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1
Introduction and Overview*
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) hosted a two-workshop series titled
Workforce Resiliency Programs in September and November of 2011.
The workshops were sponsored by the Department of Homeland
Security’s (DHS’s) Office of Health Affairs (OHA). The workshops
were designed to aid DHS in the development of a strategy to build a
long-term resilience initiative for the DHS workforce. The statement of
task requested that the workshops provide a forum to examine the
following topics:
1. defining workforce resilience and its benefits such as increased
operational readiness and long-term cost savings for the speci-
fied population;
2. identifying work-related stressors faced by DHS workers, and
gaps in current services and programs;
3. prioritizing key areas of concern; and
4. identifying innovative and effective worker resilience programs
that could potentially serve as models for relevant components of
the DHS workforce.
Resilience is generally defined as the ability to rebound after
adversity. DHS is concerned that long-term exposure to stressors reduces
individual resilience and negatively affects employees’ physical and
mental well-being. In turn, the organization’s level of operational
*
The planning committee’s role was limited to planning the workshops, and the
summary has been prepared by the rapporteurs as a factual summary of the presentations
and discussions that took place at the workshops.
1
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2 BUILDING A RESILIENT WORKFORCE
readiness is potentially reduced. The September workshop focused on
DHS’s operational and law enforcement personnel. The November
workshop concentrated on DHS policy and program personnel with top
secret security clearances. Law enforcement personnel are defined as
individuals who carry a weapon and are charged with enforcing the law.
Operational personnel include a wide range of emergency responders
such as firefighters, federal emergency responders working in the field,
and emergency medical staff. Many positions within DHS require
employees to have a security clearance. Employees with high-level
security clearances are often exposed to traumatic and disturbing
information as part of their jobs. DHS is concerned that individuals will
not seek assistance because of fears of jeopardizing their security
clearance.
In planning the workshops, the committee noted resilience research
and interventions are an emerging area of study, and many factors appear
to influence both individual and organizational resilience. As a result,
they reached out to a broad array of experts from various fields including
resilience research, occupation health psychology, emergency response,
performance measurement, high-reliability organizations, law enforcement,
work design, and private-sector programs, to name a few.
Although the two workshops focused primarily on specific groups of
personnel, many of the issues discussed were relevant for all DHS
employees. Throughout the workshops, themes emerged in the individual
presentations and participants’ comments (see Box 1-1). The themes
listed are the most frequent, cross-cutting topics that arose during the
workshops, but they do not constitute a full or exhaustive overview of
the field.
The planning committee’s role was limited to planning and convening
the workshops. This summary has been prepared by designated rapporteurs
as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshops. Opinions and
comments contained in the summary are those of individual workshop
participants and do not necessarily represent the views of all workshop
participants. Statements in the summary should not to be construed as
findings, conclusions, or recommendations of the planning committee or
the Institute of Medicine.
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3
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
BOX 1-1
Themes from Individual Workshop Speakers
Resilience as a process rather than a state or personal trait
Links between individual, family, organizational, and
community resilience
Connections between physical and mental well-being including
resilience
Relationships between leadership and resilience
Balance between personal and professional obligations
Disincentives for seeking assistance such as stigma affect
resilience
Role of evidence and performance measurement in developing
and improving interventions
Role of organizational diversity and culture in developing and
implementing resilience interventions
Factors influencing program utilization and outcomes include
o leadership buy-in and support,
o alignment of programs with organizational culture,
o communications, and
ongoing performance measurements
o
ORGANIZATION OF THIS SUMMARY
This summary encompasses more than 20 hours of presentations and
discussions from the two workshops. Many of the sessions touched on
more than one of the topics within the statement of task listed above.
Given the overlap in the issues and topics discussed at the workshops,
this summary is organized topically rather than chronologically. The
agendas from the workshops and a complete listing of the speakers,
panelists, and planning committee members are included in the
Appendixes.
Chapter 2 includes presentations from both workshops. The
presentations provide background information about DHS, work-
related stressors, gaps in current services and programs, as well
as overviews of DHS’s human capital framework, internal
resilience efforts, and security clearance requirement.
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4 BUILDING A RESILIENT WORKFORCE
Chapter 3 consists of a session focused on developing an
operational definition for long-term resilience that is relevant to
DHS. The presentations examine definitions of resilience from
various perspectives such as individuals, communities, organizations,
and occupational health and safety.
Chapter 4 explores various factors that influence workforce
effectiveness and resilience. The chapter includes presentations
from both workshops. These presentations cover discussions of sleep
and fatigue, common issues within high-reliability organizations,
employees’ ability to balance their professional and personal
obligations, teams under stress, and the role of leadership. The
chapter also includes descriptions of a federal wellness program
and a military framework for resilience.
Chapter 5 includes an overview of different resilience programs
and interventions. The presentations include overviews of the
Army’s Comprehensive Solider Fitness Program, perspectives
on other military resilience research, as well as interventions
with firefighters and other private-sector programs.
Chapter 6 includes descriptions of employee wellness and employee
assistance programs (EAPs) and how they might be leveraged to
support DHS’s resilience efforts.
Chapter 7 is a discussion of the various individual and organizational
measures of resilience, engagement, burnout, and job-fitness, as
well as an example of a successful private-sector employee
satisfaction assessment.
Chapter 8 includes a multidisciplinary panel of experts discussing
the key points of the September workshop, as well as perspectives
on resilience from representatives of DHS component agencies.
BACKGROUND
Alexander Garza, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and chief
medical officer for DHS, and Kathryn Brinsfield, director of the
Workforce Health and Medical Support Division within the Office of
Health Affairs (OHA), presented background information on DHS at the
workshops. Their comments have been summarized below.
At the September workshop, Garza stated that DHS was birthed in
the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was charged with a 21st-
century mission of protecting the homeland. Twenty-two preexisting
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INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
federal agencies were brought together along with several new groups
under one umbrella to create DHS. The current structure of DHS
includes the following components:
Directorate for National Protection and Programs (NPPD)
Directorate for Science and Technology
Directorate for Management
Office of Policy
Office of Health Affairs
Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)
Office of Operations Coordination and Planning
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which also
houses the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), except under Title 10 where it
becomes part of the military
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
The structure under which these components existed before the crea-
tion of DHS varies widely. For example, USSS was created in 1865 as a
division of the Department of Treasury tasked with suppressing counter-
feit currency. Over time, the mandate grew to include protection of the
President of the United States and other government officials. USSS re-
mained a component of the Treasury until the creation of DHS. USSS
was restructured and experienced a large expansion of its mandate under
the USA Patriot Act as part of the move to DHS. USSS now investigates
a wide array of security threats, including threats to cyber security and
financial transactions. USSS is a component with a long-standing history
and culture. Alternatively, the TSA was created in 2001 in response to
9/11. Initially under the Department of Transportation, it became a com-
ponent of DHS in 2003. As a relatively new organization, it is in the ear-
ly stages of developing a structure and organizational culture.
DHS employees bring a broad range of skills, organizational cul-
tures, and backgrounds to their diverse and difficult responsibilities.
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6 BUILDING A RESILIENT WORKFORCE
Within DHS, the largest group of employees are law enforcement
personnel. Almost 50 percent of the department’s personnel serve in a
law enforcement role. Another large group of employees are policy
personnel who carry high-level security clearances. Although these
groups may share a common mission to protect the homeland, each of
their roles carries different tasks and stressors.
To add to the complexity, DHS and its component agencies are
geographically diverse. DHS personnel are stationed around the country with
only 20 percent located in the national capital region. Approximately 20
percent of DHS’s law enforcement personnel work in some of the most
remote regions of the United States. In some cases, they are 4 to 6 hours
away from any health care facility.
RESILIENCE WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Brinsfield noted that in response to an increase in suicide rates within
the department, Deputy Secretary Jane Hull Lute tasked the OHA to
develop a department-wide employee resilience program in October
2009. The deputy secretary also tasked the new program with making the
department one of the “best places to work in the federal government” as
measured by the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Employee
Viewpoint Survey. The OHA started the DHSTogether program to address
this charge.
Brinsfield noted that the initial research gathered to support the
DHSTogether program found that DHS’s suicide rate was equivalent to
the national suicide rate. However, when they drilled down to the
different components within DHS, some law enforcement components
had rates that were significantly higher and in some cases were much
closer to those seen in the military.
Given the two goals of the program, DHSTogether staff decided not
to focus solely on suicide prevention but instead to look broadly into
stress and resilience in the workforce. More detailed information about
the DHSTogether program is included in Chapter 2.
Over the past 2 years of the DHSTogether resilience program, the
OHA has learned that resilience is not a single-solution problem given
the diversity of people, positions, and mission sets within DHS. The issues
are multifactorial and require many different skill sets and complementary
strategies to address resilience. Garza added that some of the more
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INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
complex issues to be addressed are the social, cultural, and stigma
barriers related to seeking help. Whether the barriers to seeking help are
concerns about jeopardizing security clearances, cultural norms within
the law enforcement community, or stigma associated with mental health
problems, these issues are significant problems in developing an
effective resilience program. DHS is not alone in tackling these issues.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is dealing with these same issues in
its resilience and suicide prevention programs.
The DHS workforce is stressed by challenging work and exposure to
multiple critical incidents. DHS needs to find a way to encourage
members of the workforce to seek help in order to better deal with those
challenges. Garza asserted that in order for DHS employees to meet the
demands of their important mission, they have to be effective, mission-
oriented, and in peak condition every day. This requires that they be
resilient.
Garza stated that DHS employees have dedicated their lives to
protecting this nation, and they should have a work environment that
helps them with the challenges they face, whether they are work related
or family related. The DHSTogether program is working to provide a
cohesive strategy for all the components to demonstrate that the
department cares about its people and is trying to break down those
cultural barriers.
Brinsfield mentioned that although the program has been unfunded
since its inception, it will potentially be funded starting in 2012. As the
program moves forward, the staff is looking at the initiative’s work to
assess its effect. She added that the good news is that the suicide rate
within the department has dropped dramatically since the program
started. Unfortunately, she cautioned that it is not possible to determine if
this drop is related to the efforts of the resilience program. The
DHSTogether team is now focused on identifying what is working, what
is not working, and how to reinforce what already has been done. Given
the limited amount of the potential funding for the program, it is essential
to ensure that resources are spent wisely.
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