NASA is a top-ranked Federal employer and one of the world’s premier space, aeronautical, science and research organisations.

Client Need

Over the past several years NASA’s Office of Human Capital Management has embarked on a number of strategic human capital modernisation initiatives aimed at improving the overall quality of the workforce and it’s supporting programs and policies. Hemsley Fraser was selected to support multiple initiatives in support of NASA learning and development, competency development, human capital planning, and human capital information technology initiatives. Our insights and deep talent bench in the US Federal sector are cited as primary reasons for the extended partnership between Hemsley Fraser and NASA.

The Solution/Results

Hemsley Fraser provided on-going human capital and learning and development support to NASA in the following areas:

• First line Supervisory Development – Hemsley Fraser has designed a custom training program for all NASA front line supervisors. Leveraging our existing supervisory and leadership content, with further customisation to reflect NASA specific topics, competencies and policies, we designed a custom 40-hour residential training program. This program is now the standard for all new supervisors, or supervisors new to managing in Federal government, across NASA. Hemsley Fraser is currently the sole provider in delivering this training for all 10 NASA operational Centres. Our training design and delivery work with NASA has been renewed under multiple contracts and is well received by both program sponsors and participants.
• HR Portal – Hemsley Fraser was selected in Autumn 2007 to develop NASA’s human capital policies and practices in a suitable format for publication on the Agency’s new internal workforce portal. This initiative represents the Agency’s premier organisational development and communications approach to communicating new policy, sharing relevant workforce information, and initiating a transformation of their human capital service delivery model.
• Career Pathing – Hemsley Fraser was selected in March of 2008 to support the development of a career pathing methodology for NASA. Using that methodology, our team worked with NASA to identify mission critical occupational series across the workforce and to set about defining technical competencies and associated career paths by occupational grouping. An innovative approach, using Think Tank on-line collaborative software, was leveraged in capturing “to be” state competency data and resulting career paths. A branded career pathing tool, Career-GPS, was subsequently developed and deployed to communicate the resulting career paths for employees/managers, laying out development opportunities that are available to guide on-going professional development.
• Performance Assessment - In support of NASA’s evaluation of their Employee Performance Communication System, Hemsley Fraser undertook a systematic review and analysis to review the agency’s success in migrating to a new performance management system. Our analysis included a comprehensive data review of all performance summary rating data, identifying imbalances by organisation, occupation group, gender, race/ethnicity and grade. Advanced statistical method and analysis, including overall NASA summary and centre by centre reports, were provided in completing this comprehensive assessment for the agency.

The Client Feedback

"Whether it's developing courses, training the NASA workforce, analysing our performance management system results, or helping develop career paths, Hemsley Fraser makes my job easier – their expertise ensures that I have the right skill for the right job at the right time.”