{"id":15099,"date":"2020-02-13T13:48:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T18:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsweb.wpengine.com\/?p=15099"},"modified":"2021-07-01T15:55:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T19:55:41","slug":"how-to-set-up-agency-supervisors-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/how-to-set-up-agency-supervisors-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set up agency supervisors for success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In photo above: EIG results project group from left to right: Ivan Panov, Zoe Barber, Amanda Roberts, Joshua Jowers, John Spencer, David Nostrant, David Herman (not pictured).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formal training doesn\u2019t always cover everything federal\nsupervisors need to know. Supervisors across government often need practical\nhelp with personnel issues such as how to deal with employee grievances, poor\nperformers and low morale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial training for new supervisors, however, typically\nrevolves around processes rather than people issues\u2014for example, performance\nmanagement systems and time and attendance tracking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of federal employees who met during the fall 2018 Excellence in Government Fellows program worked on a project to rectify the situation. They shared with one another how their experiences with management training fell short and sought to create a way for new supervisors to share ideas and challenges and get feedback from peers about employee issues they encounter in their jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fellows knew of the \u201cBrainTrust\u201d pilot group that the\nScience and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security had\nrecently started to bridge the gap between supervisors\u2019 formal training and\ntheir actual daily experiences. This peer-mentoring program for supervisors in\nvarious departments across the agency enables them to meet regularly with\ntrained facilitators to discuss their common experiences in government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BrainTrust group incorporates experiential learning,\nenabling participants to learn from one another, apply those lessons in their\nwork, assess the outcomes and discuss with their peers to get feedback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EIG fellows developed research questions to interview participants in the BrainTrust pilot group about their experiences. They used the data collected to develop a framework that employees across government can use to start these peer-learning groups in their own agencies.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framework<\/a> provides principles and best practices to help agencies implement BrainTrust groups, including guidance on: <\/p>\n\n\n\n