DEOCS & DOCP: Participant FAQs

The DoD Office of People Analytics (OPA), who oversees the DEOCS and DOCP survey, is committed to safeguarding the information of all participants.  The DEOCS and DOCP Systems have privacy policies and secure technology in place to protect all PII (including e-mails, phone numbers, and DoD IDs used to access the survey) and to ensure that survey responses cannot be linked back to individuals.  This section further details how participant PII is safeguarded.  

• Survey administrators, commanders, and leaders cannot view who has or has not completed the DEOCS or DOCP survey, nor can they access an individual participant’s survey responses.  Your responses are combined with the responses of everyone else in your unit or organization.  Consistent with industry standard practices, PII from survey rosters (e.g., e-mail addresses) is used for outreach and identity verification purposes (to ensure that each person can only take the survey once) and is never included in any report.  While open-ended responses (i.e., written comments) are only reported with other comments from people in the unit or organization, they are not edited.  We encourage participants to make sure they do not include PII in their open-ended survey responses.
• OPA’s practices meet the highest standards of records management and privacy.  The OPA team has decades of experience collecting and storing sensitive personnel data on behalf of the DoD.  Any PII data we collect is stored separately, in a restricted file, from survey responses.  Survey responses are confidential to the extent that the law permits.  Under state and federal law, certain circumstances may require us to break confidentiality.  For example, if a participant indicates a direct threat to harm themself or others within responses.
• We only report results for subgroups with five or more participants.  OPA reports results to unit commanders and organization leaders at the overall unit or organization level as well as by certain subgroups, such as those designated by the command and those based on sex, race, or pay grade.  The presentation of results for different subgroups enables commanders and leaders to better understand the nuances of their unit’s or organization’s climate and ensures that no group is overlooked.  To protect participants’ privacy, commanders and leaders will only receive subgroup reports for closed-ended questions if at least five participants respond.  If your survey included multiple subgroups and only one subgroup had fewer than five responses, it will be combined with the reportable subgroup that had the next lowest number of participants.  For example, if subgroups included on a DEOCS were “Administration” with three participants, “Operations” with six participants, and “Logistics” with nine participants, the “Administration” subgroup results would be combined with the “Operations” subgroup results.  Additionally, for subgroups based on respondent identified demographic characteristics, subgroups are considered in sets.  If one subgroup in a set does not have five or more participants, no subgroups in that set are reported.  For example, if there are only two female respondents, results are not provided for either female or male subgroups.  For combined reports, if only one subgroup out of the selected had results that were not reportable for a given factor, demographic category, or question, all results for the given item(s) will not be displayed.  This protects the one nonreportable subgroup.  For example, if nine of the 10 subgroups selected for a combined report have reportable results for Cohesion, but one has a not reportable result for Cohesion, the combined report must exclude results for Cohesion.

Make sure you are entering the correct DoD ID, e-mail, or phone number.  The DoD ID, e-mail, or phone number that you enter must match the information that was listed on the roster, provided by your survey administrator.  It could be the case that you are entering valid information but cannot access the survey because your administrator did not list that information on the roster.  The e-mail or phone number provided on the roster may be either a DoD or personal one.  If you receive an error message and cannot access the survey, consider entering the e-mail address for the inbox where you received the e-mail invitation to take the DEOCS or DOCP, or contact your survey administrator and ask them to confirm the information you should be using to access the survey.
Make sure you are entering the correct PIN.  The current survey systems cannot recover forgotten PINs and participants are not able to create a new one.  If you are unable to remember your PIN, any questions you answered prior to saving the survey or after being timed-out due to inactivity will be submitted when your unit’s or organization’s survey closes.
If you are using a DoD computer, try accessing the survey using a personal computer or a mobile device.  Firewalls in military/government networks can prevent participants from accessing the survey.  Try accessing the survey using a non-DoD computer or a mobile device (i.e., cell phone, tablet).  Alternatively, you can ask your local IT support to whitelist the DEOCS website (https://www.surveysdrc.com/DEOCS) and the DOCP website (https://www.surveysdrc.com/DOCP_c) respectively. 

• For a small number of units/organizations working with classified rosters, the survey link for the DEOCS is the following: https://www.surveysdrc.com/mil.  For units/organizations working with classified rosters, the survey link for the DOCP survey is the following: https://www.surveysdrc.com/DOCP_a.

You can take your unit’s or organization’s DEOCS by entering your DoD ID if it was listed on the roster.  However, in some cases, DEOCS participants who enter a different type of information (e-mail or phone number) when accessing the survey may be asked to enter their DoD ID.  Entering a DoD ID allows the DEOCS system to confirm a participant’s identity and check it against administrative information.  At no point is the personal information provided when first accessing the DEOCS (i.e., e-mail, phone number, DoD ID) stored with a participant’s survey responses, nor is it reported to unit/organization leaders.

To log in to the DEOCS or DOCP survey, you must first create a four-digit personal identification number (PIN).  This PIN is used to protect your privacy and allows you to re-enter the survey where you leave off if you do not complete it in one sitting.  We encourage you to safeguard your PIN to prevent unauthorized access to your survey.
If you forget your PIN, we cannot recover it for you, you cannot create a new one, and you will not be able to re-enter your survey.  Any questions that you answered prior to saving the survey or being timed-out due to inactivity will be submitted when your DEOCS or DOCP survey closes.

The majority of DEOCS questions measure one of 19 protective or risk factors (e.g., Connectedness and Toxic Leadership, respectively).  Participants’ answers to all DEOCS questions are combined in any report that is provided to leadership.

Unit/organization-level factor ratings for protective and risk factors

Factor ratings are created by combining multiple questions on the survey.  Factor ratings are reported for the unit or organization overall.  This means that we do not report individual responses, only the combined (i.e., aggregated) responses from individuals who completed the survey for the unit/organization.

Factor ratings for demographic and occupational groups within the unit or organization

Similar to the way factor ratings are displayed for the overall unit or organization, factor ratings are also displayed by various demographic groups, for example, by race or by sex.  As an example, the figure below displays the factor ratings for Connectedness by different demographic groups.  Results are only displayed by demographic groups if there are five or more responses.  Like other factor ratings, these results are only an aggregate summary of responses for a unit or organization, protecting the privacy of any participant in the unit or organization. 



Factor ratings of subgroups in a unit or organization

Some units or organizations choose to identify subgroups.  If a unit or organization identified subgroups during registration, DEOCS results will be displayed for each subgroup if there are more than five subgroup participants.  If a unit or organization included multiple subgroups and only one subgroup had fewer than five responses, it will be combined with the reportable subgroup that had the next lowest number of participants.  Again, using Connectedness as an example, below we show how the subgroup factor ratings are displayed for subgroups.



Open-ended responses (written comments)

Responses to open-ended questions are provided to the unit commander or organization leader if at least 16 responses are provided.  If your survey included multiple subgroups and only one subgroup had fewer than 16 written responses, it will be combined with the reportable subgroup that had the next lowest number of participants.  Participants should not provide any PII in their open-ended responses as leadership receives comments exactly as they are written in the survey.  For example, please refrain from writing a response that is specific enough that someone could recognize the people involved.  Your answers to open-ended questions are confidential to the extent that state and federal law permits.  Certain circumstances may require us to break confidentiality.  For example, if you indicate a direct threat to harm yourself or others within your responses. 

Combined subgroup reports and combined DEOCS reports
 

The DEOCS System allows for subgroup reports to be combined into one report and for multiple DEOCS reports to be combined into one report.  This allows leadership to create reports that can be used as a comparison point for individual subgroups or the unit or organization.

For the DOCP survey, results are broken out for each question.  For closed-ended questions, results are reported by the different response scales such as Agreement (Strongly Disagree/Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Strongly Disagree/Disagree), Frequency (Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never), and Yes-No (Yes, No, Don’t know or not applicable).  Results for these questions are also broken out by demographic groups and designated subgroups, if applicable. 

Results are only reported for demographic groups or subgroups if five or more individuals respond.



For more information on participant privacy and results reporting, navigate to https://www.prevention.mil/OPA-Defense-Climate-Portal-Survey-Resource-Center/ and under DOCP, Downloading & Interpreting DOCP Results, click on the document titled “DOCP Data Overview.”

DOCP open-ended responses (written comments)

Responses to open-ended questions are provided to the unit commander or organization leader if at least 16 responses are provided.  If your survey included multiple subgroups and only one subgroup had fewer than 16 written responses, it will be combined with the reportable subgroup that had the next lowest number of participants.  Participants should not provide any PII in their open-ended responses as leadership receives comments exactly as they are written in the survey.  For example, please refrain from writing a response that is specific enough that someone could recognize the people involved.  Your answers to open-ended questions are confidential to the extent that state and federal law permits.  Certain circumstances may require us to break confidentiality.  For example, if you indicate a direct threat to harm yourself or others within your responses. 

Combined DOCP subgroup reports

DOCP reporting allows for subgroup reports to be combined into a unique subgroup report.  This allows leadership to create reports that can be used as a comparison point for individual subgroups or the unit or organization.

Although every DEOCS asks questions about the same protective and risk factors, they may differ slightly depending on the registration’s Service Component, your answers to certain questions (e.g., follow-up questions about pay), and/or custom questions chosen by your unit’s/organization’s leadership. In addition, some participants may be given the opportunity to answer questions about topics of interest to senior DoD leadership.  Your responses to any additional questions are independent from your DEOCS responses and will not be reported with DEOCS results to your leadership.  Participants selected will be notified in their survey that they have this opportunity to answer any additional questions.

If you are experiencing issues while taking the survey, please contact the Help Desk at:

• OPA_DCP@datarecognitioncorp.com  
• 1-833-867-5674

If you have questions about DEOCS or DOCP content, purpose, or participant privacy, please contact the Help Desk at:

• DODHRA.OPA-CCA-Support@mail.mil