04.15.2024 –
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Diversity, and Inclusion Office was presented the Disability Matters Workplace North America Award during the 18th Annual Disability Matters North America Conference and Awards Ceremony held on April 4-5 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Presented annually by Springboard Consulting LLC, the award honors companies for their programs and initiatives that touch on all aspects of accommodations, work-life initiatives, company policies and practices and training. These awards are given to corporations around the globe that are leading the way in mainstreaming disability in three categories: Workforce, Workplace and/or Marketplace.
“Moving NSWCPD from the island of diversity to the land of inclusion is the primary mission of the entire organization,” NSWCPD Deputy Director of EEO, Robert Turner said.
Turner, who also served as a panelist at the event, inspired the attendees with NSWCPD’s journey to become a model EEO program in all areas of EEO to include individuals with disabilities. In addition, Turner challenged attendees to focus on a person’s strengths and capabilities, which was received by a standing ovation.
According to the award nomination, the EEO, Diversity, and Inclusion Office team was crucial in executing NSWCPD's fiscal year hiring human resources (HR) initiatives and advised management on all HR recruitment program services.
The team established the Barrier Analysis Working Group while tracking key demographics of universities to assist the agency and advocate for the workforce in addressing potential barriers in the command's recruitment efforts. The group evaluated the demographics of applicant pools and planned college recruitment events based on engineering curriculum and diversity statistics.
The team works closely with the recruitment coordinator to recruit students across multiple internship programs and target entry-level hires. In addition, the team helped with hiring events for those with targeted disabilities and supported hiring events focusing on increasing the diversity of NSWCPD engineering hires.
Also, the team assisted the recruitment office in the implementation of a new talent-based recruitment strategy to focus on the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) to help NSWCPD meet the Department of Defense disability goals of 12 percent of Individuals with Disabilities (IWD) and two percent of Individuals with Targeted Disabilities represented in the permanent civilian workforce. This program is critical in supporting the mission of NSWCPD by maximizing retention and use of its workforce, which has diverse technical and business expertise.
Other accomplishments of the EEO team include:
• Processing more than 39 reasonable accommodation requests with a 100 percent timeliness rate. The office averaged 15 days to process requests, whereas regulations provide for a standard processing time of 45 days.
• Providing four reasonable accommodation refresher training sessions, where they trained 165 supervisors to enhance the command's understanding of their roles in the accommodation process.
• Spearheading the initiation of over 150 interpreter requests to meet the legal and regulatory requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. As the liaison between the contracted interpreter and the employee, the EEO Office provided the required interpreter services to meet the needs of staff with disabilities at regularly occurring events and meetings.
NSWCPD’s Disability Program covers several projects and programs, from interpreter services and reasonable accommodation coordination to sponsoring awareness events and engaging with the workforce. The EEO, Diversity, and Inclusion Office team works with other areas of the command to ensure emergency preparedness plans are in place to address Individuals with Disabilities (IWD), including but not limited to mobility needs, individuals who are blind or have low vision, and employees who are deaf or hard of hearing.
“Our program focuses on making the workplace accessible to all employees,” Turner said.
While on the job, assistive technologies are available for those who require cognitive, communication, dexterity, hearing, and vision accommodations.
EEO is constantly working with assistive technology throughout the command. One such occurrence was the arrival of an employee who was disabled and required the use of a wheelchair. The EEO Office quickly conducted a walk-through with the building security team to ensure all technology was in place for the employee. This included certifying all entrance and exit buttons were working on doors, space was present for the individual to maneuver around and reach their cubical workspace, and the EEO Office informed supervisors of their responsibilities to assist if needed. During the inspection, the handicap buttons were absent on the restrooms in the building. Once this issue was identified, the facilities team installed, tested, and used the new buttons within five business days.
Additionally, the EEO Office works in conjunction with the security and facilities team at NSWCPD to ensure emergency preparedness is established and followed. These include, but are not limited to, buddy programs, fire alarm/flashing lights, and ensuring ramps/doors are accessible for IWD.
The command values and respects the strengths and differences among its employees. “Employees are more diverse today than ever before, and NSWCPD must be positioned to understand and create work solutions to meet these needs,” Turner added.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play an important role in supporting and sustaining this effort. ERGs are open to all employees and provide an environment by which employees can share their experiences and expertise, network with senior management, and learn career-building skills. The ERGs also foster a mentoring environment. Currently, NSWCPD has the following ERGs in place: African American ERG; Latin American ERG; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies ERG; Naval Asian Society ERG; New Hire ERG; Veterans ERG; and Women’s ERG.
Spearheaded by the NSWCPD EEO Office, an ERG Field Day was held in 2023 in collaboration with the NSWCPD ERGs. During this Field Day all civilian employees of NSWCPD were invited to participate in an outdoor information session to learn more about the ERGs themselves, enjoy outdoor activities, and indulge in light refreshments. The well-attended event helped the NSWCPD ERGs recruit many new members to their teams.
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.