For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tony Young
Media Relations Manager
tonyyoung@utah.gov | 801-538-8722
International Trade Conference to Be Held at UVU
SALT LAKE CITY (Oct. 31, 2019) — Utah Valley University is hosting the third annual Utah Diplomatic Conference on International Trade Relations on Nov. 4, 2019. The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, state government officials and Utah business leaders, will welcome 14 foreign diplomats at the conference organized by UVU’s Office of Global Engagement and Chief International Officer, Dr. Baldomero Lago.
The conference, which will be held in the Sorensen Student Center Grand Ballroom at UVU beginning at 9 a.m., is open to students and the public and there is no cost to attend. It is the only Utah event of its kind that offers students the opportunity to hear and interact with numerous foreign diplomats and Utah leaders.
“This conference will be a great opportunity to connect attendees with international business representatives and diplomats from around the world,” said Val Hale, executive director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development. “International relationships are important to the state of Utah. We thank Utah Valley University for hosting this conference and look forward to the opportunities it will bring.”
International diplomacy is vital for Utah’s continued economic growth. This conference will help participants engage in conversations about global business, network and build international relationships. Participants will learn from foreign diplomats about how they do business. As international business opportunities continue to develop for Utahns, conferences such as the Utah Diplomatic Conference on International Trade Relations will be critical to supporting the state’s vibrant economy and essential global relationships.
“We are delighted to welcome important dignitaries such as ambassadors, consul generals, consuls, honorary consuls and trade commissioners from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Spain and the United Kingdom,” said Franz Kolb, director of International Trade and Diplomacy at GOED. “We’re grateful these dignitaries have been granting Utahns visas to visit or do business in their respective countries. They’re coming to Utah to extend a hand of friendship and build bridges with government, education and business leaders.”
Sessions for the conference will feature speakers addressing free trade, foreign investment, innovation and technology, and sustainability.
Register and see additional information about the Utah Diplomatic Conference on International Trade Relations here.
About the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED)
Under the direction of Gov. Gary R. Herbert, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) provides resources and support for business creation, growth and recruitment, and drives increased tourism and film production in Utah. Utilizing state resources and private sector contracts, GOED administers programs in economic areas that demonstrate the highest potential for development. Learn more at business.utah.gov or by calling (801) 538-8680.
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Why Psychological Safety Matters:
16 Ways to Make It Okay for People to Tell the Truth and Take Risks
Quint Studer shares advice for creating a psychologically safe work environment.
Hoboken, NJ (October 2019)—When Google conducted its internal research study Project Aristotle in 2015, it found that psychological safety—the belief that one can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without punishment or humiliation—was the most important characteristic in terms of what makes a team productive.1 While everyone wants to feel safe at work, Quint Studer says few things are more dangerous to the health of an organization than for leaders to surround themselves with people who only agree with them, or act like they do when in reality they don't.
"People sometimes share with me that their job is to make the boss look good," says Studer, author of Wall Street Journal bestseller The Busy Leader's Handbook: How to Lead People and Places That Thrive (Wiley, October 2019, ISBN: 978-1-119-57664-8, $28.00). "I usually reply that it's much more important for them to help the boss be good. If the leader is going down a wrong path, the people around them must be willing to speak up and push back. But when people don't feel safe enough to tell the truth, this can't happen, and you'll never be a high-performing organization."
We may feel unsafe when a boss (or any coworker) yells, says hurtful or disrespectful things, threatens retribution, or makes irrational demands. The primitive part of the brain sees this behavior as life-threatening and the fight-or-flight response takes over. When this happens (or when we anticipate that it might happen), we can't think, much less speak up when something is wrong. And so we don't; we shut down and take the "safest" route.
There are many reasons we want employees to feel psychologically safe, says Studer. Honest feedback is critical to the long-term health of the organization. Employees are closest to operations. If they don't share the truth about what's really happening, small problems could turn into major ones. They have day-to-day exposure to things the boss would never know. They will be less likely to be innovative if they are afraid to take risks and fail. They need to be comfortable making mistakes or speaking up when there is a problem.
"On a company-wide level our teams must be able to bounce ideas off each other, participate in strategic thinking, and strengthen action plans," says Studer. "The only way for a company to get better and stay competitive is to cultivate a culture where employees regularly collaborate, communicate, and innovate. This is where new and good ideas come from. The soft skills that are so vital and in demand right now simply can't thrive in an environment where people don't feel safe and free to share their ideas, perspectives, and feedback."
So, how do we create a psychologically safe workplace? Here are a few suggestions:
Know the difference between positive feedback and good feedback. We all prefer positive feedback, but make sure you're not sending the message that this is the only kind you want from employees. Good feedback isn't always positive. It can be critical or even negative, but it's always thoughtful and honest. Reward and recognize this kind of feedback when you get it. And when you get positive feedback, ask that it be specific and supported by valid metrics of success and is not just a "pat on the back" from someone who is afraid to speak up.
Model vulnerability. "Acknowledge your own mistakes and show that you learn from them," says Studer. "This goes a long way toward helping people see that it's okay to take risks and make mistakes."
Be aware of how you react to bad news. It gives employees clues as to how you will act when they bring negative feedback. Don't let them see you blow up when faced with a problem. When this happens, they feel unsafe and are far less likely to share what needs to be shared.
Don't shoot the messenger. Make it clear that it's always safe to bring you bad news. When you get upset with people for letting you know something is wrong, you squelch communication. People avoid telling you the truth while issues are still fixable, so they stay unresolved and continue to grow until one day they explode. Far better to make sure people feel completely comfortable telling you the truth, even when it's something you don't want to hear.
Don't play the blame game. "Instead of focusing on who is at fault, focus on what to do now," says Studer. "Blaming solves nothing and it kills accountability. When they know they will be blamed, employees will go to great lengths to avoid telling you about problems that need to be fixed. Also, when people feel blamed, they shut down and just do what you say rather than taking a thoughtful approach and helping solve the problem. Be sure not to demean or belittle when mistakes are made."
Intentionally create a culture where feedback is encouraged. It should be normal and expected that people give feedback to each other as well as to the boss. Explain to staff that you need to hear from them, especially direct reports, anytime they feel you are off track and/or there may be consequences you are missing. Ask questions like What am I missing? What am I not thinking of? Say, "Please speak up; don't let us go down the wrong track." Narrate that employees are closest to the problems and see solutions that leaders may not be able to see. Repeat and reinforce this message often. Make seeking out and giving feedback a normal part of the routine. Ask for feedback when you share an idea and give specific guidelines and time frames on where, when, and how. Put processes in place that get employees in the habit of asking for feedback from you and from coworkers at certain stages of a project. You want everyone to get in the feedback habit.
Demonstrate your openness to feedback by taking an opposite or flawed position or making a statement that's obviously untrue. "If someone steps up and points out your error, tell them thank you," says Studer. "If no one steps up, explain what you did and ask what you can do to make the environment safer so that people will be more willing to speak up in the future."
Take their feedback seriously. When you get a good idea from an employee, use it if you possibly can. Even if something is not a good idea, explain why it may not work; don't just say "no." This teaches people that you really do want their input and you're not insistent on running the show yourself.
Create rules of engagement and tailor them to the needs of the people in the group. The last thing you want is for someone on your team to get overly confrontational with (or in response to) feedback. When people feel attacked, it shuts down the flow of ideas. Put standards in place for how to manage giving and receiving feedback and for how to handle conflict. These guidelines should be responsive to the concerns of the group and the challenges they face. Break the Golden Rule: It's not about managing others how you would like to be managed, but figuring out how they need to be managed.
Nurture curiosity. Encourage people to ask why and question decisions. Even if they don't come away with a better idea or a way to improve it, understanding the thought process behind decisions will help them grow as thinkers and make them more likely to step forward when they do have something to say.
Practice active listening. "Don't let people feel like they are shouting into a void," says Studer. "Pay attention to what they are saying and let your body language and responses reflect this. Paraphrase what you're hearing and repeat back to them. Respond to their ideas thoughtfully and respectfully. When you model active listening, employees are likely to pick up on this and do the same."
Embrace radical candor. Be direct. Don't be unnecessarily harsh, but make a point not to sugarcoat the things you say. Likewise, don't expect things to be sugarcoated for you. Most people respond well to transparency, clarity, and openness. People like knowing where they stand and what is expected of them. This style creates a healthy give and take between leaders and employees.
Get people together face-to-face as often as you can. Technology is a good thing in many ways, but it definitely has its shortcomings. For example, it can be hard to communicate tone with digital communication. Feedback is better given and received in a face-to-face interaction. Plus, it is just easier to build the trust and camaraderie that make for great teamwork when all parties can see facial expressions and body language.
If someone is generally quiet or unresponsive, call on them to share feedback. "Introverts in particular can have a hard time competing with louder voices in the room," says Studer. "They deserve to be heard, also. But also know that they may feel more comfortable expressing their thoughts in writing, after they've had a chance to process them."
Separate "truthsayers" from "troublemakers." Some folks are just going to always be negative or find a problem to vocalize. Don't let these people poison the well. Separate them and their feedback from the good feedback of others on the team. Rocking the boat is not always good, nor is it always bad. Just learn the difference between good feedback and disruptions.
Know the difference between a "skill" issue and a "will" issue and handle accordingly. Sometimes even when you've done everything you can to help people feel safe, an employee may consistently fail to engage or contribute on the level that you expect. Or maybe they constantly stir up trouble and make others feel unsafe. At some point, you will need to determine whether this is a "will" or a "skill" issue.
If it's a skill problem, provide coaching or training. If they have a will problem, you might need to have a tough conversation. Explain what the person needs to do to improve their performance, lay out the consequences if they don't, then follow up. Often you'll find the person does improve. If not, the best course of action may be to move them out of the organization.
"A leader's job is to help people do their best work as well as improve and grow so they can perform at an even higher level in the future," concludes Studer. "Psychological safety is the basis for all kinds of positive emotions like trust, confidence, and curiosity—all of which pave the way for vital skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. When we help people develop and nurture these skills, we give them a great gift. We set them up to thrive, not just inside our company but throughout their career."
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1. Charles Duhigg, "What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team," New York Times Magazine, February 25, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html.
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About the Author:
Quint Studer is the author of Wall Street Journal bestseller The Busy Leader's Handbook and a lifelong businessman, entrepreneur, and student of leadership. He not only teaches it; he has done it. He has worked with individuals at all levels and across a variety of industries to help them become better leaders and create high-performing organizations. He seeks always to simplify high-impact leader behaviors and tactics for others.
Quint has a great love for teaching his insights in books and has authored nine of them in addition to The Busy Leader's Handbook. His book Results That Last also made the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Building a Vibrant Community, published in 2018, is a blueprint for communities seeking to revitalize themselves.
Quint is the founder of Vibrant Community Partners and Pensacola's Studer Community Institute. He currently serves as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of West Florida.
To learn more, please visit www.thebusyleadershandbook.com, www.vibrantcommunityblueprint.com, and www.studeri.org.
About the Book:
The Busy Leader's Handbook: How to Lead People and Places That Thrive (Wiley, October 2019, ISBN: 978-1-119-57664-8, $28.00) is available at bookstores nationwide, from major online booksellers, and direct from the publisher by calling 800-225-5945. In Canada, call 800-567-4797. For more information, please visit the book's page at www.wiley.com
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Bishop Statement Following Inquiry Resolution Vote
WASHINGTON – After voting against H. Res. 660, a resolution “directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry …”, Rep. Bishop issued the following statement:
“This resolution continues the flawed procedures Pelosi began weeks ago. Instead, she should be focusing on the issues that are important to American taxpayers:
- USMCA that improves NAFTA
- Funding our military
- Lowering drug prices
- Securing our borders
- Solving our parks maintenance backlog
“These issues are ready to be solved, but Pelosi wants to continue the circus. Alexander Hamilton warned us of this day when he said, ‘the greatest danger (is) that the decision (on impeachment) will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.’”
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How to Avoid Being the Next Victim of a Cyberattack
By Alain Ghiai
CEO of GlobeX Data Ltd.
Not a day seems to go by without reading about the latest cyberattack. No one is safe anymore -- big companies like Equifax and Facebook to Uber and eBay have been suffered major security breaches, along with countless everyday people. There has long been a prevailing attitude among many individuals that goes, “If I get hacked, I’ll just change my password.” Whether that reflects misplaced trust in our constantly-connected world or simply laziness, it seems the majority of people think a digital security breach will never strike them and if it does, it won’t be a big deal. But deep inside they know that may not be true.
Not only is our money at risk, but our personal information, as well. As for easily fixing things after you’ve been hacked? Ask anyone who’s been digitally compromised and they will tell you it can take years to repair the damage.
With the deck seemingly stacked against us, what chance does the average person have if the bad guys have them in their crosshairs? Despite numerous reports of major corporations and entire cities being held hostage by cyber criminals, there actually are things the average person can do to protect him or herself.
-- Never assume you are safe online. Today’s online world is convenient, with apps for everything and access to our personal finances and our most personal information just a tap away on our smartphones. But convenience comes at a price. This very ease in use is at the center of the problems we are facing today.
-- Cyber theft is largely based on hackers using your personal information against you. The biggest culprit is social media. Whenever you update your status on any of the many platforms, you are giving away information about yourself which artificial intelligence can capture. Through this means hackers can develop a profile on you and your personal habits, including determining where you bank, where you eat, which gym you frequent. Most people don’t realize they are making it easy for hackers to target them by announcing their profiles to the world.
-- Do not use free services, such as Wi-Fi, email and cloud data storage. While many of these online services are household names and extremely popular -- such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger -- they are all inherently insecure. In addition, your privacy is compromised when you use them. Remember the old saying, “Nothing is really free?” Their business model is based on advertising and through their careful monitoring of the habits of their users. Countless millions of individuals are inadvertently handing over their personal data to these companies, which they turn around and sell to other businesses.
-- Consider using an encrypted email service to protect the privacy and security of your messages. If you insist on staying with G-mail, Yahoo mail or any of the other many free email services, assume your messages can be read by anyone. Therefore, do not send anything sensitive or personal via these email services, such as credit card numbers and passwords.
-- Always remember that when you connect to Wi-Fi in a coffee shop, hotel or airport, you are inadvertently exposing yourself to virtually every single person who is logged on at the same time. Many hackers hang out on public Wi-Fi just waiting for the opportunity to strike.
-- Do not do online banking through apps. Apps are created by third-party developers and there is no way to know they are secure. Your life savings could wiped out simply by using an app with security holes.
-- We’ve all heard this a million times, but do not use the same password for all your accounts. Also, be sure to change them regularly. The easiest way to handle this is through an inexpensive password manager.
About Alain Ghiai:
Alain Ghiai is the CEO of GlobeX Data Ltd., a publicly listed company (CSE:SWIS) that distributes, designs and develops Swiss-hosted software and cybersecurity solutions for secure data management and secure communications. He has been an active internet entrepreneur since 2000. In 2009, he was mandated by the Republic and State of Geneva's Economic Development Office to represent it to Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Canada in all matters relating to the fostering of good relationships between companies originating in GCC countries, Canada and Switzerland. (https://www.globexdatagroup.com)
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Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice
October 30, 2019
Governor Gary Herbert Announces Workgroup to Improve Probation, Parole
Utah joins a small cohort of states looking to review supervision systems to increase successful outcomes, reduce revocations, and focus resources on high-risk individuals
SALT LAKE CITY – Gov. Gary Herbert recently announced a task force focused on community supervision, an inter-branch workgroup charged with undertaking a focused, evidence-based review of Utah’s probation and parole system. The workgroup aims to increase successful outcomes, reduce revocations due to technical violations, and support public safety by redirecting supervision resources toward individuals who pose the highest risk and focusing prison admissions on serious offenders.
“Over the last several years, we have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to improving our sentencing and corrections policies for both the adult and juvenile justice systems,” Governor Herbert stated, “And through this process of ongoing evaluation and analysis, we must now shift our attention to our growing community supervision population which requires critical examination and adjustment.”
“This is an important undertaking that will continue to build on our efforts to chart a better path forward for Utah,” said Sen. J Stuart Adams, President of the Utah Senate. “We will review data and engage with diverse stakeholders across the state to ensure we have a system that protects public safety and produces better outcomes for our families and communities.”
Comprised of members of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the task force will meet four times through the end of the year and will develop a set of policy recommendations to share with the Legislature in 2020.
“Probation and parole are meant to hold individuals accountable and help them successfully exit the criminal justice system, not become a revolving door back to prison,” said Mike Haddon, Department of Corrections Executive Director, “The workgroup is a coordinated effort to ensure that we are doing what research and data recommend will work to strengthen our system and protect public safety, such as ensuring our officers are not overloaded so that they can focus their attention on those who have the highest risk.”
“Addressing the needs of the community supervision population is high stakes, and we must work to create a system that will promote success and prepare an individual to reintegrate into their respective communities,” Kim Cordova, Council on Criminal and Juvenile Justice executive director said. “That means that we have programs in place throughout the state to help people change their behavior.”
In 2018, 82 percent of prison admissions in Utah were due to violations of people on probation or parole. This is an increase from 2012 where supervision violations made up two-thirds of all Utah prison admissions, often for technical violations or a failure to comply with supervision rules, rather than a new crime. What was intended to be an alternative to incarceration, probation and parole have become its leading drivers.
Further, Utah’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health estimated in 2013 that individuals involved with the justice system represented more than 70 percent of all people in need of substance abuse and mental health treatment in the state. Since last year, access to substance use disorder treatment grew for the third year in a row to an all-time high. Still, the unmet behavioral health treatment needs for Utah residents per county ranged from 58 to 95 percent, underscoring the need to further expand community-based treatment options.
“I am looking forward to working on this endeavor to create a system that champions people’s successes,” said Rep. Brad Wilson, Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, “Creating meaningful change won’t happen overnight, but we are committed to improving public safety and are in this for the long haul.”
In 2015, Governor Herbert signed into law sentencing and corrections legislation that used research-driven policies to control corrections spending, hold individuals accountable, and improve public safety. The state’s Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, an interbranch group of state and local officials, developed House Bill 348, with technical assistance from The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a public-private partnership. In 2017, Governor Herbert signed House Bill 239, a comprehensive set of research-based reforms designed to improve the state’s juvenile justice system. Now, Utah continues to build on that work and joins Arizona to undertake a focused, evidence-based review of their community supervision systems.
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Crime and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice are providing technical assistance to the workgroup at the invitation of Utah leadership.
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Customer Service from USDA
USDA Highlights Customer Service Successes and IT Modernization at Impact Expo
(To view USDA’s Customer Service Successes and IT Modernization Efforts, you may play the above video or view the USDA Prioritizes Customer Experience video)
(Washington, D.C., October 31, 2019) – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture held the first ever Impact Expo with employees to celebrate the impact of its customer-focused IT modernization efforts. This event underlined the connection between modernization, customer experience, and USDA’s overall impact. The Expo featured projects from across the Centers of Excellence, Office of Customer Experience, USDA’s Customer Experience Champions program, Office of the Chief Information Officer, and every USDA mission area to show how USDA is working together to modernize to best serve its customers.
Under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, USDA set out to become the most efficient, most effective, and most customer focused department in the federal government. Over the last two and a half years, USDA has made tremendous strides in streamlining and improving customer service and digitizing and modernizing its IT infrastructure for employees and stakeholders alike. While there is still more work to be done, today USDA celebrates and reflects on these accomplishments:
USDA Customer Service and Innovation Successes
Support for Farmers: At the direction of President Trump, USDA took several actions to support farmers impacted by unjustified retaliation and trade disruption. To help ensure this assistance reaches those affected, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is facilitating the Market Facilitation Program to provide payments to farmers of various commodities; the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is facilitating the Food Purchase and Distribution Program (FPDP) by purchasing surplus commodities affected by trade retaliation for distribution by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to food banks, schools, and other outlets serving low-income individuals; and the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) administered the Agricultural Trade Promotion program, awarding $300 million in trade development funds to help U.S. farmers and ranchers identify and access new export markets.
Regulatory Reform: While President Trump signed an executive order that requires agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue, under Secretary Perdue’s leadership, USDA has completed 24 deregulatory items for every three regulatory items for a total regulatory savings of $157,791,000.00.
Farmers.gov: USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) mission area launched Farmers.gov, an interactive one-stop website with mobile device capability for producers to fill out forms, apply for disaster assistance, and find the most convenient USDA office locations. Farmers.gov is built around the needs of customers, with farmer-focused content, interactive tools, and a business data dashboard that allows producers more time to focus on their farm and less time filling out antiquated and time intensive paper forms.
H-2A Education Tool: This online Farmers.gov tool helps farmers, ranchers, and producers fill out the required forms faster and more efficiently. No one should have to hire a lawyer to hire a farm worker. The tool contains an interactive checklist with application requirements, fees, forms and a timeline built around a farmer’s hiring needs.
Farm Loan Discovery Tool: This new interactive tool on farmers.gov can help farmers find information on USDA farm loans within minutes. Farmers who are looking for financing options to operate a farm or buy land can answer a few simple questions about what they are looking to fund and how much money they need to borrow. After submitting their answers, farmers will be provided information on farm loans that best fit their specific needs. The results page also provides easy access to the loan application and additional resources and directs farmers to their nearest USDA Service Center.
Disaster Discovery Tool: Agricultural producers now have new resources available on Farmers.gov which allows them to prepare for and recover from impacts of natural disasters. The tool walks producers through five questions to help them identify what USDA disaster assistance programs are available that fit their individual circumstance. A process that historically took nearly a year and a half from when a farmer files a disaster claim to when they receive their payment, now takes less than four months with continuous process improvements expected to continue to minimalize the time lag.
Rural Broadband: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership to establish an Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity, a critical need for broadband access in Rural America was identified. Broadband and Next Generation Precision Agriculture are critical components for creating vital access to world-class resources, tools and opportunity for America’s farmers, ranchers, foresters and producers. USDA’s Rural Development (RD) is currently offering up to $600 million in loans and grants to help build broadband infrastructure in rural America.
Recreation.gov: This website and mobile app empowers forest enthusiasts along their entire travel journey to dream, plan, and experience our national treasures, as well as share their memorable experiences to inspire others. Architects of Recreation.gov began from a foundation of federal recreation data and valuable user feedback to create a service with instinctive work flows for visitors and federal recreation managers, enhanced trip-planning and mapping features, and inspirational content for discovery. Since Recreation.gov site launched in October 2018, it has hosted nearly 20 million users, 41.7 million sessions, and 156 million page views. USDA runs Recreation.gov on behalf of the federal government.
ePermits for Christmas Tree Applications: This USDA Forest Service online permitting program was developed to strengthen the connection between the public and their national forests; broaden and increase our customers’ responsible access to public lands through online permit availability; provide a predictable, responsive, and friendly online customer experience; and to reduce administrative burden. A successful pilot application launched in November 2018 on four National Forests resulting in more than 6,000 Christmas tree tags sold (accounting for 41% of all tag sales). The application will be scaled up in the Pacific Northwest region for the 2019 Christmas tree season.
School Meal Flexibilities: Throughout 2018, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) held numerous roundtables with key stakeholders to garner feedback on program successes and challenges. Throughout 2019, USDA has used this information to enhance the school meals programs and tackle operational challenges through publishing a final rule and releasing a variety of policy memos. All of this provides common-sense flexibilities for the food service professionals running USDA programs in nearly 100,000 schools and institutions across the country – key partners in serving our student customers.
Agricultural Resources Management Survey Webtool: USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) rolled out a new tool to report important and timely financial statistics for U.S. farmers and ranchers. Every year, USDA asks farmers for information on the finances of their farming operation. This information gathered through the Agricultural Resources Management Survey (ARMS) is USDA’s primary source of financial information on farm and farm household well-being and is critical to carrying out the research requested by Congress and other critical stakeholders. The tool provides a presentation-quality chart and table of this data and includes an Application Program Interface that bypasses the web interface altogether and allows for more rapid access to the summary data for frequent users.
Environmental Analysis and Decision-Making Reform: USDA’s Forest Service is working diligently to improve the efficiency and timeliness of our environmental analysis and decision-making processes. For example, in 2018 the White River National Forest produced four Environmental Assessments approving work at major ski resorts. The documents averaged 51 pages in length and took 130 days to produce using a repeatable, efficient process. This represents more than an 80% decrease in planning time compared to the national average. The Forest Service also worked collaboratively with ski resort partners to redesign their Facility Design Review process, going from four review stages requiring 14 weeks to two review stages in five weeks, producing more predictable outcomes for partners.
Interactive Visitor Map of Forest Service Lands: Outdoor enthusiasts have a new tool to plan their next forest or grassland adventure thanks to a new mobile app offered by the Forest Service. Whether you’re looking to photograph bursting colors of spring wildflowers, cook s’mores around the summer campfire, or watch leaves change colors this fall, our new interactive Visitor Map will help you explore new opportunities. Find your perfect spot on 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands that include more than 4,300 campgrounds and 158,000 miles of trails. The new app was developed in response to customer feedback and interest in a mobile friendly tool to find outdoor activities. The new app is simple to download to your mobile device and has maps of road, hiking trails, camping sites and many other useful features.
Tell Sonny: USDA created the “Tell Sonny” online feedback tool in coordination with the GSA CoEs which captures citizen feedback on how USDA is doing to improve services to our customers.
Ask USDA Contact Center: The goal of the Ask USDA Contact Center initiative is to ensure customers get the right answer when they contact USDA, the first time, every time. Through the GSA CoEs, USDA piloted an Ask USDA Contact Center in three mission areas allowing it to gain insights into better understanding customers’ needs. It is our goal to have one consolidated phone number for USDA customers or “one front door” by late summer 2020. In 2017, customers who called USDA had an average wait time of over two minutes. Now, wait times in the three piloted mission areas are aligned with the industry standard, and 80% of calls are answered in 20 seconds or less. USDA looks forward to implementing this best in class call center across USDA by August 2020.
Created Optimal Fleet: After reviewing the motor fleet, USDA identified over 17,000 vehicles that may be underutilized, with over 1,600 of those having been driven zero miles over the last year. USDA reduced its fleet size by over 4,200 vehicles since FY 2016, which will avoid an estimated $26 million in costs in fiscal year 2019 alone. Additionally, USDA put fleet caps on all mission areas for FY 2020 and is continuing to encourage further reductions and will pilot telematics in some vehicles to ensure better tracking and accuracy of data reporting.
IT Service Successes
Data Analytics: In partnership with GSA, USDA developed more than 200 dashboards to provide the latest information to customers and employees. These dashboards have more than 20,000 views monthly. The dashboards not only improve internal decision-making but also maximize the impact of citizen-facing programs across 8 mission areas and 7 administrative functions. USDA has made over 1,600 internal datasets available publicly and is safeguarding privacy while also making more information available.
End User Consolidation: Instead of having each USDA mission area determine its own IT costs for equipment and services, the USDA has centralized 60% of USDA end-user services and closed 26 data centers, which will be 100% complete in fall of 2020. This move saves $10 million in duplicative infrastructure costs, which means USDA can put that toward better serving customers. USDA will have a department wide cloud solution for secure, scalable, and efficient services in a fully managed 24/7 environment.
Improvements to USDA’s network service and email accounts for USDA employees: USDA is securing faster and cheaper network services, avoiding $570 million. That’s more cost savings for customers. USDA migrated 100,000 employees to Office 365 and 91% email accounts to a simpler usda.gov account.
Optimized Infrastructure: USDA achieved $42.3 million in cost savings and avoidance by optimizing Enterprise Data Centers, and by consolidating and closing a total of 31 data centers.
Website Modernization: USDA websites had over 700 unique, public, and active domains with over three million web pages which included numerous broken links. As a result, in partnership with the GSA CoEs, USDA completed a Digital Assessment Report and as a result is modernizing and optimizing USDA websites. USDA is removing broken links and webpages that don’t receive traffic with the goal of achieving a best in class customer experience with one USDA look and feel.
