Inclusivity Network Analysis

June 8th, 2021

Research Team: Laura Espinal, Justyna Zwolak, Camila Young

Sponsored by the SGECA, OHRM, and ADLP

Mapping employee networks through the 

NIST Interactions Survey
Why is inclusion important?

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Credit: Pixabay

What is inclusion? 

Inclusion in the 

workplace is associated 

with the extent to which 

employees have access 

to information and 

opportunities through 

their connections.

Credit: CQBurdette
Interactions considered

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Credit: Pixabay

NIST Interactions Survey

When achieving work 

goals at NIST ...

When making career-related 

decisions at NIST...

Alter 1

Ego Alter 2

Alter 3

Ego attributes included: 

Gender, Race, and OU

Credit: Pixabay

Limitation: Data was 

collected during the COVID19 pandemic, a moment in 

time characterized by 

atypical work-from-home 

modalities that may have 

impacted the interactions 

we sought to measure, 

particularly those pertaining 

to advice-seeking. 

Survey response rate: 24.6 %. 
Network characteristics

4

-1

0

+1

All same

All different

Equally mixed

COMPOSITION SIMILARITY

Mostly B Equally mixed
WORK ADVICE

Gender – Key findings

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NIST Workforce (Feds and Associates) 

73% M

27% F

M/F = 2.7
Gender - Recommendations

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Recommendation 1: Establish a Women 

Mentorship Circle Program that fosters 

informal connections among female 

employees.

NOTE: Since our analysis shows that 

respondents do not consider the supervisory 

status to be important when seeking advice, 

the pool of potential female mentors in the 

program can be substantially increased by 

incentivizing participation from experienced 

non-supervisor females.

Credit: Pixabay

RELATED FINDING: Promoting and nurturing informal connections among female colleagues is needed, 

particularly given our current male-dominated workforce. 
Organizational Units – Key findings

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WORK ADVICE

NIST Workforce (Feds and Associates) 

58% Labs

42% Non-Labs
Organizational Units - Recommendations

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RELATED FINDING: Bridging communication gaps 

between Labs and Non-Labs Organizational Units 

would be helpful in both work and advice 

networks.

Recommendation 3: Create a central hub to 

support existing and facilitate the creation of 

new Communities of Practice (CoPs).

Recommendation 4: Promote informal 

connections between silos by providing 

organizational, financial, and executive support 

for existing Employee Resources Groups 

(ERGs).

Recommendation 2: Establish a formal 

Leadership Rotational Program (LRP) for 

employees to pursue project-based 

assignments for six to twelve months at a time 

across different OUs.

Credit: Pixabay
Race – Key findings

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Alter 1

Ego Alter 2

Alter 3

Race information 

was only available 

for egos.

No significant differences between the networks of minority and non-minority employees for either work or 

advice networks. Some possible reasons:

NIST Federal Workforce 

73% Non-Minority

27% Minority

The minority population in the 

NIST Federal Workforce is 

relatively small. 

Participants’ race was collected in a 

binary way (i.e., minority/nonminority).

• Non-minority (White)

• Minority (American 

Indian, Asian, Black, 

Hispanic, Native 

Hawaiian, Other)
Race – Recommendations

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RELATED FINDING: Mapping advice ego networks 

in a post-covid time and capturing differences in 

the networks among different minority groups 

might provide valuable information. 

Photo credit: Pixabay

Recommendation 6: Focus on racial and 

ethnic nuance when assessing employee ego 

networks. We recommend investigating 

whether differences exist in the advice 

networks among minority subgroups (i.e., 

American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native 

Hawaiian, Other).

Recommendation 5: Consider mapping the 

advice ego networks of employees using a 

shorter version of the NIST Interactions Survey 

in a post-pandemic future centered around 

the advice network and attributes of interest 

given the findings in this study. 

Credit: Pixabay

Credit: Pixabay
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Thanks! Questions?