Hello team; today is Friday, June 19. (Click here for podcast.)
I want to spend some time discussing the status of our incentive program. When I arrived here in October, I challenged the staff on how we reward employees for their contributions to key milestones. I believe in paying for performance and felt that the program needed a more direct tie between each of our personal efforts and the focus of our business, so I asked for some new thinking.
I’m pleased to report that, as in previous years, there are two opportunities for the workforce to earn incentives, at the midyear point and again at year end. For the first half of the year, we are focusing on your contribution to our critical mission through the COVID-19 pandemic by recognizing hours worked for all eligible populations and on safety performance for hourly and represented, or union, populations. The COVID pandemic made it very difficult to set health and wellness and milestone goals, as EB has done in the past. For the first half of this year, MTC, Carpenters and Quonset Point hourly employees have the potential to receive up to a $500 bonus, based on the number of hours they have worked, reflecting an acknowledgement for continued commitment to our mission during the challenges of COVID-19.
MTC represented and QP hourly employees will receive a $500 safety bonus, for a total of up to $1000. In January, we focused on safety at the deck plate. While we pride ourselves on being world-class shipbuilders, our safety performance has not been world class. Over the course of the first six months of 2020, our data shows our focus on safety is making a difference. As I reported in May, our Recordable Incident Rate (RIR) is down 37%, our Lost Workday Injury Rate (LWIR) is down 34% and our Significant Injury and Fatality rate is down 67%. This record of accomplishment is what I mean when I talk about “paying for performance.”
For the first half of this year, salaried employees and Groton Guards are eligible for the same ‘hours worked’ bonus described above. Depending on the hours worked, these employees can earn up to $500. Salaried employees and Groton Guards are also eligible for spot awards and bonuses under a new Operational Excellence program. This program replaces and expands ‘SHIPMATE’ which provides managers the opportunity to reward exceptional performance in real time. Members of the MDA are eligible for a bonus of up to $1000 for hours worked, which is noteworthy because through the COVID crisis, the nature of their work required our people to be at their desk while we implemented a secure way to enable working remotely. MDA personnel are not eligible for awards under the Operational Excellence program.
By the end of the month, we will announce the key events that will make up the second half of the year. These targets will be meaningful and impactful for all of us – because I want every single one of us to feel accountability and ownership in achieving our goals. You can bet safety, particularly for the Operations teams, is going to feature prominently in those second-half goals.
Information about when and how first-half checks will be distributed and about the new Operational Excellence program will be coming soon from the Payroll and Benefits teams, so stay tuned.
Our incentive program should reward individual efforts that advance our collective mission. I believe the structure of the program provides opportunities for all employees to share in our success.
Now for a COVID update — since my last podcast on June 11th, we’ve have had six additional cases of COVID-19, for a total of 55 cases. Four employees work at Quonset Point. Case #50 works in department 924, located in building K2005. The employee’s last day of work was June 4. The employee was tested on June 9th. Case #51 works in department 935 located in building 60. The employee’s last day of work was June 11th and they were tested on June 12th. Case #52 also works in department 935 located in building 60. The employee’s last day of work was June 14th and they were tested on June 16th. Case numbers 53 and 54 are employees who were both aboard the June 12th EB shuttle traveling from Florida to Groton. The 53rd employee works in department 416 in New London and has been out of work since returning to Groton on June 12th. The 54th employee works in department 445 at Shaw’s Cove and has been out of work since June 18th, 2020. The 55th positive case is an employee at Quonset Point who was tested while attending new employee orientation in building #487. The employee’s last day of work was June 18th, 2020. The employee was tested on June 17th, 2020. Out of the 55 total cases at EB, 45 employees have returned to work.
Let me give you some perspective on these cases. As restrictions relax across the region, I’ve described my expectation that we would see new cases as long as COVID is active in our society. That’s exactly what’s been happening. That’s why we need to stay vigilant and disciplined to ensure we’re protecting ourselves and each other. We are fortunate to have access to rapid testing delivered by our medical team here at Electric Boat so that we can complete contact tracing as soon as new cases are identified and to make sure further spread is reduced. This is exactly what we are doing to treat people who may have been exposed on the EB shuttle. In addition, we are testing new employees to keep our workplace safe. In case #55 I talked about earlier, that was a brand-new employee going through orientation training that we caught with a positive test and took them out so they did not infect the rest of the training class or the workplace.
Finally, we’ve completed testing of over 1900 people in New London this week and identified one new case – case number 53 as I described earlier. We expect to complete testing at King’s Highway, Eagle Park and Long Hill Road next week.
While all of us are moving around more and life feels like some sense of normalcy has returned, it is still important to protect yourself and others by following the COVID hygiene and PPE protocols we’ve adapted to. Most importantly, if you are not feeling well, please stay home.
Thank you for all you do. Have a nice weekend and for those of you who are fathers, have a Happy Father’s Day.
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