital to
3 our progress as a modern risk informed regulator.
4 Now, I'd like to introduce my fellow presenters. Next slide
5 please. First, Vonna Ordaz, the Director of the Office of Smal l Business and
6 Civil Rights will provide an overview of the Equal Employment Opportunity,
7 Equal Opportunity and Small Business programs. She will be fol lowed by
8 Larniece McKoy Moore, our diversity, equity, inclusion, and outreach program
9 manager in SBCR who will provide an overview of the NRC's diver sity, equity,
10 inclusion, and accessibility initiatives, and Minority Serving Institutions Grants
11 Program.
12 Next, Laura Dudes, Regional Administrator for Region II will
13 discuss how diversity, and the region's focus on mission values and its people
14 has been an incubator for innovative and modernized initiatives. Laura will
15 be followed by Mary Lamary, the Chief Human Capital Officer, wh o will provide
16 an update on our efforts to recruit, retain, and develop a dive rse workforce
17 that will help us accomplish our mission now and in the future.
18 And finally we'll hear from Celimar Valentin-Rodriguez,
19 Chair of the NRC's Hispanic Employment Program Advisory Committ ee, who
20 will highlight the accomplishments and future focus areas of th e Diversity
21 Management Advisory Committee, and the EEO Advisory Committees and
22 Employee Resource Groups. That concludes my introductory remar ks, and
23 I'll turn the presentation over to Vonna.
24 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you, Dan. Good morning, Chair 7
1 Hanson, Commissioners, NRC family, and those of you joining us today. As
2 Dan and Cathy's last Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity
3 Commission briefing, I'd like to take a moment to thank them fo r their years of
4 service and support to our office. I've had the pleasure of wo rking with both
5 Dan and Cathy in NSIR, in NMSS, and now in OEDO, and I greatly appreciate
6 your collaborative leadership, and your kind hearts.
7 And I'd like to congratulate our very own Jeannie Dempsey.
8 Jeannie is unable to be with us today, but she is our Deputy Di rector in SBCR,
9 and she will be leaving us on January 3rd. So, everybody's lea ving me. She
10 has been a true blessing for SBCR, but she's also been a great friend, and
11 leader, and to so many of us at the NRC. So, Jeannie, you will be missed.
12 I also want to thank Erin Deeds, who is in the booth for us
13 today up here. This is her first opportunity to lead this brie fing, and she's
14 done a fabulous job. Thank you, Erin. And finally, we have a special guest
15 with us today that some of you have been able to meet already. This is Dr.
16 Stephen Shih, I would ask him to please stand.
17 He is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
18 Ambassador for NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis tration.
19 Steve is one of our most recent partners in establishing a DEIA community of
20 practice across the federal government, which you will hear mor e during
21 Larniece's presentation. Next slide please.
22 So, why should we consider doing business differently?
23 Organizations with healthy cultures are willing to learn from o thers, and are
24 open to change, continuous improvement, and new learning. As a n agency, 8
1 we've laid out the NRC's strategic plan with organizational hea lth objectives,
2 which includes fostering a healthy organization, and investing in DEIA.
3 And now it's time to fully execute the plan. Sometimes
4 challenging the status quo simply means proposing a new idea th at may be
5 worth exploring, perhaps they are things that are already great, or there could
6 be a way to make it even better. If we collectively start by ch anging our mindset
7 across the agency, our actions will follow. Leading by example will
8 encourage others to change, enrich our culture, improve our age ncy results,
9 and make the NRC an even better place to work. It's time to co nsistently turn
10 our words into actions.
11 Next slide, please. So, one of the hallmark reasons that
12 make the NRC unique is how senior leadership and staff show the ir
13 commitment to EEO and diversity, which contribute to the NRC being deemed
14 a model EEO employer. In particular, and on behalf of SBCR, we 'd like to
15 thank the Commission for reaffirming your commitment to the pol icy
16 statements, including EEO, alternative dispute resolution, DEIA, and anti-
17 harassment, and your approval of the agency's first strategic p lan that includes
18 organizational health objectives.
19 I'd also like to thank, and greatly appreciate, the agency-
20 wide culture awareness influencers. If you can please stand wh en I mention
21 your group or raise your hand if you're not able to stand. Thi s includes our
22 eight EEO advisory committees who are here with us today and vi a VTC.
23 Three affinity groups, don't be shy, I know you're out there, s tand, come on,
24 you can stand. Okay, three affinity groups, NTWN, BIG, and VER G, and their 9
1 executive sponsors. Okay, thank you. The collateral duty, kee p standing,
2 the collateral duty EEO counselors, our inclusive language amba ssadors,
3 there's a lot of you out there, I know.
4 Our dialogue ambassadors from 16 cohorts, our change
5 agents, the newly established culture leaders, and our culture leader himself,
6 Christopher, I saw you back there, and our SBCR team. Let's gi ve them a
7 round of applause. Thank you all. These are our influencers t hat help us
8 make a difference here at the NRC, and there's many more that c ouldn't be
9 with us in the room today.
10 Very grateful for my staff in the Office of Small Business and
11 Civil Rights, they are the best, simply the best. We appreciat e also our
12 collaborative partnerships with the agency offices and regions for civil rights
13 and DEIA efforts. We work closely with the Office of the Chief Human Capital
14 Officer, and the Office of the General Counsel, and every offic e in this agency.
15 You will see some of these results in the next slide
16 describing the EEO complaint activities and trends. Next slide please. So,
17 in this chart, our EEO complaint activity remains less than one percent of our
18 total workforce with pre-complaints, and less than one percent of our
19 workforce with formal complaints and remains extremely low in c omparison to
20 other federal agencies of similar size.
21 There's been no significant increase in the agency's
22 complaint activity over the past three years. In fact, complai nt activity in the
23 NRC's annual 462 reporting for FY23 remains stable for EEO cont acts
24 resulting in 34 in FY22 to 31 in FY23. Pre-complaints are know n as informal, 10
1 resulted in 22 in FY22 to 21 in FY23. Informal complaints resu lting in 14 in
2 FY22 to 15 in FY23.
3 So, please note that tracking of contacts began in FY20.
4 While this EEO complaint activity may appear to be a low report ing to some,
5 please note that these matters are quite complex, and come with some
6 extenuating circumstances and nuances due to complaints that in clude
7 multiple bases and/or issues. Next slide please.
8 So, in reviewing the bases raised in our formal complaints
9 covering FY23, reprisal, retaliation, race, sex, disability, an d age are currently
10 the most cited, constituting approximately 75 percent of the fo rmal complaint
11 filings. Reprisal and retaliation continues to be the most ass erted basis,
12 generally those having prior EEO activity, or opposition to an employment
13 policy or practice over the past few years.
14 Next slide please. So, harassment. Harassment in the
15 workplace remains a persistent problem for the entire federal g overnment as
16 reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and it continues
17 to be one of our most cited issues alleged. It's reported that workplace
18 harassment too often goes unaddres sed, where employees who experience
19 harassment fail to report the harassing behavior or file a comp laint because
20 they fear disbelief of their claim, inaction of their claim, bl ame, or social or
21 professional retaliation. However, we continue to work with ou r partners in
22 OCHCO, OGC, and the Office of the Inspector General to cultivat e a civil
23 workplace that is free from all forms of harassing behavior and misconduct,
24 discrimination, and reprisal and retaliation.
11
1 To ensure that all supervisors, managers, and team leaders
2 are well equipped, we, along with our partners conduct mandator y triennial
3 EEO training to educate and/or refresh EEO principles. At the end of each
4 training session, we request feedback from the attendees, which leads me to
5 our next slide on how SBCR is doing business differently throug h innovation.
6 Next slide please. So, in response to feedback from our
7 training, we've developed and implemented a communications plan to provide
8 a high-level status of complaint activity within offices. Mana gement officials
9 named in EEO complaints will now receive notifications of the c omplaint status
10 throughout the entire process, without divulging any of the det ails of the
11 complaint.
12 We've also revitalized the collateral duty EEO counselors
13 program, which now includes a renewable two-year term for couns elors
14 versus an open-ended term, midyear and end-of-year appraisal fe edback, and
15 counselors will be expected to attend our quarterly SBCR traini ng to maintain
16 their eight hour annual training. Other innovative initiatives include our small
17 business warranty practice.
18 When small business contracts are having performance
19 issues and are beyond repair, SBCR immediately steps in to find alternative
20 approaches and vendors to replace non-performing contractors. This has
21 increased the agency's small business results. We also created a webinar
22 called Chip n Chat to provide information for small business ow ners, allow
23 interactions with our team, and discuss opportunities and ways we can better
24 support them.
12
1 Next slide, please. So, SBCR is also doing business
2 differently by strengthening interactions with our internal par tners. To name
3 a few, we work closely with OCHCO through NRC Connect, which is a venue
4 for new hires, and participated heavily in the 2023 NRC hiring initiative. We
5 partnered with several NRC offices on the limited English profi ciency
6 initiatives, and we also partnered with the agency culture team to develop
7 programs and implement strategies to improve organizational cul ture.
8 To advance EEO, diversity, and small business efforts, we
9 have expanded our external outreach efforts with the White Hous e Initiatives
10 for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serv ing Institutions,
11 the Federal Funding Opportunities Cluster, the Office of Person nel
12 Management, OMB, NASA, the Small Business Administration, Depar tment
13 of Veteran Affairs, and also the National Veterans Small Busine ss Coalition.
14 Next slide, please. SBCR's dedication to doing business
15 differently and taking proactive action has resulted in NRC's i nclusive
16 language ambassadors partnering with the Office of Administrati on to create
17 the inclusive language for acquisitions guidance, and also trai ning to ensure
18 acquisition documents incorporate inclusive language in written in oral
19 communications.
20 After sharing this information with OMB, they requested the
21 guidance to share with their DEIA team. Our partnership with N RC offices
22 allowed us to create the first ever strategic limited English p roficiency plan for
23 the NRC, which includes the NRC's efforts to strengthen our com mitment to
24 language access, and is consistent with Executive Order 13166, which is 13
1 Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English P roficiency.
2 So, our small business warranty initiative resulted in an
3 award to a women owned small business for our building operatio ns and
4 maintenance contract while retaining OMB's best in class and ca tegory
5 management credit for the agency, so we're real proud of that. And the return
6 on investment for these services has been significant, and smal l businesses
7 supporting operations throughout the agency.
8 I want to turn now to a brief video that we'll share some of
9 the important work being done by small businesses that help us carry out our
10 mission. Erin, take it away.
11 (Video played.)
12 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you, I hope you all enjoyed the
13 wonderful video that was created and narrated by our Co-Op stud ent, Dakota
14 Pitts, who is out in the audience. Stand up, Dakota. During h er tenure with
15 the Small Business program. She did an excellent job, and we c ommend her
16 for her efforts. Thank you. And this concludes my portion of the briefing,
17 and I will now turn it over to Larniece.
18 MS. McKOY MOORE: Thank you, Vonna. Good
19 morning, Chair, Commissioners, colleagues, and friends. As par t of being a
20 continual learning organization, SBCR wanted to better define o ur diversity,
21 equity, inclusion, and accessibil ity program. As such, a new program
22 manager position and a new program were created.
23 I am happy to be filling the role of the program manager.
24 This program is designed to enhance focus, educational opportun ities, and 14
1 outreach around diversity, equity, and inclusion within the age ncy as well as
2 with our federal partners. Next slide, please. As part of our deeper dive into
3 the state of DEIA at the NRC, office programs work together to collect,
4 analyze, and assist with action planning to address areas of co ncern.
5 As noted on the slide, this is the second year that the FEVS
6 has reported out on DEIA, and therefore the first time we have comparative
7 data. As you can see, our overall score remained the same, but this isn't the
8 only thing that we look at. The combined data of the FEVS, Org anizational
9 Culture Inventory, the inclusive diversity strategic plan, or I DSP, and other
10 data collections and analysis such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
11 Commission Federal Agency Annual EEO Program Status Report, als o known
12 as the MD715, will continue to produce further insights.
13 And these insights are discussed among SBCR and office
14 leadership twice yearly through periodics that often result in individualized
15 opportunities to influence cultural change and improvement. Ne xt slide,
16 please. Diversity and inclusion are an integral part of cultur e. We have and
17 will continue to work with our partners to foster our inclusive desired culture.
18 To that end, last year was the first time we participated with
19 the agency culture team to add diversity and inclusion question s to the
20 organizational culture inventory. This information provides ad ditional data
21 points that will show trends for our areas of focus. As you se e in the slide,
22 data collected from the inventory is fairly consistent with the FEVS data.
23 We are particularly encouraged by the scores for people I
24 work with are respectful to one another, and the agency promote s cultures of 15
1 diversity and inclusion. This, along with our high and consist ent FEVS
2 participation rate show that as a community we are open and wil ling to work
3 towards an environment that resonates and reflects the nation w e serve.
4 Next slide, please. Among our efforts to build a culture of
5 diversity and inclusion, we not only apply our own best practic es, we reach
6 out to external organizations to learn and grow additional best practices. In
7 the area of recruiting, EEO community members and university ch ampions
8 have visited numerous schools and professional society events, including the
9 2023 HBCU conference, the Gallaudet University Career Fair, Bla cks in
10 Government Conference, and the NRC's 2023 Recruitment and Hirin g Event.
11 SBCR's minority-serving institution program continues to act as a catalyst to
12 develop partnerships by leveraging existing networks and facili tating
13 engagement in educational efforts. We have strengthened our re lationship
14 with the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez as a direct dive rsity pipeline.
15 The Technical Training Center has a training agreement
16 with the university to provide professors with professional dev elopment
17 courses. In 2023 we worked diligently to establish intergovern mental
18 personnel act adjunct and assistant adjunct professors with the university.
19 These positions allow qualified NRC employees to gain valuable teaching
20 experience while enriching the lives of students, university pr ograms, and the
21 nuclear industry as a whole.
22 A big thanks to Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolon
23 Acevedo for your hard work and creativity, and to their home of fice of
24 Research for their support. We've also received numerous inqui ries from 16
1 other agencies asking about the IPA as an avenue for their mino rity serving
2 institution programs. Additionally, the Office of Personnel Ma nagement has
3 reached out to us regarding our Diversity Inclusion Awareness - Leading
4 Organizational Understanding and Engagement, or DIALOGUE, and t he
5 Initiative on Civility Awareness Respect and Engagement, iCARE. They look
6 at these programs as best practices, and the Office of Manageme nt and
7 Budget has asked us to sit on an inclusive language community o f practice.
8 As Vonna mentioned, we have a very special guest with us,
9 Dr. Stephen Shih from NASA. Several months ago a variety of ST EM-related
10 agencies met to discuss the lack of community among DEIA progra ms. While
11 many of us have met through different EEOC or OPM committees, w e've
12 never had a chance to casually discuss programming, common init iatives, and
13 challenges. Steve had a vision for a DEIA community of practic e that Vonna
14 and I were eager to join. Since then, our agencies have exchan ged
15 information and formed an alliance. Thank you, Steve.
16 Next slide, please. While it has been great to work with
17 others across the federal government, we've spent a lot of time bringing
18 messages home, and applying the previously discussed data, and turning
19 them into actions.
20 On the office level, as well as during the managers and
21 supervisors training, we have fo cused on providing information and facilitating
22 discussion on topics such as bias, micro-aggression, being an a lly, and
23 inclusion in the workplace. When people are encouraged to noti ce biased
24 thoughts without judgment and without trying to push them away, they are able 17
1 to make deliberate choices about how they behave towards others instead of
2 going with their first reaction.
3 This, in the end, can lead to less discrimination, and reduce
4 bias over time. As you'll hear more from Celimar, the agency's EEO advisory
5 committees, employee resource groups, and affinity groups hoste d lunch and
6 learns on professional topics as well as cultural events, semin ars, and
7 discussions on EEO and D&I topics.
8 A topic of continuing interest has been women in STEM.
9 Women in STEM was a particular interest during the Jam, where w e had quite
10 an energetic conversation. We followed that up with Women Tell ing Our
11 Stories event; we thank Commissioner Caputo for being featured in that. And
12 later, a gender parity event for all.
13 Our work on gender equity in STEM continues into FY24 as
14 we work with NTWN, FWPAC, OCHCO, and our gender champion on
15 publishing an agency action plan and holding a crowd sourcing e vent in the
16 second quarter of the fiscal year. Next slide, please. Of cou rse, we can look
17 at the strategic plan, and the data, and declare that we want b etter numbers.
18 But I certainly hope, and know that for my program, DEIO,
19 and for SBCR, that numbers for the sake of numbers is not what we want.
20 Lately I have been introducing the concept of cognitive diversi ty. We've all
21 heard and used the term diversity of thought, and it continues to be an
22 important pursuit. But what we want, what we would like the da ta to bear out,
23 is a step beyond.
24 Our collective cognitive diversity. Not just recognizing that 18
1 we all bring different skills and backgrounds to the table but honoring that
2 diversity through inclusion by employing the flexibility to pla y towards different
3 strengths and learning styles. As we continue to build and int egrate this new
4 program into the fabric of the agency, we will continue difficu lt conversations.
5 The subject matters themselves won't be any easier, but our
6 expectation is that we will be more open to having them. Thank you, and now
7 I'll turn it over to Laura.
8 MS. DUDES: Thank you, Larniece. Good morning,
9 everyone, good morning, Chair, good morning, Commissioners. It is an
10 honor to present the many accomplishments and innovations that come from
11 the agency's field offices with a special focus on Region II. I will note the
12 theme on my cover slide, mission focused, value centered, and p eople driven.
13 This was a direct response to our Federal Employee
14 Viewpoint Survey data, which indicated that our staff is very m uch aligned with
15 mission, our values, and our relationships. Therefore, Region II uses MVP
16 as the guiding principles for all that we do to achieve our imp ortant mission.
17 And I do want to take a moment to thank Dan, not only for your service, and
18 your leadership, and he's been my supervisor for many, many yea rs now.
19 But also at yesterday's EDO Town Hall, Dan reminded us of
20 the pillars of our mission, of our principles of good regulatio n, and values.
21 And as we move forward with transformation, or change, or doing business
22 differently, it is really important, and our staff has told us to anchor that in these
23 very important principles of mission, values, and people. Next slide, please.
24 Region II is one of the most diverse offices in the NRC, from 19
1 our leadership team throughout all levels of our staff. Hiring and cultivating a
2 diverse workforce is only the beginning, or the key ingredient to reap the
3 benefits from diversity, inclusion, equity, and access. Once t he key
4 ingredients are present, the environment needs to be optimized, such that the
5 team thrives, feels empowered, and is energized to reach their potential.
6 As I reflect on the past year, it is evident to me that nothing
7 but the healthiest of teams could have achieved and accomplishe d the
8 workload Region II experienced, which was an unprecedented numb er of
9 special and supplemental inspections, escalated enforcement, an d they did
10 all that, and they continued to be an incubator of innovation f or the NRC.
11 Noted on this slide are some of our recent initiatives focused
12 on modernizing the way we do business and executing our mission in the most
13 efficient way. Tools such as the administrative workflow, the regional awards
14 tool, and the facilities management system all serve to leverag e technology to
15 perform necessary functions in the region at the lowest cost to the American
16 people.
17 In addition, the regional leadership community program and
18 strategic communications workshop serve to provide continued gr owth for our
19 leaders and our staff. The regional leadership community progr am will pay
20 our senior executives in the region with our first line supervi sors in a six-month
21 program to enhance cohesion, develop ideal culture, strengthen two way and
22 candid communications, address gaps and challenges facing our w ork units,
23 and ultimately support and develop our first line supervisors.
24 We plan to launch this program in March of 2024, and as 20
1 with many of the things that we do in our incubator of innovati on, we will get
2 lessons learned, and share that with our regional partners, as well as with the
3 agency. Next slide, please. We started with diversity, equity, inclusion and
4 accessibility. Now, let's talk about the results that actually come from an
5 organization that's truly diverse, empowers differing opinions, and unleashes
6 talent.
7 Our focus is always on how to improve our mission delivery,
8 and our team is encouraged and supported to just do it, borrowi ng a popular
9 phrase from the athletic company. This slide has several initiatives that were
10 started in Region II and have grown into useful tools and resul ts for all of our
11 regional partners.
12 The inspector opportunity portal leverages information
13 technology to fill temporary vacancies at resident sites across the country, or
14 to staff team inspections with the right skill sets for all of the different regions.
15 The retention of knowledgeable senior residents, and rehired an nuitants is an
16 incredible program that is training the next generation of insp ectors while
17 minimizing the impacts to those who are currently implementing the baseline
18 inspection program in the region.
19 As part of this program, we monitor specific outputs. For
20 instance, one on one touch points, the number of mock oral boar ds, the
21 number of site walk downs, and one on one training that happens. But
22 ultimately we monitor the outcome, which is improved time to co mpetency for
23 our new inspectors while maintaining the high level of standard s and quality
24 that the NRC has always had for their inspectors.
21
1 I'm happy to report that our data is telling us that we are
2 having great results from this program and utilizing these reso urces in the best
3 way possible. I also want to highlight our Friday morning insp ector training
4 seminars, which is noted on this slide, as it always makes me s mile when I
5 reflect on this grassroot effort started by a couple of branch chiefs in Region
6 II.
7 The first few training sessions were a handful of new hires
8 sitting with these branch chiefs reviewing various technical is sues or
9 inspection topics. Today, on any given Friday, there are nearl y 100 people
10 across the regions and headquarters coming together for an hour to discuss
11 a myriad of inspection and regulatory topics.
12 I think these grassroot efforts are important, and we need to
13 find ways to continue to foster all of this innovation througho ut the agency in
14 this very organic way. The last item on the slide is the regio nal division of
15 resource management and administrative bench marking effort. T his was
16 started by division directors in Region II and IV to identify b est practices and
17 efficiencies in a couple of areas in our DRMA organizations.
18 And they actually did identify one or two things that we could
19 share and improve. And that led the regional administrators to then charter
20 a more holistic look across all regions for every function with in our DRMA
21 organizations to improve our business operations. The final re port has just
22 been delivered to the regional administrators, and we are in pr ocess of
23 working out next steps to address the recommendations.
24 Next slide, please. Beyond the field offices, Region II has 22
1 led initiatives that have improved agency culture and business practices in a
2 lasting and meaningful way. Region II was very successful in h iring in late
3 2021, '22, and continued to be in '23, but I will say that in t hat time frame, early
4 2022, we realized we had lost some of our muscle memory, and ho w to on
5 board new employees.
6 And we were challenged, as many people were, with
7 bringing new people on in a hybrid environment. We quickly rei ntroduced the
8 ambassador program, we updated our guidance documents for onboa rding
9 people, but also realize that something more intentional had to occur to get
10 our new people engaged with our culture, and our values.
11 One of our division directors branded the concept of social
12 onboarding and developed a three day headquarters curriculum to introduce
13 our new hires to the broader NRC functions beyond the regional office. This
14 first trip occurred in fall of 2022 and was incredibly successf ul. So much so
15 that the program, titled Getting You To Headquarters, is now in NRC's Talent
16 Management System as a class you can sign up for.
17 I believe there's a waiting list for that class. And it was th e
18 catalyst to inspire NRC Connect, which you'll hear about later on in the
19 presentation. We have also completed several other first of a kind efforts that
20 are now part of the agency's business, including piloting the a gency's
21 competency-based qualification program with our Technical Train ing Center.
22 Leveraging tablets to enhance the effectiveness of the
23 operator licensing exam process and developing a Be RiskSMART a pplication
24 for all staff to be able to quickly perform the RiskSMART analy sis, and thereby 23
1 drive more data driven decisions for all of our work. And the final item I want
2 to share is the development and widespread use of the NRC issue tracking
3 application.
4 This system started out as a plant status tool that Region II
5 used for many years, and it generated weekly reports, and it wa s a great way,
6 a database for all of our plant status. And at that time it wa s the Plant Issue
7 Tracking Application, or PITA. As more and more people in the organization
8 found this application useful, we had to change it to the NRC Issue Tracking
9 Application, and I'm proud to say it's deployed in multiple off ices across the
10 agency.
11 Next slide, please. In conclusion, and in the spirit of doing
12 business differently, I am incredibly proud of the innovations developed and
13 implemented in the agency's field offices. The partnerships es tablished
14 between the regional offices and the Technical Training Center have allowed
15 us all to leverage different ways of thinking, different streng ths, and different
16 approaches all aimed at a single mission.
17 This concludes my remarks, and I will turn it over to Mary
18 Lamary.
19 MS. LAMARY: Thank you, Laura. Good morning, Chair
20 Hanson, Commissioners, NRC workforce, and members of the public joining
21 us today. I'm Mary Lamary, the NRC's Chief Human Capital Offic er. I'm
22 pleased to be here today to share how our office is doing busin ess differently
23 to foster a healthy organization.
24 The Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, OCHCO, has 24
1 worked very hard over the last year to identify opportunities t o enhance how
2 we fulfill our mission to provide leadership, guidance, and sup port to NRC staff
3 and management in attracting, developing, and retaining a high performing,
4 diverse, and agile workforce.
5 We have taken a strategic and thoughtful look at how we
6 work, how we engage, and how we inform our decision making and planning
7 processes. In doing so, OCHCO has embraced the idea of doing b usiness
8 differently, and informed and prioritized our changes by gather ing feedback
9 and insights offered by our customers, partner organizations, a nd our
10 counterparts in the federal government.
11 Next slide, please. Excellent, thank you. First, I'd like to
12 discuss how we've done this in our recruitment and hiring effor ts. With
13 respect to recruitment, we have worked to strategically broaden our outreach.
14 We've done this in several ways. First, we've engaged the NRC community
15 to help support our outreach efforts, for example, as you've he ard several
16 times, we reinvigorated our University Champions Program to inc lude
17 increasing membership that reflects NRC's diversity.
18 Expanding our engagement to include wider range of
19 academic institutions and setting expectations regarding the ne ed to cultivate
20 long term sustained relationships with colleges and universitie s. We've
21 coordinated with offices, regions, and in particular, the Offic e of Small
22 Business and Civil Rights to develop a comprehensive recruitmen t strategy
23 reflective of our commitment to enhanced engagement with target candidate
24 pools, including those at minority serving institutions, histor ically black 25
1 colleges and universities, and grant recipients. In doing so, I'm pleased to
2 report that we increased our recruitment activities by 63 perce nt from 35
3 events in fiscal year 2022 to 55 events in fiscal year 2023. Next slide, please.
4 In terms of hiring, we've also introduced efforts to create a
5 more diverse workforce. For example, we posted recruitment ann ouncement
6 for Schedule A, persons with disabilities, and veterans, which resulted in
7 building standing repositories of potentially viable candidates for hiring
8 managers to consider for direct hire appointments.
9 External hiring data for fiscal '23 shows that the agency has
10 made progress in fostering more diversity within its workforce based on the
11 demographics of age, disability, and ethnicity and race indicat ors. In other
12 employment categories including veteran status and gender, the numbers
13 remain consistent with the on-board workforce.
14 I want to share a few highlights in our hiring demographics.
15 The average age of our new hires is 37. This demonstrates that the NRC is
16 not just hiring entry level staff but is also bringing in mid-c areer employees
17 from the private sector and other agencies. We now have 50 per cent of our
18 workforce below the age of 50.
19 Prior to this year's hiring effort, 46 percent of the workforce
20 was below the age of 50. The number of employees self-identify ing with a
21 disability on board at the end of FY22 was nine percent. In FY 23 with our
22 new hires, the disability proportion was 24.5 percent of our ne w hires self-
23 identified.
24 This resulted in an increase of our on-board disability 26
1 employees at the end of fiscal year to an increase of 10.4. At the end of FY22,
2 the agency had an ethnicity and race demographic of 37.9 percen t minority,
3 and 62.1 percent non-minority. NRC's minority hires in FY23 we re 43.4
4 percent, demonstrating that our recruitment efforts are resulti ng in more
5 diversity, at least certainly in our applicant pools.
6 We obviously cannot make these selections until the folks
7 are in our applicant pool, so clearly our outreach efforts are generating results.
8 Veterans represented 19.3 percent of FY23 hires. The onboard p opulation
9 of veterans at the end of fiscal year '22 was 21.0 percent and was 21.2 percent
10 at the end of fiscal year '23. Next slide, please.
11 With respect to training and development, we have
12 undertaken several initiatives that are innovative, and directl y related to
13 enhancing our efforts that are critical to fostering a healthy organization,
14 including engagement, collaboration, and meaningful development al
15 opportunities and assignments.
16 I'd like to highlight a few of the notable examples of how
17 we're doing business differently to support a healthy organizat ion. To start,
18 we implemented the NRC Connect program, which provides an essen tial
19 pathway to successful on boarding of new employees in a hybrid work
20 environment. This initiative aims to connect employees to how our
21 organization works together to fulfill our mission, provide inf ormation on what
22 the agency offers to support employees, and empower them to und erstand
23 why it is important to engage with each other to foster a colla borative and
24 inclusive work community.
27
1 Next slide, please. The NRC Connect program had 170
2 participants. We only launched this this summer. Distributed across five
3 different cohorts, these cohorts were diversified with 70 diffe rent positions
4 ranging from a GG-5 grade level staff all the way through to th e SES.
5 Employees connected through 16 different offices and regions of fering unique
6 perspectives and opportunity for learning about the different r oles each
7 organization plays within the agency.
8 The NRC Connect program has been a great success for
9 new employees with an average satisfaction rating by participan ts of 4.4 out
10 of 5. This program will continue to improve based on feedback from program
11 participants. Next slide, please. The second cohort of the Nu clear
12 Regulator Apprenticeship Network, our NRAN training program, is set to
13 graduate in 2024.
14 The NRC's NRAN program is becoming more and more well
15 known as a gold standard program. For example, for the first t ime, NRC
16 recruited for the NRAN program through a dedicated job announce ment on
17 USAJobs. That job announcement received 188 applications, and of those,
18 at the final rating panel, 66 were rated as A level candidates. Following a
19 rigorous selection process, 24 to 26 of those applicants will b e selected for the
20 NRAN program.
21 And we will work diligently to find NRC homes for the
22 remaining candidates who are interested in working for the NRC. We believe
23 these applicants will be highly qualified candidates for entry level positions
24 across the agency and will be shared as a candidate pool with h iring 28
1 managers. There were significant operational changes implement ed into this
2 cohort based on feedback garnered from our first cohort partici pants.
3 For example, NRAN members are now co-located in the
4 same office space as their assigned branch chief and program ma nager for
5 the first ten weeks to obtain fundamental, technical, regulator y, and workplace
6 skills before beginning their apprenticeships. Each NRANer is also provided
7 a peer mentor, an SES executive, and technical advisor to help them
8 throughout their NRAN experience by providing support and caree r pathing
9 advice.
10 As a result of these adjustments, NRAN members have
11 been able to quickly acclimate to the NRC organization, feel mo re empowered
12 to engage in making meaningful contributions towards supporting agency
13 goals associated with organizational health. For example, some m e m b e r s o f
14 the current cohort are working on a project centered around enh ancing
15 employee engagement.
16 Next slide, please. In training, I'd like to highlight a
17 collaborative effort OCHCO undertook with the Office of Nuclear Material
18 Safety and Safeguards, NMSS, to enhance the Tribal Science, Tec hnology,
19 Engineering, and Math, or STEM Program. This collaboration and
20 partnership resulted in the technical training center, our TTC, in transferring
21 files for 12 health physics courses to the Navajo Nation Techni cal University,
22 the Navajo NTU to support further enhancement of STEM course of ferings.
23 This transfer culminates in a five-year effort in active suppor t
24 to the Navajo NTU in increasing class offerings related to radi ation safety, and 29
1 will support the Navajo NTU creation of a four year degree usin g these
2 courses. This partnership with NMSS also boosted a positive re lationship
3 with the Navajo Nation and strengthened the education of future generations
4 in the nuclear field, kind of helping to build our own.
5 OCHCO also partnered with NMSS to support the first of its
6 kind Agreement State delivery of the G108 Inspection Procedures course for
7 the state of Oregon in support of the National Materials Progra m. OCHCO
8 staff worked with the lead state inspector from Oregon who atte nded the TTC
9 course as an advisor. We ensured that the course was equivalen t to the
10 NRC's training course, and included inspection exercises, train ing materials,
11 and training aids.
12 This directly supports the agency's initiative to increase
13 opportunities for agreement states, and it's an important first step in partnering
14 with the states to share materials training opportunities. The se recruiting,
15 employee engagement, and training highlights shared today are o nly a few of
16 the many examples I could offer to illustrate how OCHCO is comm itted to
17 doing business differently in support of fostering a healthy or ganization.
18 Thank you, and I will now turn the presentation over to
19 Celimar Rodriguez.
20 MS. VALENTIN-RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Mary. Good
21 morning, Chair Hanson, Commissioners, Dan, and those here in th e room and
22 on the web. Today I am honored to represent the Diversity Mana gement
23 Advisory Committee, DMAC, which represents the collective voice of 11
24 volunteer groups, 8 equal employment opportunity advisory commi ttees, one 30
1 employee resource group, and two affinity groups.
2 These are: the Advisory Committee for African Americans,
3 ACAA; the Advisory Committee for Employees with Disabilities, A CED; the
4 Asian Pacific American Advisory Committee, APAAC; the Diversity Advisory
5 Committee on Ageism, DACA; the Federal Women's Program Advisory
6 Committee, FWPAC; the Hispanic Employment Advisory Committee, H EPAC;
7 the Native American Advisory Committee, NAAC; the NRC Pride All iance
8 Advisory Committee, NPAAC; the Veterans Employee Resource Group,
9 VERG; the NRC's Technical Women's Network, NTWN; and the NRC's
10 chapter of Blacks in Government, BIG.
11 That's a long list. The DMAC works with SBCR to support
12 recruitment, professional development, retention, and diversity as stated in the
13 agency's inclusive diversity strategic plan. My remarks today communicate
14 the joint perspective of the DMAC members, and matters of inter est to our
15 constituencies, and to the NRC staff at large.
16 Next slide, please. As we continue to navigate a dynamic
17 and changing world, our individual organizations would apprecia te the support
18 and continued commitment from our senior leaders as we advance into focus
19 areas.
20 Our groups want to intensify our workforce's energy
21 surrounding special emphasis program activities. We are explor ing how to
22 engage our members while providing them more concrete and tangi ble
23 opportunities for leadership, visibility, and near-term success. We recognize
24 that the issues that motivated our staff to become part of or v olunteer for our 31
1 committees and groups have shifted.
2 However, it's important to leverage our organizations, as
3 they help build communities within the NRC where our staff, new and
4 experienced, can engage with others on both technical and socie tal issues
5 that matter to them. We encourage our staff, managers, senior leaders to
6 partner with our special emphasis programs when participating i n recruitment
7 activities, and when communicating successes to both internal a nd external
8 audiences.
9 Let's celebrate how our diverse workforce is paramount to
10 meeting our NRC mission of protecting public health and safety. Next slide,
11 please. Our special emphasis programs continue to work togethe r in strong
12 partnership with SBCR to forward our collective missions of imp lementing
13 strategies to increase the visibility of our constituencies at the staff level and
14 in leadership positions, and eliminating barriers as we move to wards equal
15 opportunity in hiring, retention, and career advancement.
16 During the past year we've continued to address common
17 challenges within our constituencies. For example, NPAAC led a group of
18 advisory committees and resource groups in a lunch and learn se ries about
19 championing others. Several advisory committees and groups par tnered on
20 events related to intersectionality, disabilities, and cognitiv e issues associated
21 with aging.
22 We also collaborated in professional development seminars
23 and panels such as NTWN's seminar on engineer licensures, and s essions by
24 APAAC, and ACAA, and other committees, and other groups as well on IDPs 32
1 and career paths. Our individual organizations continue to cha mpion
2 diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility by holding cultural awareness
3 activities.
4 For example, for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month,
5 APAAC invited staff from the Freer Smithsonian National Museum of Asian
6 Art, and discussed richness in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific
7 Islander culture and histories. And HEPAC, during our Hispanic Heritage
8 Month celebration, featured an interactive mask making event an d workshop.
9 Next slide, please. The NRC continues to make progress
10 in maintaining a diverse workforce. In the last year, the perc entage of the
11 workforce comprised of minorities increased or remained stable across all our
12 constituencies. Minority representation in the senior executiv e service
13 increased an average of four percentage points in FY23 when com pared to
14 FY 2019.
15 We are excited to see a positive trend in the demographics
16 of the newest SES Candidate Development Program class, and we l ook
17 towards a future with a more diverse representation among our m anagement
18 and senior leaders. However, we should continue to aspire to i ncrease our
19 representation numbers.
20 For example, Hispanic/Latinx representation at the NRC
21 has remained constant over the past few years. Although our fi scal year '23
22 share, 9 percent, is just below the federal government share of 9.4 percent, it
23 is substantially lower than the national share, which stands at 18 percent.
24 Over the last ten years, our national STEM workforce has gradua lly diversified, 33
1 and we encourage the NRC to strive to be consistent with this t rend.
2 We would also like to highlight that our more diverse
3 workforce, our organizations are more than ever interested in i ncreasing
4 cultural awareness. We'd like to partner with our senior leader s in advertising
5 our cultural awareness activities to create connection, create community, and
6 highlight how our differences are pivotal to bringing new views as we
7 undertake our essential regulatory mission.
8 As we continue to evaluate demographic data to identify
9 trends and gaps, we encourage our senior leaders to supplement existing data
10 with other data sources such as exit interviews. Our individua l organizations
11 would be honored to partner with our leaders to develop questio ns and best
12 practices for exit interviews so we can understand the makeup o f our departing
13 workforce, their concerns, their needs, and develop and impleme nt strategies
14 that can specifically target those needs and enhance our retent ion practices.
15 Next slide, please. Over the last year, many of our
16 constituencies continued to support the agency's recruitment ef forts like
17 Larniece and Mary talked about, such as NAAC and ACAA supportin g
18 recruitment events at the American Indian Science & Engineering Society,
19 AISES, and at HBCUs. VERG, ACED, and others also participated in
20 recruitment efforts for veterans, military spouses, and individ uals with
21 disabilities.
22 We are also partnering with outside organizations to
23 increase staff retention and hiring of individuals from diverse communities.
24 For example, NPAAC partnering with Out & Equal to continue to a dvance 34
1 LGBTQ+ advocacy and staff retention. And HEPAC members partner ing
2 with the American Nuclear Society Student Chapter at the Univer sity of Puerto
3 Rico, Mayaguez to increase interest in nuclear energy and NRC a ctivities.
4 Next slide, please. We feel motivated and encouraged by
5 the progress the NRC is making in becoming a more inclusive wor kplace.
6 With SBCR and OCHCO support, and most notably with the support of our
7 senior leadership, we want to be active participants and develo pers of
8 strategies to continue to unmask our constituencys potential.
9 We challenge our senior leaders to increase the NRC's
10 recruitment of members of diverse communities, such as persons with
11 disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and older Americ ans in
12 addition to those targeted by our grants programs. We also chal lenge our
13 senior leaders to consider investing in partnerships, and bench marking with
14 outside organizations, other federal agencies, and non-profit i nstitutions on
15 expanding our offerings of awareness and DEIA training.
16 Making a diverse, inclusive, and welcome workplace is a
17 choice that every member and volunteer of our special emphasis programs
18 makes each day. We're excited for new opportunities to do busi ness
19 differently while building an NRC for all of us. Thank you for your attention,
20 and I will now turn it back to Dan.
21 MR. DORMAN: Thank you, Celimar, and on behalf of the
22 senior leadership, I accept your challenge. We are committed t o taking
23 additional steps to enhance our diversity and inclusion. We wi ll act on your
24 suggestions as we strive to build a workforce that is diverse, valued, and 35
1 committed to regulatory excellence.
2 We are ready to partner with you to create a work
3 environment that engages the full potential of all our employee s, and I would
4 like to close out today's remarks by expressing my gratitude to the staff and
5 management in the Office of Small Business and Civil Rights, th e regions, the
6 Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, the members of our E EO advisory
7 committees and affinity groups, and staff and management all ov er the agency
8 who model the NRC organizational values every single day.
9 I'm confident that the measures we are taking now, the
10 initiatives and action plans we will implement over the coming months will
11 continue to enhance our organizational culture and performance. This
12 concludes our presentation, and we look forward to your questio ns.
13 CHAIR HANSON: Thanks, Dan. Thanks to all the
14 presenters this morning, and really appreciate getting all of t he information
15 and insights that you provided. We're going to begin our questi ons this
16 morning with Commissioner Crowell.
17 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and
18 thank you to all of our panelists today. Great presentations, and I look at this
19 through the lens of my first Commission meeting on this topic a year ago when
20 I was only a few months into the job, and then hearing from you all now about
21 strides we've made, and successes we've made even in that amoun t of time,
22 and I certainly understand a little bit better now than I did t he n h o w a l o t o f t h i s
23 fits together.
24 That being said, you all are doing a lot, and there's a lot of 36
1 programs targeted on similar things, and it's important that we make sure that
2 all that information comes back together and has an impact. An d I got the
3 theme of that from the presentations today that we're doing a p retty good job
4 of that. And maybe I'll turn this to Laura first, and I had th e good fortune of
5 being down in Region II recently and seeing the kind of culture and
6 camaraderie down there.
7 It was holiday time, and we were having fun playing games
8 too, but that helps, and the participation level shows that peo ple are excited
9 to be there. But Laura, or whomever else wants to jump in here, talk a little
10 bit more about how we integrate best practices amongst the regi ons and
11 headquarters to make sure we're adopting things that work.
12 And not going down paths that don't work, and that things
13 just aren't getting lost between our regional offices and headq uarters in terms
14 of what's working well, and the consistency that's needed for e mployees to
15 feel like they're part of a bigger mission and organization.
16 MS. DUDES: A great question, and it was fun and games,
17 but that was a pretty serious competition we had going on, Comm issioner.
18 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: I've been watching
19 Jeopardy since then.
20 MS. DUDES: But I think it's a great question. And you
21 want to balance having incubators and those grassroot efforts t o see what
22 works, and you see what staff is attracted to, and you want tha t to be like a
23 low resource type of effort to see if there's traction, if ther e's effectiveness from
24 those, like the training seminar we talked about versus all out full on resources 37
1 for programs in all the different places.
2 I think it comes down to communication, sharing, and we
3 shared what we did with our Getting You To Headquarters, and th en OCHCO,
4 and then I would actually credit Katie McCurry working with Nex t Gen to say
5 this really works, this was our kind of baby, and then we said let's get it into
6 talent management, let's turn the program over so that we can m ake it an
7 agency program.
8 So, it's finding something that works, validating that it works
9 before you invest a lot of resources in it, and then once you d o, then you put
10 it into one of the agency -- put it into the agency infrastruct ure so that it can
11 be managed that way. So, I think that's a short answer, we can do better. I
12 mean the regions communicate an awful lot with our DRMA efforts.
13 We're right now all figuring out the sweet spot for how we
14 use administrative assistants. So, I think it's communication, and I think it's
15 also trying to innovate when you're failing, fail fast, grieve, fail fast, move on.
16 But if it's working, and you've got a success like Getting You To Headquarters,
17 put it in the program and let the agency make it part of their culture. I don't
18 know if you want --
19 MR. DORMAN: No, I think that was a great answer. The
20 one thing I would add is that the agency's change agent network is also a
21 opportunity to share best practices and lessons across the agen cy as we work
22 through various initiatives.
23 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: And I was pleased to learn
24 a little bit more about the NRC Connect program, and one of the questions I 38
1 had coming in today is how are we maintaining, or enhancing our culture, and
2 particularly our DEIA efforts in a hybrid work environment, bec ause that's
3 tough to do, and it sounds like the Connect program is kind of the key thing
4 aimed at doing that.
5 Mary, or whomever, can you talk a little bit about why
6 Connect has been, it looks like it's been well attended, but al so fairly
7 successful in its short lifetime, can we talk about why it's be en gaining traction,
8 and successful?
9 MS. LAMARY: Thank you, I appreciate that. So, I would
10 say that the first thing to know about NRC Connect, it's for ou r new employees,
11 it's like the next step from onboarding. And so, as I said in my opening
12 remarks, it's from GG-5 to SES, and so they're grouped by cohorts for people
13 who on boarded within a certain period of time.
14 And then if you've onboarded this pay period, or this pay
15 period, or this pay period, you fell in that block of time, you 're a part of that
16 cohort, grade level doesn't matter, occupation doesn't matter. So, it's very,
17 very integrated in terms of its participation. To the maximum extent possible,
18 the segments of NRC Connect curriculum are also in person.
19 And so, they're seeing each other face to face, it's kind of
20 like -- it's funny, I was driving in today, I was thinking abou t this, it's like the
21 first day of high school, and you're walking down the halls, an d you're
22 overwhelmed when you come out of grade school, or junior high s chool, or
23 middle school, whatever they call it these days. And you're lo oking around,
24 and you're recognizing faces, they're in my home room.
39
1 And you're looking for the familiar faces from your home
2 room to be in your first period, or your third period, et ceter a. And I think that's
3 the value, that kind of networking, that kind of connectivity i s a huge part of its
4 success.
5 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: I think you just gave me
6 shivers. I haven't thought about that in a long time either, b ut it hit home. I
7 appreciated hearing a lot about our recruitment efforts, and ou r numbers, and
8 our increase in applicant pools, and the diversity of those app licant pools.
9 One measure of diversity, I don't know if there's actually a measure of
10 diversity, but it's a kind of measure of perhaps some of the co gnitive diversity.
11 Is how are we doing on recruitment efforts geographically?
12 I feel like some of our programs are targeted a little bit to h istorical institutions
13 east of the Mississippi, how are we doing west of the Mississip pi in recruiting
14 and convincing people to work for the NRC? Whoever wants to grab that.
15 MS. LAMARY: I can jump in there, because I have some
16 positive news there as well, sir, thank you. So, we had repres entation, as I
17 said, we increased the number of outreach events that we had th is past year,
18 we doubled them almost. We were at NAYGN in beautiful downtown, in the
19 not so warm weather times in Minnesota.
20 We were at the Indian -- yeah, and California, so we are
21 moving westward. I know that you were at UNLV this past year, shout out to
22 the Rebs, this past month, actually, sir.
23 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: UNR, it's the other
24 University of Nevada, so we're both in trouble now.
40
1 MS. LAMARY: Reno, okay, sorry, sorry. And I know that
2 we provided you with some materials for outreach there, and we' ll continue to
3 do that as part of our university champions program.
4 COMMISSIONER CROWELL: Thanks. And Mary, we
5 didn't tee this up, but you led nicely into my kind of final qu estion and comment,
6 which is in the past couple weeks I've been able to do a couple university
7 visits. I did one at UNR, University of Nevada, Reno, and I ta lked to some
8 students at Georgetown recently as well, and I was just impress ed by the
9 breadth of knowledge and diversity in those rooms.
10 On both the engineering and science side of the house, as
11 well as the policy and legal side of the house, and I think the -- my comment
12 would be to leverage the Commission as much as possible in thos e types of
13 initiatives. I wish, going forward, I think we could all think strategically about
14 having one of the ambassadors come along with, for depending on what the
15 focus, or where the opportunity is with a particular university group.
16 But I still struggled a little bit at UNR about trying to captu re
17 all of our hiring programs, initiatives, areas, or pointing students into one place
18 where they can go find more information. Those things may exis t, but I would
19 just encourage you to arm all of us on this side of the table w ith easy to re-tell
20 information, and points of contact for students.
21 Because there's appetite out there, and I think part of the
22 big hurdle is particularly for students, is to know where to st art, and it's a little
23 overwhelming. So, I appreciate all that you guys do, and pleas e leverage all
24 of us on the Commission side of the table here as a resource, t hanks. That's 41
1 all I have, Mr. Chair.
2 CHAIR HANSON: Thanks, Commissioner Crowell, very
3 much. Thank you again, all, for being here, I really enjoyed t he presentations.
4 You know, Mary, I know this isn't the Commission meeting that w e often kind
5 of focus on the hiring aspects of this, but hiring is really im portant, and I've
6 noted a few things. I watch the weekly reports, the weekly inf ormation report
7 that kind of comes through, I'm interested in who's coming and who's going.
8 And we've even had a few come back kids I noticed in the
9 last couple of months that I was pretty pleased about. Having said all that
10 though, one of the things I've noticed anecdotally in that is a lot of the success
11 that the regions have had in hiring. And certainly, Laura, I t hink I've noticed
12 that in Region II, but also III, IV.
13 Maybe, and it's quite understandable that people are
14 eschewing the Washington area, but also there may be other thin gs that are
15 going on there. One of the things though that I think kind of struck me is some
16 of the success we've had in hiring health physicists, and as I' ve gotten to do
17 town halls, and other meetings in the regions and so forth, and the Getting
18 You To HQ, which I completely agree is a great program.
19 Is noting, is seeing the pay off on that kind of really focused
20 effort of filling that strategic skill gap in the agency. And I want to commend
21 you, but I also, Mary, I kind of have this question about how i s it going
22 otherwise, and can you provide some more perspective for me on how we're
23 making progress on filling the agency's critical skill gaps?
24 Are there places where we st ill have more work to do, what 42
1 are those, what are those critical skill gaps? Did we meet the mark entirely
2 on health physicists? Just by way of an example. Are there ot her things
3 then? How are we doing?
4 MS. LAMARY: Thank you, I think, sir, for the question. It's
5 a tough question, and that is because it's a small candidate po ol for which
6 there is high competition. Private sector, often times we can' t compete, but
7 there is, I think, and I see actually it trending upward again, high value and
8 high sense of reward in public service, and folks wanting to co me to the federal
9 government.
10 I think that the most immediate indicator of that is our NRAN
11 program. When we posted that job, so just for context we previ ously filled
12 with our co-ops, and folks that had NRAN, NRC experience, or so me sort of
13 engagement. So, whether they were grant recipients, whether th ey had been
14 one of our co-ops, et cetera. And we incorporated them into th e NRAN. The
15 next go around as word got out, we began to publish up on USAJo bs, an open
16 announcement.
17 And when I tell you that 188 applications came in, that is
18 very indicative, and they were from across the country, I didn' t bring it,
19 Commissioner Crowell, but I have a list of the education instit utions from which
20 the NRAN applicants came, and it's quite diverse, and so I was very pleased
21 with that. So, I think that's our more technical side, so I th ink particularly if
22 we are able to call from the folks that do not quite make the c ut to the NRAN
23 program.
24 An additional 20, 30 folks from there, we'll have a nice entry 43
1 level into the pipeline to continue to build that, but it's a t ough go. We were
2 very successful in our hiring initiatives overall, it's just th at there are still some
3 problem occupations in terms of attracting a high number of can didates. But
4 we are attracting candidates, we are hiring OKR for FY23 has tw o more pay
5 periods.
6 But as we sit here today, we've brought in the door, not
7 pending background, in the door, we've brought in over 335 folk s this year.
8 So, we're doing pretty good. I also would say that we had a lo wer than
9 projected attrition for FY23.
10 CHAIR HANSON: Well, thank you, I should have led with
11 that, and really the tremendous amount of success that OCHCO, a nd the
12 entire agency, right?
13 MS. LAMARY: Yes, sir.
14 CHAIR HANSON: You know, our hiring managers are
15 doing their day jobs, and they're recruiting.
16 MS. LAMARY: All we can do is give you the BQL.
17 CHAIR HANSON: Exactly. And it's a many hands kind of
18 situation, and I think as a number of us acknowledged, it's a s et of muscles
19 we haven't had a chance to exercise. So, but I think as we loo k at the work
20 that's in front of us, and going forward, filling those strateg ic skill gaps; reactor
21 design, reactor systems analysis, fuel, all of these kinds of k ey, and yet very
22 niche, and highly competitive as you know, things are going to be really
23 something that we want to stay focused on, so thank you.
24 MS. LAMARY: If I can follow up on that, I'd just like to say 44
1 that we're in the gym building that muscle today. That is not even a muscle
2 that we have not had the opportunity to flex. And so, we're tr ying to build the
3 capacity, and the ability to do a more robust position manageme nt, position
4 refresh, reclassify our positions.
5 Make sure that we're targeting for the exact right skill sets
6 that we need to meet our mission critical needs, and so, more t o come on
7 RSWP efforts, sir.
8 CHAIR HANSON: Well, let me kind of follow up on a
9 question on that too. I think the last time we did this, Eric Dilworth had given
10 the presentation about how --
11 MS. LAMARY: Deputy CHCO.
12 CHAIR HANSON: Yes, Deputy CHCO, thank you, had
13 given the presentation about the number, about the amount of ti me for
14 onboarding. And I think onboarding is critical in all kinds of ways, it's critical
15 for recruiting, and the yield that we get in terms of folks tha t actually come on
16 board. I think it's also important for diversity, equity, and inclusion too, right?
17 MS. LAMARY: Yes, sir.
18 CHAIR HANSON: And so, Eric had said that we were
19 running about 120 days, but that the kind of -- I don't know if he was kind of
20 calling it the benchmark, or the best practice, or whatever, wa s something
21 down around 80 days, and that you all had a plan, I believe, to bring that down.
22 So, where are we on the plan?
23 MS. LAMARY: So, yes, we were running about 120 days.
24 The OPM standard has an 80-day hiring metric. It also has hiri ng metrics for 45
1 various steps in the hiring process for how long it takes to po st, how long it
2 takes to, once you have a BQL, to do, you, sir, you the hiring official, to do
3 your interviews, make your selection.
4 It has a hiring metric for folks getting through background,
5 et cetera. So, cradle to grave, there are hiring metrics, we'r e tracking those.
6 We have automated that system, we have a time to hire dashboard, and
7 offices have access to that, they can go in, see where their bo ttlenecks are for
8 their hiring. So, we've automated that process in terms of dat a mining so that
9 offices can reduce their own hiring time metrics.
10 As I said, the best we can do is post the job, rack and stack
11 the applicants, and give you a BQL, a best qualified list. And then it's up to
12 the hiring, and everybody's busy, and what's more critical, get this work done,
13 or stop doing that work to interview candidates so that I can h ire somebody to
14 do that work? So it's a balancing effort. It's certainly not that folks are not
15 focused on hiring, we very much are.
16 We're also focused on retaining the folks that we have, so.
17 CHAIR HANSON: But where are we on the --
18 MS. LAMARY: Sorry, sorry. So, I would say that across
19 the board, if you do an agency wide average, we probably shaved down about
20 20, I'd like to say more, but I'm comfortable saying 20.
21 CHAIR HANSON: 20 days, so we're about 100 days.
22 MS. LAMARY: 20 days, so we're about at 100 days now.
23 CHAIR HANSON: So, we've gotten about halfway to our
24 goal?
46
1 MS. LAMARY: Yes, sir, sorry.
2 CHAIR HANSON: Okay, and we're still, we're going to
3 keep working that?
4 MS. LAMARY: Yes, sir, yes, sir.
5 CHAIR HANSON: Excellent, that's a good answer.
6 MS. LAMARY: Yes, sir.
7 CHAIR HANSON: All right, thank you. Larniece I want to
8 thank you, and the rest of SBCR for all the work you guys have done in the
9 last 18 months really, or even 12 months to reconstitute the Mi nority Serving
10 Institution Grant Program. I know one of the big challenges is we've got this
11 program again, it's kind of getting the word out to all kinds o f institutions about
12 the availability of this funding to support their academic prog rams, faculty,
13 students, and the whole bit.
14 So, can you just talk a little bit about the efforts that you a ll
15 have underway to kind of get the word out there?
16 MS. McKOY MOORE: Yes, that has been not an issue, but
17 we've been working to get the word out there more. Of course, we work with
18 the other programs in our office who liaise with the White Hous e initiatives for
19 different educational groups. So, we get the word out there. We did kind of
20 a canvas of all of the minority serving institutions, and pulle d some of the
21 department heads, development offices, and we sent an email.
22 We also kind of depend on the relationships of people here,
23 so as we talk to the DMIC, or talk to regions, we say you know, if you have a
24 good relationship with your university, or your department head, talk to them, 47
1 let them know that we have these grants, and we're giving away money for
2 scholarships for qualified students.
3 So, you know, of course within reason, you have to apply.
4 So, we're doing a lot of things. And then the last thing that we plan on doing
5 is kind of a focus group of those who have been successful in a pplying for
6 grants, and we'll be using, reaching out to minority serving in stitutions from
7 both our grant program, as well as the research grant program.
8 And just talking to them about what can we do better, how
9 can we reach your colleagues, and the like. So, we're working it.
10 CHAIR HANSON: That's great, thank you very much.
11 And thanks for the efforts, and again, full ahead.
12 MS. McKOY MOORE: Yes.
13 CHAIR HANSON: So, with that, you mentioned the
14 universities, and the university champions, I'll just take my l ast 12 seconds,
15 and put in a plug for the University Champions Program. I had the pleasure
16 of speaking with the group, I think we had something like 100 p eople in
17 attendance and online. And I think it's a lot of fun for every one on the
18 Commission to be able to go to these places with folks who have been there.
19 Whether it was Shawn Smith down to Alabama A&M, or
20 Katie and Mike to Georgia Tech, or whatever, I think it enhance s the
21 experience for Commissioners, but also it builds those really s trong
22 relationships. And I think it's critical to our recruiting effo rts, but also maybe
23 some of these other grant making, and other kinds of efforts as well.
24 So, if you're not aware of the University Champions 48
1 Program, everyone, I think there's a web page now, and some oth er
2 resources, and you can get engaged, and sign up, and I think it 's a great way.
3 So much of the recruiting that I've been exposed to, or stories that I've heard
4 from people in the agency is they joined the agency because the y knew
5 somebody who worked here.
6 They had that kind of personal connection, and I think the
7 university champions can be a great way to strengthen that. Wi th that, I
8 appreciate the extra minute, and I'll hand it over to Commissio ner Wright.
9 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you, Chair. Good
10 morning everyone. Thank you for your presentations. You know, it's kind of
11 we spend a lot of our time talking about plants and other stuff, but it's the
12 people who work here, if we don't have the people, we don't get the work done,
13 right? So, this is why this is such an important meeting, and hearing about
14 the hiring, and the retention, and all the other programs that are out there,
15 getting that update is valuable, and it adds value to what we d o as
16 Commissioners.
17 And I had questions I was going to ask, but listening to some
18 of you talk, I was like I think I need to maybe chase that rabb it a second. So,
19 I'm going to chase a rabbit, I guess. So, I heard, Dan, in you r comments, and
20 maybe, Vonna, maybe it was in yours too, but y'all kept referri ng to desired
21 culture.
22 And I was looking through all the data in prep for the meeting
23 too, and I did not see a definition for desired culture, all ri ght? So, I know
24 that, Dan, we have the 2023 organizational culture inventory, a nd I heard, and 49
1 we've got all the affinity groups, and all the different advisory groups that are
2 there, and they all have their, I guess their mission statement, or whatever,
3 right? Their purpose.
4 But I did not see anywhere where we have desired culture
5 defined. Is it somewhere?
6 MR. DORMAN: Yes, Commissioner, thanks for the
7 question. So, we talked about the organizational culture inven tory, which
8 was something that we adopted in response to the first Jam seve ral years
9 back, and in 2020 we did a survey of the staff on what our curr ent culture is,
10 but there was also a survey of a subgroup on the same questions, where do
11 we want to be?
12 And so, on less defensive behaviors, more openness kind
13 of things. And so as we used that tool going forward, we bench marked that,
14 our survey results against what that desired culture was. So, we have, if you
15 recall those wheels on the data on those with the green, red, a nd blue sectors,
16 we have those for where we are. But then we also have those fo r where we
17 want to be.
18 And that's what I referred to, that we're not making as much
19 progress as we would like toward the where we want to be.
20 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: So, that's like a moving
21 target, always or continually improving target?
22 MR. DORMAN: It can move, but it doesn't typically move a
23 lot. So, I think we -- I'd have to check with my team, I think we did re-baseline
24 that desired culture in '23, and it didn't move a lot. So, it is something that's 50
1 what we're identifying, so it's not some external standard that we're imposing
2 on ourselves. But that's --
3 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: I guess that's kind of where
4 I'm going, is there a need for that, right? For us to kind of, I mean if you're
5 going to refer to it in briefings like this, it'd be nice to kn ow like here's what
6 we're talking about.
7 MR. DORMAN: Yeah.
8 MS. ORDAZ: And I would offer most definitely, there is a
9 need. One of the reasons for the theme of the briefing was doi ng business
10 differently, it's a way to change our dynamic, change our think ing so we can
11 move it to the next level in the culture of the agency across t he board. One
12 of the reasons why we brought our friend Dr. Shih here today wa s we went
13 down to his agency downtown just a couple of weeks ago, or was it last week?
14 MR. DORMAN: Monday, it was this week.
15 MS. ORDAZ: Time is flying. But anyway, we went there
16 to witness the NASA culture at headquarters. We got a tour, I met two
17 astronauts, which I will always remember, and also saw one, jus t so you know,
18 on the International Space Station, working, we saw. So, but w e walked
19 around NASA headquarters, and of course when we were number one in the
20 FEVS, we were always -- everybody was calling us, the phones were ringing
21 off the hook, what is NRC doing?
22 What is the special sauce there? And I asked the same
23 question to my friend and colleague here. And it really came d own to the
24 people, they care. We walked all around his headquarters with our whole 51
1 team went, and everybody that we ran into, even the deputy, the second in
2 command at NASA stopped and talked to us in the hallway, they s topped and
3 interacted with us.
4 We went, even toured his gym, the guy in the gym gave us
5 a whole tour, and they had Respect Boulevard, and all these nea t little road
6 signs. But they have just everybody stops and shares with us. In the
7 hallway they have models of all different types of things from space, the
8 astronaut uniforms, the space uniforms, the models of the Inter national Space
9 Station, et cetera.
10 And people along the way will just talk and share their
11 excitement about being there, how diversity, equity, and inclus ion is every
12 aspect of what they do, even from the standpoint of the space s tation where
13 everything that Steve was describing to us is all about inclusi on, how that's
14 one place in the entire world where everybody comes together, a nd it's one
15 universe.
16 There is no sides, if you will. There is no, we're all togethe r
17 in this, it's unity at its best. And they even started a progr am on unity at NASA
18 that's very intriguing, and so we're learning from our partners. And I think that
19 helps us become better individuals and regulator, and that is g oing to go a
20 long way for us, as well as the incredible programs that most o f the people in
21 this room are standing up, the culture team.
22 Our new Christopher Craighead, back row over here, is
23 starting to lead the way by identifying culture leaders across the agency. And
24 we've got -- and I'm one of the executive sponsors for that, as well as a couple 52
1 of my colleagues. And we are going to be kicking this off in t he beginning of
2 2024 to really see where we can take the agency culture to the next level.
3 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Right. I mean, I have my
4 own thoughts about what I perceive as being a desired culture, but I'm not
5 sure it's the same as yours, or the same as yours, right?
6 MR. DORMAN: So, I think clearly we can do a better job of
7 laying that out, because the same question came up in my town h all yesterday,
8 so I think we can do a better job of communicating that.
9 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Very good, yeah. All starts
10 with respect and compassion, that's -- all right. So, Vonna, a nd maybe Dan,
11 you can chip in on this one here, one thing that we used to hea r a lot about
12 was a set of habits, FOCSE, remember that? Fair, open, coopera tive,
13 supportive, and empowering habits. I mean, I see we still trac k some of this
14 in our current inclusive diversity strategy plan, right?
15 The keyword for me is empowering, I really love the word
16 empowering, and we want to make sure that people understand how their
17 work matters to our agency, and to the country. So, what are w e doing these
18 days to help people feel empowered in their work?
19 MS. ORDAZ: Sure, well -- did you want me to start?
20 MR. DORMAN: Go ahead.
21 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you, Dan.
22 MR. DORMAN: Sure.
23 MS. ORDAZ: I would say a lot of things. I will tell you I
24 recently conducted a number of interviews for my deputy positio n for Jeannie 53
1 who is leaving. And I was very pleased to see that many of the m, when I
2 asked about their management style, offered that it was servant leadership,
3 and that's kind of the model, not the textbook servant leadersh ip, but just the
4 concept of servant leadership.
5 Where having the experts speak for the program areas, and
6 we as leaders above them to remove barriers so they can be succ essful in
7 implementing their jobs, and their roles. So, I was very pleas ed that almost
8 everybody answered the question with servant leadership answer. That
9 shows me there's been growth and development of that.
10 So, that is one thing, but it all really starts with trust.
11 Trusting your staff to be able to feel empowered, to carry out your vision, and
12 your mission. I would also say the RiskSMART model. We talk a bout being
13 risk smart, we're a risk smart regulator, and we have to do tha t as we lead the
14 staff.
15 There's a quote that I'd love to share that I think Andrea
16 Kock uses this on her little Teams message, but it's we rise by lifting others.
17 And I truly believe in that whole concept, and I see that acros s the agency.
18 Do we need to do more of it? Yes. And then promoting accountab ility at all
19 levels. I think that's so important, and we see some of those challenges,
20 perhaps in our FEVS results on Leaders Lead.
21 But promoting that accountability, that each individual has
22 an accountable role in their position, and how we do that throu gh
23 empowerment is so important. And the other thing I would offer is
24 appreciation and recognition programs. They're important in so many ways, 54
1 and we're learning, even from our colleagues, on new ways of do ing that.
2 When they're empowered to take on a briefing such as this,
3 or tasks, the big tasks that come out of the Commission, recogn izing our staff
4 and rewarding them for stepping up and leading efforts. The vo lunteers you
5 see around the room, they are all volunteers in many cases for all the activities
6 that we do, and that we're proud of, and that we speak to, and rewarding and
7 recognizing them is a very important part of what we do.
8 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Yeah, servant leaders need a
9 leader servant to follow, and that's where I kind of looked at myself to try to
10 model that. Because if I from my position can empower and help these
11 people grow by getting down and helping them, then I am serving them, but
12 I'm doing it from a leadership perspective, and to help grow se rvant leaders,
13 and to be leader servants.
14 So, I look at it a little differently from where I sit, so don' t
15 forget the leader servant side of things.
16 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you.
17 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Thank you.
18 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Wright.
19 Commissioner Caputo?
20 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Good morning. I want to
21 add my thanks to Cathy Haney for her years of service. She and I have
22 worked together in various capacities for both of us over the y ears, and I've
23 always appreciated our frank, forthright, and candid discussion s. So, thank
24 you very much Cathy, for your service. And to Jeannie out there, to both of 55
1 you, best of luck in your next endeavors.
2 Sorry to see you go but thank you so much for your
3 contributions here. And thanks to everyone who made contributi ons for this
4 meeting. These are important activities that take place all ye ar. But they
5 can be tough to talk about, but also necessary for the agency t o be successful.
6 So, thank you all for the contributions that are being made on diversity and
7 inclusion, and all of the hiring and recruitment, et cetera.
8 Dr. Shih, thank you for coming, glad to hear that our
9 agencies are working together on best practices. I just hope y ou're not here
10 to do a little reconnaissance to poach our talent. I want to s tart with a
11 question, I guess about training, a little bit dabbling in stra tegic workforce
12 planning. Let me just start by thanking Region II. I was out in Region II and
13 had the pleasure of an All Hands meeting, but also a briefing f rom the
14 management team there.
15 And I was struck by several of the things that Laura has
16 talked about today. Using rehired annuitants to help train res ident inspectors,
17 and get them up to speed, and qualified. Being able to retain senior residents
18 after their responsibilities are concluded for the same purpose. I think that
19 really shows a lot of initiative, and creative thinking in tryi ng to address training
20 challenges there, and I really appreciate that.
21 The other one that I thought was great for a number of
22 reasons is using data to track training, and work qualification s. Using data
23 analytics to actually improve the time to competency, and accel erate
24 qualification, and to validate the benefits of all of these eff orts by using data.
56
1 So, I just think this is a really impressive effort on the part of Region II to really
2 tackle knowledge management at the ground level, and really sho w progress
3 through validation with data, so thank you for that.
4 When it comes to training in general though, I have to say, I
5 feel like there's some feedback from staff that they feel busy enough with their
6 day-to-day responsibilities, that they don't necessarily have adequate time for
7 training. And I think that gives me a little bit of a concern. Given our primary
8 function is really licensing and oversight, we've done signific ant hiring over the
9 last couple years.
10 So, Dan, I have a question for you, how are you looking at
11 workload, and how to shed lower priority work to give people th e time that they
12 need to train, and be adequately staffed, adequately prepared t o make timely
13 decisions?
14 MR. DORMAN: Thank you, Commissioner. This was one
15 of the main items coming out of the Jam last summer, and we hav e stood up
16 a team that's being led by Rob Lewis, our Deputy Director of th e Office of
17 Nuclear Material Security and Safeguards to look across the age ncy at how
18 we're managing the work load, prioritizing, and making sure tha t we are
19 consciously, as you say, identifying the lower priority work, a nd making sure
20 we're focused on the right things.
21 And a piece of that would be making sure that we're getting
22 the training and development for our staff. But I think it's c ritically important,
23 not just for the new staff that are coming on board, but that w e continue to
24 grow all of our staff.
57
1 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: So, I'm going to probe here a
2 little bit more with regard to project managers. So, the lates t capacity
3 assessment projected that by 2027 we may have a gap of 114 proj ect
4 managers. And that could be a time when we're really experienc ing a
5 significant growth in workload, and licensing reviews.
6 So, this is clearly going to be a significant hiring and traini ng
7 challenge, and yet we've seen some areas where strategic workfo rce planning
8 has really not been up to the mark, and not positioned as to th e way we need
9 it to be. Subsequent license renewal reviews is certainly an e xample of that.
10 So, how -- what efforts are underway to really look at that, an d ensure that we
11 prevent ending up with a gap in project managers?
12 Because that's kind of a, it's a knowledge management
13 issue, it's a strategic workforce planning issue. How are we l ooking
14 specifically at action items to prevent that crucial gap?
15 MR. DORMAN: Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. So,
16 during this past year, we had a contractor perform an evaluatio n of our
17 strategic workforce planning process, and we are working with t hem on the
18 draft report, and so I hope early in '24 we'll have their recom mendations. But
19 we will be focusing on strengthening our strategic workforce pl anning process.
20 I will say on project managers as a specific example, it's
21 been a concerted effort for hiring project managers this year. I think part of it
22 also is our projections, our environmental assessment, that's t he first step of
23 our strategic workforce planning process, looking out five year s, and the
24 fidelity of that. As you know, that's a period of time where t here could be an 58
1 inflection point in where our needs are.
2 So, that's going to be a key element of it, but let me see if
3 Mary wants to add anything on the SWP aspect.
4 MS. LAMARY: Thank you, I do. Thank you, Dan, and
5 thank you for the question. I would say that the number that y ou're citing, the
6 120 plus is a reflection -- it's to inform our hiring decisions. In other words,
7 that's our projected attrition, and projected need. If we took no action, that
8 would be the delta, that would be our gap.
9 And so, that sort of is a way to inform where we focus our
10 recruitment efforts going forward to prevent that kind of gap. So, we're
11 looking at that, and that's part of what I was saying about how we're trying to
12 revamp, and properly resource, and be in the gym building these skill sets.
13 To really go back, do a position review, do a proper position m anagement,
14 and make sure that we're placing, focusing our efforts in the r ight areas for our
15 strategic workforce planning to inform our recruitment.
16 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: So, I hear you with that, but
17 Dan's looking at a draft report in early '24, right? Then there 'll be at some
18 subsequent point in time a final report, then there will be a m ove to digest the
19 recommendations and decide what the actions are, then there'll be time to
20 implement those actions, right? And hiring takes four months, and of course
21 these people don't, I assume, come to the agency fully trained and ready to
22 be project managers.
23 So, there's a training lead time here. So, while I get it, tha t
24 2027 is three years ago, the time frame to accomplish all of th is makes it seem 59
1 like it's more or less right around the corner.
2 MS. LAMARY: Well, it's today, it is not around the corner.
3 To quote a former football coach, the future is now, and it's t oday, and sorry,
4 Dan, if you were at the town hall yesterday, you heard Cathy Ha ney mention
5 that she's meeting with us today. We're not waiting, we're wor king on
6 proposals now. We've looked at it, we've seen the draft report, we were
7 actually -- we paused.
8 I was working with EDO's office last year to sort of refocus
9 these efforts internally while the evaluation was going on. So, we're
10 positioned now to meet with the EDO's office, and make some
11 recommendations, and some requests. We're not waiting, ma'am.
12 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Larniece, shifting a bit, I just
13 want to say I really appreciated the nature of your comments on cognitive
14 diversity and inclusion. People really perform best, and get t he most job
15 satisfaction when they're appreciated, and feel valued. And ma king sure that
16 their contributions are appreciated, I think is really key to t hat. And that's
17 something that I certainly have discussed over the last year.
18 I shared some personal experiences in this meeting last
19 year about observations and behaviors that women are experienci ng in the
20 workplace. I'm going to take a moment to just personally thank all of those
21 women who have shared experiences with me over the past year. It certainly
22 takes a fair bit of courage to have that discussion, and I have really
23 appreciated, and learned from everything that's been shared wit h me.
24 I also want to thank those who have voiced their support and 60
1 commitment to making a difference here to be allies, and work t o make our
2 work environment more welcome for women's contributions. In a lot of ways
3 this is a kind of topic that it's easy to talk about it, and it 's harder to do
4 something about it. And I think sometimes it's easy to be frustrated by seeing
5 a strong desire to continue the conversation, but not necessari ly see
6 forthcoming actions to make a difference. And so, as Vonna sai d, it's time to
7 consistently turn our words into action, and to do so with a se nse of urgency.
8 So, one idea that Vonna and I have heard over the last year is to take a page
9 from a meeting facilitator's play book and learn techniques to help women
10 constructively insert themselves into discussions in a meeting setting.
11 And this may be a very small step, but I expect this approach
12 may be helpful for other minority and gender non-conforming emp loyees as
13 well. So, Vonna, you and I have discussed the skill building c oncept with
14 regard to women. I very much want to help you and support this effort in any
15 way that I can. Is this something we can develop and execute i n calendar
16 year '24?
17 MS. ORDAZ: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, your charge
18 of last year, it was really a moment for many of us in the room. Your fan club
19 afterwards, and even in some of our venues this past year. I w ould say that
20 we were happy in April to have our first ICARE session on women telling their
21 stories, featuring you.
22 And it really opened our eyes in many ways for some items
23 that we need to work on in the agency. I know at the Jam in Jun e there was a
24 crowd sourcing event, we collected a lot of data on this area a s well. And 61
1 then in September, our office, NPAAC, FWPAC, and NTWN, the NRC' s
2 Technical Women's Network had this event called Working Toward Gender
3 Equality.
4 So, all of these efforts have really helped us move forward.
5 And to identify the issues, put them on the table, and discuss them, however
6 we still need tools in place. We need tools in place for ourse lves as
7 individuals, we need tools in place for our allies to help us m ove forward, and
8 advance. So, with that I would offer that we have an effort un derway.
9 I'm calling it The Advancement of Women in the Workplace,
10 and it's open to men as well, and those non-conforming individu als. As we
11 enter 2024 with our leadership, we are focusing and aggregating FWPAC and
12 NTWN's gender equity activities, an action plan from Chair Hans on's
13 International Committee on Gender Neutrals and follow through f rom the
14 charge that we have from you, Commissioner, on gender civility, I c a l l i t, i n t h e
15 workplace.
16 And I think I made that term up, so it's new. But it really is
17 all about civility, right? And so this crowd sourcing event wo uld be in early
18 next year, and we're happy to work with some of your folks on t his event. And
19 I think we're calling it a workshop that would follow, and it'l l have break out
20 groups and facilitators, and help identify the necessary tools and support we
21 need as an agency.
22 And this is open to all, so I really appreciate your continued
23 interest in this, the Chair's interest, and all the Commissione rs, and Dan's as
24 well. And I think with these concerted efforts we will move fo rward for sure in 62
1 a more positive way.
2 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: Wonderful, I look forward to
3 the progress.
4 MS. ORDAZ: Thank you.
5 COMMISSIONER CAPUTO: And let me just conclude by
6 making a remark to Celimar, thank you for being here. Our EEO A dvisory
7 Committee's resource groups and affinity groups really are so i mportant for
8 providing forums to have discussions like this, and to advance these issues.
9 So, thank you very much to you, all of the organizations, and a ll of the
10 volunteers who contribute to just the vibrant discussions in th ose forums.
11 Thank you very much.
12 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Commissioner Caputo. And
13 now we'll take a few minutes to hear from, I believe Sheryl San chez, yeah?
14 Sheryl, okay, as our union representative for the National Trea sury Employees
15 Union. Sheryl? Sheryl, I'm sorry to interrupt, we just want to make sure that
16 that's on.
17 MS. SANCHEZ: Okay. Good morning, better, okay.
18 CHAIR HANSON: Well done.
19 MS. SANCHEZ: Good morning, Chair Hanson,
20 Commissioners, managers, and most importantly bargaining unit e mployees,
21 without which we would not be able to fulfill our mission. I a m Sheryl
22 Sanchez, President of NTEU Chapter 208, and I am pleased to be here this
23 morning to provide the union's comments. NTEU Chapter 208 is t he
24 exclusive representative of bargaining unit employees at the NR C.
63
1 I am joined here in the room and virtually by many NTEU
2 team leaders who work every day for bargaining unit employees, such as
3 stewards, labor partners, bargaining team members, and elected officers.
4 Without such a dedicated team, NTEU would not be able to work t ogether to
5 ensure that every NRC employee is treated with dignity and resp ect.
6 I will first start out with the EEO type stuff, then go onto
7 different topics. So, employees should contact both union stew ards and an
8 EEO counselor when they're getting initial information about fi ling
9 discrimination complaints. There are two separate processes th e employee
10 may choose, with each having their own merits.
11 The union has successfully convinced SBCR to revise their
12 complaint procedures and website; it's very well done by the wa y. The
13 website now identifies the union alternative to processing a ca se using the
14 negotiated grievance procedures with steward assistance. The p rocesses
15 could involve alternative dispute resolution if the employer re quests it.
16 This mandates union involvement. If any SBCR staff
17 initiate settlement discussions to resolve a complaint, this qu a l i f i e s a s a f o r m a l
18 meeting, again, requiring union involvement. This is clearly o utlined in the
19 collective bargaining agreement, and was recently brought forwa rd to SBCR,
20 resulting in change to their practice.
21 Staff should understand the benefits of having a trained
22 steward collaborating with you to work towards a favorable solu tion to your
23 discrimination complaint. At the last Commission meeting, I re ported to the
24 Commission progress underway for telework changes involving uni on pre-64
1 decisional involvement.
2 Union representatives and agency officials reached
3 agreement on the flexible work model which was submitted to the Commission
4 as an information paper. The Commission changed the information paper to
5 a vote paper, and the flexible work model implementation was su spended due
6 to the Commission vote. After conferring with our NTEU nationa l legal
7 department, the union filed a grievance.
8 The attorneys advised us that a grievance calling out the
9 Commission's violation has a strong chance of prevailing at arb itration since
10 the laws are clear, and what the Commission did was interfere w ith both the
11 agency and union's right to negotiate. Last Tuesday, Dale Yiel ding and I
12 presented the Step B union grievance claiming the Commission's intervention
13 stopping implementation of the negotiated telework flexible wor k model was a
14 violation of labor-management relations statute, and thus an un fair labor
15 practice.
16 The grievance decision is expected by January 12th, 2024.
17 If we do not prevail, you can be assured the union will escalat e the matter into
18 arbitration. Implementing the flexible work model will not mak e all of our
19 current challenges disappear, but it will get us closer from wh ere we are now
20 to actual presence with a purpose.
21 Even though presence with a purpose is now not an agency
22 policy, since it was part of the now stalled flexible work mode l. Where we are
23 now is in the bottom quartile in FEVS scores for the last two y ears. 2021 was
24 the first year ever that the agency fell below the median for m id-sized 65
1 agencies, coming in at 20 of 25. And 2022 was similar, ranking of 21 of 27
2 with a decrease in our engagement and satisfaction score.
3 Only 6 of the 27 agencies saw a decrease in this score.
4 There's been a lot of analysis as to why we had this fall. The FEVS analysis
5 shows that while we have a high degree of trust in our first le vel managers,
6 the trust in senior management took a very large hit, likely st arting with the
7 COVID re-entry, and continuing through today's issues with tele work.
8 This lack of trust in our leaders, as well as the current
9 telework situation with no clear path forward is clearly impact ing employee
10 morale and our agency culture. This puts the agency at risk be cause if the
11 trend is not reversed, it will negatively impact our mission. We are hiring, but
12 we are facing serious problems with recruitment, retention, and retirement.
13 If we hire over 300 employees, but we lose 200, we're not
14 doing very well. Many bargaining unit employees who retire are telling the
15 union they would have liked to stay a few years longer, but the y're so
16 discouraged that they are retiring earlier than they had origin ally planned.
17 With so many new employees losing this opportunity for more kno wledge
18 transfer and mentoring should scare the agency.
19 Regarding recruiting and retention, if we want to attract the
20 best and most diverse employees, as well as retain experienced staff, we need
21 to have more telework, including full time telework. This woul d include
22 employees who live in different geographic location than where their job is
23 located. I have fought and will continue to fight to give autho rity to make all
24 telework decisions, including full time telework to first line supervisors.
66
1 As I firmly believe they are the best informed and equipped
2 to make this decision. However, I would be negligent if I did not acknowledge
3 that telework has taken a stage in national politics. We are b eing told that
4 other federal agencies are teleworking less than we are and are in the office
5 more than the NRC.
6 However, a July 13th, 2023, GAO report which reported
7 occupancy rates at 24 D.C. area federal agencies, the NRC headq uarters
8 ranked in the highest quartile for building occupancy. As we a pproach the
9 holiday season, and based on this report, Senator Ernst of Ohio revealed her
10 naughty list of government agencies with low occupancy rates in their
11 buildings.
12 Leading the list were agencies like Social Security with 7
13 percent, GSA, 11, and OPM with 12. Do you know who was one of the
14 highest agencies with recorded occupancy in the D.C. area? It was the NRC
15 with 30 percent. However, we should not sacrifice our employee s just to stay
16 off the naughty list. Getting the appropriate amount of telewo rk, including full
17 time telework, which should not be reserved for those we are tr ying to recruit,
18 or who are a flight risk, is the elephant in the room and why m any employees
19 are discouraged and frustrated.
20 It should not be a news flash to the agency based on our
21 retirement and attrition rates that everyone is a flight risk. This is not the
22 military, employees can and do leave when they do not feel valu ed. No one
23 has an issue with being in the office when they need to be. Th e frustration is
24 due to the incredibly large amount of presence without a purpos e.
67
1 And being forced to come into the office to satisfy agency
2 policy, and then often sitting there in their cubicles attendin g hybrid Teams
3 meetings without any real face to face interaction. I'm also c oncerned about
4 the Commission's direction that SES need to have a much larger presence
5 than they do now. Although I do not represent them, I'm wonderi ng if we are
6 not considering that this inequity will cause dissatisfaction a mong some SES.
7 My concern is for our bargaining unit employees, but
8 satisfaction at all levels impacts the overall morale of an org anization. So,
9 less satisfaction at any level is not in the best interest of t he NRC. It is also
10 interesting that according to that GAO report, the federal agen cies that have
11 been called out as recently increasing SES presence all have ve ry low building
12 occupancy rates.
13 Is it essential to increase management's required time in the
14 office when most employees won't even be there? I will conclud e by saying
15 that telework is work. A lot of employees, including me, are m ore efficient,
16 and get more done when they telework. It is essential to the m ission of the
17 agency that our employees remain at the NRC and remain engaged and
18 dedicated.
19 While I believe that many of our managers are trying to do
20 the right thing to make their employees feel valued, for member s of the
21 bargaining unit, NTEU is fighting for you. Please join us in t his fight, as there
22 is great strength in numbers. You can join the union at nteu.o rg. Thank you
23 for your attention.
24 CHAIR HANSON: Thank you, Sheryl. Thank you again to 68
1 all of our presenters. Thanks to the colleagues, I think once again we've had
2 a very good discussion, and really covered a wide range of the topics that are
3 really important to building the kind of workforce and culture that we want at
4 this agency, and I appreciate all of your efforts. Congratulat ions again to
5 Cathy Haney on your retirement, and Jean Dempsey, that was news as well,
6 so congratulations to Jean.
7 And of course Dan, we'll have opportunities yet, we've got a
8 couple Commission meetings to go, so don't worry. Dan's not qu ite -- I think
9 we've got some upcoming Commission meetings in January where we 'll have
10 our opportunity to give Dan his due kudos. So, with that, than k you again,
11 everyone, and we're adjourned.
12 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter went off the record
13 at 11:52 a.m.)