Thank you all, right, welcome back, welcome back,
welcome back. My name is Vince Prentice from the Department of Homeland Security
Accessibility & Usability, formerly known as the Office of Accessible Systems and Technology.
We are glad that you have come back to be with us for day two of our awesome annual
DHS Accessibility Day 2023. Before we get started, I just want to make sure that we do a couple of
house cleaning, keeping rules. Please make sure that you put all of your questions into the chat.
If you have any issues with the chat because of capacity, please make sure you send your emails to
accessibility at DHS. Let me sure I'm saying, I'm sorry, accessibility at hq.dhs.gov. Please make
sure, and I'll put it in the chat, make sure you send those questions there. All presenters, please
make sure that when you're not talking, you're on mute, and that you turn your cameras off.
So, for today, we're going to have a lot of presentations,
um, a lot of kind of workshops, uh, we're gonna have group presentations.
Um, the first one we're going to have today is going to be diversity and hiring strategies, uh,
by Miss Sharon Wong. Later on, after that, we're gonna have an overview
of accessibility training and developers' overview of the playbook and its upgrades.
DHS Outreach to persons with disabilities. What we have in our pockets that we'll be
talking about mobile phones and how to use those for accessibility and engagement in the
virtual environment, ensuring that everyone has a voice and accessibility. All right, so Miss Wong,
you can show yourself now, and I'm about to hand off to you so you can take the first presentation.
>> It's all right, how are you this morning?
>> I'm fine, thank you, sir. How are you?
>> I'm doing great, good seeing you again, and we're looking forward to having an opportunity
to hear what you're going to be talking about today when it comes to dealing with diversity
in hiring strategies, the conversation with the CHCO, as we normally call you guys, or OCHCO.
All right, so I'll let you take it away.
>> Thank you, and good morning, everyone. So, excuse me, I don't know, the smoke thing that's
enveloping the, uh, USA. I've noticed I've had a little, uh, struggle since yesterday with my
voice, so hopefully, it holds, uh. My name is Sharon Wong. I serve as the executive director
for what's known as STRIDE within OCHCO, that's the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer,
and STRIDE stands for Strategic Talent Recruitment, Inclusive Diversity,
and Employee Engagement. Today's session, as you heard, is Diversity in Hiring Strategies. It's
a conversation with the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer across the department,
and it is a discussion with leaders who are responsible for the Recruitment and hiring of
individuals with disabilities, you know, and often you may hear it short until IWDs or individuals
with targeted disabilities IWTDs, so you'll hear how these DHS agencies are incorporating hiring
strategies into organizational goals that have produced positive results in
the hiring of individuals with disabilities and individuals with targeted disabilities.
I'm privileged to have leaders in OCHCO from four of our DHS agencies, CISA, FLETC, USCIS,
and U.S. Coast Guard. We invited these agencies as we were thinking about who would be on this
panel. We looked at the data, and we invited these particular agencies because there are top
components or agencies who lead DHS in Outreach and recruitment efforts for IWDs and IWTDs,
right, and that they also significantly exceed our onboard Baseline, which is 12,
and also our new higher goal, which is two percent for individuals with
disabilities and individuals with targeted disabilities.
I did drop in the chat our panelists, and they will actually be doing most of
the talking because they're the ones that are moderating this panel, and they will
talk about what they are doing within their agencies. So, we have Dina Beatrice. Dina,
if you could, so as I call, just to quickly make sure that we are able to see you. Dina Beatrice,
Chief of the Human Capital Operations at Coast Guard. Um, I see she's trying to come on,
so I know she's on, but I did not quite can't tell if your photo has come up. Um, we have Dina Reyes,
who is the Chief Human Resource Operations Center at USCIS. We have Shelly Pre, who's the Associate
Chief of Talent Acquisitions for the Client Service Advocates at CISA, and Rebekah Tucker, who
is the Chief for Recruitment at the Human Capital Office at FLETC. So great, I see all four of you,
so I'm going to have each panelist do a very brief intro, and then we'll begin our discussion
with some Q&As. So, I'm going to start with Dina and then go in the order of Dina, Donna,
Shelley, and Rebekah. You could each just then give a brief intro of your work experience and
share something about yourself outside of work so we also get to know you, right, to be able to
put a little bit of a human face on that. So, um, based on that order, so Dina, why don't you start?
Dina, um, y'know, if you are... [Speaker stammers] I had to come off camera, no one,
so I'm glad it's working now, but thank you again. I apologize for those technical difficulties,
um, but as I was trying to say, I appreciate the opportunity to serve on this morning's
panel and look forward to the discussion. I am a proud plank holder and serve as
the chief of Human Resources operations, overseeing all recruitment activity for our
10,000-plus civilian workforce at the Coast Guard. I've been in my current position for
over eight years and with the Coast Guard for over 22 years. Um, prior to joining the Coast
Guard team, I worked for the Department of Air Force in the DC area and the operations,
um, arena, working at Bowling Air Force Base, Andrews Air Force Base, and the Pentagon.
Um, just a bit about myself, for good or bad, I am a lifelong Washington Commanders fan. I'm
looking forward to the upcoming changes and more Super Bowl wins, and of course, beating Dallas.
Um, so thank you again, and I appreciate today's opportunity. Uh, thank you for that. Dina.
>> Oh, goodness, uh, thank you, thank you, Sharon, thank you, Dina, uh, very interesting, um. My name
is Donna. I am the chief of HR operations here at USCIS, and I've been in my current role for
about three years, um. Our operations center services, uh, a workforce of twenty thousand,
holding strong, um, a new record for USCIS. My oversee processing benefits and retirements,
classification, our recruitment and staffing, um, and a sort of other, you know, fun HR activities,
um. Uh, prior to coming to USCIS in 2016, I was with the Department of Navy for about
seven years and did HR there as well, too, at the headquarters and at the operational level, so,
um, super looking forward to today's conversation and thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you, Dina. Uh, Shelly.
>> Good morning, I am Shelley Pree, and I am an associate Chief at, uh, CISA, uh,
in OCHCO. I've been here for about 18 months now, very happy to be here at CISA. I'm loving it,
uh. Prior to CISA, I worked for the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense,
Health and Human Services, and USDA. And I am here at CISA, we're growing, we're about a little under
3,000 employees, but we are about to cross over 3,000 very soon, um, probably within
the next few pay periods, so we're really excited about that because we're still young and growing,
um. A fun fact, I guess maybe fun, I'm not sure, fact about me is that on January 1st,
2020, I woke up and decided I was going to be a vegan, and I haven't turned away yet,
but I collect a lot of cookbooks but do not do a lot of vegan cooking yet,
but I have the books. So anyway, thank you so much for today, Sharon. Thank you, Shelly. I
still think we could go to dinner. I am a meat and potatoes person that would be very interested
in how that would be interesting. I-I-I-I-I-I-I literally run away from vegetables. So thank you.
>> And then, Rebekah.
>> Good morning, thank you, Sharon, and thank you everyone for being here today. So,
my name is Rebekah Tucker. I'm the chief of the Recruitment and Classification here at the Federal
Law Enforcement Training Center down in Sunny Georgia, fortunately not having to deal with
the smoke from Canada at the moment, although I'm pretty sure it'll make its way down here,
um. So, I've been with FLETC for about eight years. I've been in this particular
seat for the last four, and my role here is to oversee all the hiring efforts here at FLETC
and across our training delivery points, which we have four of them across the United States,
um. So, in addition to that, I previously served with DHS headquarters for five years, and prior to
that, I worked with the Defense Logistics Agency and doing recruitment for seven. So, my colleagues
here are all at the higher level. I'm down at the branch level as a recruitment specialist, and for,
uh, FLETC, we are, we're really tipping the scales at 1,300 or so, give or take, so definitely one of
the smaller components that FLETC or at a DHS, but but certainly a good one, not to mention.
Now, something about myself that's a little interesting outside of work because we are in
Georgia, I live very close to the beach, so I like to go to the beach and walk in the surf,
and I like to rescue sand dollars, uh, just so that, you know, I feel like I'm doing
something a good contribution to the world, at least to them. And when I'm not doing that,
I go out in my garden. I have a mini apiary, so for those that don't know,
that's honeybees, and I manage that. And then, when I'm not doing that kind of fun stuff,
I'm trying to play tennis with my teenage daughter and wind up failing miserably, uh,
so it's great. So, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this today.
>> No, thank you all, really appreciate it, um, hopefully, the audience can see that we have a
very diverse group, from those that have been plank holders to those that are more recent,
um, but one thing that's common is they all oversee, uh, they all have influence,
um, and insight into the recruitment effort. So, looking forward to hearing,
uh, your answers today. So, let me start by giving some context. Now, we know President Biden signed
Executive Order 14035, right, in June of 2021, so about two years ago, and this particular Executive
Order is on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the federal workforce. You might
often hear it referred to also as DEIA, right, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility,
um, and so it's called the DEIA, a lot of letters in that. Now, in industry and you'll often see it
on a news article, you might have heard the term DEI or DEIB, right, where B is the belonging,
but within the federal government, when this Executive Order came out, it was the A that was
added to DEI to show a focus on accessibility, right. And as we talk about DEIA, we're talking
about building a workforce of diverse talent and experience reflective of the public we serve.
E is about ensuring consistent, fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals,
all of our employees. I is about creating that culture where each person feels like they belong,
they have a voice, uh, and that they matter. And A is about ensuring that
information systems, tools, resources, and programs are accessible for all.
And the DEIA Executive Order is focused internally. A lot of the other work in
this space of equity and other things really look at both internal and external and focus
a lot externally, but this particular Executive Order is about our workforce.
So, let me begin by asking the panelists, right,
we're going to start with the "why." What does the A in DEIA mean to you, right,
and why is it important to you to integrate DEIA principles into hiring strategies, and
how have you been able to do so? I know there's a lot of pieces to that, so let me start with Dina.
>> Good morning, so, the, um, in my opinion,
is that whole accessibility piece, helping our hiring officials really, truly understand,
um, how our office and operations can help support them in making,
um, it more, it easier for them to consider those persons with disabilities so that they know that
they're, they won't run into those challenges with equipment, with being able to fully communicate
with their staff members, so it's really those initial strategic discussions that we hold with
our recruiting officials to help them understand what programs are available so that it eases their
mind and they can give that true consideration to those persons with disabilities, so, um, yeah,
it's really worked well with us with those really strong strategic conversations at the onset of our
recruiting efforts. Hey, great, and, and, Dina, do you like to share your perspective on that?
>> Yeah, absolutely, sorry it took me a minute to find the mute button.
Um, yeah, I mean, I, so I think, you know, when I think about this, of the A, uh, the,
the accessibility in my mind is kind of just making sure that everybody has the accommodations
and modifications to give them equal access to, uh, participating in the activities that
will help them be successful, um, in their work. Uh, getting folks to that equal space,
uh, any which way would, you know, that we can, technology-wise, um, space-wise, the mental piece,
all of that is, is sort of what, what I think about when I think about the A in the DEIA.
>> Okay, and then, Shelly or Rebekah, do you have anything,
what would you like to add to how, what does the A mean for you and your agency?
>> Um, I would say, here it's just, uh, well, when we think about A, we should also think
about accountability and also accommodations, and so our accessibility goals, you know, we want
to be able to strengthen that accountability, our with our policies and our procedures, and,
you know, which we'll be able to, will be able to create an accessible and, um, inclusive workplace
that's going to foster, you know, respect for all kinds of diversity. So, whether that's,
you know, individuals with disabilities or any other diversity areas that we want to consider.
>> Okay, and then, Rebekah, you want to round us out?
>> Yes, absolutely. So, uh, my colleagues have offered some great definitions for A,
and so I'll focus a little bit more on what A means for FLETC, and it's really our,
our focus on access to the underserved communities and the disabled, essentially, uh, to be able to
make our environment, it's, let's see here, more diverse. Uh, we strive to have our, our instructor
cadre look like the people that we are training, so we want to make sure that we're inclusive and
that we, we have that appearance that we are diverse and we're hiring all the individuals
that make us give that appearance to the staff and that can have that interrelatability with,
um, anyone that comes to FLETC for a training. Um, but I agree with
everyone else what they said, and, uh, we're definitely working in the same direction.
>> Okay, thank you. It was really good to hear your perspective on how it's been seen within
your particular agencies. So, I'm gonna take it down one more and just, you know, ask if you
can talk about the steps that leaders can take or that you yourself specifically have taken,
um, to make hiring more equitable for individuals with disabilities or individuals with targeted
disabilities, right, because they really want now for, for folks and other leaders that are
here to say, hey, this is what we have done, this is, this is the kind of things that you can do,
right. It goes a little bit to what's often referred to as best practices. I don't know if,
if I like the term best practices so much as promising practices, right, or successful
practices because it might be your best practice for you, but I might need to adapt it a little
bit for me, so it's more about a promise and practices because we all have to adapt for our
various cultures, right, and environment. So, um, let me start with, uh, uh, Shelly,
um, if you can just share with, with us, uh, excuse me, like at CISA, what,
you know, what steps have you taken there or what steps leaders can take across the board.
>> Okay, thank you, um, so, um, for me in particular, I love to educate people on,
um, you know, hiring, and so, for, and that means our hiring officials, employees, applicants, uh,
etc., about, you know, maybe about the use of Schedule A appointments and things of that
nature. I feel like if you, if you educate one person, they'll educate someone else,
and they'll, you know, it'll just keep, um, keep going, and so then you have this whole,
you know, workforce or universe of educated people when it comes to things like, you know,
Schedule A. So, we like to talk about, you know, Schedule A, the wins, wins of using,
um, things of that nature, you know, appointing authorities like Schedule A or, you know,
maybe 30, uh, disabled veteran appointment authorities, etc. Using other programs,
other maybe lesser-known, uh, programs, Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP), um, which connects
employers with students with disabilities, uh, so things like that. But I think education really
goes a long way when it comes to, you know, um, providing that kind of equity because now,
you know, people understand it, and it kind of takes the, the mystery out of some of the,
you know, things that hiring managers may be a little, uh, fearful of. So, education, thank you.
>> And that's a great point because, you know, it's that awareness and understanding and knowing,
right, because if you don't even have that, how do you know what you're supposed to do?
And I will tell you, many times, that that's what we hear from folks, right,
not even understanding the hiring authorities that are available and what it really means or
even where they can go. So, a little bit later, I have a couple of questions on that. But,
um, Rebekah, do you want to share about maybe at FLETC what steps,
from a FLETC perspective, what steps can, can leaders take or that you have taken?
>> Yes, ma'am, absolutely. So, kind of along the same line that Shelly was talking about and in
my humble opinion, of course, um, I believe that leaders can take the initiative to make themselves
aware of the various opportunities that are available to them. So, taking on a little
bit of that ownership of teaching themselves and go into the resources and, of course, utilizing
the resources that are available to them. Um, one of the big things that FLETC does is that,
in terms of recruitment, we engage our managers in a strategic hiring discussion, so we try to
find out what it is they're trying to accomplish and then we talk about how they can get there. So,
this is our opportunity to tell them about all the various non-competitive hiring authorities,
um, the WRP, as Shelly mentioned, we use a 10-point veteran file. FLETC,
you only have to do that for positions that are open to the public, but we use it for all of
our positions because why not, it's an applicant, it's a tool, it's a an access of ability for us.
Um, something else that we do that's kind of more FLETC-centric is we do what we
call a voluntary applicant file, which is a posting on USA Jobs. It opens up quarterly,
and it's for those individuals that have a non-competitive hiring eligibility, so this
is really our way to reach out to those people who have Schedule A hiring authority or their
veterans or their military spouses or whatever, so this has really been the key to success for FLETC,
and our managers are made very well aware every time we talk to them what options they have,
and any opportunity we have to tell them again, we will, so it's been a great experience for us.
>> Okay, great. So, I'm gonna just ask a couple more questions because I've seen a question in
the chat. Um, I'll share the question now, but I'll come back to it, um, in a bit because I
also want us to address some of the questions. I don't know if you all are able to see the chat,
um, but then I'll open it up after. But your, uh, the question is, can you address numbers?
How many professionals with disabilities do each of you have, and how are the numbers meaningfully
increasing? So, I'll open that, and then maybe a couple of you can address that in a bit. But let
me go to our next question about key steps you have taken to effectively communicate and get
buy-in from staff and management, right, because that really, you just talked about the education,
the awareness, really working with hiring managers, um, but I'd like to also,
each question sort of builds on itself, right, and digs deeper. So, what steps are being taken
to effectively communicate, to really get that buy-in, because we know, you know,
there there's still some leftover, uh, unconscious thoughts around the ability or inability, right,
of individuals with disabilities. So, have you effectively communicated, gotten buying from staff
and management on the importance of inclusion of individuals with disabilities and individuals
with targeted disabilities in the workplace? And so, let me go to Dina, start with Dina on that.
>> Sure, absolutely. Thanks, Sharon. So, um, some of the things that we've done, I mean,
we, we always, every interaction, I feel like every interaction my HRs, HREs have with, uh,
management at all levels, that's an opportunity, right, to inform and educate. Um, we always
promote individuals with disabilities, IWTD events and activities. Our staff are STAR training,
our recruitment corporate team provides training on reasonable routers, so reasonable accommodation
of a last resort, um, request, uh, training on unconscious bias, training on scheduling
higher authorities. We try to create partnerships with these smaller organizations to help them,
um, help us USCIS reach our goals. One of our recent examples is our Office of Equal Opportunity
and Inclusion, OEOI, is what they're titled here, has created an inclusive Recruitment and Hiring
Hub. Uh, some of the examples of the, you know, activities that we have promoted and organized and
helped coordinate are participating in inclusive diversity dialogues with particular offices
within USCIS. Um, we participate in the DHS OPE DHS career fair for underprivileged youth, and one
of our service centers here at USCIS, our Potomac Service Center, held a four-hour mentoring session
for clients from Virginia from the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired,
um, and DAR. So there are many activities, many different ways to promote not only, you know, at,
um, the higher levels of the organization, but also with our operational partners at the,
the lower levels, you know, with the field offices or the service centers. So we just,
we try to get that out there as much as we can, try to promote those activities as best as we can.
Um, I do want to, you know, touch, I loved that Shelly shared, you know, the educational piece.
That is, that's very critical. Another thing we do at the leadership level is we try to ensure that
they invest the time to understand how these, um, uh, different authorities can help them get
to their goals, get to our goals, and also ensure that they understand and respect the unique needs
of these individuals, right, because we, we all need to get everybody to the same playing level in
order for us to be successful and to ensure that we are hearing, you know, the right feedback from
our, all of our employees equally. So, I know that was a lot and probably more than what you asked.
>> No, no, no. I actually thought it was great, listening to the, uh, you know,
what you have done. Um, excuse me, Dina, anything you want to share with that,
with what's Coast Guard's done to be able to get buy-in?
>> Sure. So, a couple items. Um, we sent out a targeted email to all of our supervisors
highlighting the DHS hiring goal for persons with disabilities and persons with targeted
disabilities and highlighted the schedule A appointing authority,
um, and really tied it to time to hire, you know, everybody's anxious to get their positions filled,
so this would be a quick win, um, all the way around, so really promoting the schedule A hiring
authority. Additionally, the Disabilities Allies Resource Group, DARG, is the first
affinity group Employee Resource Group within the Coast Guard to address the needs and interests of
both people living with disabilities and their allies. So, on April 6th, we had a memorandum
of understanding that was signed between the Disabilities Allies Resource Group and Affinity
Group formalizing the partnership with the Coast Guard, so we were really excited, um, made a big
to-do of that signing ceremony to really promote the program. So, that was truly exciting for us,
um, and our Chief Medical Officer is the executive champion of that affinity group,
so I'm really getting a lot of publicity around the group and around,
um, you know, you know, that whole program, so it's really working out well for us.
>> I
have been doing, so, um, I'm gonna go to flip the other side and go to challenges, right, because
then that's going to lead into, after that, we'll just then go into some of the questions
because a couple of questions, I think, um, the discussion so far has set context for us, so,
um, maybe share some of the challenges, one or two of the challenges that you've encountered
in recruiting and hiring individuals with disabilities in targeted disabilities,
and how have you overcome them, so let me go to, uh, Rebekah.
Um, Sharon, I was hoping you weren't going to call on me because it's not necessarily a bad,
a bad problem to have. Fluency has actually been very fortunate. We haven't really experienced
very many challenges with hiring individuals with disabilities. And actually, I think you
just asked about numbers. I pulled up my little email here, um, so FLETC onboard, we have 35.3,
so the goal, the Baseline is 12, so we have 35.3 percent individuals with disabilities and 4.2
percent of those with targeted disabilities. And our new hires are 40 with disabilities and 5.9
with targeted disabilities, so, uh, we are, um, we do a pretty good job at hiring those individuals.
FLETC's mission really supports that ability to do that. We support the hiring of military
individuals with disabilities and those with lengthy careers. So that aids and, in our numbers
being able to be as high as they are. Plus, for a small number, remember, early on I said we're
about 1300. So 13, you know, a few people makes can significantly impact those percentages. So,
um, we've been quite fortunate, and, and hope, hopefully, we can continue in that method. Thanks,
Chair, and thank you, and I appreciate that, you know, and as I said earlier, we wanted to bring on
the folks that were doing well, so, so others can listen and say, okay, you're doing well, right?
Because this is what I always believe. People tend to focus on your problem areas all the time,
right, which obviously you should, but if you forget the ears that are doing well because those
are the ears you want to mimic and say, okay, what is it that they're doing well? We should continue
that, we should learn from that, right? So it's not just picking, let's just work on on the areas
where that need improvement because for those that are doing well, you can share your story.
>> So, thank you for that, Rebekah, and yes, I know that's why I had pinged you guys, were doing,
uh, well in that area, so, um, maybe Dina, let me go to you for CIS, and then -- actually,
I'd like to hear from each of you in terms of this or the challenges because the questions that
are coming up, um, seem to be more around that, and, and, um, and so, Dina, and turn it to you.
>> Yeah, I mean, it's so, I think for us, the challenge is probably, you know, just having our,
our hiring officials comfortable with using these hiring authorities, and, and that goes back to
the education piece, right, so I think the more that we can promote that and get that out there,
we will see increased use, um, as far as our numbers, so our individual with disability goal,
I think, is 12, is what you said, and so we USCIS, is at 25.28 percent,
and our IWTD targeted disabilities is at 2.89, so we are above that threshold.
>> Um, I love, you know what Shelly shared earlier, always like a little competition,
right, so we, we, I, I love that, that, you know, that makes me think, my gosh, I want to do more,
I want to, you know, get this, get this increased even higher, especially considering our size, so,
um, I think that's, that's all the numbers I have for -- oh,
I do have one more, so, sorry, just trying to, I wasn't ready for this, but,
um, we have increased from FY 21 to FY 22 by 1.28 overall in our underrepresented employee,
so an additional 600, 648 employees, so we are trying to drive up those, uh, numbers as well too.
>> Okay, great, and, um, Shelly.
>> Yes, thank you. Well, I had to phone a friend, um, and I see that we have about 488,
uh, employees on board with disabilities. Um, I don't have the percentages, um, of what that
is at the moment, but, um, so just speaking to the, um, the challenges, I would say that,
um, again, the education of the hiring manager because we don't want them to think,
um, and as some have in the past thought that it would be expensive or resource-draining, um,
you know, to hire individuals with disabilities if they have to provide for accommodations,
etc., but not so much. Um, you know, you budget for things just like you budget for training,
uh, for your employees, so you know it's all positive, uh, definitely a win-win scenario,
uh, for us and the hiring managers. I mean, when we show them just how fast,
how much quicker the process can be for hiring an individual with a disability,
um, you know, versus a posted vacancy announcement or a certificate, and, you know,
um, how much faster it can be, you know, just showing them the win-wins, you know,
it just kind of negates all of the challenges, um, and now with remote work, um, and we do, you know,
have some remote work positions, you know, it just makes it that much more flexibility,
and, you know, just, it just provides for so much for everyone. So, again, just, you know,
there's all kinds of wins here, so we can, we can easily, you know, negate all those challenges.
>> Great, and --
>> Actually, I just, I just want to chime in, Shelley, thank you,
you bring a very good point, right, we are in a, you know, a huge siren hiring surge at USCIS,
and one of the things we really want to do is promote all of these non-competitive hiring
authorities because you're right, it makes our job as well as the hiring manager's job a lot easier,
and it'll help us get there faster. So you're right, that's a really, really great point.
>> Thank you for saying that.
>> Great. Dina.
>> Okay, thank you, so, um, I think Donna and Rebekah are showing off, and I'm very competitive,
um, so their numbers are a bit higher than ours. I was happy with our numbers until they reported
theirs, so I, I'm, I'm going to really promote the program even more and beat them next year.
So, our numbers, um, for the persons with targeted disabilities, we're at 3.5 percent,
and persons with disabilities were at 17.8 percent, so, um, doing well, but obviously,
there's more work to do, and, um, I'm gonna really tackle that one. Um, one of the challenges that
we were facing is our applicant pools. Um, we wanted to increase, um, those applicants
with targeted disabilities, so our recruiting team conducts outreach to organizations with potential,
um, persons with disabilities. So, we've reached out to the Lighthouse for the Blind, Virginia and
DC Departments of Aging and Rehabilitation Services, and many other organizations. So,
um, focused on that targeted recruiting as well as, you know, the training and,
and making our hiring officials aware, um, you know, as they consider these applicants.
>> Thank you, and Anthony, you can hear these agencies, DHS agencies, are really
pulling in some good numbers, right? A little bit in a minute, we'll talk about retention,
right, because, uh, we're seeing all the great numbers for your on, um, for your,
for your new hires, and even your on-boards, and some of those on-boards is, is, you know,
continues to be high because you're retaining it, right? It's retaining, um, individuals
with disabilities and targeted disabilities, so you don't want people to think that this
will just focus on recruitment because the onboard number shows the exactly about retention as well.
>> So, let me ask you all one more question before I then take a couple of the other questions in the
chat because then those questions, uh, you know, again, if you're able to see it and you can read
ahead, um, that really talk about the higher levels and as you go up, um, you see that their,
the representation in the higher levels are lower, but we see that across the board. So it's not just
individuals with disabilities, we see that across other demographic groups as well, so, so let's
then just talk about impacts. So, you know, if you could share the impact that you have seen,
um, by integrating diverse hiring strategies into your organizational goal, right,
um, and how that is changing, whether it's, you know, the recruitment, the retention,
but really talk about the impact you're seeing, and you've all shared that
somewhat in some of what you have said before. Ah, maybe I start with Shelley.
>> Yeah, thank you, Sharon, um, so as far as the impact, I mean, you know, with, uh,
veteran hires and individuals with, uh, disabilities and targeted disabilities,
um, you know, we, we have, you know, a great number of them, and I, I remember
we were recognized here at SINC, I believe, maybe last this school year if I can recall,
um, for our veteran hires. But, you know, um, we have, um, so many people that are here on board
and, since, uh, that we utilize for, you know, um, even recruitment so that they can speak to our,
um, potential, uh, candidates, our potential applicants, hiring fairs, um, and we are
recently using SkillsBridge with the Department of Defense. So, um, you know, we recognize the great
impact that our veterans and our individuals with targeted disabilities and disabilities,
um, bring to our organization, and we just try to leverage, you know, them and their,
you know, their, um, other resources or, uh, what do you call them, the, um,
like the other groups that they're, you know, part of, um, and, and just, you know, bring them on.
And, you know, if we can bring on one, and, you know, one veteran that says,
you know, I have other vets, um, because, uh, that's normally, you know, what happens, we,
um, you know, end up getting, uh, a complete influx of,
you know, fabulous fiber veterans that, you know, just one more and one more and one more,
so it's just a trickle of that, um, and we love it, and, you know, the impact here is huge,
um, because our veterans, of course, they're gonna come, a lot of them already come with
this cyber knowledge that, you know, we can, we can leverage from day one, um, they already have,
you know, this type of background that we're looking for, um, and you just have to acclimate
them to the organization, to CISA, to DHS, but they fit right in, you know, no questions,
um, so it's, you know, just that, the impact of the, you know, the, the candidates that we are
able to hire and, you know, just them spreading the word, I think, is very impactful to CISA.
>> Okay, so that's great. Uh, Dina, do you want to add to that?
>> I do. It made me smile. Um, being a military organization, we certainly don't have trouble
hiring veterans here, but, um, so we just feel like, um, diverse hiring strategies broaden
the applicant pools and could, and has decreased our time, overall time to hire, and it's really,
um, those outreach efforts that we're using that's increasing our applicant pools to give
more people with those disabilities an opportunity to compete, um, and really highlighting those,
um, those well-qualified candidates to our hiring officials and making them at ease to make sure
that they understand, you know, we're here to help them with any accommodation that's needed.
Our Civil Rights Office, uh, within the Coast Guard handles all of our reasonable accommodation
requests, and they really strongly partner with the operation side of, um, the Coast Guard to
make sure that, you know, we meet the needs of both the hiring official and the new employee.
Okay, I'm gonna take a couple of the questions. We have a couple more that came up in the chat,
and some of you that touched on this, but the question says, "Often you see individuals with
targeted targeted disabilities in fewer and fewer numbers as the grade levels go up and
are especially rare at the GS 15 and SCS levels. How do your agencies utilize Schedule A not only
as a hiring tool but also as a tool to promote or advance individuals with targeted disabilities to
ensure that they are more IWTDs in those higher grade levels?" So I'm just going to open it up
to any of our panelists that would like to or maybe able to talk to, um, at higher levels.
>> Um, I just wanted to, um, just quickly chime in on this, just because of where I
sit in my perspective, in, in the overall scheme of things as being recruitment, uh,
directly. When I saw this question, the thought that I had was that a lot of times, for the higher
graded positions in the 15s and the SESs, it's not, it's, in my opinion, it's kind of rare,
um, maybe not for the other components, but it's kind of rare for those higher,
those higher graded positions like 15s and SESs to be appointed out from outside. So usually, they're
going to be internal, um, and so in that, the, the hiring authorities that are being utilized
don't necessarily reflect the disability of a person, for example, like the Schedulers or, you
know, the persons with disabilities or targeted disabilities. So I think the numbers are kind of,
um, skewed in a way because whenever we recruit someone, we might recruit them as a promotion,
or it'll be an accepted service appointment based on their,
you know, their career in the position, not necessarily because of their disability.
Um, so I think that's just something to keep in mind. It's not that it's not happening;
it's just that those individuals already are most likely in place, and they're just
climbing the ladder, and this is just the most effective method to get them to that point.
Um, I'll also say that a Schedule A appointment is an accepted service appointment, so a lot of
times, when we hire people into accepted service appointments, after they serve in that position
for about two years, then they convert out of that, that appointment into a competitive
service appointment. So, therefore, when it, when we're looking at the numbers and saying,
these types of appointments, those people kind of fall off because their appointment type has
changed. It doesn't mean that they are not still disabled or anything like that, but it's just as
they're climbing the ladder, that doesn't necessarily go with them. Um, so hopefully,
that makes sense. I just, when I saw that, that's kind of where my mind went, so hopefully,
that helps, and I offer to my colleagues if you have a different perspective, of course.
>> Yeah, no, Rebekah, I completely agree with you. You're right, that's exactly what happens, and so,
you know, unless they, um, you know, self-identify in another way, then they become part of that
representative, representative group of the workforce, right, on board, not necessarily,
um, as visible through the hiring method. So yeah, you're absolutely right. I agree with you.
Shelly or Dina, anything you want to add to that? Nothing?
>> I think Rebekah and Dina have been spot on. I completely agree.
>> Yeah, I do too as well.
>> Thank you. And hey, Sharon, there was a follow-on question, um, from Malcolm Loungway
asking about if they, if they use Schedule A to advance and they lose that competitive status?
>> They don't, well, they, they do temporarily. So sometimes they'll convert,
like they'll go back into their accepted service appointment, and then they have to redo the two
years. But I think that might be dependent on the agency because I know some places that I've been,
um, once they convert it out, then they couldn't use it again. So I think that's where,
if they're changing agencies, maybe they can, but if it's within the same agency,
a lot of times they can't or won't or don't. So I think that's something to consider.
>> Okay, great. And, uh, this discussion has caused a lot of things in the chat,
and I'm trying to keep up with it, so I appreciate the panelists helping me to keep up with it, and I
see Laura Davis, who is also the Department's, uh, Disability Program Manager, has put some,
um, some stats in the chat as well. Uh, so thank you, uh, Laura, for that. Appreciate it.
Okay, I think I'm also looking at the time. We probably have time for one more question. I,
um, okay, so here, let's talk a little bit about, um, retention here, you know, because I talked
earlier that the onboard numbers also reflect retention, right, because if you were just focused
on recruitment and, uh, this is another thing I tell my team is although within our title is
Strategic Talent Recruitment, um, but because we have Inclusive Diversity and Engagement,
that, to me, all wraps in the retention piece, right, or else it just becomes a revolving door
if we're just constantly recruiting and we never retain. So, uh, one question is here, is we need
to move from policy to practice, which I think you have shared today about, you know, your
practices focused on retention. How do we shift to retention or just your thoughts on rotation,
um, from any of you, and I'll, I'll open it up to any of our panelists.
>>
All right, so, um, since no one's jumping on that one, I guess I will.
So, for retention for FLETC, I think our the biggest thing for retention is opportunities.
So, when I look at the broader, the broader flexibility and the workforce,
um, a lot of times it's been Workforce balance and flexibility. So, um, you know, sometimes
people want to try different things, they want to go, they want to launch into different areas,
so we give them opportunities for details. Uh, we utilize what we call a developmental assignment
program where they can go for, um, 90 days into a different organization, and then they come back,
and that gives them a little bit of an exposure to that experience without, you know, going away for
a permanent reassignment or something like that. We also offer, like, for the work-life balance,
you know, some positions have remote work or extensive use of telework. There are a
lot of positions that are not, um, they don't have that flexibility because of the mission,
so it's not something that a lot of agencies can utilize, but here at FLETC,
we do. Not necessarily for our law enforcement instructors, but certainly for our support staff,
it's a much more commonly used option that's available. So, that, that version of retention,
um, certainly has helped our numbers in retaining, you know, our staff on site and those who have
disabilities and Veterans and so on and so forth, but the opportunity is really, I think,
our sticking point for FLETC. And, of course, who doesn't want to live at the beach, right? So,
yeah, we've got places all over the place. We go to the beach. We got the desert. You got the city
life. We can, we can accommodate it all. So, we've got a unique situation, but that's how we do it.
And if I could add, from the Coast Guard, I think our new affinity group is really
going to assist with that retention, um, you know, it's going to seek to raise awareness
of workplace issues affecting individuals with disabilities and help address those concerns. So,
um, I, I think that's going to go a long way, at least for us, with the retention piece.
>> Thank you, thank you for that, um, you know, there's been a lot of comments coming lately,
um, around this, and, and, um, I'm also seeing some of you, some folks answering some of the,
the questions, so thank you, uh, I really appreciate that because that's how this works
as a community, right? Whoever has an answer may chime in on that, so appreciate that.
Um, let me ask, um, if the panelists could, I always like to end to, uh,
with people walking away in a positive, uh, mood. So, if each of our panelists,
if you have a success story that you could share regarding individuals with disabilities
or targeted disabilities in the workplace, if you could share that, right, just, just something,
you'll see, not about the policies and what you're all doing, but if you have a particular
success story you'd like to share with, with our, um, our attendees and participants today.
>> Hi, so this is Dina from the Coast Guard. I will share a personal success story, um,
my admin assistant, you know, those positions are typically lower graded and more difficult to fill,
um, I was able to hire a person with disability, targeted disability,
into that position. She's been with me for over three years now. Um, honestly, I give her a task,
I don't worry about it, she takes it and just runs with it. So, I highly encourage,
um, all hiring officials to consider persons with disabilities,
um, but just, you won't go wrong, at least from my personal, um, story.
>> Thank you. Any of the others? Shelly? Donna? Rebekah?
>> So, I don't have a personal story to share, but I feel like, you know, a USCIS great story is,
and, and this is, you know, something that we track every year on a different front, right,
so the, bless best places to work in the federal government rankings,
um, and in my view, this is a really great story, especially for DEIA,
um, and, um, individuals with disabilities. Persons with disabilities, have to say that
it's easier for me, um, our rankings are above medium rankings for DEIA accessibility, 71.4%,
and DEIA inclusion, 76.2 percent, and in my mind, that is a great story, that's a retention piece,
um, you know, there's so many other more reasons people love working at USCIS, but that really
means something because that's the employee's voice back coming back to us, and that's,
that's a critically High rating for us. So, in my, my mind, that is a success story, and it is,
it didn't necessarily have to be personal, it'd be, what's a success story within your agency?
>> Any others? Okay, so there's a question here about how do we promote it at diversity
at the 15 and SES level, is diversity at higher levels considered important?
Um, do you all want to address that? And this doesn't, um, I mean this can be much broader.
So let me start at the department level. One of the things that my office does is we look at,
um, diversity or demographic diversity across the board, right? So it's not just about ethnicity or
race or gender disability. We look at veterans, we look at by generations, we look at, um, uh, what
did I say? Veterans already, you know. So we look at a broad cross-section when we are talking about
diversity, and we're in that, we, you know, we break it down by all the levels. One of the things
is, some of you maybe, where hopefully you're all aware of the Secretary's 2023, uh, priorities,
of which, um, priority number one on dealt with about meeting basic needs of our employees,
that dealt with engagement issues like pay parity. Priority number two, you know, and Facilities
improvements, make sure that we're really meeting the basic needs of our employees, right? Priority
two talks to recruitment efforts and DEIA, and that's where we report and and so when you said,
is it, are we promoting it, is it considered? I have to tell you, every week, on every other week,
these reports are going up to the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary, and you know, I know some
of you are saying, yeah, reports just go up, what does it matter? This is also, we have to meet,
every week I am actually in a meeting where I'm reporting this. The S2 meets regularly,
and when I say regularly, I feel like it's every month or every other week where I'm gonna be
called to talk about all that we're doing and reporting out, and if any of you have ever been
in meetings with the S1, our Secretary, or Deputy Secretary, they read everything we send. I think
they must not sleep because they do, and then they come back and they ask the hard questions,
um, you know, we briefed, I think back in January, to the senior leadership
team about diversity. We actually had to break it out by grade levels, and,
um, you know, as with communication, sometimes it doesn't flow down, um, you know, so you don't
know, may not be aware that this is going on, but I will tell you to have made those first
two items, there's priorities or 2023 component leadership will often reach out asking about the
numbers that we have shown. The Secretary and the Deputy Secretary calls them out about it,
you know, good and bad. So it is considered, it is being reported up, and they are reading it
and coming back and asking us what we're doing. So I did want folks to know is, um, you know,
you may not hear, hear about that, but I will tell you that I am spending an enormous amount of time,
um, and then I am slowing this down asking people what are you doing around this, what is the latest
actions, here's some things that, um, have been going on. We conduct focus groups across,
um, the components, my team has been responsible for that, and while it's not just about,
um, disability issues, we hear, um, we hear about all kinds of things, whether it's,
you know, the bandwidth that can't support you being able to do your work, Fleet facilities,
uh, the environment, so we hear a lot of this, we are tracking these. These are getting back
to your components to say what is going on. The Secretary has been doing engagement, so I know
that was a lot to answer that question, but this is really about, it is considered, it is, um, let
me just tell you high interest in this, that is my every waking moment, addressing these issues, and
some of these folks as well because it flows down when I go across, uh, the DHS agents, is to ask,
um, with one minute with three minutes left, I'm just going to have an open
question for the panelists, is there anything that you would like to, to close out with,
and then we will wrap this up, and I will do then just have some final comments.
>> Um, I'll start -- oh, I'm sorry.
>> Shelly, go ahead.
>> No, I was just gonna say thank you, um, thank you Rebekah. I was just gonna say, um,
Sharon, thank you, and in the spirit of diversity and inclusion, we love to grow our employees,
and it's an honor to be able to promote and hire individuals with disabilities and target
disabilities at all grade levels. Um, and also, I want to say thank you to the other
panel members because I've taken some notes. Um, some of the things like Rebekah mentioned,
we are doing. We're getting ready to post a vacancy announcement soon,
very similar to your announcement, uh, out there reaching individuals with disabilities and other
non-competitive, uh, hiring authorities, so we're getting ready to do that now,
um, and we do the pre-consult, the pre-recruitment consultations that we have, that hiring manager
conversation. So I did write down from Diana, your affinity group, and I wrote some notes from Dina
as well, so thank you. This has been a tremendous opportunity for me as well to learn, so thanks.
>> Rebekah?
>> Thank you, and I'll just echo Shelley's sentiments. There was
a lot of great information that was shared today,
um, just thank you to Sharon and did my colleagues here on the panel, and, uh, thank you all for all
of you being here, and I'd also like to extend the invitation to anyone if they have any questions
about anything we talked about or about the recruitment aspect or schedule a, please feel
free to reach out to me. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, either teams or email,
um, and, you know, if you're interested in FLETC, come teach at the beach with us. I
think I like that new slogan someone else came across. I love it, teach at the beach. So I,
uh, well, we might start utilizing that, but hopefully, we'll see, uh, some folks at the
recruitment fairs and just around the flood scene or the DHS environment, so thank you all so much.
>> Okay, Donna?
>> Yeah, no, thank you. This was really good, great to hear from everybody, great to
participate. Look, I think we should get a little competition going with the numbers, that'll be
fun. But Sharon, to answer what you said too, I mean, it's hard, I agree, it's hard at the
leadership levels. One of the things our director did, um, or do our director, who she's really
amazing, um, she particularly, a strategic plan, she linked it with our USCIS strategic plan. These
things are meaningful, all of our leadership is paying attention to this stuff. It is a big deal,
um, and, you know, I think that's, that's a great positive for us. So,
um, we look forward to continuing to leverage these authorities and promote them as best as
we can, and, you know, thank you, Sharon, for having us come, uh, today and speak.
>> Okay, and Dina, any closing?
>> No, I agree with everyone. I took a lot of great notes, and,
um, I'm thinking about posting that announcement to Target,
um, our position, so, um, great super suggestion on that. And, um, I'm all for competition, um,
and like everybody else, I am willing to share our MOU for, um, affinity group if anybody would
like to have a copy. Okay, so thank you, everyone, great discussion, really appreciate the panelists,
um, you know, hope you tune into so there's two sessions that OCHCO is hosting. This is the first,
the second one this afternoon is at two o'clock, it's called "Boots Underground:
Making Accessibility Happen," and they're gonna align strategies and tactics that can be employed
at the individual level to accomplish DHS's broader goal to strengthen accessibility, equity,
and fairness. Remember, we're not just doing this to just do it, right? Just to hire people without,
we are doing it because all these different perspectives and backgrounds help DHS execute
and accomplish our mission, and at the end of the day, that's what's important is the
execution of our mission. So we need to bring it, we need to, um, ensure we are bringing in folks
from all segments of society because it is this diversity that helps us to execute our mission.
>> So thank you, everyone, the chat had the, um, the info on all of our speakers,
so as they mentioned, please reach out to them if you have specific questions. Thank you,
everyone, and, uh, really appreciate your joining us today. Thank you, bye.
>>
That was an awesome, awesome, awesome presentation. Thank you,
Miss Wong. You did a great job. Your panelists were great. I think all of
the participants today definitely walked away with a lot of information. I, for one,
would love to have you guys back again next year with the same panel or other people who are as
enthusiastic. And I really would love to be able to see those percentage numbers to see where they
are next year in comparison to this year because based on what you guys described, the numbers are
really doing well right now. But to get it above 25 percent, that would be really nice.
>> Yes, thank you very much for having us. That, thank you.
>> Thank you all. Right, guys, we are going to move into our next segment. Um, for this morning,
um, next, we're going to go into an overview of accessibility training for developers, an overview
of the Playbook upgrades. So I know that we have a lot of people that are on the call now that are
trusted testers. We have folks who are developers. We have program managers that are in control of
different systems. So this particular presentation is one I think that you really are going to enjoy
if you don't know about the Playbook. The Playbook was created by our office to assist individuals as
they are going through the development process and procurement process, so...