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Foundations: refers to an internal training program.
Coming into your table of some of their lessons learned it’s been a great experience but we’ve been able to work in the table to see what works what doesn’t work well at the same time the employees are not at a cost to feel like Oh my God like there’s so much pressure right it’s it’s a it’s a way where we can experiment both sides but that’s one of the things that I wanted to bring it up absolutely so maybe I will try to do kind of the dry run for tomorrow I don’t think anyone so i think you know a few months ago we met with the national union letter i’ve honestly i’ve forget if you were there or not number I’m more or less that we were heading to a tweaked model of the way we do foundations and the intent behind it was really to streamline it keeping the same quality of course but to reduce the time to a more reasonable time because we’re getting feedback from everyone so long it’s too long too long and we need off newly hired officers on the caseload to help the people who are doing the cases now so that was the objective so here here’s the plan that we wanted to talk to the union about tomorrow the engagement with the union will look very similar to the engagement we had with the union when we first launched foundations and similar not exactly the same as what you’re doing now for basic revamp which is to form a joint committee
I think 3 on union three on management to look at how the first iteration is going we have a rough draft that we are very you know we would like to March on time in March we’re very motivated to do that but in partnership with the union and this committee they’ll monitor the course they’re valuated come up with input and findings and then that will inform the next iteration so we’ve already started a rough draft which we already you know we’d like to launch in March this will give the union a chance to look at the rough draft and comment on it and then in the next draft which is subsequent class you know those changes could be right so that for us the key is meaningful meaningful observation and meaningful input to inform the next iteration it’s important to know iteration one and iteration 2 will be treated as pilots in that everything is up for evaluation it’s a trial people will not they had no choice right especially in basic the 2nd test was always going to be the hardest in the table during this pilot and the predecisional kind of like working in that space and I feel like I’m talking like Donna because she always said like we’re working in this space I’ve noticed that too ohh it is but we but we’ve had some successes and those have been successes right before the failure rate was 81 like it the passing sorry not failure but the passing was 81 now the passing rate is 97 so that has changed a lot and and I would say you know the value and numbers right like that shows a lot where we are getting it right so kind of wanted to put that to see if that’s an option and how is that gonna look like just because in person is super super valuable for our new workforce so I think there are two elements of what you just said that resonate with me one is just the idea of an in person training and we just talked about this you know it’s like personally I think in my ideal world there would be some kind of hybrid because I I do believe in the value of the person the second thing that resonated was the retake policy like what does our retake policy look like where we’re I think I talked about this with John and Ashley briefly I I think we’re in a our model is pretty different than basics but we we are going into this partnership without on the table so like iteration one iteration to the union will be working with us hand in hand let’s evaluate what should our retake policy look like I’m open I’m open to anything because we we haven’t really had one before so let’s look at it and see what makes most sense and I think I ride in asylum have different equities but we’re perhaps this that’s the whole purpose of this committee going back to the in person while personally I think the hybrid is ideal like right right now for the past couple of years operationally speaking we’ve been hiring so many people and so many eyes are focused on us that to to be the most agile we felt we had to go all virtual even though I’m sure a lot of our training team are different minds on that we just felt like we had to because that earned us a lot of flexibility and agility that we wouldn’t have otherwise but again like looking long term and through this committee I think you we can weigh in on that you can weigh in on that we can weigh in on that and all that to say is both things should be on the table as we pilot this and right now actually allow you would just leave for the search hiring away with the numbers that we’re looking at you know bringing on board we just don’t have that well that I know because I’ve had conversations with Anna where donna’s actually thinking about removing the whole flexing component long term because they’re very strict they’re very much into the policy she’s like maybe this might not culturally be fit for us like that conversation has also been where I kind of like understand where maybe doing it at a specific site and kind of like how they do the exports and basic so maybe that might be also one of those conversation fees but it is there like we’re flat out saying is what is this going look like right and like she said we’re working in that space and that’s you and how that’s going to be looking at the impact of the workforce and also the offices that I represent in the southeast so I kind of just wanted to bring that up to the table the other one and you know this about two is the issue of mental health and I had the opportunity with Eileen to talk about mental health the is a very toxic job you know how do we incorporate some of the resources from voice OK that we have them but we don’t make time for them because it’s long hours a lot of word you don’t need those standards of operation right our workforce is the one that basically makes us run our business so if you don’t have a happy employee you don’t have a productive employee where’s that balance you know radio is very much we have 1,000,000 we had our priorities incredible fear we’ve had this but we’ve created like and you said it your own words we’re putting our money where our mouth is we create a voice this department is there but nobody has a resource to use it how do we get them to use a resource that you invested so much money for so we as you said we talked about this a bit during the union court least and now I feel like they can say a little bit more on what the agency is doing getting the directors done all so we’re approaching we agree we need to give access to these resources that is currently we can do a better job with that everyone’s too busy point very well taken that we need to if we’re gonna offer these resources we ought to give time there are two ways there are two streams of effort that are going on to give employees that time one is purely Rayo for doing this on her own and this is what I mentioned at the quarterly meeting is 1 full day um away from the employees daily work schedule one full day I think the thinking now is just kind of give offices like a few different options as to which day so that it’s operationally feasible so like ZMIZSZNY could choose Wednesday April 22nd just making that up and then the others cluster could choose another day or it could be like half of Miami like depending on how you wanna slice and dice it but the point is there’ll be like a full day that’s going to be flexible it’s it’s not gonna be like you have to be at every minute of this doing this exact thing it’s gonna be like you have the option to attend this live session for between 9:00 and 10:00 or you could go on the voice website and take these offerings or you could spend that time doing you know XY and Z so it’s going to be very flexible and we’re gonna try it out and you you have since your planner you asked the right question like well how often is this gonna happen I don’t know unfortunately I don’t know that none of us know that because we wanna see how it goes first but we think it makes sense to devote I think we’re calling it different things Wellness day collective commitments day we wanted to we we think it’s worth it to provide employees that time this is kind of our expression of that right now again not knowing fully what the details are we we have barely talked to this with with with John and Brandon and everyone but just wanted to give you a preview that that’s that should happen in the first half of this calendar year sometime the second stream of effort is what the agency is working on and as the director said in her town hall a couple days ago or last week she wants to do a trial run of giving every employee time off during the week to proceed Wellness health and Wellness and you know there’s a DHS directive right for for this that provides guidelines and we this is I think the agencies way of saying we need to take part in that and do a trial run I’ll tell you just be in this room like there’s a lot of this is this is a lot more less formed less fully thought out than the Rayo idea and there’s a lot of discussion and differences of opinion between the ABC’s on how this gets done who is involved in the pilot how long it should be how it should be done but like they’re the front office is driving this forward but there’s going to be a reading apparently next week to make some decisions and so it’s not in beautiful Miami FL yes and and so you enjoy a walk kind of the scenes largest cruise ship in the world might be over there right now Disney so that that’s that’s the thinking there on the agency front less less fleshed out for sure but I it’s not an idea I can tell it’s not an idea that’s just kind of out there and it’ll happen when it happens it’s they wanna do something I mean I know because I know there was a reason why she’s like you’re asking the hard questions is because when she said that and and I said or is so how would that space that we’re talking about how can we incorporate the employee engagement plan that was actually brought out last year from their office and incorporate that into that like so I’m just gonna be really really honest I’ve seen a lot where there’s talk there’s beautiful talk but ultimately when it comes to reading it to put it out in the workforce it just automatically doesn’t right well it doesn’t because there’s always a different priority it always changes one way or another yeah I mean we we always say we sell a good presentation like a mock presentation but then when it actually is to the developing of the building blocks they tend to not be there and so that was the other question that I asked Felicia saying is mental health isn’t it’s it’s Wellness it’s something that we keep talking about but you also need to talk about the employee engagement plan as one of her priorities from the top how and how do we incorporate that like how do we make the offices more about engagement and be able to do that and the reason why I say that is because in town halls the messaging is always the first thing is numbers we did this numbers we did that numbers we did this but we don’t really show that connection between our workforces but those numbers or with this festivity and that festivity all we see is here’s a USCIS connect page saying is this office did that but we don’t see it at this at a higher scale in person and there is that issue with messaging we don’t view it holistically and that’s kind of like where I’m kind of it all ties together we talk a lot but when it comes to putting in the word like the action is not there and so that’s kind of like we’re kind of giving you that we’re we’re talking about this but now employee engagement and that with that that also ties to DEA that was also a plan that was done you know what are those initiatives that rail is doing in the educational part with to include that in that plan whether it’s inclusivity like we we talk about the collective commitments ultimately some people will say well I don’t feel included I don’t feel like I belong you know maybe this is not the right space for me and how do we approach those employees who really don’t feel like that OK but that’s part of like the DIA mission where we still have to allow that so I love this visit because it does allow you for accessibility to our workforce but also how do we see that in the future and how do we implement that with our new flex scores coming in 2023 and that’s my final answer but I think that’s how we do it what as far as engagement we’ll be coming to the MRI every month complex cake alone so that’s the last one appreciate it employee engagement that’s something I mean you’ve you’ve raised this impact in past quarters I agree with you we need to get out there more and we’ve talked about this we need to like I haven’t been to this office in eight years there’s that that’s like unacceptable so we’re going to be more deliberate about visiting offices not just asylum you know all over again we need to this even today like even to this minute I we’ve looked at I think both learned so much you can’t get this in DC right we’re gonna give you a break for the pandemic so you you could say six years so we that’s part a we need to get out there more to your point I think the DEAIBI was gonna say I wrote the B down here we voice we we are I think the only directorate who uses the yes that’s right there’s a lot of work being done we’re gonna come out we’re working very closely with the EOEI office thank you um to we’re we’re gonna come out with a mission statement first to kind of explain our vision and then we have an action plan that that is going to address a lot of what you just said that’s all pending with OI right now because I think they wanna make sure all of the all of the directors are fairly consistent so all of the plans are sort of up there for review but it’s got so the plan though takes it takes diversity quality accessibility inclusion belonging it breaks them all down and it has measurable aspects to each so it’s very it’s very intentional as far as trying to address all of those and providing meaningful actions to be taken so I think everyone’s really excited about the rollout so much has gone into that I don’t know anywhere you want that where you wanna that effort at all no a lot of voice hours a lot of from their number of headquarters rose body was kind of that up right yeah also she’s from yeah and former fun font yes you’re to the Oakland Park field office yeah but yeah that is in very short order I mean I think our our materials are ready we’re explaining what I hear you saying as well is while we’re planning and taking steps towards being delivered and intentional and the actions that we take and the engagement that we undertake and all that to be delivered and intentional about communication correct right especially because our our communications about the things that we’re doing doesn’t always align with the actions that we’re taking or we’re highlighting one like you said production and we’re not taking the opportunity to highlight you know and and the engagement the the health and Wellness efforts all of them and so that employees get the impression that it’s all about number this matters but this does I mean and it it you know it is about numbers right we agree like we need 3 if we don’t get the numbers we can’t do the health and Wellness and all the other stuff but you’re right we agree like they also focus on we want to be able to say is these are a metrics this is what we’ve accomplished right I get it right but without this accomplishment we also did this and because of this we were able to get here right so please don’t get a mixed message yes so you wanna get that that connection and also more transparency right and he Ted knows I’m gonna beat him up for this one too right when when they did the the reward right people didn’t know it wasn’t communicated there’s a lot of you know I call it secrets and rail where we’re like OK but just let us know like what’s going on with the virtual center is this something is that gonna look like heart right so there’s there’s that question to where people want to be more it’s better to overcome communicate than under communicate and rail just does not communicate well if that makes sense sometimes point well taken a lot of I will not to make excuses but a lot of our efforts to communicate engage our as you know constrained by outside forces shall we say so the intent may be there but I understand like the workforce doesn’t I don’t see that may not understand it sometimes just flat out saying it’s having a town hall saying is I understand there’s a lot of questions I don’t have the answers for you I will get to you it’s just basically having the assurance saying is my leadership is here and I’m able to have that conversation yeah and sometimes they don’t feel like you know especially under title 42 leadership wanted to know you know local leadership of it what’s going on like we are not getting messages like and that is one of those things where they have to execute right but they also need to have some instructions saying is hey this is what we have so far this is all I can give you I don’t know anything else sometimes just having that conversation be like OK we get it it puts us at ease as to OK at least we know but there’s nothing else here then right at least we know it’s just kind of like having that transparency I wish we could broadcast the number of drafted messages that we’ve done for whatever reason but I totally so I think we’re at time you see at moderated myself and you don’t get to meet Leon like really I know one of the new I say new yeah one of the stewards so no no no not yes but I just wanted to the union stewards and in our office we haven’t had like a lot of union presidents yeah it’s one of those dispensaries training I think it’s training it’s a lot of turnover in the office there’s just a lot remember people have different priorities like I just have a different passion and so you know like I I let them have the opportunity to see what if this is for them or not right it’s one of those things is do you wanna do this and then sort of like here’s the training like show me and stuff like that so it’s it’s a work in process I believe in mentoring and coaching but the employee also wants to be able to do it too so right absolutely and you have to hear more so
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Discipline: Meeting Minute notes