DISA Targets Individual Expertise to Boost Diversity

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is striving to diversify its workforce by working both within and without. Its efforts include querying existing workers for information about the work environment and laying the groundwork for bringing in new people from nontraditional sources.

These activities are coming from the newly created DISA Diversity Office. Damien J. Terry, chief diversity officer for DISA, explains that the office is pursuing a multifaceted approach to improving diversity at the agency. This includes tapping existing expertise among DISA employees and establishing mechanisms for future hires—effectively, a detailed program for recruitment and retention.

“I’ve implemented a listening tour to find out more about the agency, its culture and the current state of diversity and inclusion,” Terry reports. He has a research background, and he is building on that expertise to amass the information necessary to reach an informed conclusion on the state of the organization. This effort includes exploiting data from existing human resources organizations within DISA.

The position was created late last year, although its foundation was established in 2019. Several actions spurred the creation of the office, including a Defense Department instruction that agencies designate a chief diversity officer. The agency already had established a diversity inclusion advisory committee and an office of equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure fairness and equal employment opportunities for employees, Terry notes.

To further the DISA effort, he has joined working groups at the Defense Department and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with whom he shares best practices and exchanges insights, he reports. He warrants that DISA will continue to have clear communication and transparency across the department and OPM.

Within DISA, his office is focusing on attracting, reinvesting and retaining a talent pipeline. This effort extends across the agency at all levels and for the full life cycle of DISA employees, he emphasizes.

DISA employee resource groups that formed around common interests, issues and backgrounds promote diversity, openness and inclusiveness, he notes. These are both a vehicle for advancing diversity within and serving as a source of valuable information in developing overall diversity measures.

Terry points out that research studies have shown that exposure to diversity—the unique characteristics that make people different—changes the way an organization approaches challenges. “Ultimately, the outcome of diversity leads to improved innovations, creativity, problem solving skills that will make DISA a better organization overall,” he says.

Above all, DISA’s emphasis on diversity is intended to fuel new perspectives on how to meet emerging challenges. “No matter the member’s location within the organization, their skills, ideas, opinions and point of view are instrumental to DISA remaining ahead of the constant changing environment in cyberspace,” Terry declares. Having different courses of action as options is advantageous in cyber operations and can come as a direct result of diverse perspectives.

Terry allows that his office is focusing on the individual both to learn how to increase diversity and to maintain diversity where it exists. “We want people to be able to show up every day with their authentic selves and be able to contribute openly,” he states. “They’re adding more to our groups … so that they feel that their contributions are really helping DISA.

“I want them to be able to see themselves in DISA, how their jobs align with the mission and support what we’re doing as an organization,” he offers.

Terry’s organization is still assessing the landscape as it prepares its action plan. A key to that plan will be to determine what is needed to be successful within the agency, and that answer must come from the workforce and DISA’s customers, he points out.

Bringing in new people will require overcoming several challenges, some of which are common to government information technology work. “Our challenge is really brand recognition in general among all groups,” he allows. “Very few know who we are, what we do and who we support.” The agency is trying to meet this challenge through the creation of the Office of Strategic Outreach and Talent Acquisition, he notes. This office aims to overcome the shortage of government information technology workers, which affects DISA.

As Terry’s office reviews data with the outreach office, it will examine where barriers might exist at different levels of the organization. This will allow the outreach office to target workers from entry level to senior level so it can attract people for any DISA needs wherever they may be in the organization.

This outreach effort also entails partnerships with nontraditional diverse communities such as historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving organizations, universities and colleges with high Asian populations and tribal colleges and universities along with professional information technology organizations that comprise diverse groups, Terry offers. “We’re really focusing on bringing DISA to the world so that they know who we are, they know that there are opportunities here, so they can join us.

“Ultimately we want to increase the diversity of our talent pool, but at the end of the day we want the best qualified people who are applying to rise to the top,” he declares.

Feedback from the workforce will help determine the success of these efforts. Increases in job satisfaction, retention rates, diversity among applicant pools and higher customer service ratings will be key indicators, Terry offers.

His view of DISA is as “a charcuterie board—an amazing exhibit of various items that you combine to make a visual display of artistry for the eyes,” he says envisioning a gourmet cheese tray. “When you sample, you combine all the elements into a masterpiece of culinary bliss.”

DISA's challenges to building an effective cyber workforce will be part of the discussion at TechNet Cyber, being held April 22-26 in Baltimore.