NASA ARC Memo: Message from the Center Director: Employee Satisfaction and Morale
Subject: Employee Satisfaction and Morale.
From: Centerwide Announcement
Date: February 11, 2013
Message from the Center Director: Employee Satisfaction and Morale.
As many of you heard me say at the February 21, 2013 All-Hands, I am in strong agreement with this administration’s focus on creating a healthy and vital environment for our employees. The Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS) is just one tool to help assess how we are doing in this area. The 2012 EVS highlighted once again how committed you all are to the important work we do and a willingness to do what it takes to accomplish extraordinary results. You are an amazing group of professionals – one of the best I have seen in my career. As promised in the February All-Hands, and outlined at the end of this message, is a summary of our efforts last year which focused mainly on providing support to our supervisors.
The 2012 EVS also highlighted a number of areas where I and my senior leaders have work to do to create an environment that better supports you and the incredible contributions you are making to NASA and the world. We will continue to work with supervisors to enhance our support of them in the key role they play.
Also, I am taking the lead on a renewed focus on rebuilding trust and integrity with Ames senior leadership. Given the progress we made last year, I am more committed now to doing my best to personally develop more consistent practices of fairness and transparency. There’s more to come on this as my team and I identify actions and an implementation plan in this area.
In the meantime, you can expect to hear more from me about important topics and issues that may impact you. We intend to have several all-hands on the status of the budget, sequestration and other fiscal challenges in the next several weeks. I want you to have the most up-to-date and accurate information as possible. Finally, if you ever have any questions that you are not able to get adequate answers to–on this or any other subject–feel free to raise the question to me directly by contacting my Chief of Staff, Karen Bradford.
Thank you again for your candid and honest feedback about our center!
Center Director S. Pete Worden
Details of our efforts last year in support of issues raised in the Employee Viewpoint Survey:
Knowledge Sharing, Problem Solving, Skill Building and Sharing Best Practices
Supervisors’ Forums – The entire cadre of Ames’ supervisors and senior leaders now meet quarterly to review hot topics and issues that impact the Center. The focus is on discussing and exploring these issues as well as sharing best practices and developing relevant skills on a variety of topics.
Chiefs’ Cooperative – Division and branch managers meet quarterly (shortly after the Supervisor Forum) with the intent of helping each other to be stronger and more effective leaders. These meetings focus on sharing best practices, networking and community building, and advocacy to Center Management on issues affecting Ames supervisors.
Human Resources Support
HR Lecture Topics – A lecture series on Human Resources topics that are key to a supervisors’ ability to do their jobs effectively. Topics include: Pay, Leave, and Telework; Awards; Human Resources Portal; Employee Relations/Labor Relations; Performance Management; and Staffing options. The Human Resources Division offered six different lecture topics to supervisors in 2012 that were well-attended by many of the Center’s supervisors.
Onboarding – A new, structured approach to transitioning newly selected supervisors into their roles. A Human Resources professional meets with each new supervisor to ensure they understand the requirements of the job, have access to the tools that will help them execute their new role and guidance on how to obtain necessary knowledge and tools. All seven new supervisors took advantage of this in the past year and it provided them with resources and opportunities to be successful in those important first months on the job.
New Development Program
Supervisor Development Program – A 9-month, cohort program designed to accelerate the supervisors learning and effectiveness in their role in employee and organizational performance. The program has several components: coaching and mentoring, improvement project, learning groups, just in time training, and articles and simulations. Thirteen supervisors completed the pilot version of this program at the end of February. The next program will kick-off in September 201
For more information on these and other programs visit: http://ameshr.arc.nasa.gov/
