Recap of NASEM Summit Session on Soteria Solutions’ Collaboration with NOAA

Part 2 of 2: Building partnerships with employees and organizations for safe, respectful workplaces

Jane Stapleton, Soteria Solutions Co-Founder and President, joined Kelley Bonner, LCSW, MA, Director, Workplace Violence Prevention and Response for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the Third Annual Public Summit of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.

At this session with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), Stapleton and Bonner discussed Comprehensive Approaches to Assessing Climate and Measuring Prevalence through Surveys. They emphasized their problem-solving approach based on evaluating which existing factors within the NOAA workplace can be leveraged to influence positive cultural changes within the organization.

Part 1 of this 2-part blog series discussed social norms and related data that influence workplace culture surveys and changes. This blog, part 2 of 2, focuses on building the necessary partnerships to engage NOAA’s workforce for survey results that lead to meaningful changes in the workforce.

In addition to data collection, a key reason for survey success is that practitioners, evaluators and prevention specialists came together to figure out how to break down silos and encourage collaboration on moving the mission forward – not only the mission of NOAA, but also the mission of creating safe and respectful workplaces.

NOAA’s team includes a wide range of Federal employees and contractors with a diversity of identities, across 600 locations. To encourage participation in the development and implementation of the workplace culture survey, Soteria Solutions and NOAA actively involved a diverse group of stakeholders, including:

  • NOAA team members who could help with investigations and civil rights issues

  • Informal stakeholders in NOAA’s employee resource groups (ERG)

  • Several members of the NOAA workforce who could help on a grassroots level with various stages of survey efforts

As Stapleton said, “We had the opportunity to learn a lot about NOAA before they began thinking of what survey questions to ask…We recognized early that we needed to identify and figure out how to understand the unique NOAA experiences.”

When preparing the workplace culture survey, Soteria Solutions attended many meetings with NOAA, and also visited NOAA campuses and work sites, including dive teams and ships, so they could learn from NOAA employees first-hand about their on-the-job experiences and subject matter areas of expertise within NOAA. Stapleton noted, “NOAA has such an incredibly important job as the lead science organization, and we were meeting with people who were trying to figure out some of the world’s biggest problems, including someone who specializes in communicating natural disasters to communities of color. We needed to know from NOAA: What do you know about communicating important things to people, that we can incorporate into the survey and how we’re reporting it? We needed each other and we were part of that trust-building.”

Soteria Solutions and NOAA’s leaders significantly engaged NOAA’s workforce, so that survey questions thoughtfully considered their real-life experiences and perceptions. As Stapleton emphasized, Soteria Solutions’ approach was “we need your help” and “this is about you” – so it resulted in the “We Are NOAA Workplace Culture Survey” – and that partnership lended itself to success with a high response rate, and participants’ willingness to engage with the survey.

When communicating internally about the survey, NOAA shared “I am NOAA” – a three-part marketing campaign with videos of employees to encourage responses and broad participation. Survey responses were gathered anonymously to ensure everyone felt safe, seen and valued. The campaign emphasized commitment, trust and responsiveness throughout the survey collection and follow-up.

Effects of the Workplace Culture Survey Included the Following:

  • Revised supervisor training and policies

  • Revised discipline processes

  • Expanded victim services

  • Developed an interactive online sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention module

  • Organized “We are NOAA” Week and related follow-up about making NOAA a great place to work that emphasizes a safe, respectful workplace culture as a key aspect of the organization

An important outcome was emphasizing that a productive workplace is a workplace that’s safe and healthy for everyone. If employees and contractors don’t feel safe and respected, then NOAA’s not able to deliver on its mission. As Stapleton noted, culture changes are often challenging for workplaces and institutions, but these changes are “necessary for the common good and common goal of the organization.”

Soteria Solutions works with a broad range of organizations, including Federal agencies such as NOAA, as well as businesses and corporations to help create and maintain safe and respectful workplaces for all. If you are interested in learning more about Soteria Solutions’ customized solutions including leveraging workplace culture surveys to effect lasting change, please contact us by phone at 603-815-4190, email or webform.

Jennifer Scrafford