2008 Organizational Assessment Survey (CG-OAS)OAS logo
Frequently Asked Questions

The CG-OAS will be open through 30 April

For all active duty, SELRES and civilian employees

of Team Coast Guard
Let your voice be heard. To complete the CG-OAS, go to http://www.paassessor.org/survey
 

Login: CGOAS2008
Password: CGOAS2008
ALCOAST 077/08 announces the CG-OAS.

General Questions | Roles of CG-OAS Unit POC |  General Access & Technical Issues

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Who can I call for more information?
Contact your Unit CG-OAS Point of Contact (POC) or you may contact the CG-OAS POC.
The CG-OAS POC:

Is my response confidential?
Yes. The U. S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will collect and store the survey data. Your individual responses will be combined with others in your unit to create summary reports. No one in the Coast Guard will have access to your individual responses. OPM, not the Coast Guard, will keep all responses. OPM is under regulation to keep responses confidential. The tool used to generate reports requires at least 10 people to have answered a question before it will generate a report. For example if your unit looks at results for MK and E-4, results will not be displayed unless 10 MK3s answered the question.

How long will the CG-OAS be available?
The CG-OAS will be available through 30 April 2008.

How long does the CG-OAS take?
It takes approximately 30-45 minutes to complete the CG-OAS.

How many questions are in the survey?

Why are we doing the CG-OAS?
The CG Organizational Assessment Survey (CG-OAS) is designed to help the Coast Guard become a better service by providing a process by which CG people can tell their chain of command what they are thinking and feeling about their work, their lives, their careers and their relationship with the Coast Guard.

Is this a voluntary survey?
Yes. The CG-OAS is a completely voluntary survey and no one should be forced or pressured into taking it against their will. There will always be people that, for a variety of reasons, will choose not to complete the CG-OAS. However, please understand the importance of this survey and its role in improving the Coast Guard workplace. People at all levels of the chain of command will use CG-OAS results to aid in decisions about our working environment. Rating Force Master Chiefs, Program Managers, Facility Managers, and many others whose decisions affect our working day will use this information as a guide. Conveying this sense of importance to our members will help motivate the vast majority to take the survey.

Is there any place on the survey for comments?
No. The CG-OAS is designed to capture quantifiable data from all respondents. Because of the randomness of respondents that choose to provide comments the statistical value is lost. Individuals are encouraged to provide recommendations via other forums such as the Career Intentions Survey (CIS), Leadership Advisory Council (LAC) http://www.uscg.mil/leadership/lac/, Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) http://www.uscg.mil/diversity/dac2.htm, Innovation Council http://www.uscg.mil/innovation/, Gold and Silver Badge CEAs, Rating Force Master Chiefs, and to responsible program and community managers.

Was this survey done before?
Yes. The CG-OAS was conducted spring 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Can I review the questions before I take the online survey?
Yes. You can preview the questions in MS Word format.

Who should take the CG-OAS?
The CG-OAS should be completed by all active duty members, reserve members (on active duty, in the selected reserve or drilling IRR), civilian employees (civil service and NAF), and other military or uniformed members on duty with the Coast Guard. Members undergoing recruit training, cadets, and OCS candidates should not complete the CG-OAS, nor should contractors.

Are the results of the 2002, 2004 and 2006 CG-OAS available?
Yes. General results are available on CG Central (path: Our CG > Organizational Information > About the USCG > Coast Guard-wide Surveys - scroll down to Organizational Assessment Survey). For specific unit results, the CO/OINC or their designated representative should contact Commandant (CG-1B2), Mr. Paul Redmond (paul.e.redmond@uscg.mil) to obtain unit results.

How soon will the 2008 results be published?
Results will be published to the web and made available via OPM’s report tool in summer 2008.

Who will use the results of the CG-OAS?
The Chain of Command, Command Master Chiefs, Rating Force Master Chiefs, Program Managers, Civilian Personnel, Reserve Component managers, and many others will use the results of the CG-OAS. These people will use the results to have a better understanding of the issues and concerns affecting members/employees. The results will also measure the success of past actions at addressing your issues and concerns.

Will results be made available to Unit COs/OINCs?
Within the bounds of confidentially, yes. At least ten responses from the unit are required to provide feedback information to the unit. Also, any individual question requires ten responses for it to be included in the feedback.

What is the relationship between the CG-OAS, Crew Survey and the Career Intentions Survey?
The Crew Questionnaire is specifically targeted inside the unit, to help supervisors and their work groups have meaningful conversations about how to improve and maintain high levels of performance. The Career Intentions Survey, which most of you have already seen, is part of a continuous process designed to find out what keeps high performers in the Coast Guard, and what causes them to want to leave.

ROLES OF CG-OAS UNIT POC

What is my job as a Unit POC?
The CG-OAS is a major step forward in meeting the needs of Coast Guard personnel. Your leadership as Unit POC is critical. Accurate measurement of how our people view the Coast Guard and their role in it is dependent on two things:

  1. Honest responses
  2. High response rates

Please make clear to your members how important the CG-OAS is and its role in improving the Coast Guard workplace. People will have questions and you are the "go to" person for answers. The FAQs should answer most of these questions. If a new question comes up at your unit, it most certainly will be asked at another unit. Pass these questions on to our staff and we will incorporate the answer into the FAQs.

As a Unit CG-OAS POC, how can I promote the survey?
We have marketing materials available for you to use during the CG-OAS.

As a Unit CG-OAS POC, can I find out how many folks from my unit have completed the survey?
Yes. The CG-OAS Team receives participation data daily from OPM. Unit participation by Active Duty Members (this includes US PHS), Selected Reserve Members and Civilian Employees will be provided weekly and upon request from units.

How is the Unit CG-OAS POC going to communicate with the Unit POC?
The CG-OAS Team will provide information by email to the Unit CG-OAS POCs. The CG-OAS Team will also be contacting the Unit CG POC by telephone to see how the administration of the survey is progressing and pass any new or updated information. The CG-OAS Team members are also available by email and telephone to answer questions.

We’ve submitted our surveys! My data isn’t there!!
All of the individual responses are submitted to OPM. The Coast Guard does not collect the responses. We receive reports from OPM and then we update the information to our local database. This process typically takes 2-3 days from the time your surveys are submitted. We regret the delay but this is one way we ensure your confidentiality.

The email I received says I have more/less members assigned than I really have at my unit.
Counts of people assigned to your unit came from Direct Access. If you believe this number is wrong you can contact the CG-OAS Team and we’ll get it sorted out. Please double check that you’re including your reservists and NAF personnel in your count.

GENERAL ACCESS AND TECHNICAL ISSUES

Can I stop and save my work and come back later?
Yes. Go to the bottom of the screen and choose the SAVE icon. The CG-OAS will then ask you to make up a user name and password when you save your work. Please remember the user name and password you create, you will need it later when you return to the survey. After creating your user name and password, you will be sent back to the survey where you left off. Go to the bottom of the screen again. This time choose the QUIT icon. On the following screen, click Quit again. To finally log-out of the CG-OAS, click the PROCEED icon. Use the user name and password you gave earlier to log into the CG-OAS when you want to continue. Do not use the general CG user name and password.

I left the CG-OAS and tried to come back in and it will not accept my password.
When you saved your work on the CG-OAS so you could continue later, you made up your own user name and password. You must use that user name and password to return to the CG-OAS and continue your response. If you can not remember your user name and password, please complete the survey from the beginning. Your incomplete survey will not be part of the results.

After entering the logon and password, I get a page saying that JavaScript must be activated in order to access the survey. I can't go any further!
You’ll need to enable Java Script in your Browser in order to access the survey. Here’s how you do it:

For Microsoft Internet Explorer:

  1. Click on “Tools” in the top of the window and select “Internet Options” from the menu that appears.
  2. In the window that appears, select the tab labeled “Security”
  3. Click on the Icon that looks like a globe and is labeled “Internet”
  4. Click on the button labeled “Custom Level”
  5. Scroll down to the Java Permissions section (It’s just under the line called “Microsoft VM”) and select the button labeled “High Safety”
  6. Click “OK” to close that window and “OK” again to close the window that was behind it.
  7. Navigate to the survey site again and take the survey.
  8. Contact your Administrator if it still doesn’t work or if you’re having trouble with the settings.

For Netscape Navigator:

  1. Click on “Edit” in the top of the window and select “Preferences”
  2. Select “Advanced” from the Category list.
  3. Check the option to “Enable Java”
  4. Click “OK” and navigate to the survey again.
  5. Contact your Administrator if it still doesn’t work or if you’re having trouble with the settings.

When I attempt to access the survey, a window pops up saying that a pop-up blocker is blocking access to the survey. How do I get around this? This is happening on a CG standard workstation.
Type in the login name and password but before you press the login button press and hold the control button. Then press the login button, the survey should pop up. If this does not work you need to disable pop ups temporarily. At the top of the Internet Explorer Browser page is an option called TOOLS. Press tools and a menu bar will drop down at the bottom of this is an option called internet tools, click on that. A box with tabs will show up. Click on tab labeled privacy. At the bottom of the screen there is a check box with the words “BLOCK POPUPS”, it should initially be highlighted. Remove the check mark and press apply then try logging into the survey again.

Microsoft Internet Explorer uses a new type of security to block popups, but it is not discriminating in which ones it blocks and which ones it doesn’t. The survey is a popup and Internet Explorer blocks it, because to it the Survey is another Advertisement.

Questions for the 2008 CG-OAS will be available shortly. Results from the 2006 CG-OAS are available on CG Central  (path: Our CG > Organizational Information > About the USCG > Coast Guard-wide Surveys).

Questions? Comments? E-mail Mr. Paul Redmond, CG Human Resources Measurement Staff or call him at 202-475-5030.

Last Modified 5/28/2008