Congress is beginning to adopt best practices for onboarding and workforce training.
Why This Matters
Every Member of Congress has autonomy over their team’s hiring and office management, an element that is vital to ensure a district is being served by individuals in alignment with the Member’s views. However, standardizing the onboarding of new employees could optimize the experience for individuals beginning their careers on the Hill and improve their retention. Accordingly, ModCom made recommendation #103, encouraging the House to provide offices with an expanded standard onboarding packet that includes comprehensive information on available resources and benefits for staff.
How It Happened
To professionalize and enhance the onboarding experience of all new House employees, in 2022, the Congressional Staff Academy launched a comprehensive, institution-wide onboarding program for new staff. This program provides new employees — based both in DC and in district offices — with key information related to their benefits, campus resources, key points of contact, and more.
The Impact
During the Congressional Staff Academy course, employees are provided with a comprehensive onboarding packet as well as additional resources to raise awareness of benefits available to them, including CAO’s newly launched Benita Knows Benefits series. Prior to the creation of this class by the Congressional Staff Academy, no comprehensive onboarding briefing existed for House staff, leading to confusion and under-utilized resources.
Next Steps
The House has taken numerous steps to improve and professionalize the orientation process for all new employees of the House. In addition to the expansion of onboarding information provided to new House staffers, the CAO has completed the development of an updated protocol that was launched at the beginning of the 118th Congress. This new protocol includes an optional demographic survey and onboarding questions, offering individuals the chance to voluntarily disclose information about their race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, education level, caregiving duties, military background, disability status, religion, and duty station. This information will equip the House to better understand its workforce, identify potential disparities or underrepresentation, and develop targeted strategies to support and empower employees from all backgrounds.
This CAO protocol implemented ModCom recommendation #108, which tasked the former House Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) to help collect and analyze workforce data. However, with the passage of the FY 2024 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, the office was disbanded. This scope of work is set to be adopted by the Office of Talent Management under the CAO, a task that is paramount for the House to ensure it adequately understands its workforce.
Glossary
ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act
AOC = Architect of the Capitol
CHA = Committee on House Administration
CAO = House Chief Administrative Officer
CDTF = Congressional Data Task Force
COLA = Cost-of-Living Adjustment
CPF = Community Project Funding
CR = Continuing Resolution
GAO = Government Accountability Office
GAO STAA = The Government Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team
GenAI = Generative Artificial Intelligence
HIRO = House Intern Resource Office
HDS = House Digital Service
LIS = Legislative Information Service
LLM = Large Language Model
MIA = Modernization Initiatives Account
ModCom = The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
ModSub = Subcommittee on Modernization (ModSub) within the Committee on House Administration
MOU = Memorandum of Understanding
NMO = New Member Orientation
OCWR = Office of Congressional Workplace Rights
