8 Measures and Outcomes – Lines of Effort

This strategy includes four critical lines of effort: Policy, Talent Management, Operations, and Culture. Each provides the structure needed for NSF’s DEIA governance. Continuous quantitative and qualitative assessment across these lines is necessary to develop and evolve DEIA objectives, policies, and practices.

The Policy line of effort encompasses the processes established across NSF to ensure alignment with overarching guidance and directives. This line of effort promotes evaluating existing policies while providing an appropriate space to affect positive change that addresses existing and hidden barriers to effective DEIA. The Policy line of effort also considers equitable, transparent systems, processes, and accountability mechanisms that ensure the issues and experiences faced by underrepresented groups are factored into control measures and monitoring mechanisms to mitigate barriers.

A dedicated Policy line of effort enables NSF to develop a sustainable process, with roles and delegated responsibilities throughout the organization. This includes DEIA reviews of existing policies and guidance to identify potential barriers and ensure equity. DEIA-focused policy enables the organization to guide internal NSF business offices and directorates to ensure all processes align with federal statutes, regulations, and directives. Policies that integrate DEIA considerations in advance create an inclusive culture.

Talent Management Line of Effort

The Talent Management line of effort refers to any initiative, effort, or process to recruit, retain, develop, and evaluate staff. This line of effort intends to remove equity barriers in all phases of the talent management lifecycle, promoting equal participation and representation across NSF’s workforce. The ability to measure demographic trends within the Talent Management line of effort is a key indicator used to measure the effectiveness of DEIA programs and initiatives.

A dedicated talent management focus enables NSF to develop recommended DEIA performance evaluation factors for all workforce levels. This line of effort also effectively informs the processes needed to evaluate and advocate for pay and award equity across the organization. Doing so enhances NSF’s ability to increase hiring diversity through partnerships with universities and professional organizations serving underrepresented groups.

Operations Line of Effort

The Operations line of effort encompasses opportunities to integrate DEIA into processes, systems, decision-making, and planning. Data collection, management, and analysis are critical to this line of effort. The infrastructure, tools, and data analytics to drive real-time transparency and shape policy, talent management, and cultural initiatives are also critical.

Real-world applications under the Operations line of effort objectives can be seen through existing activities already underway at NSF. For example, the CHIPS and Science Act-directed establishment of the OCDIO, whose primary aim is to operationalize, implement, and execute initiatives outlined in the broader NSF strategy and broaden participation in STEM. The Operations line of effort further enables the OCDIO to support NSF with a dedicated DEIA function operating as an independent office, collaborating with the Office of Equity and Civil Rights (OECR) and Human Resource Management (HRM).

Positioning DEIA operations as a core line of effort empowers NSF to identify the data required to measure and assess DEIA throughout the organization. Some of these metrics include benchmarking existing data and tools, identifying data collection gaps, and addressing alternative data source opportunities. NSF continues its planning process by using automated data dashboards to monitor and display real-time demographic data. This aligns with presidential executive orders and congressional mandates. By prioritizing DEIA as a critical line of effort, NSF intends to be more transparent and accountable. This includes providing a centralized function to report ongoing DEIA progress to the public.

Culture Line of Effort

The Culture line of effort ensures NSF’s core values are intentionally shaped, nurtured, and linked to specific behaviors that are compliant, actionable, and measurable. The Culture line of effort includes initiatives, plans of action, and processes supporting linking DEIA to culture and integrating best practices into NSF’s functions and initiatives. These activities amplify institutional values, provide learning opportunities, promote and demonstrate signature behaviors, build inclusive teams, and develop intercultural competencies.

Strategically communicating DEIA challenges, opportunities, and successes enables NSF to operationalize the Culture line of effort to develop and conduct synchronized DEIA communications and awareness campaigns highlighting mission imperatives, culture, and values linked to the Culture Forward Maturity Model. The Culture line of effort creates a dedicated space to celebrate positive signature behaviors through applicable rewards/recognition, communications, and other activities. These engagements allow us to identify and remove barriers to advancing the values and DEIA-related principles and behaviors that characterize an inclusive culture.