Transcripts For CSPAN3 Congressional Staff Diversity Retention 20240714

A the committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. In is cultivating diversity, improving retention with Congressional Staff. I recognize myself for five minutes for opening statement. One of the main ways in which we retain staff is by having it be 90 degrees in here. My apologies to each of you. Well be distributing fans to the entire audience. Today were going to talk about whats the backbone of this institution, the Congressional Staff that work here. I think i speak for all of us and those yet to come when i say we couldnt do our jobs without teams of people that work for us. Anytime i get a compliment where someone says nice job on this or that, my response is always i have a good team and i feel lucky for that. Theyre dedicated Public Servants that are here because they want to do meaningful work. They often choose careers on the hill and in the district offices, despite long hours, occasional lack of job security. Since we work on a two year contract. And lower pay compared to what they could make in the executive branch or private sector. We are as an institution very fortunate to attract such talented people and hard working people. However, keeping them here is another story. Turnover rates are high with most positions in member offices turning over every two years or less. Of course, that isnt always a bad thing, a lot of staff leave one job on the hill for a different job on the hill. But even when taking into account the movement between different jobs, typical staffer leaves the hill after 4 or 5 years, and hear they leave after time, desire to do good and serve the public is outweighed by need for a better Work Life Balance and need to make more money, to afford housing, support families, put kids through college. That puts congress as a disadvantage, compared not only to private sector and to the executive branch, and doesnt serve the interest of the American People. Congress needs to do more to not only attract the best talent but keep the best talent, with the best backgrounds and views that exist across the country. How do you create a Work Environment that makes staff want to stay here instead of heading for the off ramp. How do we make sure we have a congress that looks like america. I thought it would be good to bring in the point person that handles Human Resources for house staff, could talk about benefits available to staff. Then i found out that person does not exist. There is not an hr point of contact for house staff. But were going to talk about benefits today, going to hear about Current Trends in Employee Benefits, look at what congress can do better, also going to look at what congress can do to recruit and retain diverse staff that represent america. 116th congress is the most racially, ethnically Diverse Congress in history, and the Congressional Staff should represent diversity of constituents around the country. I look forward to hearing what thoughts and recommendations witnesses and members of the committee have from proving staff retention and inclusion in the house. Thank you for being here. I invite tom graves for opening remarks. Thank you, mr. Chairman, commend you for your leadership and making staff of this institution and diversity were going to discuss a focus of this committee. Modernization doesnt just mean updating technology and improving the legislative process, it ensures the peoples house invest in a dynamic work force that reflects those we represent and does it not only in committees and offices but also on the house floor as well. Those serving on this committee represent unique districts. Northwest washington state, northwest georgia here represented, and our constituents have different backgrounds, and unique experiences. And those that want a career in Public Service are no different. I look forward to hearing from expert Witnesses Today about how we can attract and retain a work force comprised of different voices, characteristics, experiences and skills in congress with unemployment now in our nation at lowest rate in 51 years, im looking forward to discussing how this institution can compete with the private sector in hiring and retaining some of the most talented persons in our country that ultimately help us serve the American People better. Im glad were having this conversation. Building on work this committee has already done, and we could have a conversation now to learn more about best practices from those that have been helping to change the narrative and set new trends to increasing opportunity nationwide. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. I know representative cleaver has interest in sharing owning remarks. Happy to recognize him for that purpose. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank the Ranking Member as well. I am extremely fascinated by the diversity of the nation, i am frustrated by the homogenaity in upper ranks of government and to some degree down to where we are now. And because i personally believe that there are at this moment in history only a few people who would intentionally work toward exclusion, but that leaves people who are unconsciously excluding, so thats the area that i think we can impact, and im looking forward to ways in which the panel can present that might help us deal in that realm. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thanks very much. With that, i think we will did anyone else have opening comment to make . With that, we welcome the testimony of three witnesses. First, dr. Alexander alonzo, the study for Human Resource management chief knowledge officer, during his career, dr. Has worked conducting job analysis and served as a columnist analyzing mamger trends. Dr. Alo tsts 12w49sds 9d 9 if sgrou 2349sds remthz secretary general of the council of women World Leaders which is composed of heads of government. Its the only organization dedicated to women heads of state and government. She holds an mba from Harvard Business school. And then dr. Mitchell is principle in consulting and government and Public Services practice with over 15 years of experience. To date, he served over 40 clients across government and commercial practices. Dr. Mitchell is passionate about developing diverse leaders and serves as the diversity and inclusion lead and has championed recruiting through the firstever inclusion hiring blitz. He holds a phd in organic chemistry. Is that right . Inorganic chemistry. Im sorry. Literally dont know what that means. From northwestern university. I really dont know what that means. Without objection your written statements will be made part of the record. You now recognized for five minutes. Good afternoon. As the voice of all things work, workers and the work place, sherman is shaping the way employers and employees strive together by maximizing potential t. Is my job to examine and understand the issues faced by employees, employers. I deeply appreciate congress leading by example and examining how it can improve its own employment practices. An important area that weve studied and that Congress Must closely examine is the use of Strategic Benefits. Hr departments and organizations invest significant resources in designing benefits packages to retain their top talent. In the most recent survey, 92 indicated benefits play a role in insuring their overall job satisfaction. The results also showed a strong correlation between benefits and retention. This under scores the importance of organizations and their need to plan their Strategic Benefits to maximize return on investment and competitive advantage. This is especially true in congress. Congressional employees often face long hours, a high stress environment and lower pay than private sector counter parts. Under these circumstances, benefits play a significant role in Employee Satisfaction and retention. A study found 72 of congressional employees recorded benefits influence their decision to stay in their current positions. In todays labor market, benefits offerings set organizations apart when recruiting top talent. They have not ke79 up with the pace of private sector benefits. They have not met the needs of our diverse and modern workforce. Research Shows Improvement in the economic land scare and increasing diversity are driving organizations. For example, there are currently five with this also shapes perspectives as far as work place benefits leading to restructure. Congress should examine on work and benefits as a result. In a tight labor market, Workforce Development has become a big driver in supporting employees who want to upscale. 87 of employers report Offering Professional Development opportunities as a benefit and 14 of organizations say they increased their investment in professional Development Offerings over the last year. More than 90 of organizations offer paid leave of some type to their employees while 34 offer maternity leave. Teleworking options of all types are on the rise. With heavy work loads, long unpredictable hours and limited time for family and friends, alternative schedules could be an attractive option for Congressional Staff. A growing number och employers have begun to offer Student Loan Repayment benefits to their employees. The survey shows it has doubled since 2018. Some Congressional Offices currently offer Student Loan Repayment however there is room for improvement. Strongly supports Education Assistance including expanding the benefits of Student Loan Repayment. Where you have the best of all talent. In addition, retirement plans and Health Care Coverage remains the cornerstone of employerprovided benefits. While benefits offerings are critical to securing top talent, it is equally important that congress address inclusion and diversity when discussing a modern workforce. The 116th congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in American History. Capitol hill staff should reflect a Diverse Workforce representing its constituents. The employment process for capitol hill is vastly different than the private sector. Congress should explore the implementation of a centralized Talent Management system while also keeping an eye toward effective people manager development as an important part of the great culture. Mr. Chairman and vice chair graves, thank you again for allowing me to share my experience and views on the importance of benefits as well as inclusion and diversity in the work place. Congress can lead by example by communicating the true value of benefits and inclusion and diversity. What happens in washington, d. C. Will in fact impact other work places and we truly believe that creating better work place policies leads to better work places and in turn a better world. I welcome your questions. Thank you. Thanks very much. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you. You may have to hit the button on your microphone. Only worked through that three times with me. Thats all right. Thank you. You may have forgotten because of the i forgot about inorganic chemistry. Its all very challenging. You can restart her clock. And distinguished members of the committee, thank you very much for allowing me to testify. I think we know diversity and inclusion are keys to better decision making, effective policy and innovation. We know also that howorks only with problems are simple, communication is easy and the environment is not changing. You must have heterogineity. And its about the number of people who are duiverse on your staff and tracking the numbers. Its not just about that. Its not about what i call the noahs arc approach to diversity which is if we can only get two of each in the arc well have our diversity. But thats a problem. We do know the value of diversity and inclusion, creativity, innovation, back grounds, talents, ideas, cognitive diversity. Think about your congressional baseball team. You dont want all catchers on your team. Diversity and inclusion also avoids the risk of homogenous thinking also known as group think. It avoids the overreliance on perspectives. It signals trusts and institutions by representing a reflection in america in connecting to communities. Yes it is about race and gender, but also about socio economics, disability, language, sports, religion, education background, family status, military status, language, nationality and you can go on. Diversity and inclusion are strategic tools to ensure better solutions. But what are some of the challenges . I mentioned noahs arc. The problem with that is that if the giraffe in the arc is looking at the zebra and says youre funny looking, how do you do anything with that stupid short neck of yours, thats a problem. Because we have unconscious believes and perspectives and associations and roles and arc types about who people are. We have the challenge of confirmation bias which is whatever it is i believe i will sort the incoming information. We know from research it could have a nonanglo name you have to send out more resumes. If you send the same resume with a male name and female name you get different responses. We know nondomfront groups are assumed to be incompetent until proven to be competent. We have the elephant and mouse theory which is if you are the elephant in the room what do you need to know about the mouse . Not much. If you are the mouse what do you need to know about the elephant . Everything. We also bow that like gravitates to like and like avoids not like. Some organizations that i have worked with dont necessarily have an intake problem, but they all have an upgrade problem. You may be getting Diverse People into the organizations, but they may not be getting into senior staff positions. We also know that homogenous groups dont come to better solutions. They just think they did. Heterogenous groups come to better solutions, but they dont think they did. Diversity seems to be a little more complex. And then there is the challenge of aviding the illusion of inclusion. Just because you have some programs around diversity and inclusion, it doesnt necessarily mean your organization is fair. So some tools that i think are valuable which can help overcome unconscious bias, create consistency in recruiting and development, create office of diversity and inclusion, pay interns to avoid socioeconomic exclusion, get referrals from minority groups, provide clear route to advancement, understand why people leave and stay. Learn about other efforts on diversity through organizations like the interparliamentary union. Think about the rooney rule or the mansfield rule which is law firms committing to considering at least 30 women. Lgbtq and minority lawyers for significant leader positions, creating things like a resume bank and having transparent widely available job postings is very important to attract Different Groups. And understand that certain words when you are attracting people dont necessarily work for others. If you are looking for a highly competitive Ninja Warrior you may be excluding a few people. Make sure voices are heard and understand and use tools to create a level playing field. Understand what i call the power of the mirror. Knowing what you can be by what you see. When i talked to president of iceland, she said after she had been in office for eight years, going around the country and noticed that for the children under eight they all thought only a woman could be president of iceland and the boys had to ask if they can be president of iceland. Obviously, most importantly having a strong and committed leadership. This is the number one requirement on the path to a more diverse and Inclusive Work place. Thank you for letting me testify and i welcome your questions. Thank you. Dr. Mitchell, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I am honored to have the opportunity to share experience today. Im the principal with our government and Public Services practice. Currently i serve as chief inclusion officer. We have been leaders since the early 90s. We think of diversity as different skills, back grounds, attributes and perspectives that we each bring to the table. For example, im one of nine siblings raised by a single mother in a family of factory workers. I was the first member of my family to obtain a phd in inorganic chemistry. Ultimately, these aspects are substantially more complex. Our employees and your Staff Members are similar with different roles, hobbies and affiliations that shape who they are and how they see the world. Inclusion is leveraging all of those things which make each of us unique in a way that encourages us to be authentic and know that we are valued. We know a teams are able to create experiences. And you must extend that to the way that you recruit, as well. What we do internally and one of our most successful efforts was alluded to earlier. And that was our inclusion blitz. And in that particular effort, we had diverse candidates of nontraditional back grounds that were screened with others so that they can obtain a view of their full potential unincumbered by potential bias. We have established the marketleading approach to engaging our people. These counsels are local Office Groups that bring together people from different parts of the business with different back grounds and experience. The result has been a vibrant dialogue that has enabled our colleagues and professionals to learn more from each other, be exposed to new experiences and share practices on building inclusive cultures on a daily basis. This is important because this collaboration allows people in areas that are less diverse to mingle with those that are more diverse, share best practice and create a common culture that benefits all. Thirdly, mentorship and sponsorship are key aspects. Personally, my first two weeks at the firm, i interacted with a partner who became a mentor. Told me that he thought i would be successful within the firm and that he was going to do everything within his power to help me achieve what i could potentially achieve. I tried to pay that forward and we have established a very robust mentorship and Sponsorship Program that just recently one of my initial responses was promoted to managing director. More so than anything else, it proves that the tactics in place and the path that we are on will lead us to be successful and continue to do so in the future. Lastly, we develop our people and coach our managers in a culture of trainings focussed on unconscious bias. And really that is focussed on designing programs to create guidance such that people can create inclusive teams in such a way that they are allowing our staff to operate in a way that they are unincumbered by potential biases that may limit their full potential. Its absolutely critical for all managers Going Forward today and has become an Industry Standard let alone a best practice. Now, many trends and approaches are broadly applicable for improving diversity and inclusion across many organizations. I would like to discuss one thing thats particularly relevant to congress. I find more and more that strong inclusive cultures also include an element of purpose and dedication to the greater good. Purposedriven work is one of the top factors that todays workforce is seeking. True organizations have as strong a purpose as congress. It is important to note that when it comes to diversity and inclusion, there is no one size fits all model. Much like each of your offices in the districts that you represent, every organization has unique characteristics. How are venues like today . Where best practices are being shared are invaluable to advancing the goal of diversity and inclusion and im happy to help in any way possible. Thank you chairman and vice chairman for providing this opportunity to share our experiences and im happy to address any questions. Thanks very much. Stuck the landing right at five minutes. Well done. Were going to roll into questions. I will start by recognizing myself for five minutes. I want to ask you to put yourselves on this committee. We have to make recommendations to the broader body around whether were talking about benefits or diversity and inclusion. Put us put yourselves in our shoes and give us thoughts as to what you think we ought to be recommending to improve recruitment, retention and diversity of staff in the United States house. Well, i will go ahead and start off and argue that the same thing i would argue with any employer. We approach this as recommendations that we would make to any employerprovided benefits strategy or any strategy involving Workforce Development or anything that has to do with retention of top talent. We ask individuals to survey what Congressional Staffers want and what it is that they value. Our recommendation in general that is a good starting point when you actually get a general consensus around what it is that your workforce is looking for whether it be benefits, whether it be looking for new diversity, new inclusion programs, what have you. I think the other thing that we would recommend is really to take a datadriven approach when thinking about what it is that is the best solution given your philosophy around talent. And if your philosophy around talent is to retain top talent and retract that top talent it is whether through recruitment strategy or recruitment tools or Talent Management systems as a whole. Others want to weigh in . I would like to weigh in on that. From the standpoint of a very tactical aspect of diversity, i would say one of the key things that we have found is in particular resumes and recognizes different experiences. Punchily, it has been interesting watching how so much is lost when watching people screening resumes who have different back grounds. So from a very tactical standpoint, having a more focussed perspective on how resumes are screened and shared across different opportunities is absolutely key. I would also add that when you do interviews with potential Staff Members that the interviewers are diverse themselves, not to ensure that you are getting a wide range of questions. With reference to job descriptions, i would recommend that you perhaps get some people here who have companies that do this kind of algorithm work that can help you think about how you create job descriptions so that they dont advantage some groups and disadvantage other groups. And then obviously to reaffirm what was said, making sure you have databases, making sure that you have metrics and accountability for all of your efforts. You mentioned in your written testimony and spoke briefly about Employee Benefits including things like not coming into the office, maybe working remotely or maternity and paternity leave. Can you talk about other things that might fit under the category of creative benefits that might maybe not be budget busters but might paositively impact i think the number one benefit that we see that is actually something that we consider to be an attractor or something that causes someone to retain is professional development and the investment in professional development. When youre thinking about a highly skilled workforce, its the opportunity to engage in a variety of different professional development opportunities, some that are more geared towards career rather than the actual benefits or rather than the actual business that one is in really has a real impact in terms of making sure you are retaining top talent. I point to professional data and whether it be in a variety of other skill sets. I know im a little short on time to be able to ask another question. Why dont i move on to ask questions. As much as i want to ask about compounds that dont include bonds. Got to love google. I wanted to just sort of take a second and maybe expand on an idea. You referenced an Hr Department. You have recognized that were 435 unique operating entities with unique budgets. When youre talking about staff retention, that also impacts those making hiring decisions. So you have maybe a person who is accustomed to hiring decisions and evaluating resumes in a certain way and creating a Work Environment in a Certain Office and going back through that process again. Maybe you can just help us understand, is that possible to have one unique Hr Department that assists all 435 offices . Is that possible in this institution . Or will we do we need to learn how to train or teach 435 unique entities how to do this . So maybe you want to start. Im really intrigued by that idea. I think centralized entity can assist in the 435 businesses that you have. In other words, they can be the ones who help identify the best practices. They can bring experts in to help and do diversity audits for your office. They can potentially i think you can get some consistency across with the understanding each will have its own particular perspective on what it wants and needs. To help ensure that you are not doing unconscious bias kinds of things that we discussed, to give you those tools to improve that which you are already trying to do. Thank you. Dr. Mitchell . I would encourage you when you think about that, especially since the rooney rule was brought up, as well, you can have an office that acts as a referee to provide guidance that is used individually across the entire body or you can have a body that acts as a catalyst to change how everything is done. I think that starting as a referee is a good initial step forward that can provide some consistency and start to move you along that particular path to see how much additional change is needed. And that can be a lightweight solution that you put in place there. Any thoughts . Im an Organizational Psychologist so my natural tendency is to say it depends. However, what i will say is in this case i think it is exactly as my colleagues here have described, a possibility, as long as we consider that there is a need for really one thing and that is to set a foundation for flexibility so each of the 435 offices can deliver the philosophy and strategy i think about setting a Foundation Set of roles that relate to a centralized hr function but only enable or unlock the ability to unleash potential we attain this position through an election. Often times when it happens the person that leaves the office there comes from the campaign and may not have much if any experience as it relates to establishing a new office that has a multimillion dollar budget and up to 20 and then you have your staff that are sometimes very different roles but they come from different hiring pools, as well and could a single Hr Department be able to accomplish both of those tasks. Im thinking they can be a resource for you to help you idea what organizations might e be you have the disparities between d. C. On the other hand, i would also encourage thinking about diversity as a much broader sense because you are looking for who will give me the different perspectives i need. Whose world view is different than my world view . Who is going to ask questions that prapds wouldnt get asked otherwise . So thats part of the mix of who you want in your organization. Thanks for interjecting. Thank you. My son is an actor. The reason he is getting a lot of work now is the new rules governed by the actors guild. The reason you see so much diversity in commercials is that they are not allowed now to select people for roles that are not primarily based on personality. In other words, you dont need anybody to play michael jackson. Nobody is going to do that. If you they are not allowed to if they do otherwise they are violating contracts. The other thing that im asking, i would like for you to kweblth, i thought about an office of inclusion and diversity or inclusion and retention under the house administration. And they collect resumes of individuals from all over the country. One thing you have to do so the civil rights louisianas allow for us to hire methodists. What you cant say is i want a black catholic, a latino episcopal yn. So this office would have all of them. Obviousl obviously this would be the Central Place where it would take place, race neutral, gender neutr neutral. Here are ten people that fit what you have asked for. And the only thing i have worked through is that most people would know a womans name from a mans name. We can pass a law everybody must be named george. Im interested in you tearing that up, repairing it and suggesting something that you think might be helpful. Any of you. I think the centralized office that would hold resumes and extend the reach of the candidates beyond specific offices like the core network. I have in my experience done both resume reviews that are blind without names and those with names. And when you have standard recruiters who are changed have not noticed substantial difference between the two. Thats just one piece that i offer to you is that that might be a step. I think the training of the people who are interviewing and screening resumes and understanding the back grounds may in fact be sufficient. I would add that it is much more powerful its not enough to focus on the centralized screening of reviews. In many cases that is much more powerful than the initial screen itself. I add that besides the blind resume technique, there is something known as bunching theory which is if you bring up a group of resumes together, you are more likely to appoint a group of people. Also when screening you are not screening for cultural fit because that is a term used to exclude people. Thank you. There has been no discussion about retaining talented congressmen. Give me a parallel to what it is we do up here in our 435 jobs. I could be completely without talent and get elected. And i have to go out and find a team. I have to find a team that knows how to check the four corners of the box and believes in me. And thats going to create a whole lunch of bias for who believes in me. I have to find folks who have a different level of trust and commitment in thatedesy to find folks who believe in the new freshman congressman whats the parallel . Rather than asking you, who has a similar situation to us in congress and are already doing it well today . I have actually given this some thought. The closest parallel that i can think of is the Health Care Industry and the industry involved with physicians or residency programs you have a unique situation that is quite similar in talking about the top talent in their particular field. Talking about individuals that have to pull together an office as far as private practice whether within a Health Care System or outside a Health Care System and have to engage in entrepreneurship and leadership. Their efforts to focus on how they train and build better physicians but not just better physicians, better leaders. Thats where i would turn to first if i was to think about it. The only extension i would say to that is that you can look into instances with Partnership Structures or people who have made partner based upon a set of skills who must be leaders and business owners. Its inal gs. You have me wondering if i look at deploit partners ill see a Different Group of young people who are attracted to pea your meantee than folks attracted to the less ambitious partner down the hall from you. Tell me if i look down the row here i see a lot of Ethnic Diversity and gender diversity. I dont see a lot of gray diversity. Gray hair is not a common practice here particularly in personal offices. In the industry, are we ranking diversity . You talked about noahs arc. We are just going to get two of everybody here. Is there a hierarchy to do better with race and then socioeconomics and then regions and age. Is there a measuring stick for success . Ill jump in here. There is no actual measuring stick or ranking, if you will. I think what we have seen is there is a strong emphasis on compliance. When thinking about compliance there are certain characteristics that are regulated and require us to be compliant. I think what we see, though, is that as an industry especially in private sector we are seeing a Great Movement towards more than just visual diversity. In other words, where is the diversity that exists . It isnt that easily readily available. We are seeing a lot of that as it relates to new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and biases that enter Artificial Intelligence. Ms. Lizwood said they signal many things. I worry we will create a Compliance Culture as opposed to a performance culture that shows we are trying to embrace inclusion to affect america. Burnout, folks get this job everything because they believe in it. We talked about family medical leave and parental leave. We dont talk a lot about phatic sabbatical leave. That is my problem. I want people who give it everything and then need to take care of themselves more in ways that deploit might not ask the same thing of doompt i have an analogous burnout retention model to look to . Certainly some industries do much the same thing. Lets say Financial Services industries or consulting firms. You are working 24 7, if you will. And some organizations have developed these kinds of offramp, on ramp kinds of approaches to it. For some organizations, they have developed what they call returnship programs which are mainly directed towards women who have taken family leave issues but also for men. It allows them to step off and stay connected with the organization, stay up and current with whats going on, but step off for a bit and come back to the organization. That might be a practice that might be of interest. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for being here. So let me talk about compensation because thats one i think people automatically assume. In this case, i really think its an issue. This is a crazy expensive town. People start out low 30s, medium one bedroom apartment takes that entire gross salary would cover one bedroom, not paying taxes, eating, doing anything else. When i first got elected i came here for a fund raise frr another colleague. It was a Young Professional Group there, about 100 people and a group i was talking to explained to me how everyone here makes more than a member of congress because they all worked on the outside. Thats a reality. We have a lot of outside groups that can hire people away at higher salaries for even our most senior folks. On the outside, those groups dont have that limit. This year we have a one percent increase. Pretty hard to divide that up and make it work for people. I know there is a lot of other factors in retaining folks. You have brought up a lot of those. Just raw compensation. Can we just talk about that a little bit . And get a little idea your thoughts . When we look at the science, what really stands out is fair evaluation of compensable factors. In my mind, the natural recommendation that i made to any when trying to be competitive is to think about what are those compensable factors and how you counter act that. Total compensation includes benefits when thinking about this from an hr perspective, it doesnt just stop at true compensation or pay or wages. What i would argue is critical is having a Fair Assessment of what is compensable in some way and how those factors play a role and match that with roles and responsibilities that one might have in their specific role. Whether or not that actually happens and whether or not there is a true blue classification system that fits that, certainly that is something that a centralized hr function could take up. Anyone else want to address the issue . Speaking frankly, and this is at the end of my comments, as well, just with respect to, there are aspects of compensation that will always be there. What i do and what we do as an organization is talk about mission. For example, i have a number of practitioners who work for me now who will be leaving the firm to go work on campaigns. So its less than compensation tlmpt are people who have been willing to make the sacrifices because they believe in governance and what you do. People when you look at the research, yes compensation is absolutely criteria. You cant avoid that. In addition to that, you could have the greatest amount of compensation. If they are not seeing personal growth, if theyre not seeing if theyre seeing themselves being excluded, potentially, they dont see stretch assignments being given to them. You get my point. People will leave even in the face of very good compensation. I think it is a balance. It is a mix. It is a challenge. I dont think anyone will deny you that, as a point. I think there are other ingredients that can be put to play. And we give people crazy long hours, too. Just an added benefit within the job. Often i think most people who seem to have an entry path come as being interns just because they get exposure. Its been unpaid until now. Now we have a small amount. Its a pit we are doing it based on financial need. We ask people to fill something out. We are under paying them significantly. Can you address that since that does seem to be the most common intake facility . How we can address that part of compensation . To you again . You are the expert in this area. Again, i point to what it is that we want to compensate and how we go about compensating it. We have talked a little bit about intrinsic motivators and what drives engagement. In my mind i look specifically to compensation what that starting compensation might be and say how do we offset that if it is not something we are happy with and find ways to hit the motivational sweet spot. Thank you. Ms. Burkes. Thank you all for being here. I have several different categories to cover very quickly. Dr. Alonso, you spoke about a Talent Management system and our philosophy around a Talent Management system. Could you please give us an idea of what that might look like here, very briefly. When i think about Talent Management system im looking at how we train develop our resources based upon competency based systems. How do we give them the skills that they need today as well as the skills that they need in the future . How do we develop a centralized system so that there is learning development and people manager Development Across the board. Specifically with people managers, how is it that we develop them so that they are able to lead from day one. And is that something that you can see us doing in 435 different offices or would that require some centralized place it sounds like . I can see a scenario where it would be centralized. I can see where it could be done at 435 businesses as long as you set one common core standard. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Mitchell, weve heard about the importance of benefits and recruiting and training staff. I also know that we often focus on the Student Loan Repayments and the student debt that is accumulating and challenges that many young people have in even going to college. Can you talk about any programs you know where the benefit of tuition payment up front because i used to be in the Community College system. Sometimes getting companies to invest in their employees, stiemds we try to get them to do the tuition up front rather than the benefit after because the individuals cant get the funds to start with. Any comments or programs you know about with respect to tuition payment up front and then retention afterwards when you invest in that employee or student . Whether or not thats anything you can invasion here . Slightly deviation from that, what is common in a number of distinct areas has been Tuition Reimbursement as people are taking courses. Reimbursement. Which is relatively typical, but that does involve people taking out loans but they are able to pay those loans back pretty immediately. Its becoming more and more common with respect to consultancies and becoming more and more common to advance the payments further and further up front. Have you found is it working . Is it helping with excellent staff retention. I definitely believe that its helping with retention because particularly youre allowing your workforce as we talked about a few minutes ago to develop new skills and see a path for them Going Forward and feeling the investment. Is it helping with recruiting . Do you have an opinion . Its just not something that is common enough to have a real beat on what the trend is. I would say there is definitely evidence from an anecdotal perspective that speaks to the fact that it is helping retention and serving as a measure of recruitment bonus, if you will. I think there is also some value as far as it relates for the employer in terms of being able to lock in reasonable approaches to retaining their top talent. I would like to ask very briefly about mentoring programs. You may or may not know that here we run through the womens congressional policy institute and girls inc. Brought 21 21 girls this year, i participated in taking your daughters to work, so kaylee from indianapolis came, and sat with me in hearings throughout the day, and, she asked spectacular questions, and i think got excited, she of course, she would maybe be present president of the u. S. One day. But, can you talk to me a little bit about how these types of exposure mentoring programs, and what me what more we could be doing, only 21 girls came, because girls think of indianapolis, paid, i dont know if they paid for her, or if her parents her mother paid for her, but, how do we get more young people, to contemplate life here. If theyve not had the opportunity to come here . Well that was an extraordinary experience for these young women. She was amazing. Im sure she was. And what you did was give her the possibility of thinking of other things, which could potentially be. Which she might not have had that. Mentoring programs are extraordinarily important, i think that bringing them to scale as you describe, is sometimes limited by resources, nevertheless, you can encourage your local constituency groups to create more mentoring programs, perhaps giving that information to them, so that within your own congressional district, youve got the vibrant mentoring programs going on. I want to make one small point around this, in your organizations, that women are over men toward and over sponsored. Would you like to define that . For everyone . Even though my time is up. Think you. Mentoring is providing the ideas, the interactions youve been doing, sponsoring is, im going to sign the check that says, you should take im going to back you, in a position. Im going to be the one who endorses you to take that other position. I say, we have to put mary in there and i will guarantee that mary is going to be successful. Its a guarantee program, if you will, and its very different, mentoring is more like potentially and sponsoring is quite like to like. Thank you so much. I yield back. Think you. Thank you for holding this today, thank you to our panel, for the past 15 years i have been active in the movement to increase diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. With the Philadelphia Bar association, with the law firm i used to be at, i am trying to see what concepts we have been using there that might translate, one of the big ones was that leadership had to come, leadership had to be fully on board. That if it was just talk, or just words they had to walk the walk. Doctor mitchell, can you speak to your experience, and how that might translate here . I think that that statement that you made is correct, and in particular when you think about millennials in the workforce, they sends absence of leadership, or empty words quickly, and then, immediately decide to do other things. What we have done internally, particularly from the standpoint of making sure the leadership walks the walk, is tie our personal performance metrics to different diversity and inclusion activities. Focused on mentoring people who look different or have different backgrounds, in a variety of other things. So, to make sure that youre doing more than just the empty talk, when it comes to accountability, such as performance and evaluation, it becomes much much more deliberate. So that leads to my next question, which is, how do you measure success . What kind of metrics might we employ here, im new but im hearing that theres been some resistance to a lot of measures, so what kind of metrics might we look at . I like the one you just mentioned. Demonstrated mentoring with people who do not look like yourself, or have different backgrounds. So i would like to address this question in large part because i think what doctor mitchell has cited is absolutely a valuable point, and the approach youve described is incontrovertible, the leadership has to be involved in the mission of inclusion and diversity. In fact, one thing that we have seen, is the rise of diversity officers and inclusion officers, and officers as a whole, and we speak to one of the things that we like to highlight is, ultimately, is your executive leader, and your executive leadership, that drives diversity and inclusion. When thinking about what it is that one should look for, its the leader, the ceo, the president who is going to be your chief inclusion officer. Your chief diversity officer. It doesnt rest with one office, relegating it to one office isnt effective. To your question about metrics and what you might expect to see, i look specifically not just at what kind of candidates you attract, but looking at what kind of use rates there are around professional development. What is it that you are seeing, that is a usage rate based on diversity characteristics, that you have an inclusive environment, and the people are using all the professional Development Available . Obviously, top leadership is most important, allowing this, and they have to behave, they have to, they cant just say that they are for diversity and then look at their direct reports, and you see something that doesnt look like that. They also need to ensure that their team, their staff, also, going down the organization hierarchy, its also important for Senior Leadership staff to like questions, if not, why not questions, that, i didnt see any woman is an example. Why not . Come back to me when you have a more diverse slate. Its important for the Senior Leadership and the top leaders to keep on top of what is the current research, around diversity and inclusion. And say, does this apply to our organization . They might give you one example around that, performance evaluations. Going back to 250 companies. 65 of women feel that performance evaluations have some negative comments about their communication style. Sharp elbows, whatever. 2 of mens Communication Styles were evaluated in that way. What i would say to the ceo, with that information, i want to know what my Company Looks like. With that kind of data. Are we better than that, worse than that . Having a very curious ceo, is extraordinarily important in this area. We have an issue where we have multiple ceos. But, i would urge that, yes, each office has some kind of leadership above that, looking at that, which leads me to another tactic that seemed to work well in the environment that might be replicable, which we might have some competitive individuals here. If we have recognition for people who are doing the right thing, does that help . We found that appreciation and recognition are valuable tools when trying to create an inclusive culture. With the reserve reverse being shane. And to make it clear, to our potential Staff Members where they would like to go, and who they would like to work with. We have seen that to be very key as well. Think you. I am going to invite any of the members of the committee who have more questions to dive in. I have a few. Congress is a little bit unique, then a lot of agencies of the federal government, the use of scale where you have a specific job, title, with a certain job description, someone may be able to either work their way up into jobs that have different expectations, and then also from a tenure standpoint, pay and benefits often improve, over time. Congress doesnt do that. I want to get a reaction to whether thats a good thing, a bad thing. Just a thing. Something we should look at, not look at. It all depends on how you want to use or employ that type of system. I would argue that, when i advise employers, when i speak to federal agencies specifically about this particular topic, it was the and s ps system and to be compensated based on payfor performance, or factors like that, i think, it all speaks to, what is the intended goal and the intended purpose . If you think it will help a retention issue, or support a retention issue or help someone be a better manager of Congressional Staff, as the cycle in and out, certainly, that is a reason to follow that. But an estimation when we or another as to where it fits all depends on what the intended purpose is. Anyone else want to weigh in . Not really . Okay. I wanted to get your impression on, the idea of an Hr Department. Or in hr lead point of contact, within the congress. Your thoughts on that, and the types, the types of functions that could be done, should such an office exist, would be things like maintaining a resume bank, sharing best practices on everything, from diversity to retention, with the 435 independent contractors who work here, or, even mister lawyer when he came on, testifying around offering certifications or compliance, certificates on everything from accessibility, to goldstar for being a veteran hiring office, or what have you. To being a central repository for collecting this information around how we are doing. Ive been struck by, its hard to figure out how to make improvements when we dont have great information on benchmarks. Thoughts on any of what i just said . Reactions . Whats good, bad, ugly . Could i add to that, we have been toying with the idea of having some kind of toolkit available to members. So, with best practices, heres where you could go, and having a package to hand people. You can add that into the mix. I wouldnt be a good consultant if i was in support of a prophetess that comes with toolkits. But, i think more than anything else what youre talking about is being able to do these things at scale, and share best practices, which i think is really key to make that progress. For many organizations, lets pretend it was an organization that had 435 divisions to it. They would potentially look at each of the divisions, and their success or failure, and say, why is this particular entity doing so well . What is it that we can learn to bring the others up . Obviously you can look at why ones are doing well, and do some audits around that, but one of the benefits of having so many different business units, is that you have this opportunity. Giving people a toolkit, but who is implementing it . Who is implement it well . Thats what that Central Group could help you do. At the end of the day, a Central Group would be someone that can help unleash potential for the various offices, i dont think of them as someone who is going to regulate or mandate or anything like that, i think of them as someone who will help track the trends, help you assess how well you are doing, and at the same time help you institute a culture that you are seeking, help you have better people managers, managers who can have difficult conversations, which are the hardest part when dealing with employees and employee relations. Its a resource to the 435 offices, as we are describing it. Miss brooks . We mentioned, i found it interesting, you mentioned five generations in the workplace. Could you quickly for the record, at this point in time, what are those five generations, briefly . What are the challenges, we ought to be thinking about . Because we have multi generations of members, we have, i think its less so in the workforce, frankly. For the most part. And what is it that, we either can or could be recommending, as a body as to how we deal with that . I do not pretend to be a generational researcher by any stretch, i will speak to Census Bureau data as well as specifically when we think about this, theres 1 of the workforce that consists of traditionalists. People that were the greatest generation. Then you have baby boomers, who are now moving out, and 6 to 7 of the workforce, wait, how much . 6 to 7 . Yes. Some of us are working too hard, still. What . Really . I dont pretend to be, 6 to 7. You have 30 of the workforce is general x, 32 is millennials, and then you have the rest coming up, bringing up the rear, which is general z, i mean those that were born with an iphone in their hand. [ laughter ] what we see is, i have a few at home. With that in mind, what we see is, theres an opportunity to customize the employment expense for those individuals, its not dealing with differences amongst generations, but how do you customize the employment experience so that you foster better communication depending on the generational reality . I think the other piece that we see Hr Professionals as a whole focusing on, is how do we tailor what it is that we offer, whether it be benefits, compensation, what have you, to really fit the skill set that best suit our Diverse Workforce . Thank you. I would assume there are, anyone else want to comment . Or what you would like to share about the generations piece of hr . If i could share the unconscious bias part around that. Its what the senior people really think about the more junior people. With the junior people really think about the more senior people. And to your point, whether people who are of a certain age think about other people, and vice versa. That will permeate into how you interview people, who the candidates are that you potentially choose, its based on the unconscious belief about who people are, in the different generations. You can have a different generations, but if i think this particular generation is entitled or impatient, and this generation doesnt know anything about technology, im going to embed those things in my head. And then im going to distinguish how i think about people. So thats more of a psychological element to this generation. Anything, doctor mitchell . No. I think that is a bigger issue, here, that we all might appreciate and want to admit. I didnt realize we were up to five, so thank you for sharing, and im in that upper and thats why im slowing down in 18 months. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you mister chairman, two quick questions, thinking about folks geared towards compliance, have a real fear was easy for us to start checking boxes around here, because we all want to be successful. Has anybody, modeled, we are not going to check five boxes, we want you to get two out of three here, two out of three here, im thinking about, married, single, you can have different opinions on tax policy than you would otherwise, urban rural, different opinions, southeast northwest, youll have different opinions, military service, no military service, single parent, dual parent, the list goes is infinite, and i need all of those opinions. The folks in my staff as the delivers of those opinions, ill call experts for healthcare information, at the Census Bureau for demographic information. But as it comes to compiling myself, is there a checklist, the checklist, but, i tried to get three out of 10 that recognizes if we start listing diversity, that that list goes on forever . Going back to my question, i want to do a good job, but i cant tell how to measure success. I havent seen a checklist that would get exactly what you are targeting. So much of that is dependent on what the ultimate outcomes are that you are driving toward. And in many respects, i think that pushing toward cognitive diversity, is much more critical, rather than trying to check that i have a black male on the staff. On your staff. I think that there are nuances there, depending on the outcome. But i dont think, in my experience, that has been an overabundance of Compliance Culture in the organizations ive worked with. Is this the same as cognitive diversity . What is that . Nur diversity, correct me if im wrong, is more like are you an introvert or extrovert . What type of, are your rational thinker, emotive thinker, that kind of thing, versus the cognitive diversity, which we are referencing, which is what is peoples worldview, what are they bringing to you. So you dont make a decision that missed out on a huge issue that you should know about. What i would add to that is diversity around what your skill sets are. And experience. For many years we have seen research around biodata as an example, this is a part different information experiences that individuals have had that help enhance your diversity, or your inclusion. Thats not to say we are looking for specifically individuals that are black from a specific region within the nation, but somebody who has an experience as law enforcement, or experience as having been a pilot, or Something Like that. That leads to different experiences and leads to diversity. Thinking about retention, the two mines, are our staff just like every other federal employee, 1995, with congressional accountability act, trying to bring more rules to bear, here, but in 2010, we kicked all the federal employees, the congressional employees out of the federal Healthcare System and said, you have to go into a separate Healthcare System because you happen to work for congress. Is there a consensus, as it comes to retention, whether mimicking with the rest of the federal government does, and being, what word you use earlier, a rigorous, not top down, but, you said it was a consultant, we have the support of a centralized, thank you, opm has such a centralized process, and i could certainly turn to them, my bias is to say we are doing Something Special here, thats why we are article one and not article 2, so we will have a completely different set of rules here to a achieve our ends, is it obvious, whether rebel getting with the rest of the federal government does, helps with retention, versus providing for exclusivity . On capitol hill . I wouldnt say that there is consensus. I would argue that it has to suit with your strategic objectives are and what it is that you are looking for. As an organization, and as the house. But, right now, the situation in terms of employee healthcare, is they are all required to be on the dc exchange. Including the staff in the district offices, which if youre from washington state, fronting a provider thats covered in the exchange, is challenging. May be challenging in georgia, too. You have a perspective on whether thats a good idea or a bad idea . I will wade into this one a little bit. What i would argue is, my experience is predominantly private sector, what i would argue is, every employer, whomever they may be, for a collection of 435 employers, or a more broad organization or collection of those, what i would argue is you need to look at what it is that best suits the needs of your employee. It starts with surveying Congressional Staff to see how you build the best possible Health Package for them. When thinking specifically about what we recommend a private sector employers, that is where we begin, and we start to ask them to consider, what are the best benefits that exist for them, and what are the best solutions given their strategic spending, in this area, and what they have allotted to them is an organization from a financial resource perspective. So just for the sake of discussion, giving options, if you come work in a Congressional Office you have the option of being on the federal employee plan that every federal employee is on, or the dc exchange, because there may be some districts where, they dont have enough providers that are covered under the georgia exchange, or there may not be a georgia exchange. Or, an option of being on the state exchange. That type of situation, where you can give them the option. And her reaction to that . Does that seem reasonable . Or bunkers . I would never say that you are bunkers. Thank you, doctor mitchell. But thats beyond my area of expertise and i could connect with your staff on that. I would say that its very important to know why people leave. To truly know why people leave, because some of the Research Shows that when people leave, they sam going to go for a higher paying job and when they interview people afterwards, one 3rd left for a higher paying job, one 3rd of for the same paying job, and wondered left for the said lower paying. So probing to find out why people leave, it may or may not be an option problem. If you are dealing with, or it may be. But unless you really do that, and create those exit interviews that allow you to really understand the dynamics of what is going on, your spit falling. If you think of our committee, if you find somebody with this parallel, we didnt put our staff on the dc exchange because we were trying to figure out what was best for the staff. We did it because we were trying to figure out what was best for us politically and whatever calculation we made that made that calculation. Its great to sit and listen to you all, talk about how we can do better for our staff if only that was the goal. Knowing that it really is our heart even if we cant live that out politically, if you could get us the idea that would get us the most bang for the least amount of political buck, im listening to derek, and im willing to say, your bunkers, doctor mitchell, because my constituents at home dont have multiple healthcare choices, they are only the only have one choice on the exchange and now i am going to say, these Congressional Staffers need all the choices on the dc exchange and all the choices, its great staff management, its lousy reelection policy politics. I dont want our staff to be disadvantaged, as they did in fact are because of election politics, so if you stumble across those things, that get us the most bang for our staff for the least amount of constituent ire, i expect that you would have a view on that, and you come across those things, i would value that submission at a later date. Thank you. My final comment, youve been very helpful, but, we have perhaps the most unique situation in the country, because, the staff are connected indispensable he, two hours. The American Public hate us. So, until we can figure out a way to make the American Public come at a minimum, say we are okay, or tolerate, thats a good word. Tolerate us, then, theres always going to be any hesitation, to raise the congressional salaries, which means that the Staff Members are stuck. The federal courts were attached , the judges federal judges in this country had their salaries attached to us, they filed suit, i want everybody, for my Close Friends that they were going to win the suit primarily because judges are the judges. And they did, so, they were decoupled. They got 15 years back salary. Court ordered, and the salaries set 25 higher than ours. So maybe the Staff Members need to sue us, i dont know. I think we have a weird situation, but, the reality is that we have to figure out a way for congress to function, to gain the respect of the American Public. And maybe we quit talking about each other. Maybe we quit saying nasty things. I dont know. That may be going too far, i just think that, the bottom line in all of this, none of this is going to be helpful if the American Public hates us. Editorial. You can always ended with, dont you agree, and then its a question. Very good. Seeing no other questions, i would like to thank each of our witnesses for their testimony today, without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit additional written questions for the witnesses to the chair which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response, i asked our witnesses to respond promptly as you are able, and without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to the chair for the inclusion in the record and with that this hearing is adjourned. Thanks, everybody. Feel free to go cool down. Tonight on cspan three, American History tv brings you dday anniversary celebrations, starting at eight eastern with president trump, at the 75th anniversary, followed by former president s barack obama, george w. Bush, and bill clinton. Thats tonight, here on cspan three. Cspan will have live coverage, as the president gives them Independence Day address from the Lincoln Memorial in washington, there will also be military bands and flyovers by the blue angels and the air force one fleet, live thursday at 6 15 pm eastern on cspan online cspan. Org or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Robert mueller comes to capitol hill in two weeks to talk to both the house judiciary and intelligence committees. The former special counsel will answer questions about his report into russian interference in the 2016 election. Watch live coverage wednesday, july 17, beginning at 9 am eastern, here on cspan three, online cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Tonight on the communicators, we talk about the future of journalism in the age of big tech firms. With news media alliances david and matthew shears, with the computer and Communications Industry association. Facebook, google, apple, they employ exactly 0 journalists. So, the journalism they are doing is zero. Theyre not going to city hall, they are not going to school board winning meetings, they are not, they deliver our content and monetizing that content, and if you dont do that anymore, you dont have local journalism. The question is whether or not, we want a strong and vibrant journalism industry, the question is how to get there, and should they do it with specifically, we tried that in the 1970s, when newspapers were last threatened by a new medium, but the broadcast era didnt work. Whats the communicators, tonight at eight eastern, on c span through. In 1979, Small Networks is an unusual name about a big idea. Let viewers make up their own minds, cspan open the doors to washington policy for all to see. Bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed but today, that big idea is more relevant than ever. On television and online, c span is your unfiltered view of government. So you can make up your own mind. Brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. The Trump Administration is refusing to provide documents and other information to some house committees, the House Oversight and reform subcommittee on Government Operations wanted information about the redevelopment of the fbi headquarters here in washington dc. Subcommittee leaders said thats just one example. Heres a look at that hearing wh