ITA Quarterly Stars Award

1st Quarter FY 2009

Nominations are due on Friday, January 16, 2009.

Purpose

The purpose of this award is to recognize employees and groups who have made significant contributions to ITA programs and demonstrated exceptional and sustained effort toward the accomplishment of ITA's missions during the quarter noted above.

Eligibility

All ITA employees are eligible, except Senior Executives, Senior Foreign Service and Schedule C employees. Overseas employees need to indicate whether they are a Locally Engaged Staff (LES) or Personal Service Contractor . If the person is a Personal Service Contractor, then the nominator must find out if the contractor has an incentives clause in his/her contract and submit the contract with the nomination as verification of eligibility. Individual nominees must have a minimum of one year of service with ITA at the time of nomination and  be performing at a “Level 3  (or equivalent for LES) rating at the time of the nomination submission. Group members must have a minimum of 6 months of service with ITA.

Frequency

This award will be granted quarterly.

Awards

• Supervisor/Manager
• Program Professional
• Administrative Support Professional
• Customer Service
• Group

Types of Accomplishments

The ITA Quarterly Stars Award recognizes employee accomplishments which have demonstrated leadership skill and independent initiative on a wide range of issues relating to a major USG/Departmental/or ITA objective. Examples of worthy accomplishments that could lead to a nomination are as follows:

Supervisor/Manager Example

• A supervisor has exercised extraordinary leadership skills in a major reorganization of her unit. Due to special emphasis on the programs overseen, several additional slots were allocated to the unit. On board staff were not enthusiastic about the changes and two employees developed severe conflicts between them. The supervisor dealt creatively with the recruitment process and brought in several highly qualified minorities to fill 50% of the new slots. The new initiatives involved a battery of specialized skills and knowledge which many employees did not possess and the supervisor worked diligently and effectively to train staff. The supervisor quickly resolved staff conflicts so that all parties were satisfied and functioned effectively. Throughout the quarter, the quality of product output continually improved, despite the many last minute requests from the Under Secretary's office to provide briefing materials for several important senior level meetings. None of the regular deadlines were missed. Not only did the supervisor utilize superlative management skills, but also demonstrated a superb grasp of her specialized professional area of expertise. She was able to personally conduct 4 major briefings during the quarter to challenging audiences. Many stakeholders at the outset were not favorable to the new program initiatives. Her briefings were outstanding and many were persuaded to be open to the new programs.

 

• A manager has contributed enormously to international thinking and policy development in the field of trade and the environment. The specialist has been a primary policy creator and catalyst in this uncharted field, working continuously in the intra- and interagency context with both trade and environment policy experts and with business people. This employee pioneered a policy development process within the Department to develop coordinated ITA-NOAA positions in a timely manner. His initiative and creativity, his newly-acquired but phenomenal grasp of the technicalities of environmental laws and policies, and his understanding of the interests of the various environmental NGOs – in addition, of course, to his longstanding and keen knowledge of trade matters – helped Commerce organize its thinking in sufficient time to play a major role in the interagency process.

Program Professional Example

• A program professional, who has been with the Boston Export Assistance Center for 6 months, is a member of the National Software Team, which consists of trade specialists from 14 US Export Assistance Centers. Notwithstanding his junior grade and recent arrival in the Commercial Service, he assumed a major leadership role on the Team. The trade specialist recruited two more team members from offices with large client bases of software end- users. He drafted the Team's annual plan. He obtained buy-in from skeptical domestic field managers by organizing two conference calls. The employee is recognized for leadership, initiative, and organizational productivity.

Administrative Support Professional Examples

• An administrative support employee demonstrated leadership skill and independent initiative by trouble-shooting a problem with software used to batch transmit human resources data to the National Finance Center. The fix entailed a sophisticated specialized knowledge of the ITA, DOC, NFC and DOI data transmission policies and procedures, as well as the hardware and software interfaces and gateways between the end user and NFC. The employee had to convince ITA and DOC systems specialists that the fix would work. The solution developed ensured that all ITA headquarters and domestic field employees received accurate W-2s for this fiscal year. Had the batch transmission been partially completed or not been completed at all, ITA would have faced a possible charge of $20,000 for the NFC staff to correct the problem. The accomplishment was of substantial benefit to ITA.

 

• An administrative support person demonstrated leadership skill, independent initiative and specialized knowledge of the budget and accounting systems and interface with NFC and the National Business Center in Denver by trouble-shooting why certain appropriation codes are not working. This fix allowed a large number of cash awards throughout ITA headquarters to be processed and charged to the correct codes. This accomplishment saved headquarters management many hours of time searching for a solution. The employee had to convince their management chain and NFC and DOI officials that their solution was logical and workable.

Group Example

• ITA's Aerospace Group provided outstanding service to over 15 U.S. aerospace companies at the Paris Air Show this past June. The Group implemented an Aerospace Executive Service (AES) at the show, bringing 10 SMEs to the world's largest and most important industry event. Due to the high cost, these AES participants would not have been able to exhibit at the show. The AES Program provided them with pre-arranged meetings at the show, an interpreter, and office space where they conducted one-on-one meetings. Participants stated that "the AES was the perfect vehicle to bring American SMEs to this event." They reported $20 million of sales off the floor; jxx distributor agreement pending 10 participants expect a total of $$$ in export sales over the next year. The AES Program supplemented Trade Development's APLC programs. Team members assisted in counseling full booth participants and helping man the APLC booth. The Group is a model of ITA and private sector integration. The group includes members from the CS domestic and overseas fields, and Trade Development. Team members have developed industry expertise through training and attendance at industry events. They are called upon regularly by their colleagues to assist and counsel clients across the country. The group has reached out to national trade associations and has created a high profile within the industry. As a result, they have been asked to participate in several association meetings and programs. The Aerosopace Group's contribution to ITA is substantial. They are changing the face that ITA brings to industry – working together for the benefit of U.S. companies. This has brought well-deserved credit to ITA and the Department of Commerce.

Customer Service Example

• Recognizes employees who have demonstrated and provided extraordinary customer service which has stressed and emphasized customer satisfaction and improved services.

Nominating Procedures
Any ITA employee may initiate a nomination. Self nominations are prohibited. Supervisory endorsement is required at least through the Office Director level.

Nominations must be submitted on form CD-326, Recommendation for Recognition, with an attached written justification to the CD-326 of no more than 500 words (minimum font size of 10). Narratives should focus on clearly demonstrable leadership and initiative that is widely recognized.

Nominations should be submitted via e-mail and a hard copy delivered to the ITA Quarterly Stars Award Program Manager, Tina Agoo (Christine.Agoo@mail.doc.gov) in the Office of Strategic Resources, Room 2006.  The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, January 16, 2009.   

 

Selection Criteria

The following factors will be considered in evaluating nominations: (Note: Nominees do not necessarily need to meet all criteria)

• Demonstration of specialized knowledge used well.
• Accomplishment involves a unique contribution at a fairly high level.
• Demonstration of leadership skill and independent initiative.
• Achievement of multi-level and cross-organizational buy-in.
• Accomplishment of substantial benefit to ITA.
• Accomplishment impacts a wide range of issues.
• Accomplishment brings credit to ITA and DOC.

Selection Procedures

In order to provide more peer review in the selection process, nominations will be reviewed by ITA Quarterly Stars Panel. The panel will make final recommendations for awards to the Under Secretary.  The Under Secretary will make the final selections.
 
ITA Quarterly Stars Panel (QSP)

All nominations are subject to a two-tiered review and recommendation process by the panel. The first tier is composed of Peer Review Teams which initially review all nominations and make recommendations to the QSP panel-at-large (second tier).

Panel Composition

Peer Review Teams: There are three teams: Adminstrative and Support Employee, Program employee and Supervisor/Manager. Each team is composed of 6 members: Assistant Secretary Units (4), Administration (1), Office of the Under Secretary (1). Members serve up to 2 years.

Nominations to serve on the Peer Review Teams will be peer generated. A call for nominations will be made by ITA Administration. Support employees must be nominated by support employees, professionals by professional employees and supervisors by supervisory employees.

ITA Adminstration will contact nominees to determine their willingness to serve on the review teams. The final selections for team members will be made by the head of the 6 units. The Deputy Under Secretary will appoint the Chair and Vice Chair from amongst the members.

QSP Panel-at-Large: The panel will be composed of the Chair and Vice Chair of the three Peer Review Teams and a senior executive, appointed by the Deputy Under Secretary, to serve as Chairperson. (Note: The Chairperson will only vote in case of a tie.)

Panel Review Process.

The Peer Review Teams will meet to review and recommend nominations to the panel-at-large. In addition to the criteria, the teams will consider representation of ITA units, diversity goals, and overall excellence in making recommendations. The teams may recommend up to twice the number of nominations as there are possible awards, (e.g., up to 2 for Administrative Support Professionals; only 1 can be given quarterly). Following the peer review, the USAP panel-at-large will meet to review the recommendations, vote and determine the final nominations to be forwarded to the Under Secretary for final selection. The USAP will consider awards criteria, representation of ITA units, diversity goals, and overall excellence in making its final recommendations. All USAP members present will vote on all awards. A quorum must be present for the vote to be taken. (A quorum is defined as at least 1 Administrative Support, 1 Program Professional and 1 Supervisor present, with a total of at least 4 members present.)

Panel Recommendations

The QSP Panel Chairperson will forward the recommendations to the Under Secretary. Only one winner per category will be selected.

 

Type of Recognition

Individual award recipients will receive a cash award of $2,000 and a framed certificate.

Group award:

2 employees-$2000 each
3-5 employees-$800 each
>5 employees-$4000 split

Presentation
Assistant Secretaries, the CFO and Director of Administration and the Deputy Under Secretary will present awards on a quarterly basis in conjunction with the existing Length of Service Ceremonies.

 

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For more information you can contact Tina Agoo by emailing at christine.agoo@mail.doc.gov or calling 202-482-4856.