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1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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4 BRIEFING ON EEO PROGRAM
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6 PUBLIC MEETING
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8 Nuclear Regulatory Commission
9 One White Flint North
10 Rockville, Maryland
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12 Tuesday, October 14, 1997
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14 The Commission met in open session, pursuant to
15 notice, at 10:04 a.m., the Honorable SHIRLEY A. JACKSON,
16 Chairman of the Commission, presiding.
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18 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
19 SHIRLEY A. JACKSON, Chairman of the Commission
20 GRETA J. DICUS, Member of the Commission
21 NILS J. DIAZ, Member of the Commission
22 EDWARD McGAFFIGAN, JR., Member of the Commission
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1 STAFF AND PRESENTERS SEATED AT COMMISSION TABLE
2 JOHN C. HOYLE, Secretary of the Commission
3 KAREN D. CYR, General Counsel
4 PATRICIA NORRY, DEDM
5 IRENE LITTLE, SBCR
6 PAUL BIRD, HR
7 BILL BEACH, Region III
8 CARL PAPERIELLO, NMSS
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 [10:04 a.m.]
3 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Good morning, ladies and
4 gentlemen. Today the Commission is meeting to discuss the
5 status of the NRC's Equal Employment Opportunity program for
6 the period of October 1, 1996, to June 30, 1997.
7 The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended,
8 requires the Executive Director for Operations to report to
9 the Commission at semiannual public meetings on the status,
10 progress and any problems associated with EEO efforts.
11 The Commission held the last EEO briefing on
12 February 20, 1997. At the previous meeting and in a March
13 7, 1997, staff requirements memorandum, the Commission
14 requested that the next briefing include a presentation by
15 office directors on implementation of EEO program policies,
16 including topics on preselection, development of management
17 skills, and evaluation of those skills as part of job
18 performance.
19 Today the briefing will include presentations by
20 three office directors. SECY Paper 97-197, copies of which
21 are available at the entrances to the room, contains
22 additional information and data on the status of the NRC EEO
23 program, the response to the March 7, 1997, SRM, and
24 activities of the EEO advisory committees, subcommittees and
25 the Joint Labor Management EEO Committee.
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1 Clearly the paper represents a great deal of work,
2 initiatives, recommendations and plans on the parts of the
3 Office of Small Business and Civil Rights, Human Resources,
4 the EDO's office, the advisory committees, subcommittees,
5 and the Joint Labor Management EEO Committee.
6 Further, I understand that you are continuing a
7 spirit of cooperative dialogue as you search for improvement
8 in the EEO program at NRC. I encourage you in these
9 efforts, and I encourage you never to loose sight of the
10 fact that, as you've heard me say before -- it's becoming a
11 mantra -- excellence is as excellence does, and therefore
12 the test will lie in whether the initiatives,
13 recommendations and plans we implement will significantly
14 result in a more equitable work environment or the
15 perception of it for all of us at the NRC.
16 On that note, I welcome the presenters and all
17 employees in the audience who have demonstrated by their
18 presence an interest in and commitment to the NRC EEO
19 program.
20 I look forward to hearing about the results and
21 outcomes the NRC has achieved in the EEO area, evidencing
22 that all employees can demonstrate their unique skills and
23 talents in fulfillment of the agency's mission, can be
24 evaluated fairly, and that there are enhanced opportunities
25 for development and advancement without concern of
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1 preselection at all grade levels regardless of race, gender,
2 national origin, age, or disability.
3 Do any of my colleagues have any comments they
4 would like to make? If not, Mrs. Norry, I understand you'll
5 be leading the discussion. Please proceed.
6 MRS. NORRY: Thank you.
7 Chairman Jackson, Commissioner Dicus, Commissioner
8 McGaffigan, Commissioner Diaz, good morning. We are pleased
9 to be here today to provide the Commission with information
10 on the current status of the agency's equal employment
11 opportunity program covering the beginning of the fiscal
12 year, October 1, 1996, through June 30, 1997.
13 Joining me, on my left, are Irene Little, Director
14 of the Office of Small Business and Civil Rights; on my
15 right, Paul Bird, Director, Office of Human Resources.
16 Ms. Little will now introduce the EEO committee
17 chairs.
18 MS. LITTLE: Thank you, Mrs. Norry.
19 I would ask the committee chairs to stand as I
20 call your name so that you can be seen by the audience here.
21 We are really pleased to have with us today
22 representatives of various EEO committees and subcommittees.
23 Starting to my left is Sudhamay Basu, who is chair
24 of the Asian Pacific American Advisory Committee.
25 Mike Weber, chair of the Joint Labor Management
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1 Equal Employment Opportunity Committee.
2 Rene Cesaro, chair of the Affirmative Action
3 Advisory Committee.
4 Reginald Mitchell, chair of the African American
5 Advisory Committee.
6 Sharon Connelly, chair of the Committee on Age
7 Discrimination.
8 Roxanne Summers, chair of the Federal Women's
9 Program Advisory Committee.
10 Jose Ibarra, chair of the Hispanic Employment
11 Program Advisory Committee.
12 Larry Vick, chair of the Performance Monitoring
13 Subcommittee.
14 And Subinoy Mazumdar, chair of the Selection
15 Subcommittee.
16 Also joining us today is Jim Thomas, president of
17 the National Treasury Employees Union.
18 Thank you, Mrs. Norry.
19 MRS. NORRY: Thank you, Irene.
20 In addition to the committee members, we also have
21 three NRC managers participating in this briefing to discuss
22 their implementation of EEO policies.
23 They are Karen Cyr, the general counsel; Carl
24 Paperiello, director of NMSS; and Bill Beach, the regional
25 administrator of Region III.
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1 At the last briefing the Commission was informed
2 that we plan to conduct a comprehensive review of the
3 agency's EEO program and develop or realign strategies as
4 appropriate for addressing equal opportunity for all NRC
5 employees. This briefing is designed to provide feedback on
6 this review, provide information to the Commission in
7 response to the staff requirements memorandum following the
8 last briefing, and also provide a status on the activities
9 of the three EEO subcommittees.
10 I would like to begin with our response to the SRM
11 which requested this briefing be expanded to include a panel
12 of office directors to discuss their implementation of EEO
13 programs. Specifically, they are asked to discuss their
14 strategies to address the perception of preselection in the
15 merit staffing process and to discuss the development of
16 management skills and the evaluation of those skills as part
17 of job performance.
18 The SRM also requested that the staff consider
19 implementing the SES candidate development and supervisory
20 development programs on a more systematic basis in concert
21 with work force needs.
22 With regard to this last issue, the need for
23 offering the SES candidate development program will be
24 considered as part of the executive success and planning
25 initiative.
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1 Office directors and regional administrators will
2 on an ongoing basis identify to the Office of Human
3 Resources SES positions that they anticipate may become
4 vacant. HR will then assess agency-wide replacement needs
5 and recommend to the EDO whether the SES candidate
6 development program is needed.
7 A similar process will be followed in assessing
8 the need to open the supervisory development program.
9 With regard to our review of the EEO program, we
10 have continued our efforts to improve this program,
11 factoring in the recommendations of the various EEO
12 committees and our dialogue with managers and supervisors
13 for input into the overall process.
14 As a result of our review, we have determined that
15 we should focus our affirmative action efforts in the
16 following four areas:
17 [Slide.]
18 MRS. NORRY: Enhancing opportunities for
19 advancement of minorities and women in professional
20 positions.
21 Expanding the pool of women and minorities for
22 supervisory, management, executive and senior level
23 positions.
24 Enhancing our efforts to attract, develop, and
25 retain disabled employees.
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1 Improving communication about EEO and affirmative
2 action objectives, improving management responsiveness, and
3 evaluating our progress.
4 Some additional efforts underway as a result of
5 our overall review are:
6 [Slide.]
7 MRS. NORRY: The staff has initiated efforts to
8 update the agency affirmative action plan. At present, the
9 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has not yet
10 issued final guidance for developing these new federal
11 affirmative action plans. However, the staff has moved
12 ahead to develop a plan based on draft EEOC guidance.
13 Included are office and regional initiatives, as well as the
14 affirmative action areas of emphasis I discussed earlier and
15 identified in the briefing paper.
16 We believe such a plan will facilitate a more
17 strategic approach to our goals and objectives and provide
18 clear information to managers and staff on the direction of
19 our EEO efforts. We hope to have this document finalized
20 during the second quarter of fiscal '98.
21 The staff is also developing plans to implement a
22 managing diversity process within the agency. This is a
23 long-term initiative specifically designed to create and
24 maintain an environment in which each employee is valued and
25 will work cooperatively to perform at his or her highest
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1 level. This process will be closely coordinated with the
2 regulatory excellence efforts to utilize results gained from
3 the organizational culture assessment.
4 The managing diversity process is intended to
5 provide direct support to our goal of creating a diverse
6 applicant pool and assisting managers in more effectively
7 managing a more diverse work force.
8 We have continued to place a high priority on
9 maintaining an effective EEO complaint process.
10 May I have the next viewgraph, please.
11 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Before you go, can you
12 elaborate a little more on the managing diversity process,
13 what it will consist of? Will it have training modules?
14 How long is it? Can you give us a little bit more?
15 MRS. NORRY: I would like to ask Irene to discuss
16 that.
17 MS. LITTLE: Initially, what we would like to do
18 is schedule a session for the top level managers in the
19 agency to get what we call buy-in for the process. There
20 are several approaches that we could take. We would like to
21 have a presentation with an approach and get the buy-in at
22 that level. The next step would then be to train the SES
23 and other managers in the agency.
24 We are planning to try to dovetail our efforts so
25 that by that time we will have the results of the culture
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1 survey that is being done agency-wide, and we will then
2 determine what additional training would be needed after
3 that for employees and managers.
4 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: So at this point you are
5 beginning to talk it up and develop your tools?
6 MS. LITTLE: We have done that. We have also
7 already engaged with contracts to hire a consultant to bring
8 in those first three sessions. That contract is basically
9 in place at this time.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner Diaz.
11 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: On the EEO complaint process,
12 I understand you are trying to make it more effective. What
13 does that mean in terms of time? How long does it take to
14 process a complaint now, and where do we want to be as far
15 as the timing? Are we where we want to be?
16 MS. LITTLE: The regulation says that we should
17 process an EEO complaint within 180 days. We are trying to
18 meet that goal. Our effort to be more effective, though, is
19 geared toward trying to give management and a potential
20 complainant every opportunity to settle the complaint and
21 not go to the final stages, if that is a possibility.
22 What we are doing is inserting an additional step
23 in the process where my office will make contact with the
24 office director before the complaint goes out for
25 investigation to see if there is some way to settle the
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1 complaint before it goes formal. That's how we would like
2 to make the process more effective.
3 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: Some people think 180 days is
4 a long time. Sometimes complaints of our licensees take 180
5 days.
6 MS. LITTLE: It is a long time, but the process is
7 fairly complicated.
8 MRS. NORRY: It requires a formal investigation.
9 It is lengthy.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Would this intervention that
11 your office is proposing likely potentially shorten the
12 settlement of some of the complaints?
13 MS. LITTLE: We are hoping that it might provide
14 an opportunity to settle some of the complaints, to resolve
15 them at that stage, and we won't have to send them out for
16 investigation. That's what we are hoping. We are at the
17 very beginning of that now.
18 This year we only have seven formal complaints.
19 We are hoping that we don't get a lot of opportunity to try
20 this. Our EEO counselors are doing a very good job and
21 resolving a lot of the issues informally. Here again,
22 because we use an outside consultant to do our
23 investigations -- and that costs money -- when it reaches my
24 level at the initial formal stage, we try to give the office
25 director and the complainant one more look-see to see if
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1 there is a way to resolve the complaint.
2 MRS. NORRY: If I could have slide 3 again,
3 please.
4 [Slide.]
5 MRS. NORRY: Just to reiterate a little bit what
6 Irene said, the good news is that we are at the lowest in
7 the last five years in terms of the total number of formal
8 complaints, but we have the same number of contacts with EEO
9 counselors, approximately. What that says is that a lot of
10 these potential complaints are getting resolved by the work
11 of the EEO counselors. This group is really doing an
12 excellent job. It occurs to us that perhaps at the next
13 Commission briefing we might bring a representative from
14 that group forward just to kind of share a little bit with
15 you what they do and how they do it.
16 Highlighting some areas of staff activity in
17 progress during 1997, the staff has continued an overall
18 aggressive outreach and recruitment effort to attract well
19 qualified women and minority candidates of all groups.
20 [Slide.]
21 MRS. NORRY: Note that 25 percent of the 66
22 professional positions filled from the beginning of the
23 fiscal year through June 30 are minorities or women. While
24 this certainly is progress, more needs to be done to attract
25 Hispanics and Native Americans.
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1 To this end, we continue to participate in
2 recruitment events sponsored by colleges, universities and
3 regional chapters of the American Indian Science and
4 Engineering Society, the society of Hispanic Professional
5 Engineers, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and
6 Universities, and other such organizations. Hopefully these
7 efforts will result in more Hispanics and Native Americans
8 in the applicant pool for professional positions.
9 I might also mention that we recently received a
10 report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board calling
11 attention to the problem they call "addressing the barriers
12 to Hispanic participation" and noting that Hispanics remain
13 the only under represented minority group in the federal
14 work force and urging federal agencies to devote a greater
15 proportion of their recruitment efforts to increasing
16 Hispanic representation.
17 Also noteworthy during this fiscal year, women in
18 the SES increased from 15 to 19, including one minority
19 woman, and minority men increased from 9 to 14. More needs
20 to be done to develop minority women in the SES feeder
21 group.
22 I have three slides which illustrate the
23 activities of the Executive Resources Review Group during
24 this period.
25 [Slide.]
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1 MRS. NORRY: Slide 5 shows the composition of the
2 22 selections as the grade 15 and SES levels. I believe
3 those speak for themselves. Those are SES and grade 15
4 nonbargaining unit positions.
5 [Slide.]
6 MRS. NORRY: Slide 6 shows the composition of the
7 best qualified lists for the same positions.
8 [Slide.]
9 MRS. NORRY: Slide 7 depicts the distribution of
10 these selections based on the opportunity to select. This
11 one is a little hard to read, but let me just mention a
12 couple things.
13 These data represent a significant change from
14 fiscal 1996 with regard to opportunities to select and
15 selection rates for these groups. For example, in 1996
16 there were no African American males or Asian Pacific
17 females appearing on the BQLs; no Asian males were selected
18 from the four eligible applicants.
19 As noted in this slide, in 1997 there were nine
20 opportunities to select African American males, and three
21 were selected; four opportunities to select Asian Pacific
22 American females, and one was selected; and 11 opportunities
23 to select Asian Pacific American males, and two were
24 selected.
25 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Does opportunity to select
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1 represent the number of individuals who applied for an SES
2 or a nonbargaining unit GS-15 position?
3 MRS. NORRY: Those on the best qualified list.
4 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: So it's a BQL?
5 MRS. NORRY: That's right.
6 We should continue our efforts to enhance
7 opportunities for minorities and women to advance into
8 positions that are in the feeder group. This is especially
9 true in the case of Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian
10 females.
11 Minorities and women should be encouraged to seek
12 out developmental assignments in areas where there is a high
13 probability of staffing increases.
14 Additionally, management needs to be responsive to
15 requests from unsuccessful candidates for specific
16 promotions who seek feedback on areas that could enhance
17 their competitiveness.
18 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me ask you a question. Do
19 we have statistics that are like these and representational
20 statistics on women and minorities for each NRC office and a
21 further breakdown by professional category so that you have
22 a better opportunity to see where you should target?
23 MRS. NORRY: Yes, we do.
24 Irene Little will now summarize the work of the
25 EEO advisory committees.
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1 COMMISSIONER DICUS: Before we leave that,
2 generally I've had an understanding -- maybe my
3 understanding is wrong -- that one of the problems we may
4 have with the percentage of minorities or women is that we
5 are a technical agency. Given that, have we looked at other
6 predominately technical agencies, perhaps NASA, to see what
7 they are doing and compared notes with them on this sort of
8 thing, to see across the federal agencies if the technical
9 agencies are lagging behind the other agencies?
10 MRS. NORRY: Yes, we have looked at that.
11 Paul.
12 MR. BIRD: Yes, particularly NASA, EPA, DOE, and
13 others that are sort of competing with us for the same
14 groups. We talk to them very often at job recruitment fairs
15 and then talk to their personnel directors with regard to
16 things that they are doing to try to enhance their work
17 force. It is heavy competition even within the Federal
18 Government for minority groups in particular.
19 Hispanics has been a focused effort. NASA has
20 difficulty there. Other agencies have had more success
21 because of the location of their facilities. If you look at
22 the population demographics, California and Texas have high
23 populations of Hispanics. They tend to want jobs in those
24 areas, and if you are in the right locations you tend to be
25 more successful than if you are trying to get people to
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1 relocate.
2 Again, the competition is very, very stiff for
3 these technical resources. We rely heavily on Oak Ridge,
4 the ORISE, to provide us data on where to look for
5 minorities and where to recruit for minorities.
6 All the technical agencies tend to be at the same
7 places almost at the same time.
8 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: How do we fair compared to the
9 others?
10 MR. BIRD: I think we hold our own. Certainly we
11 have some flexibility that some of the other agencies don't
12 have in salary setting, and we apply that flexibility. That
13 gives us an advantage. We don't have the advantages to do
14 what the private sector can do, however, and they are
15 basically in competition as well at these same events and at
16 these same campuses.
17 I think we hold our own. We do very well within
18 the government structure. There is still room for
19 improvement and still a lot we can do.
20 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think it would be interesting
21 for you to provide some comparative statistics for us. You
22 can make a selection of agencies, beginning with our
23 favorite, DOE, of course, and EPA, our other favorite. But
24 you can also look at NASA and some of the others.
25 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: Now that you started this
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1 table of selections, you might be able to actually provide a
2 way of tracking these in a matrix that looks at selection,
3 looks at every different division, and see how personnel are
4 being selected in different parts of the agency. That might
5 allow you to see areas where you need to put more effort.
6 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: That was part of the question.
7 I asked the question about the breakdown. If you have the
8 statistics, then you might as well use them the way he's
9 talking about.
10 COMMISSIONER DICUS: We definitely lag behind the
11 private sector. Or do we? Are we competitive?
12 MR. BIRD: They have certain advantages in
13 recruitment and in pay, I think, and they are able
14 consistently, when we get into the bidding wars, to come out
15 ahead. They can have very focused recruitment and basically
16 follow that with very attractive job offers. We can reach a
17 certain point, and at that point we are really trading on
18 the interest of people to work in the Federal Government, to
19 work in public service, and to have some of the benefits
20 that we do have.
21 Again, we hold our own in the government. I would
22 say that we are not as effective as the private sector in
23 some cases.
24 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think it would be
25 interesting, since we are doing statistics searches here, to
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1 actually pull up data in terms of how we look relative to
2 entry level vis-a-vis the private sector versus if you look
3 at the aging of the data, because I believe in fact there is
4 somewhat of a crossover point.
5 MR. BIRD: Yes, there is. We've measured the
6 progress. That's one thing we do when we are out marketing.
7 We know that for engineers and scientists, HPs, about four
8 or five years into a career, those that have come into the
9 government are doing very well compared to those that came
10 into the private sector. We try to trade on that data where
11 we can and where we can get a receptive audience.
12 Of course many people are focused on their first
13 salary, particularly coming out of college. Every year we
14 go back and reassess our entry level salaries geared
15 specifically to engineers and scientists and try to adjust
16 those accordingly. We try to maintain a position of being
17 at least in the middle of the market. We don't exceed it
18 and we don't undershoot it, and we adjust that regularly to
19 try to be attractive at an entry level.
20 MRS. NORRY: Irene.
21 MS. LITTLE: Thank you, Mrs. Norry.
22 At this point I would like to note the continued
23 high level of cooperation by the EEO advisory committees who
24 have made significant contributions to the agency's EEO
25 efforts.
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1 The three EEO subcommittees we reported on during
2 our last EEO briefing in February have now completed their
3 initial assessments and have developed a number of
4 recommendations for consideration by the staff. I will
5 highlight a few of these recommendations.
6 The Managing Diversity Subcommittee completed its
7 review and has recommended that the agency move ahead with a
8 managing diversity process as a strategic approach to full
9 utilization of NRC's human resources.
10 I believe Mrs. Norry mentioned earlier that we are
11 moving ahead with this process, and we plan to complete this
12 initial phase by end of FY-98. Again, we appreciate the
13 support from that committee and the input that they have
14 provided to us.
15 The Performance Monitoring Subcommittee has
16 completed approximately half of its reviews and has made
17 recommendations to us regarding several programs that are
18 designed to impact career opportunities for minorities and
19 female employees.
20 The briefing paper for this briefing reflects
21 their specific recommendations. So I won't go into details
22 here.
23 The monitoring subcommittee will complete the
24 additional reviews over the next few months, and at the next
25 briefing we plan to report on their recommendations of those
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1 reviews.
2 The Selection Subcommittee and the Joint Labor
3 Management EEO Advisory Committee provided several
4 recommendations on the merit selection process, including
5 ways to mitigate the appearance of preselection. Some of
6 these recommendations were adopted and some of them are
7 under review by staff.
8 One of the key recommendations is the
9 implementation of a checklist to be used by personnel
10 specialists in the merit promotion process.
11 The Office of Human Resources and the Small
12 Business and Civil Rights Office will continue review of the
13 remaining recommendations and will report on their status
14 during the next EEO briefing.
15 Thank you.
16 MRS. NORRY: We are confident that through these
17 types of cooperative initiatives and implementation of the
18 strategies we have discussed today we will continue to make
19 progress in making NRC an agency that maximizes the
20 potential of all of its employees.
21 This concludes my statement. The three managers
22 will now make their presentations, starting with Karen Cyr,
23 followed by Bill Beach, and then Carl Paperiello.
24 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Before they begin, I actually
25 have some general questions that I want to ask you on your
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1 part of the program. They are somewhat statistical, and if
2 you have the answers, fine, and if you don't, then you can
3 get them for me as a follow-up.
4 You talked about 100 employees who participated in
5 rotational assignments. Do you have any breakdown in terms
6 of the representation of women and minorities? This is on
7 page 4 of the SECY paper.
8 MR. BIRD: Yes, I do.
9 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: These rotational assignments
10 are viewed as development opportunities, are they not?
11 MR. BIRD: Right.
12 There were actually 115, 47 of which were
13 minorities and women. That's as of June 30; 16 were
14 minority and 38 were women.
15 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Then I noted the same SECY
16 paper on the same page indicates that one Asian/Pacific
17 American man was selected for the resident inspector
18 development program. Can you give me some breakdown
19 otherwise for the program, who else was in it and what
20 success or special efforts you are making particularly in
21 trying to attract Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Americans, and
22 African Americans?
23 MR. BIRD: There have been three rounds of
24 selections for the resident inspector development program.
25 The first resulted in 14 selections, 12 of which were white
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1 males, one Hispanic male, and one white female.
2 The second round, which was in 1997, resulted in
3 13 selections; 12 were white males and one Asian/Pacific
4 American male.
5 The third round of selections has just recently
6 been completed. There were 12 selectees, all of which are
7 white males. I'm sorry to say that some of those have
8 declined our offer. We are still trying to wrap up that
9 particular round. As you know, this particular program will
10 not be continued in the future. I think there are some
11 alternatives that may have better results.
12 MRS. NORRY: One of the things that this, among
13 other things, tells us is that if we are going to have
14 success in attracting women and minorities, we are going to
15 have to start with some entry level positions.
16 These resident inspector programs are very
17 important, but they have very, very high qualifications,
18 understandably so. We hope in the future to get more of our
19 people, this program as well as others, from some entry
20 level efforts that are now ongoing.
21 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Of the 40 SLS, how many work
22 for Commission offices and therefore are temporary versus
23 staff offices?
24 MR. BIRD: Twelve work for the Commission offices;
25 12 work for Commission level offices; and 15 work for EDO
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1 level offices, for a total of 39. I believe that's as of
2 June 30. It may have fluctuated a little, but not a lot.
3 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Basically they aren't in the
4 staff offices other than in the EDO office?
5 MR. BIRD: Right.
6 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I'm talking about out in the
7 land. Once you get beyond the EDO.
8 MRS. NORRY: We didn't mean the EDO's office per
9 se; EDO level offices as distinguished from Commission level
10 offices.
11 MR. BIRD: And they are pretty widely dispersed.
12 MRS. NORRY: That includes program offices.
13 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: All right.
14 Then there was attachment 1, page 1.1. It
15 indicated that more than 50 employees were enrolled in three
16 developmental programs for secretaries, for clerical
17 employees and administrative assistants. How many of them
18 were women and under represented minorities, and overall
19 what has been the track record for the staff in these
20 programs?
21 MR. BIRD: The Certified Professional Secretary
22 program. There were six white employees, three
23 Asian/Pacific Americans, one Hispanic, and six African
24 Americans, all of whom were women, a total of 16 in that
25 particular program.
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1 That is an interesting program, because it does a
2 lot of preparatory work for an exam. Unfortunately, the
3 government does not pay for the exam itself. That is
4 incumbent on the individual. In some cases the individual
5 has chosen not to go ahead and take the exam. However, the
6 benefit of the training certainly accrues to the agency,
7 because it's an excellent program.
8 The Computer Science Development program. Eight
9 participants were white, ten were African American, for a
10 total of 18. Again, all were women.
11 The Administrative Skills Enhancement program.
12 Seven were white, ten were African American, one was a white
13 male, for a total of 18.
14 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I note that the SECY paper
15 points out that the performance elements and standards for
16 evaluating executives were extensively revised to give more
17 emphasis on organization effectiveness and on outcomes
18 achieved. Does this mean that senior executives are
19 evaluated on their outcomes, their effectiveness in
20 accomplishing EEO goals and objectives?
21 MRS. NORRY: That is, as you know, an area of
22 heavy emphasis under the management part of the senior
23 executive appraisal. I believe we need to give appraising
24 officials more assistance perhaps in how they might
25 effectively evaluate that.
. 27
1 We need to do a better job. That's clear. We
2 need to do a better job not only at the SES level, but also
3 at all levels in evaluating performance there. It's
4 difficult, but it's more than just a statistical exercise,
5 and we have to be able to give managers effective guidance
6 on how they can effectively rate that, and that's what we
7 are going to be working towards.
8 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Therefore they are going to
9 remain part of the performance elements and standards with a
10 focus on outcomes?
11 MRS. NORRY: That's right, on outcomes. Yes.
12 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me ask a question that may
13 be related to my earlier question. I noted that only four
14 of 36 participants in the Certified Professional Secretary
15 program completed the program and attained the certification
16 since FY-95, and similarly, that only six of 41 participants
17 successfully completed the Administrative Skills Enhancement
18 program since FY-95.
19 Is there an underlying problem here, and is NRC
20 giving the consistent support that is needed?
21 MR. BIRD: I think I mentioned that earlier. One
22 of the things is the exam cost itself.
23 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: There is an exam associated
24 with each of these programs?
25 MR. BIRD: Yes, and some people do not choose to
. 28
1 follow through to the examination.
2 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Can you check to in fact
3 understand if it's the cost of the exams that has the effect
4 in terms of people not finishing?
5 MR. BIRD: We will follow up with the people that
6 have taken these courses and certainly be able to assess
7 that.
8 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: How much do these exams cost?
9 MR. BIRD: It's a little over $100, I think.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Also, you have an attachment 4,
11 and you talk about some work of the Performance Monitoring
12 Subcommittee. They say that there is at least anecdotal
13 evidence that the IDPs, the individual development plans,
14 are not valued by management and therefore are of little
15 value to employees.
16 Is the importance of the IDPs emphasized in
17 management training and is management being held accountable
18 in this area?
19 MR. BIRD: I believe that's an excellent tool. We
20 have not made an IDP a requirement. Some employees have not
21 wanted to complete IDPs. I think most managers do a very,
22 very good job of trying, to the extent they can, to fully
23 support the IDP process as well as those things that are
24 discussed in an IDP and follow it through with actually
25 getting the training accomplished.
. 29
1 This is sometimes difficult in an environment
2 where you are trying to produce a lot of products internally
3 and get the work done. So there is a balancing out, I
4 think, in some cases of when you can actually follow through
5 with some of these efforts.
6 All in all, personally I think it's a very well
7 supported process, and I think some of the managers here can
8 --
9 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: In fact, I would like each of
10 the mangers who speak to give us some indication of your
11 thoughts about the IDP and the IDP process and how you
12 specifically support or don't support the IDP process.
13 MR. BIRD: I might mention that we also have a
14 contract in place that provides employees who choose to use
15 it up to five one-hour sessions to look at strengths and
16 weaknesses and basically develop an IDP with a counselor.
17 Many people do take advantage of that. It's a very good
18 opportunity to really do a professional job of planning.
19 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me hear from the folks who
20 have the people.
21 Karen.
22 MS. CYR: Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to talk
23 briefly a little bit about our efforts to enhance career
24 opportunities for women and minorities because I think this
25 is really a necessary complement to the other concerns which
. 30
1 are on the agenda today, the merit selection issues, and so
2 on.
3 From our standpoint, we believe that the
4 rotational assignments are really a cornerstone on the
5 useful means of enhancing career development for our
6 purposes.
7 We have encouraged staff members to seek
8 rotational assignments to enhance their knowledge of the
9 agency's functions and to provide opportunities to interact
10 more frequently with NRC officials outside of OGC. Many
11 women and minorities in our office have participated in this
12 program, including those who in recent years have served in
13 rotational assignments in NRR and IRM, in the Office of
14 Personnel, in the Controller's Office, the Enforcement
15 Office, and also in Commissioner offices.
16 An OGC attorney served for a three-month
17 rotational assignment at the White House; two OGC staff
18 members recently participated in the Women's Executive
19 Leadership program under the auspices of OPM; and among the
20 rotational assignments that were arranged as part of this
21 program were details to the Department of Justice, to an NRC
22 region, and to other offices within the agency. We have one
23 attorney who is currently on rotational assignment to the
24 Office of Small Business and Civil Rights.
25 The reason we encourage staff members to
. 31
1 participate in these rotational assignments is to broaden
2 their professional background and to enable them to better
3 appreciate the regulatory mission of the agency in which
4 they serve. Moreover, these rotational assignments enhance
5 the ability of the staff to network within and outside the
6 agency and to demonstrate their skills to those outside of
7 OGC.
8 The importance of rotational assignments to
9 employee career development is demonstrated by the fact that
10 in the past year three OGC staff members have accepted
11 permanent positions in offices in which they had served on
12 rotation, and we are pleased that women and minorities were
13 well represented among those who participated.
14 Similarly, we have accepted rotational employees
15 to our office when they can contribute to its mission or
16 learn from serving in our legal offices. We have had a
17 staff member from NRR and from the Office of Commission
18 Appellate Adjudication rotate to OGC and contribute
19 significantly to the legal support for our enforcement
20 program.
21 Another employee rotated into OGC and then
22 subsequently competed successfully for a promotion to a
23 permanent position within the office.
24 We continue to offer employees a variety of
25 developmental training programs that are designed to enhance
. 32
1 their skills and facilitate career advancements. These
2 programs have included paralegal training that provides an
3 opportunity for those in clerical or administrative
4 positions to become certified paralegal specialists. We
5 also have one employee in the Computer Science Development
6 program. Among the participants in these are many women and
7 minority staff members.
8 With respect to the IDP, I don't think we do as
9 good a job as we ought to. We have a number of employees
10 who have IDPs and who we encourage and follow up in getting
11 the training which they have laid out for those programs,
12 but I don't think we do a good enough job in sort of
13 systematically pushing our staff on a recurring basis to
14 make sure that those who want to follow these programs
15 understand the opportunities that are available both in
16 terms of a counseling framework and also in terms of the
17 support that we can provide to them in this area. I think
18 it's an area where we need to do a better job in terms of
19 keeping employees aware of these opportunities.
20 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Is there a clear salutary role
21 for the IDPs in terms of people's ability to move along and
22 do people clearly understand that?
23 MS. CYR: I think it does have a salutary role. I
24 think it helps make the employees aware of the various
25 career opportunity paths that they have within the agencies.
. 33
1 In past years we have had a number of employees, for
2 instance, who have gone through paralegal training both
3 within our office and outside our office, and that has come
4 about through IDP initiatives.
5 That has been very beneficial to us and I think to
6 the employees. People who have gone through that program
7 have competed successfully for opportunities in our office
8 as well as paralegal positions outside the agency subsequent
9 to that, unfortunately for us, in terms of losing those
10 people, but it was a very good opportunity to enhance their
11 careers.
12 I think it's an opportunity for them to understand
13 all the things that are available to them. We have people
14 in our office who may think too narrowly about, well, is my
15 only opportunity to be a paralegal specialist or what other
16 opportunities do I have.
17 I think it's an opportunity for them to see, for
18 instance, the Computer Science Development program, or to
19 think more broadly about what the scope of their
20 opportunities are within the agency and not just within the
21 office that they currently happen to be in. I think people
22 get too wrapped up in what they are doing with their current
23 job and not always looking broadly enough at the skills they
24 are learning here and how those can apply elsewhere. I
25 think the IDP program is very useful in that respect, and we
. 34
1 need to do a better job of keeping our employees aware of
2 what that can do for them.
3 At the attorney level we also encourage them to
4 maintain their legal expertise and skills by participating
5 in offsite seminars and conferences, and these include
6 courses presented by the Department of Justice, the American
7 Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and OPM.
8 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Mrs. Cyr, I think Commissioner
9 Dicus has a question.
10 COMMISSIONER DICUS: It was on that topic. So
11 it's perfect that you went into it. To what extent is there
12 encouragement for attorneys to participate in professional
13 organizations off site?
14 MS. CYR: To the extent that it can be done
15 without any interference with our work, it is encouraged, as
16 long as people can balance it. We have a number of people
17 who have been committee chairs in the past or are currently
18 committee chairs for professional bar associations. We have
19 people, for instance, participating in administrative law
20 sections in various legal organizations. It's a good
21 opportunity for them to bring back to us sort of current
22 activities and also let us know about ongoing activities
23 that are of interest to all of the office and all of the
24 attorneys in the office.
25 COMMISSIONER DICUS: I think that is one of the
. 35
1 great values of that.
2 To the other two managers, I might ask you as you
3 make your comments to what extent you are likewise
4 encouraging the professional staff, or nonprofessional
5 staff, for that matter, to take advantage of offsite
6 conferences, meetings, courses that are available and to
7 what extent you may be encouraging them as it's appropriate
8 to be involved in the organizations that they are eligible
9 to be involved in. So you might address that issue.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: So that you don't think that
11 you are just being asked this question, I actually make it a
12 condition for anyone who works in my office that they have
13 to continue to grow and develop, whether it's taking
14 courses, participating in offsite seminars, et cetera; that
15 even though I work them to death and I stretch them, they
16 cannot depend upon the work itself just helping them to
17 grow. I expect them to do some developmental activities,
18 and we talk about that as part of their performance
19 appraisal. But it's a condition of working in my office.
20 They can't work there and not continue to grow and to learn
21 in formalized ways and informal ways.
22 MS. CYR: I think it is going to become much more
23 critical in our office particularly. As our FT limitations
24 really take hold and we have either a decreasing number of
25 staff or a static number of staff, people have to be able to
. 36
1 be flexible to work in a number of different areas. I think
2 this ongoing outside development for our attorneys is going
3 to be very important in terms of making sure that with the
4 people we have left that we are able to deal with the
5 various issues that come up to us.
6 OGC also takes seriously the goal of the NRC as
7 reinforced by President Clinton's formal policy on the
8 subject. To establish a family friendly work environment
9 for its employees, through the years, as permitted by work
10 loads in various segments of the office, OGC has
11 accommodated those whose family responsibilities require
12 that they convert from full-time to part-time schedules
13 temporarily, or in some cases permanently.
14 The primary beneficiaries of these flexible
15 approaches have been women, and we believe that this has
16 really enabled us to retain several valuable staff members
17 who might otherwise have considered leaving the agency if
18 this had not been available to us.
19 With respect to the topic of preselection, OGC is
20 well aware of the concerns that have been expressed recently
21 about preselection of staff in the agency, especially in the
22 context of competitive promotions. We believe that to avoid
23 these concerns management must cast a broad net in
24 soliciting applicants for competitive promotions.
25 The goal should be a selection process that
. 37
1 permits a broad range of applicants to participate. Vacancy
2 announcements and rating criteria should not be crafted so
3 narrowly as to create the appearance that the position is
4 being established for a particular individual.
5 Last year we had the opportunity to post for
6 several senior attorney positions at the grade 15 level. We
7 looked at how we had filled such vacancies in the past and
8 we decided to shift our approach somewhat. We wrote vacancy
9 announcements that we believe were not unduly restrictive
10 and did not unnecessarily require experience in narrow
11 specific subject areas of the law. The use of these vacancy
12 announcements and selection criteria that were substantially
13 related to the day-to-day duties of the position were
14 instrumental in enabling us to select very outstanding
15 applicants for competitive promotion.
16 All NRC attorneys at the grade 14 level were
17 provided an opportunity to qualify and to compete for these
18 positions without regard to the specific area of legal
19 expertise that each person had developed within the agency.
20 This was because we have generally found that attorneys with
21 strong legal skills can perform at an outstanding level in
22 many different substantive areas of the law. As a result,
23 we had a broad array of highly qualified candidates from
24 which to select.
25 We believe that as a result of our approach the
. 38
1 applicants believe that each of them had a fair opportunity
2 to compete for a senior attorney position.
3 We pursued a similar approach subsequently in the
4 selections for two grade 14 attorneys and two selections for
5 positions in the program support area. We crafted vacancy
6 announcements that focused not simply on what the job
7 required in the past or what rating factors might apply in
8 other offices or agencies but on what the qualifications and
9 rating factors are currently today with respect to the
10 day-to-day duties of the position, and we are pleased that
11 women and minorities were well represented in the group of
12 applicants who were selected competitively for positions
13 with OGC in the past year.
14 With respect to the issue of development of
15 management skills, consistent with the recent directive from
16 the Commission, all SES members are required to complete 24
17 hours of training that is designed to hone their management
18 skills. I think this has been a very beneficial push from
19 the Commission. I can see it in terms of the discussions
20 that we have and the interactions that we have, although
21 people sort of reluctantly at the time thought, well, I'm
22 not sure I want to go take this on top of the other kinds of
23 training. But I think it has been very beneficial for us.
24 We have taken advantage of both external courses
25 and Office of Personnel has offered a number of
. 39
1 opportunities for these management seminars within the
2 agency, and I think it has been very healthy for the agency
3 as a whole.
4 We educate our managers about EEO and human
5 resources through some specialized external training but
6 also through a lot of the in-house courses that we have had
7 from EEO managers and the town meetings and the particular
8 small meetings that the Director of the Office of Small
9 Business and Civil Rights has held.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me stop you there for a
11 second. Have you put into place since the Commission push
12 on this any mechanisms or feedback loop to test for yourself
13 the understanding and implementation of the management
14 training by your people?
15 MS. CYR: Not in a formal way. People have taken
16 somewhat diverse courses. It's has been more on an informal
17 basis.
18 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: But you as a manager can see
19 the benefits?
20 MS. CYR: We can see benefits in terms of how
21 individuals approach particular problems. As I make the
22 point in my written statement, I think it's really in terms
23 of our informal communication. We are a small enough office
24 that we have the opportunity to interact a lot as a team of
25 managers. We see each other as resources based in part on
. 40
1 this training and part on experience of how to address
2 various problems that come up. I think it has been very
3 beneficial to us as an office and as part of the larger
4 organization to have this type of training in a sense forced
5 upon us. I think everybody sees the benefits of it, and it
6 has been very beneficial to us.
7 As Pat knows, it is part of our formal assessment
8 in the performance appraisal process, both the midyear and
9 the annual written appraisals which we do as well and also
10 the triennial reassessment we do for SES managers, and it's
11 something that I look at to make sure everybody has in fact
12 done the training, how they are performing as managers
13 across the board, and the human resources factors, and it is
14 something that we are assessing and do in fact emphasize as
15 a critical element in our assessment process.
16 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
17 MRS. NORRY: Bill.
18 MR. BEACH: Good morning, Chairman and
19 Commissioners. First and foremost, we in Region III are
20 committed to equal employment opportunity for all our
21 employees and all our applicants for employment. We fully
22 support the agency's affirmative action objectives and
23 initiatives.
24 Currently Region III has 240 full-time and
25 part-time employees. Thirty-four percent, or about a third,
. 41
1 of the staff are women and 12 percent are minorities.
2 I have communicated the agency's EEO policy and my
3 expectations for implementing this policy to all managers,
4 supervisors and staff.
5 At my request, the director of the Office of Small
6 Business and Civil Rights, Ms. Little, met with the Region
7 III management team and staff to discuss EEO status and
8 objectives recently. In support of this initiative, the
9 deputy executive director for management services,
10 Mrs. Norry, and her management team came to Region III to
11 communicate the agency's EEO policy and discuss other
12 administrative issues. My plan is to establish this as an
13 annual meeting.
14 To enhance communications further, managers and
15 supervisors are required to discuss EEO issues and
16 initiatives during quarterly performance reviews. We have
17 also developed an EEO reference manual for managers and
18 supervisors which consolidated EEO policies, guidance,
19 initiatives, and regional demographics.
20 To enhance career development for the regional
21 staff, we are using the individual development plan, or IDP,
22 and mentoring programs. I am requiring supervisors and
23 managers to encourage the staff to develop IDPs and to
24 ensure that new employees are assigned mentors.
25 To answer your question, Chairman, we have a
. 42
1 higher percentage than we did that are using IDPs, but we
2 still have to do a better job in that area. We are not
3 where we need to be.
4 Our support of rotational development assignments
5 will continue to be a key factor in this initiative. In the
6 past year the region supported 37 rotational assignments to
7 headquarters and within the region to enhance the career
8 development of both its managers and its staff. We have
9 supported key rotations of women and minorities to positions
10 such as acting deputy regional administrator, acting
11 director of the Division of Resource Management and
12 Administration, and acting chief of the Materials Licensing
13 Branch.
14 Over the past year we have worked hard to recruit
15 and hire 21 highly qualified people, ten women and
16 minorities. We recognize we need to continue to improve.
17 With assistance from the Region III EEO Advisory Committee,
18 we are identifying additional recruitment sources for
19 attracting women and minority applicants, including those at
20 the entry level. Additionally, women and minorities will
21 continue to be included on recruitment teams.
22 I am meeting on a regular basis with our personnel
23 staff and will meet on a quarterly basis with members of the
24 regional EEO Advisory Committee to discuss employee concerns
25 and ways to improve the working environment in the region.
. 43
1 With respect to preselection, during this past
2 year we have promoted 16 employees, eight of which were
3 minorities and women.
4 We fully support the initiative launched by the
5 Office of Human Resources to review and update position
6 descriptions to accurately reflect current duties and
7 responsibilities of the positions.
8 Additionally, to avoid the appearance of a rating
9 panel that may favor a certain candidate, on an annual basis
10 I appoint five permanent panel members to serve for a period
11 of one year. In an effort to increase women and minority
12 representation, we will extend our panel membership to other
13 regions and NRC headquarters.
14 I am requiring selecting officials to interview
15 all "A" or "best qualified" candidates. I, in turn, review
16 all selections for new hires, promotions and competitive
17 reassignments before offers are extended to ensure fair and
18 equitable implementation of the agency's merit selection
19 process.
20 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Is your annual rating panel
21 used only for certain positions or for all positions in the
22 region?
23 MR. BEACH: For all positions.
24 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Are women and minorities
25 represented at this point on the panel?
. 44
1 MR. BEACH: Yes, they are, and we want to try to
2 get a higher number.
3 As to training of our managers, 28 of the region's
4 29 managers and supervisors have completed the formal
5 training requirements outlined in Management Directive
6 10.77, Employee Development and Training. To emphasize the
7 importance of initial and continuing education, I have
8 revitalized the regional training council. The council
9 meets on a monthly basis and is chaired by the deputy
10 regional administrator.
11 To provide individual broadening experiences,
12 division directors and branch chiefs are sometimes rotated
13 between divisions. I have also initiated semiannual
14 management retreats for senior managers and an annual
15 management retreat for branch chiefs as additional forums to
16 enhance communication and team work.
17 Finally, we are striving to provide more honest
18 and realistic performance appraisals. I have implemented
19 quarterly performance reviews for all managers, supervisors
20 and staff to improve communication between the groups. The
21 reviews are intended to provide more frequent interactions
22 for discussion of performance strengths and weaknesses,
23 training needs, career development options, and our EEO
24 initiatives. The results should be a greater awareness of
25 individual needs to help provide for a better work
. 45
1 environment and maximize every individual's potential.
2 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
3 Commissioner Dicus.
4 COMMISSIONER DICUS: I'd like for someone to give
5 me a little bit of a feel of what is happening in the other
6 regions along much the same lines as the things that you've
7 discussed.
8 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think that is a good
9 question, but we are also going to specifically hear -- each
10 region each time is going to be represented at these
11 meetings. But that is a good question for now.
12 COMMISSIONER DICUS: The other part of this is,
13 how are we communicating?
14 For example, you have your regional EEO committee
15 looking at new sources to recruit minorities and women. If
16 you find a new source or you find something that seems to
17 work, how are you communicating that to headquarters and to
18 the other regions? How is the communication going? How
19 does this come together?
20 This would extend to the good things you find and
21 things you find that don't work, and even in the offices.
22 How is this being communicated?
23 MRS. NORRY: The one place I know it comes
24 together is through Paul Bird's office and the regional
25 personnel representatives who talk on the phone frequently,
. 46
1 who meet frequently, and who can compare notes.
2 Paul.
3 MR. BIRD: We keep an inventory of applications.
4 This is from all sources. In the case of the regions, they
5 will tap into that resource base. We do a whole lot of
6 interation with applications across regions because they are
7 very similar in their needs.
8 I think the central repository of applications and
9 the use of that is one of the key ways that we don't lose
10 applicants in one area when they might be suitable for
11 another area. It also allows us to provide an applicant
12 pool in addition to specific recruitment efforts that might
13 go on in a particular location.
14 MS. LITTLE: Additionally, we work very closely
15 with Paul's staff in designing the recruitment schedule of
16 where we are going to go to recruit. We also provide
17 representatives to go to specific areas to recruit. For
18 example, the last time we talked about trying to recruit
19 Native Americans. We identified some places there to get
20 those on the recruitment schedule.
21 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner Diaz.
22 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: What is the total number of
23 new hires that we have per year or, say, this year?
24 MR. BIRD: That does fluctuate. I just happen to
25 have run the data for the past fiscal year. Our new hires
. 47
1 were 104. That does fluctuate.
2 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: And that's across all job
3 categories?
4 MR. BIRD: That's across the job categories.
5 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner McGaffigan.
6 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: I think what heard on
7 preselection that they are doing is commendable and a very
8 comprehensive approach. I would be interested in what the
9 others have to say.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think those two tie together.
11 Your comment and Commissioner Dicus' question is a relevant
12 one. You can hear the advertisement here first that in the
13 other regions as well as the headquarters offices we are
14 going to be looking to understand what kind of feedback and
15 learning there is, and now that Mr. Beach has put down a
16 marker, we want to hear from the rest.
17 MRS. NORRY: I think we should also remember that,
18 as Irene mentioned in talking about the efforts of the
19 subcommittees, the one focused on preselection came forward
20 with a number of useful ideas, some of which have already
21 resulted in some actions. So that's another very good
22 source for ideas here.
23 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
24 MRS. NORRY: Carl.
25 MR. PAPERIELLO: I have always believed that since
. 48
1 the essence of a manager's job is to achieve results through
2 the efforts of others, staffing is one my highest
3 priorities. This involves both the acquisition and the
4 training of the most capable staff resources permit.
5 Currently, about half of the NMSS staff have advanced
6 degrees, about evenly split between the Ph.D.'s and the
7 master's level.
8 In the area of training, I have required that
9 anyone who inspects or conducts licensing activities --
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me ask you a question. How
11 do those statistics compare with NRR.
12 Mr. Collins, can you give us some edification?
13 [Laugher.]
14 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: It's moving down the line.
15 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner Diaz says it's
16 moving down the line.
17 [Laughter.]
18 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
19 MR. PAPERIELLO: I require anyone who inspects or
20 conducts licensing activities with signature authority to be
21 trained and qualified in accordance with the appropriate
22 manual chapters. I have had these manual chapters revised
23 to make sure they adequately encompass NMSS activities.
24 I also require training and qualification plans
25 for all new NMSS employees even if their activities are not
. 49
1 covered by these manual chapters, and I require all new
2 hires to be introduced to me, at which time I verify with
3 the section chief that there is a training plan in place and
4 discuss it with the new employee.
5 I have required all NMSS managers to take
6 managerial training in accordance with the NRC's Mandatory
7 Supervisory Core program. I track completion of all the
8 training in the office, both managerial and staff, in the
9 NMSS operating plan. Except for those becoming supervisors
10 in the past year, NMSS managers have completed essentially
11 all the required training and new supervisors are completing
12 their training at an acceptable rate.
13 Last year I revised the standards and elements of
14 all the section chiefs in NMSS to place increased emphasis
15 on management by splitting the standard management element
16 into two elements, one for human resource management and a
17 second for financial and contractor resource management.
18 The practical result is that two of the usual five elements
19 in a section chief's appraisal deal with resource management
20 rather than the previous one in five. This October we will
21 be completing the first round of appraisals against these
22 elements and I'll be reviewing them to see what kind of
23 results we have achieved.
24 Actually, I plan on taking additional steps to
25 upgrade management training in my office. Next week we have
. 50
1 our annual management retreat, and I have drafted an outline
2 of a plan to be discussed next week that will require either
3 IDPs or training plans for all NMSS managers, the
4 development of additional training activities, and a
5 proposal to mentor all new supervisors in NMSS.
6 We have initiated a program with the Office of
7 Small Business and Civil Rights to establish liaison with
8 colleges and universities in the Washington, D.C. area to
9 focus on entry level recruiting. I believe this serves to
10 balance the office with respect to employment grade and also
11 recruit well qualified women and minorities who appear to be
12 well represented in area schools. We are currently working
13 to put this program in place.
14 We have identified who runs the various
15 engineering and science departments at these schools. We
16 have made phone calls to about half of them, and we will
17 follow that up with a letter.
18 The goal is, if we can maintain contact with the
19 schools and go to career days and do colloquia and things
20 like that, the people will get to know us and we will be
21 able to recruit entry level people.
22 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: So it's too soon to say whether
23 this is effective in recruiting well qualified women and
24 minority candidates.
25 MR. PAPERIELLO: That's true, but it should.
. 51
1 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Let me ask you a question. Who
2 do you have involved in the entry level recruiting?
3 MR. PAPERIELLO: Division directors. Each
4 division owns a couple schools.
5 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: So they actually go to the
6 schools?
7 MR. PAPERIELLO: That's the goal, to go to the
8 schools. We have been looking for natural relationships
9 where the people have graduated from the school. We don't
10 always have that, but the idea is to go to the school and
11 "get to know me and I will get to know your people."
12 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: The reason I asked the question
13 is I used to work for Bell Labs. It has a very high
14 percentage of Ph.D.'s in the research area. To recruit
15 Ph.D.'s they sent out Ph.D.'s, and that included when they
16 were specifically trying to recruit women and minorities.
17 If you are talking about looking for natural
18 relationships, people want to talk with the individuals who
19 are doing the kind of work they are being recruited to do,
20 number one. Number two, if someone is a woman or minority
21 candidate, people want to feel that they are being taken
22 seriously and that you are sending your very precious
23 Ph.D.'s and master's degree people out to recruit; you are
24 sending your professional staff to recruit professionals.
25 You're telling me that your program is designed for that.
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1 MR. PAPERIELLO: That's what I'm trying to do.
2 Hopefully I will know in a year whether I'm successful in
3 that. What you have said has been my experience. You need
4 to have natural relationships and the like.
5 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I am specifically speaking with
6 respect to this program you've initiated with OP and the
7 Office of Small Business and Civil Rights.
8 MR. PAPERIELLO: Right.
9 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: You said this is specifically
10 in the Washington, D.C. area. Have we also targeted areas
11 in the country that have a high percentage of different
12 minorities, because they really change quite a bit?
13 MR. PAPERIELLO: I understand, and the answer is I
14 haven't.
15 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Maybe you should consider that.
16 For instance, if we are saying that Hispanics are under
17 represented, if you don't go where there are high
18 percentages of Hispanic students, particularly in California
19 and parts of the Southwest and New York --
20 MR. PAPERIELLO: I understand that. I have a bias
21 there. In the Midwest, we had a hard time in Chicago
22 recruiting people from out of the Midwest who would stay for
23 any length of time.
24 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: That's because you weren't
25 recruiting them to lovely Washington, D.C.
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1 [Laughter.]
2 MR. PAPERIELLO: I understand. Part of it is how
3 many people I have.
4 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: If I can be recruited, anybody
5 can be recruited.
6 [Laughter.]
7 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: You heard it from the source.
8 MR. PAPERIELLO: I could tell some stories,
9 particularly coming from an interview in the Southwest into
10 a Chicago snowstorm.
11 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: But it works.
12 Commissioner McGaffigan.
13 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: I have the same concern
14 as Commissioner Diaz about getting Hispanics represented
15 here. If we don't have any, we are not going to have the
16 natural relationship. In New Mexico there obviously are
17 lots of students who get recruited by the labs, Sandia and
18 Los Alamos and DOE Albuquerque operations. I don't know
19 quite how to tap into that.
20 What sort of program does the center have in San
21 Antonio, the FFRDC? I know in New Mexico the congressional
22 delegation meets every year not only with the federal
23 employees but with the two lab directors and encourages
24 their programs. Do you know anything about minority and
25 female representation at the center and what progress they
. 54
1 make?
2 MR. PAPERIELLO: No, I don't. I'll look, but I
3 don't.
4 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: You can check on that.
5 MR. PAPERIELLO: Just as an aside, Dr. Santiago
6 Parra on my staff, who is Hispanic, is working with the
7 Office of Human Resources to try to improve our recruitment
8 in that particular area.
9 The liaison with the schools was just something I
10 started some months ago. I was looking for help from the
11 Office of Human Resources on that and I am just trying to
12 get it off the ground before I try to branch out.
13 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: We appreciate that. This is a
14 wonderful opportunity to build these things from the
15 beginning.
16 MR. PAPERIELLO: Right.
17 To help with issues concerning potential
18 preselection, all GG-14 and GG-15 promotions in my office
19 have to be discussed with me. I require that all "A"
20 candidates be interviewed by the selecting officials.
21 I further require the selecting official to show
22 me some kind of analysis to support the particular
23 selection. My goal is not to second guess the selecting
24 official but rather ensure the selection was in accordance
25 with merit principles. Clearly, more needs to be done. I
. 55
1 believe that standardizing and reducing the number of
2 position descriptions, development of standard vacancy
3 announcements and rating factors, and development of
4 performance-based rating criteria are steps needed in this
5 direction.
6 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Are you planning to implement
7 these steps?
8 MR. PAPERIELLO: I'm planning to do some of it. I
9 cannot on my own right now revise all of the position
10 descriptions.
11 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Mr. Bird.
12 MR. BIRD: We have an initiative underway. It's a
13 global initiative, if you will, to look at every position in
14 the agency and revise them accordingly to make sure they are
15 accurate and current. It does take the individual line
16 manager's participation, and we have sort of a map on doing
17 that within the next year and completing it.
18 MR. PAPERIELLO: Actually my staff and your staff
19 is giving me a briefing next Monday on the BPR effort we
20 have had underway and to try to improve the overall hiring
21 process, because in fact, of the 100-and-some new hires that
22 we made in the past year, about 39 of them were in NMSS.
23 I'm trying to streamline the thing and make it
24 effective and make improvements in this area.
25 Actually, all NMSS managers and supervisors have
. 56
1 attended refresher training this year on the performance
2 appraisal process, and I expect, if the results warrant it,
3 I am going to require this refresher training be done on an
4 annual basis. We have worked with the Office of Personnel
5 to develop this training.
6 I would finally note that four SES managers in
7 NMSS are women and two others are minority males. Of the
8 two senior level positions, one is filled by a woman.
9 Thank you.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
11 Commissioner Dicus.
12 COMMISSIONER DICUS: The encouragement for taking
13 advantage of offsite training, meetings, organizations.
14 Would you address that, please?
15 MR. PAPERIELLO: I haven't explicitly.
16 Implicitly, yes, because we have people going to any number
17 of meetings. I have individuals who participate in minority
18 recruiting activities that are part of their professional
19 societies. I have people on my staff who actively work with
20 various IAEA committees on standards. So I have it, but I
21 can't say that this is my program. What I have done is
22 encouraged all my mangers to ensure their staff have
23 training.
24 Also, I have talked to the professional staff and
25 I've talked to the partnership and emphasized that
. 57
1 professional people have to take some responsibility for
2 their own training and development.
3 I started at this agency as an inspector and
4 worked various steps up. When I was a first-line supervisor
5 I was somewhat appalled by the professional employees, that
6 the only training they felt they had to get was what the
7 government provided. I personally have always spent some of
8 my own resources in keeping myself technically qualified in
9 my field and managerially qualified, and I think the people
10 who don't do that aren't being very professional.
11 I like to do as much as we can do, but I think the
12 employees have to take some ownership of their career and
13 their profession.
14 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner McGaffigan.
15 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: This is really to
16 Mrs. Norry. The contract with the FFRDC, is there any
17 requirement in that contract for good performance in equal
18 employment opportunity, or whatever?
19 If we don't have it, and we may well not, does DOE
20 in its relationship with its FFRDCs? They have far more
21 experience and it's far deeper. Do they require it?
22 If it isn't a contractual requirement, it turns
23 out at least in New Mexico to be a sort of moral requirement
24 on the two labs to work hard. Do you happen to know the
25 answer to that?
. 58
1 MRS. NORRY: No. Can we get back to you on that?
2 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: Sure.
3 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Karen.
4 MS. CYR: My counsel informs me that it currently
5 is not. It could be if you structured it appropriately.
6 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think when the new EEOC
7 guidance comes out, that offers an opportunity to review any
8 contracts like that that we have with respect to that,
9 because that new guidance is going to be referenced to what
10 the law is today. So it offers an opportunity.
11 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: My thought is FFRDCs are
12 different from other contractors and the government treats
13 them as such.
14 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Absolutely.
15 Does the National Treasury Employees Union
16 representative have any comments he would like to make?
17 MR. THOMAS: I have a small number of comments.
18 First, nothing was mentioned about the mediation
19 process. I assume this was an oversight. In the recent
20 contract, for EEO complaints we introduced an optional
21 mediation process, which would be before the complaint goes
22 formal or goes to an arbitrator, and it's in lieu of a
23 second step. I believe that that may resolve some of the
24 complaints.
25 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: How does that play into what
. 59
1 Mrs. Little talked about in terms of her office's
2 involvement in helping to resolve EEO complaints?
3 MR. THOMAS: For bargaining unit employees there
4 are two different procedures that you can use for an EEO
5 complaint. The process that she was describing was the
6 formal statutory procedure. If an employee elects to file
7 an EEO complaint via the grievance process, that is where
8 the mediation would occur. So there are two separate
9 processes.
10 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Okay.
11 MR. THOMAS: In the area of preselection, I more
12 or less agree with what I heard, but I think there are a
13 couple of other things that are happening within the agency
14 that present a problem with preselection.
15 I worked here for a long time. To my way of
16 thinking, the agency has always, in the personnel sense,
17 operated like dozens of separate agencies headed by a
18 commission. As a result, if you compare us to most of the
19 other agencies I'm familiar with, we have an incredible
20 number of positions for a small agency.
21 I think we should focus on developing a position
22 where you are looking for a good scientist, a good engineer,
23 regardless of where that person is going to work, and post
24 and hire towards that as opposed to trying to post a
25 position with rating factors that are directed to a
. 60
1 particular job. Even though somebody is not intending to
2 develop those factors to hire a particular person, the net
3 effect is that someone who does not have current experience
4 in the X,Y,Z branch may be disadvantaged even though they
5 may be an excellent scientist or engineer applying for the
6 job.
7 I'm glad to hear that we are making some efforts
8 to redo position descriptions, to make them more accurate.
9 I think the other area that needs serious attention is our
10 classification system.
11 I mentioned to the Commission once before that our
12 system is grossly out of date. As an example, in the CIO
13 reorganization we are using position descriptions that were
14 developed before the IBM PC was first marketed to try to
15 determine how to classify these jobs. That's absurd. I
16 think that's an area that we really need to get some
17 attention into.
18 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Have you made these specific
19 recommendations to the Office of Human Resources as part of
20 their overall review that Mr. Bird mentioned?
21 MR. THOMAS: That's sort of a yes and no. These
22 are areas that are nonnegotiable. So we cannot raise the
23 issues as a part of bargaining, but we have discussed them
24 from time to time.
25 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I mean in the spirit of
. 61
1 cooperation as opposed to bargaining. Have you made these
2 recommendations?
3 MR. THOMAS: We've discussed them, yes.
4 In the area of recruitment, I agree with
5 Mr. Bird's comment about the agency doesn't have the
6 flexibility of some in the private sector, but there is an
7 area that I believe the Commission may give us some help on
8 in increasing that recruitment.
9 At the agency partnership level approximately two
10 years ago we developed a cafeteria plan, a mechanism of
11 being able to essentially use pretax dollars for child care
12 and for medical accounts. It's common practice in the
13 private sector; it's not available in the public sector.
14 Everyone was in agreement on the plan. There is
15 just a question as to whether or not it's legal. Our
16 attorneys have advised us that because of section 161(d) --
17 I may have an incorrect cite -- the Commission would have
18 the authority to alter salaries to allow us to do that. The
19 agency would not have to pay a cent toward the program; the
20 employees would pay for it, but it would allow them to
21 direct pretax dollars into accounts and have that used for
22 child care and medical account.
23 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Can you speak to how what you
24 are talking about plays into the issues that are before us
25 today?
. 62
1 MR. THOMAS: I believe that if somebody is
2 considering working for the NRC or Bell Labs, if Bell Labs
3 offers a cafeteria program that allows someone to put $5,000
4 into a pretax account for child care, and in many cases up
5 to $2,500 for medical, that generates a savings to them of
6 in excess of $2,000; even more in higher brackets. All
7 things being equal, that's probably the chop they would go
8 after, because effectively it generates a higher salary.
9 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Are you arguing that that helps
10 with the recruitment of women and minorities?
11 MR. THOMAS: Yes.
12 A final comment is an old EEO concept, equal pay
13 for work of equal value. You may be aware that there was an
14 arbitration decision sometime earlier this year indicating
15 that employees can grieve the concept of what we term de
16 facto detail. Essentially an employee is placed in a job
17 where they are doing an identical duty to somebody at a
18 higher grade but they are getting the lower pay. That is
19 something I think the Commission is going to have to
20 address. Not the Commission, but the agency is going to
21 have to address in order to correct the problem, because we
22 are getting an increasing number of grievances, and I don't
23 think it's going to be that long before we have over 100.
24 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: How does that play into the
25 issues under discussion today? How does it specifically
. 63
1 play into the EEO issues that we are discussing?
2 MR. THOMAS: In many cases I believe you will find
3 that the individuals who are waiting for that promotion, the
4 higher percentage are women and minorities, and I think the
5 agency may very well be able to redirect its program efforts
6 in assignments of duties to where individuals either get
7 that promotion or that the agency doesn't continue to ask
8 them to do higher graded duties without the pay.
9 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you very much.
10 It's very important, at the risk of my lawyer
11 having a heart attack, that when you speak -- I understand
12 the union's authority, et cetera -- but it's very important
13 that you put things into the context to be helpful to the
14 Commission on the issues that are under discussion.
15 Commissioner McGaffigan.
16 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: I'd like to follow up on
17 one point Mr. Thomas made and direct a question to the
18 staff. The issue of increased selection, of getting
19 somebody who is a well qualified person who may not have the
20 exact qualifications for the position resonates with me,
21 because recently on a SECY paper I commented that in the
22 future we may be looking for versatile individuals,
23 especially at the entry levels.
24 To try to operationlize his comment, and correct
25 me if I am misspeaking, the notion would be that one of the
. 64
1 selection criteria might be "is this person going to be able
2 to be used in multiple other places in my organization or in
3 the agency as a whole?"
4 As I think about it, that opens up some cans of
5 worms. Suddenly you are choosing somebody for versatility
6 because they can do multiple jobs in NMSS or NRR or swing
7 back and forth between both, and I'm favoring that person
8 compared to a person who might for the particular job have
9 stronger credentials.
10 Is that what you are suggesting, Mr. Thomas, that
11 a versatility factor be put into the selection criteria?
12 MR. THOMAS: I would think more along the lines of
13 going after a good scientist or engineer. I guess the
14 theory being that if someone is a good health physicist,
15 they can be a good health physicist for NRR, NMSS or
16 Research.
17 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: Is versatility or the
18 ability to do multiple jobs within the Commission staff an
19 appropriate selection criteria, or does that get me into
20 legal trouble?
21 MR. BIRD: I think we look at that very heavily if
22 we are hiring at the entry level.
23 MRS. NORRY: That's right. At that level you are
24 much more able to do that. Also, the developmental and
25 rotation programs we have foster that. You take someone who
. 65
1 is in one area and it's just amazing what you see when you
2 put them in what sometimes turns out to be a totally
3 different area and they indeed, as might be expected, do
4 blossom. We do that over and over again. That adds to that
5 persons value.
6 The other thing is that we are in constant
7 dialogue with managers in their descriptions of the
8 positions and how they put them forward as to whether the
9 requirements of that position are overstated or are too
10 narrow. That dialogue has resulted in some positions being
11 differently described. That goes on all day long from
12 Paul's office and from my group. We ask those questions.
13 We should not be overdescribing jobs.
14 COMMISSIONER McGAFFIGAN: If I am advertising a
15 GS-15 job, a fairly senior job, and I also regard that
16 position as a position to get into the senior management of
17 the Commission staff, EDO or OGC, or wherever, is it fair as
18 a selection official to be thinking about which of the two
19 people in filling that job, or three people or ten, I see a
20 better career path upward for because of the versatility?
21 MRS. NORRY: You need to describe that in your
22 description of the job and the requirements.
23 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: I think before we go too far
24 into specific decisions about how specific jobs get
25 selected, I offer you the opportunity to take the
. 66
1 discussions with lawyers off line.
2 Thank you, Mr. Thomas.
3 Are there any further comments from any of the
4 presenters or from any of the committees?
5 MR. VICK: I'm the chairman of the Performance
6 Monitoring Subcommittee. One of the key recommendations
7 made by our committee in the paper today before you is that
8 full support be restored to the intern program because it
9 has been shown to be the most effective tool for bringing
10 women and minorities into the technical ranks of the agency.
11 The current NRR intern program has declined to the
12 point that it no longer contains most of the attributes that
13 made the original program particularly attractive to women
14 and minorities. As such, much of the EEO gains achieved
15 through this program may be lost if it's not restored. This
16 program offered interns the opportunity to obtain broad
17 experience in agency-wide programs and as a result produced
18 a pool of employees who have developed expertise needed by
19 the agency. A program of this nature is the principal means
20 we have to attract women and minorities into the agency and
21 provide them with the opportunity to build a promising
22 career here at the NRC.
23 Will the Commission consider restoring the intern
24 program to its previous stature?
25 Thank you.
. 67
1 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: We will take that as a question
2 for the record that we will respond to.
3 Any further questions or comments from any of the
4 presenters or committees?
5 [No response.]
6 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Commissioner Diaz.
7 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: I have a couple of comments
8 and suggestions. I was just thinking of my years in looking
9 at this thing. Sometimes it is important to realize when we
10 are talking about equal employment opportunities and having
11 everybody given a fair chance that what we are talking about
12 is based on merit. The cultural differences that we have
13 should not be part of how we deal with the process. If it
14 were because of cultural difference, for example, Hispanic
15 in my case, you can look and say, well, he's shy and quiet.
16 [Laughter.]
17 COMMISSIONER DIAZ: That would certainly be a
18 problem. I think everyone in here should be very conscious
19 that what we are really trying to say is those cultural
20 differences do not play a part, that what we are looking at
21 is the merit of each person. That's a key issue that keeps
22 running when people keep asking, what are we talking about,
23 equal employment opportunities? We don't pay attention to
24 those cultural things.
25 I've got a note here on the issue of what I call
. 68
1 the first phase. Everything that we build on essentially
2 has to start with a hiring. I'm not sure that as an agency
3 we are really telling people out there that there are
4 challenging technical jobs in this agency and that those
5 challenges need to be well articulated, that people need to
6 see where they fit.
7 Specifically, the Commission has directed the
8 agency to be more risk informed and eventually performance
9 based. I think that we need to get that notice around and
10 get people to know that we want them to come with a basis in
11 this area, because it's important as a foundation of a job,
12 and I don't think that that message is clearly out there,
13 and I think it should be clearly said out there.
14 It is probably an obvious things to bring the
15 issue of Hispanics as far as recruitment and as far as
16 opportunities for improvement within the agency. This has
17 now been recognized as an issue in the Federal Government.
18 I think it is a major issue. I don't know why it happened
19 and I only care that we do something specific about it.
20 I would like to recommend that the next time we
21 meet specific actions that we are taking in this area be
22 highlighted, because in many places we have taken for a
23 specific task many times a specific group. I remember being
24 involved in saying we need to work to get more African
25 Americans and this is the year that we are going to
. 69
1 emphasize that. Without taking anything from any of the
2 other groups, I think that it is properly the year to focus
3 on the fact that we don't have enough Hispanic Americans
4 entering or being promoted at this level.
5 To put my money where my mouth is, I will be happy
6 two or three times during the year to go and recruit at any
7 center where there is an actual specific large Hispanic
8 population, or African American, or both at the same time,
9 and I will take the time to go and sit with them and
10 actually explain the fact that there are great opportunities
11 in this agency.
12 Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: Thank you.
14 I'd like to thank all of the employees in
15 attendance for your interest in this important topic and to
16 especially thank all the participants for your views, your
17 comments, the information you provided and suggestions.
18 This was an extensive briefing on a complex and sensitive
19 subject.
20 As we face the challenges not unlike those we
21 regulate, including streamlining and budget effects, both
22 managers and supervisors as well as our employees have
23 co-responsibility in actualizing an environment where
24 employees are provided an equal opportunity -- and I've said
25 this before -- to display their talents, to advance free of
. 70
1 either real or perceived preselection, and to contribute to
2 the agency's mission. I think the idea of managing
3 diversity and diversity as a process is an important one.
4 We talk a lot about statistics. The idea is not
5 to have an obsessive focus on the statistics but to have it
6 help us to renormalize as we go along, and to manage the
7 process.
8 I second what Commissioner Diaz has said about our
9 giving more focus to the recruitment of Hispanics, but I
10 also am mindful of the fact that we have a very diverse
11 population here and a diverse population to draw on. My job
12 is to see that we give emphasis where we need to but as we
13 continue to ensure that all of our employees have the
14 opportunities they deserve.
15 So I urge the managers and supervisors especially,
16 to the best of your ability, and I think training is an
17 important part of that, to try to remove some of the
18 cultural influences that the Commissioner spoke about, to
19 evaluate employees fairly and objectively, to recognize
20 those employees that demonstrate superior performance or
21 candidates that we believe may be capable of that, and to
22 continue to give emphasis to training and development
23 opportunities.
24 Secondly, to the employees, particularly those of
25 you who may feel discouraged at times, I urge you to
. 71
1 continue to be proactive and to take the initiative, to set
2 goals and objectives, to aim high, and to continue to work,
3 both in informal and in formal ways, to avail yourselves of
4 all the relevant training, rotational assignments,
5 counseling opportunities to act in positions, et cetera, to
6 maximize your potential.
7 If you apply for a position and you are not
8 selected, you should seek feedback, and if you don't feel
9 you are getting that feedback, then you need to propagate
10 that higher up, and if need be, you propagate it to the
11 Commission, you propagate it to me, so that you can better
12 prepare yourselves for selection or promotion in the future.
13 To those employees who have advanced in the
14 agency, I encourage you to serve as mentors to those who
15 have not advanced in the agency and to share your
16 experiences so that we can all gain and be a stronger
17 agency.
18 We look forward to hearing from another set of
19 office directors at the next meeting that the Commission
20 will select, but you can assume that it will at least
21 include NRR --
22 [Laughter.]
23 CHAIRMAN JACKSON: And another regional
24 administrator. We are interested in hearing about progress
25 outcomes and results that NRC is achieving in this important
. 72
1 area.
2 We stand adjourned. Thank you.
3 [Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., the briefing was
4 concluded.]
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10/14/1997