By Allison Weissert | 

The Human Resources Division (HR) within PEO IEW&S met this challenge and created a program that was introduced to a group of new hires that ranged from a few weeks on the job to six months. PEO leadership, HR, and the Business Management Division (BMD) spent the last two years gathering and analyzing data from multiple authoritative personnel resources and sifting through feedback via survey and one on one conversations. Cheryl Litteral, Human Capital Strategist, PEO IEW&S, said, “We learned that new employees were feeling disconnected from their coworkers and lacked a real understanding of how their role fit into the overall mission.” This was due in part to the pandemic. Litteral said, “Once the pandemic ended, one goal was to develop a New Employee Orientation (NEO); a way for new employees (no matter where they are located) to come together for a few days and learn about the Organization; meet leaders and staff members; and build a connection with other new employees.”

The NEO, held in March, was a three-day event. The briefing included introductions and welcomes from senior leadership, Brig. Gen. Ed Barker, PEO, Laurence Mixon, Special Assistant to the PEO, and Kyle Perkins, Chief of Staff. The new employees took the Oath of Office and participated in several team building activities. Heather Ferguson, Program Analyst for Project Director Sensor Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) started in January as a brand-new government civilian and attended the briefing. She said, “the NEO brief was very helpful. The information presented really helped me make connections to the mission, and it was also helpful to meet new people from different organizations.”

Representatives from each Project Manager and Headquarters Office gave an overview of their missions. Allen Alphonso is a Systems Engineer for the Mounted Position, Navigation and Timing (MAPS, PM PNT) team working on the MAPS Gen 2 program. He came on board with PEO IEW&S last October but has been a government employee since 2016. He said, “Overall, I think the presentations were very informative. I had no idea what the other PM shops did, so getting a fairly brief rundown of their operations, I thought that was extremely useful. It definitely made me more appreciative of what the PEO as a whole is seeking to accomplish for the customers that we serve.”

In addition to hearing about the mission and functions of each PM and Division, the participants were given valuable information about training, HR processes and military operations. At the close of the NEO new employees celebrated with a graduation and were given the opportunity to complete a survey of their experience. The participants overwhelmingly had a positive response to the briefing but did offer some ideas for improvement. There was consensus to tone down the technical verbiage during the PM overviews, add more interactive displays, and talk more about HR processes. In response the HR Division has incorporated all of these suggestions for future NEOs.

Litteral shared her thoughts on the NEO brief. She said, “During that session, the attendees were wonderful, they all had a vested interest in helping us improve the NEO. We received such great insight that we went back to the drawing board and overhauled the entire agenda.” She gathered metrics from the brief and found one hundred percent of participants found the NEO helpful. “Our next NEO session is planned for June 11-13, and we are so excited to see how all the changes will improve the employee’s experience. The NEO is an instrumental part of the overall PEO IEW&S onboarding and acculturation experience, and we are proud to have made this step forward in ensuring that employees feel like they belong to the PEO IEW&S family and understand how important their role in the Organization is.”

The official Army People Strategy states its vision as: “We will build cohesive teams for the Joint Force by maximizing the talents of our People, the Army’s greatest strength and most important weapon system.” PEO IEW&S is striving to improve employee experiences and the NEO brief is a step in that direction.