DEOMI Organizational Climate Survey enhancements improve commander’s opportunities to strengthen readiness through awareness Published Feb. 24, 2014 By Bryan Ripple Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute Public Affairs Officer FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Department of Defense military, civilian, and non-appropriated funds personnel have the opportunity to impact the readiness of their organization using the newest release of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute's Organizational Climate Survey, DEOCS 4.0. Much like the Unit Climate Assessment program many Air Force members are familiar with, the DEOCS anonymously assesses perceptions of organizational effectiveness, equal opportunity, equal employment opportunity, fair treatment, and sexual assault prevention and response. Several new factors have been added, including favoritism, diversity management, organizational processes, intention to stay, help-seeking behaviors, exhaustion (burnout), demeaning behaviors and hazing. These factors help leaders receive a well-rounded picture of their organization by identifying perceived attitudes and behaviors that could affect morale and organizational performance. Released in January 2014, DEOCS 4.0 is a commander's management tool that allows military and civilian leaders to proactively assess critical organizational climate dimensions that can impact--positively or negatively-- an organization's effectiveness. The DEOCS 4.0 enhancements resulted from DEOMI working closely with each of the Services to identify their emerging requirements. The DEOCS 4.0 survey can be accessed from any device with internet capability: government computer, personal computer, tablet, and public domain computers (library, internet café, etc.). The passwords to access the survey are randomly generated by computer and not traceable back to the individual. This helps ensure anonymity. To further protect participants' identities, the DEOCS report does not "single out" anyone by virtue of their demographic data. Demographics are collected to identify group trends, not individuals. Members will also be allowed to include comments which appear, unedited, in the final report. If a person chooses to identify him/herself in these comments, that information will stay; otherwise, comments are in no way matched to a person's other answers, comments, or demographics. Because a person's responses are anonymous, there is no way to save answers - if a person starts the survey and logs out before finishing, they will have to start back from the beginning. Please give yourself time to complete the whole survey, approximately 30 minutes. The DEOCS also includes a section devoted to characterizing an organization's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response environment. The SAPR section illuminates members' views on their feelings of safety from sexual assault; chain of command support; awareness of SAPR resources; perception of whether or not the chain of command would take appropriate actions to address an Unrestricted Report of sexual assault; and the social and professional environment envisioned following a sexual assault report. The new SAPR questions meet legislative and Secretary of Defense requirements to assess the command's ability to prevent and respond to sexual assaults. This critical information will inform commanders, the Services, and decision makers on the current status of SAPR climate within commands and across the DOD. Recent Defense Department directives also ensure that every command conducts climate assessments more frequently. Military commanders are now required to conduct a climate assessment within 120 days after assuming command and annually thereafter. This requirement ensures that leaders are apprised of members' perceptions of how leaders respond to incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault in their units. To further bolster leadership accountability for climates of dignity and respect, the results of climate surveys will now be provided to the next senior commander in the chain of command. This mechanism provides higher echelon commanders with direct knowledge of their subordinate commands' DEOCS climate assessment results. For more information about the DEOCS, please contact the Fairchild Equal Opportunity Staff at (509) 247-2555.