Training Support Center (TSC) Great Lakes civilian employees gathered for the first of a monthly scheduled training opportunity June 13.

Responding to requests from the command’s non-military workers the N1 Personnel Manpower Department will be holding educational events that will assist civilians understand regulations, policies, opportunities and rights. The first subject covered was the reasonable accommodation policy.

“A lot of the training is geared towards military, we wanted to do training specific for civilians based on their request for training,” said David Aaron, management assistant at TSC. "It is our goal in holding the training for all civilian personnel we are able to reach a larger audience than just the individuals asking the questions.”

A reasonable accommodation is assistance or changes to a position or workplace that will enable an employee to do his or her job despite having a disability. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship.

“Today’s training is meant to give our civilian personnel information on how to request reasonable accommodation and understand how the request will be processed,” Aaron said. “The Personnel Manpower Department is here to make that process easy and the training will give employees knowledge of the steps we take to accommodate those requests.

Reasonable accommodation is an area of human resources management and equal employment opportunity that is very dynamic. The employer’s responsibility is to take all requests for accommodation seriously, act on them quickly, and keep the employee informed.

Trainings on a number of subjects or concerns from civilian personnel will be held on a monthly bases.

“Training Support Center Great Lakes has implemented monthly civilian training to provide our civilian staff with training in civilian policies and regulation,” said Mike Bilak, executive director of TSC.  “The impetus for this program grew from an identified need in the command’s recent climate survey and requests from the staff for more specific civilian training.  The plan is to expand this program this year including conducting a civilian training needs assessment to develop training that will meet the desires and needs of our staff.”

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