The Career Sustainment Program is designed to help all employees, to adjust to the changes that have created the Department of Homeland Security, and to have productive and satisfying careers. More than 400 employees have been trained as Career Sustainment Coordinators, in addition to their regular duties. Based on the expressed needs of our 180,000 employees, supervisors, and managers, the Career Sustainment staffs has created and implemented three core programs:

1. New Employee Orientation -- is a comprehensive, standard program of information about a wide range of topics that is provided by Program Offices, the employee's supervisor and subject matter experts during the first year of agency service. It is designed to ensure that all new, transferring and reinstatement employees receive a thorough explanation of the mission and organization, Federal employment benefits, and local community information.
   
   
2. Family Support -- includes relocation assistance and sponsorship for incoming employees and families; site specific orientation sessions for spouses and family members, social events, recreation activities, and education and skill building sessions that focus on family-related issues.
   
   
3. Management Retention Education Program (MREP) -- offers four skill-enhancing, multi-media training modules with a special focus on supervisors and managers.
   
   
   • Assimilation Training for Supervisors -- improves teambuilding and interpersonal skills by depicting realistic workplace situations that involve inexperienced employees.
     
     
   • Thriving in the Agency -- focuses on the communications skills needed by all our employees to ensure successful and satisfying careers. Practice is offered in communicating personal, family, and career concerns and in the creation of an Individual Development Plan (IDP).
     
     
   • Return on Investment of Employee retention -- stresses the key role of supervisors to identify and to respond properly to employee concerns which could result in employees transferring within or leaving the agency. Communications, career choices, work life quality, and the costs of unwanted attrition are examined.
     
     
   • Retaining Talent: The Leader’s Role-equips the leader to identify and address reasons for employee turnover. Key Principles, Interaction Guidelines, and an Employee Development Cycle are applied to creating a retention strategy, building trust, providing appropriate recognition, and putting the organization’s mission and core values into action. A portion of this training is now featured in the Basic Supervisory Course conducted at the Leadership Development Center (LDC) in Dallas, Texas.

The following Career Sustainment products are available in hard copy, CD-ROM, or on-line. Check out the Employee Resource Guide, Employee Handbook, interactive Border Patrol Quiz, Financial Management programs, Assimilation Training for Supervisors, and the Career Sustainment Video Library. There is additional Career Sustainment information available to our employees on each, agency's internal Intranet site.

Points of Contact

Office of Workforce Management, Washington DC:
Cynthia Butler, Retention Program Manager (202) 514-0114
Doug Batson, Retention Specialist (Family Support) (202) 305-8406
Jefferson Wyatt, Retention Specialist (Employee Orientation) (202) 305-8405