TOPICS
TOPICS
Career official becomes deputy TSA administrator
"I was one of the few federal executives hired in the beginning to create TSA, and I sat in the room with Secretary Norman Mineta with a blank sheet of paper," Rossides said. "To be able to serve today, and with [administrator] Kip Hawley, focusing on all of these initiatives to mature the agency and improve the quality of work life for the people, has been a marvelous experience, but it has been the culmination of drawing that very first chart."
Rossides will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of many of the plans and programs she designed as associate administrator. In her earlier role, one of her priorities was designing the programs that would allow TSA employees to have full and viable career paths within the agency and significantly lower the high attrition rates that plagued the screening process when it was run primarily by private firms.
Part of the challenge, she said, was coming to a fuller understanding of the skills that transportation security officers needed, and creating a reasonable progression path.
"We expect this officer to really have a variety of skills around the use of the technology, the application of the technology, the ability to interact with the traveling public and an understanding of the security laws and regulations," she said.
But there wasn't a system in place that made it possible for TSOs to acquire that knowledge and rise through the agency. Instead, a significant gap in the required skills and experience existed between D band, the entry-level personnel designation, and F band, the top-level designation, making it hard for employees to be promoted. Rossides helped implement an E-band designation to provide a bridge for employees moving up the career ladder at TSA.
"By creating the E band, you created a path for career progression," said Christopher White, a TSA spokesman. "You created a real option for officers to stay and grow with the agency."
Rossides said she thinks the agency faces challenges in making sure that its attrition rates are reasonable when compared to similar industries and other federal agencies like U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She attributed most of the current attrition not to the departure of TSOs throughout the workforce but to a more transient population of employees who may be working for the agency early in their careers and then decide to seek employment elsewhere.
Rossides said by working on routine issues like injury rates, she hopes to improve both efficiency and attrition rates.
"My interest is the day-to-day management of that workforce and continuing to look at the issues that make up a very efficient operation and a well-trained and high-performing operation," she said. "That translates into things like making sure that our attrition rates and injury rates continue to decline. By improving in those areas, we improve our ability to manage the workforce efficiently."
Rossides' selection as deputy administrator is a milestone in TSA's efforts to ensure continuity of operations. She has been a federal employee her entire working life, and the position is now a career rather than a political post.
"The interest I have now is really to assist the agency in the transition of administrations, and to ensure that the career people in the senior leadership team are the people who will lead the organization well beyond my tenure and into the next administration," she said.
COMMENTS
- All of the TSA's technology programs still are controlled by private firms who select solutions as a conflict of interest that result in contracts awarded to themselves. An example given press coverage is Lockheed Martin being granted control of the Maritime ID program's evaluation process, and awarding as a conflict of interest a contract to itself at the Port of Baltimore. Lockheed's biometric smart cards take-up to 9 minutes to authenticate an individual, are incredibly expensive for port workers ($ 165+) and have a 25-50 % error rate. In summary, they're total garbage! When readers finally are installed the bottlenecks at the port will backup I-95 traffic horribly! Also, such an error rate makes the cards completely unreliable! Rossides is apart of the problems that for years plagued the TSA, and has carried-on Asa Hutchinson's original corrupt policy into the present day as Deputy Administrator in the same manner as Kip Hawley has! Dawn Posted February 19, 2008 10:43 AM
- As a former TSO I feel that Ms. Rossides will definitely need to do a "reality check" on the attrition rates and not attribute them to a transient population of the workforce. The work carried out by TSO's is stressfull not only because of workloads but also because of undue pressure from upper management (sometimes coming from careers with major air carriers) and bowing to pressure from the air carriers to make sure the flights leave on time sometimes at the detriment of policies and regulations. Then when these discrepancies come up upper management treats the TSO's as disposable pawns by subjecting them to disciplinary actions in order to cover up their inaction. The attrition rate at TSA is a consequence of a morale level that is subterranean in nature. You can not honestly expect to keep employees if you give to one hand and then take from the other as was the case with the implementation of the 2007 PASS system. TSO's were told that they would receive a certain percentage payraise for achieving "Role Model of Excellence" only to have the standard changed and adding a new level at the last possible moment in order to avoid having to pay out to those personnel that excelled and met all the criteria. The TSA leadership needs to look deep inside itself and ensure the system is fair for all of it's employees if they are really and truly interested in improving the morale which should then start to take care of the attrition rates. John Dennis III Posted February 14, 2008 10:26 PM
- Ms. Rossides and TSA certainly have their work cut out for them to reduce attrition rates and improve morale among Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at our nation’s airports. The fact remains that the shear tedium of the job, pressures to process ever increasing passenger loads, and detect dangerous/deadly items, and improvised explosive devices will continue to contribute to attrition rates and poor morale throughout the country. TSA’s focus should be to develop opportunities for TSOs to perform a variety security related tasks in the airport environment. This is particularly difficult as long as other traditional airport security functions such as physical security, alarm monitoring and response, ramp and perimeter patrols are performed by local airport operators. TSA, in conjunction with a major airport, should test a localized approach with strong federal oversight to provide a full range of security positions that would allow greater lateral and upward mobility for security personnel. Opportunities for variety and mobility within an airport environment will undoubtedly contribute to lowering attrition rates and improving morale among security personnel in the trenches at our airports. Paul Gray Posted January 14, 2008 10:14 AM
