Enabling early-career employees across the laboratory to build relationships, foster professional development and facilitate communication are among the primary goals of Argonne’s newest employee resource group – Next Generation Society (NGS).
The group’s official kick-off meeting will be held Thursday, May 18, at 10:30 a.m. in the Building 213 cafeteria private dining room. Interim Laboratory Director Paul Kearns will participate to engage in a dialogue with the group about its vision and goals and how laboratory management can contribute to the group’s success. While the group’s primary focus is early career employees, all are invited to attend. Coffee will be served.
Motivation for establishing NGS as a laboratory wide group came from observing the successes and benefits of the Next Generation Nuclear Society, which was established in 2013 as a resource for early career staff in the Nuclear Engineering Division (NE). Former and current chairs of the NE group, Florent Heidet and Heather Connaway, have been the driving force behind the creation of the new NGS employee resource group. Similar efforts were also initiated in other divisions which helped organizers identify the need for a laboratory wide group.
“We believe creating a centralized group is important as collaborations are not limited to one’s own division, and we are moving to an era of cross-disciplinary collaborations, making it increasingly important to establish and develop contact with employees all across Argonne,” said Heidet.
“My biggest priority at this stage is to get as broad participation as possible from early career staff across the lab, to ensure the group is fully addressing their diverse set of needs,” said Connaway. “One key to making that happen is to get support for the group from laboratory staff in management positions at all levels.”
“We welcome and seek senior staff to bring their experience to this group. They can talk about their own career paths and provide some insight into what the future may hold for those beginning to chart their career course. The intent of the group is definitely to benefit all of Argonne, and not just the early career employees,” Heidet said.
“Establishing an employee resource group for early-career staff that is welcoming, diverse, supportive and inclusive benefits not only those at the start of their careers, but all of Argonne. Their success is the laboratory’s success,” said Lisa Durham, Leadership Institute director.
An initial planning meeting for the group drew representatives from each directorate and many divisions at the laboratory.
For more information on the group or the kick-off meeting, contact Connaway at [email protected] or ext. 2-3786, or Heidet at [email protected] or ext. 2-2317 or any of these representatives:
Wendy Di (MCS), Yan Feng (EVS),Ravi Madduri (MCS), Kirills Prozument (CSE), Matthew Dietrich (PHY), Lindsey Bleem (HEP), Celia Porod (GSS), Adam Szymanski (GSS), Chris Kolodziej (ES), Angel Yanguas-Gil (ES), Josh Auld (ES), Si Chen (XSD), Fanny Rodolakis (XSD), John J. Zientek, III (AES).
