Second Annual Employee Development Needs Assessment

In Reply Refer To:
Associate Director for Water
Mail Stop 409
Sunset Date:  November 2001

 November 28, 2000


WATER RESOURCES DISCIPLINE INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM NO. 2001.01

Subject:   Second Annual Employee Development Needs Assessment

RESPONSES REQUESTED BY DECEMBER 15, 2000, AND FEBRUARY 15, 2001

Supervisors and employees doing their annual performance reviews should be 
aware that an integral part of that review is a forward-looking assessment 
of the developmental needs of the employee. Those needs form the basis of 
the employee's Individual Development Plan and Employee Development Needs 
Assessment (EDNA) which drives the scheduling of national and regional 
training in the Water Resources Discipline (WRD).

To collect the development needs of employees in WRD, the district 
chiefs/office managers and training officers are responsible for 
compiling, prioritizing and completing data entry for their local EDNA 
database by December 15, 2000, and completing data entry into the National 
EDNA database by February 15, 2001.  Participation is not mandatory; 
however, data from participating districts/offices are an essential part 
of reliable and cost-effective course scheduling.
The EDNA process remains substantially the same as last year. Improvements 
in the tools, forms, and information associated with the assessment have 
been made, largely as a result of suggestions made by WRD employees, 
training officers, and district chiefs/office managers.  Details of the 
EDNA process are available on the website at: 
http://ntc1serv.cr.usgs.gov/ntc/Policy/EDNA-HomePage.html 
As the result of feedback received during fiscal year (FY) 2000 on EDNA, 
training will be available for training officers and district 
chiefs/office managers every Wednesday, November 22 ? December 13, 2000, 
1:00 ? 2:00 p.m. EST, via cyber seminar.  These training sessions will 
review the EDNA process from preparation of Individual Development Plans 
to development of the District Employee Development Plan.  In addition, 
for training officers and other users of the local database template, 
training in updating the local database and a quick review of the National 
EDNA Database will be provided on the following four Mondays, November 20 
and 27 and December 4 and 11, 2000, 1:00 ? 3:00 p.m., EST via cyber 
seminar.  Employees interested in taking either training should contact 
Betsy Daniel at medaniel@usgs.gov or (303) 236-4903.  If additional 
training is requested, it will be made available.
The EDNA data collected in FY 2000 were used to schedule WRD-sponsored 
regional and national training in FY 2001. Currently, 45 high-demand 
courses have been scheduled for delivery in FY 2001 at the National 
Training Center and additional courses have been scheduled by Regional 
Training Officers, representing a significant increase over the same 
period in FY 2000.  Scheduling the courses was possible for two major 
reasons:  (1) 47 of 48 WRD districts participated in the first EDNA 
process by submitting data to the National EDNA Database; and (2) 
Headquarters Discipline and Program Office representatives worked 
diligently to resolve a variety of issues ensuring that courses could be 
scheduled to meet expressed demand.  Data from the National EDNA Database 
were also spatially analyzed and the spatial analyses made available on 
the web to provide course coordinators with information on cost-effective 
course locations.  A copy of the spatial analysis of FY 2000 data is 
available at: 
http://ntc1serv.cr.usgs.gov/ntc/Policy/analysis.htm
We look forward to WRD participation, and we always welcome comments and 
suggestions for improvement, which can be submitted at any time to: 
GS-W-EDC@usgs.gov.
The ability of the WRD to provide employee development opportunities in a 
cost-effective manner depends on everyone's participation and in the 
quality of input submitted to the EDNA.   We thank you in advance for 
supporting this process. 

                                                /signed/
                                                Robert M. Hirsch
                                                Associate Director for 
Water

Distribution:  All WRD Employees

This memorandum does not supersede any previous numbered memorandum.


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* Robert M. Hirsch 
* Associate Director for Water 
* 409 National Center                  rhirsch@usgs.gov
* U.S. Geological Survey                    703-648-5215
* Reston, VA 20192                         fax 703-648-7031
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