UNDER SECRETARY OF THE ARMY WASHINGTON March 21, 2000

Army Reinvention

The Honorable Louis Caldera, Secretary of the Army, designated 56 Army organizations as Reinvention Laboratories, ranging from major army commands down to small specialized units. They experiment with innovations and process improvements that if successful could be used by the entire Army. Many of this past year’s success stories, best practices and accomplishments of Army organizations, soldiers and civilians are highlighted in an annual report. The most recent report -- The United States Army and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government Annual Report on Reinvention and Quality Initiatives – 1998 is available on the web.

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NPR Survey Results (See Full Survey Results)

NPR and OPM surveyed 750 Army Civilian Employees in the fall of 1999.

• 232 responded for a 30% response rate

The United States Army encompasses a broad workforce

• Active Duty Military Workforce as of Jan 2000: 474,200
• Reserve Component Military Workforce as of Jan 2000: 555,700
• Full-Time Civilian Workforce as of July 1999: 198,900

Army Agency NPR Survey results from our civilian workforce generally mirror Government-wide results.

Army Employees are relatively satisfied in the following areas.

• Overall quality of work.
• Customer Service Goals.
• Having supervisors/team leaders that understand and support employees’ family/personal life responsibilities.
• Use of government credit cards.
• Having electronic access (eg email - internet)
• Cooperation and teamwork among coworkers
• Overall job satisfaction

Army Employees indicate a need for improvement in the following areas.

• Streamlining Hiring process
• Simplified Travel
• Using plain language

Army data collection efforts.

The NPR survey is another data source, to be considered along with several other ongoing large survey and data collection initiatives within the Army. These initiatives gather data from military and civilian employees and provide trends over time.

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Examples of Army Future Improvement Initiatives

Civilian Personnel Management System (CPMS XXI) RESUMIX Defense Travel System Paperwork Reduction/Plain Language Writing Department of the Army Civilian Exit Survey Closing the pay gap Thrift Savings Plan for Military Centralized Call Center for Benefits and Entitlements Civilian Personnel System Modernization HR Best Practices Web Site Army Performance Improvement Criteria Considerations of Others Training

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Civilian Work Force Shaping – Civilian Personnel Management System (CPMS XXI)

Historically, Army has not planned for and developed its civilian force to carry it into the future in terms of its long-range missions. This, coupled with the way Army has downsized, has resulted in a workforce that is disproportionately senior, with skill imbalances and inadequate replacements. For example, civilians working in career programs will reach an average age of 52 years, with 61 percent retirement eligible by 2003. If most retire, and Army continues to acquire and manage the civilian force in the same way, it will face a tremendous skill deficit. CPMS XXI is Army’s solution. It is developing recurring Army systems and processes for: (1) deriving future civilian mission and workload requirements, translating those requirements into the civilian force needed to perform that mission – referred to as civilian objective forces and (2) maximizing Army’s investment in human potential by identifying and implementing responsive human resources strategies and programs to acquire, develop, and sustain the "right" civilian force for current and future missions.
http://www.cpoldev.army.mil/library/armyplans/cpms_21

 

RESUMIX

In order to streamline the hiring process, the Department of Army is deploying RESUMIX to its ten civilian personnel operation centers. RESUMIX is an automated referral system that extracts skills from resumes. Applicants apply for positions using a 2-3 page resume. RESUMIX matches an applicant’s skills with specific job requirements. Since much of the manual work is replaced with automation the time required to prepare a referral list has been decreased from four to five hours to approximately one to two hours.

                                   

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Defense Travel System

The Defense Travel System (DTS) is the result of  Department of Defense (DOD) travel reengineering efforts focused on designing and developing simplified travel processes and procedures.  The travel process was  reengineered by using best business practices for automation of different processes associated with travel. The new DTS paperless travel system will be deployed throughout the DOD (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Defense Agencies) using standard interfaces.  This system allows you, the traveler, to coordinate and arrange temporary duty (business) travel quicker and easier.   No longer will you have to get orders from one location, a travel advance from finance, and finally, go to the Commercial Travel Office for transportation, lodging, and (if authorized), rental car arrangements. All of these transactions will be made from the convenience of your desktop or even laptop computer.  No more standing in lines to process paperwork and no more aggravation with preparing the six-page travel claim and then waiting weeks or even months for reimbursement.  After successful completion of DTS testing, the first full DTS fielding is expected to occur this fall at Whiteman Air Force Base and later at Fort Campbell.  various pilot sites for testing. While DTS is being tested a limited version of the system will be distributed to Services and Agencies for use during early Spring of 2000. For more information contact the DTS-Army office, (703) 602-1954 or visit the Army’s DTS web Site. http://www.asafm.army.mil/fo/tre/dts/dts.htm

 

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Paperwork Reduction/Plain Language Writing

As part of the regulatory reduction effort, the Department of the Army was responsible for reviewing 1,233 policy and procedural publications beginning in 1994. The Army streamlined or reduced 52 percent with a corresponding page reduction of 42 percent. Since 1998 the Army has required that new and revised regulations be written in plain language. In November 1998, the Army's Administrative Assistant's office conducted an Administrative Publications Business Process Review (BPR) and the use of plain language in Army publications was a key topic. Publications’ personnel from various Headquarters, Department of the Army organizations and Major Army commands attended. As an example, the Army is participating with OSD and the Services to revise DOD Directive 5000.1 (Defense Acquisition) and DOD 5000.2-R (Mandatory Procedures for Major Defense Acquisition Programs and Major Automated Information System Acquisition Programs). These two documents provide the policies, principles, and procedures for all defense acquisition programs. One of the major goals of this revision is to use plain, simple English.

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Department of Army Civilian Exit Survey

The Army’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civilian Personnel Policy) along with the Major Army Commands are currently looking at why employees leave the Army voluntarily prior to retirement and what incentives might encourage them to stay. Until recently, the Army relied on information that the Civilian Personnel Operating Centers entered into its automated personnel system from the Standard Form 52 (Request for Personnel Action), but the information was too general for meaningful evaluation. The Army has improved the process by using a common set of specific questions and by having the employees go to a web-based survey to complete a questionnaire. Civilian Personnel Advisory Centers (CPAC) encourage exiting employees to complete the survey, at a workstation in the CPAC if necessary. The Army’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civilian Personnel Policy), Major Army Commands, and installations have access to the data on a command-by-command and Army-wide basis over the internet. The results of the exit survey will help Major Commands and installations understand the reasons for their turnovers and help the Army determine what policies, programs and/or systems need to be changed to maintain our people.
http://www.cpoldev.army.mil/survey/exitsurvey/survey.html

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Closing the Pay Gap

Recognizing and re-validating the significance of the gap of military members to civilian counterparts, a program to gradually increase the base pay of soldiers has been implemented. In January a 4.8% pay raise was put into effect and additional increases above annual growth in the employee cost index is scheduled for the next 5 years. This will significantly shrink the pay gap as these increases are implemented. Additionally, due to many years of across the board pay table increases, the significance of promotions versus time in service had diminished. To re-emphasize the importance of progressing through the ranks, the pay table reform will specifically target increases at certain pay grades at key points of time in service. Particularly, increases at promotion points to emphasize the progression of the service versus the longevity of service. This effort is a major tool in emphasizing pay for performance.

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Military Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)

To respond to growing concerns on the all or nothing nature of the military retirement system, the impact this was having on retention, and the popularity of transferable retirement plans, the TSP is being developed for implementation. This will allow soldiers to make pre-tax contributions to a transferable savings plan similar to many plans offered in the private sector. Contributions of up to 5% of pay not to exceed $10,000 can be made.

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Department of Army’s Centralized Call Center Initiative for Benefits and Entitlements

The Department of Army has invested in state-of-the-art technology, similar to the automated systems used by banks, colleges, universities and health insurance carriers, to automate the Benefits and Entitlements function. The Benefits and Entitlements Call Center will be collocated with the Southwest Civilian Personnel Operations Center at Fort Riley, Kansas. The Call Center will be staffed with a core of benefit counselors.

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Civilian Personnel Systems Modernization

Civilian personnel systems modernization supports Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and National Partnership for Reinventing Government streamlining mandates to reduce costs and manpower. Modernization of the civilian personnel automated system will enhance the capabilities of civilian personnel service providers by using new technology to simplify the processing of personnel actions and providing expanded access to civilian work force information. The Army’s Pacific Region, with its Civilian Personnel Operations Center located in Ft. Richardson, Alaska, was one of three Department of Defense organizations identified for Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) of the Modern Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS). The Army’s Pacific region was the first site to deploy the modern system. Their transition to the modern system occurred during the October 15-28, 1999 timeframe. The other OT&E sites included the Air Force sites, located at Charleston on AFB and McCord AFB, and the Navy’s Northwest Region, with its Center located in Silverdale, Washington. The transition date for both the Air Force and Navy OT&E sites’ conversion to the modern system was November 12-26, 1999. For more information and current guidance on the modern DCPDS see web site http://www.cpol.army.mil under "Modernization".

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HR Best Practices Web Site

The Army has recently designed and begun to populate a web-based matrix containing Army and non-Army human resources best practices. The purpose of the web site is to guide Army-wide performance improvement in human resources areas ranging from business processes to organization structures and customer service. http://cpol.army.mil/library/armyplans/chr_best/index.html

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Army Performance Improvement Criteria - APIC

Army continues to improve the APIC as a framework for organizational assessment with a focus on serving the customer and achieving results. The criteria is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria and the Presidential Quality Award Criteria. The basic goal of APIC is to improve overall effectiveness and efficiency of Army organizations, enhancing Total Army Quality in three ways. First, it is a working tool for planning, assessing, and training. Second, it raises performance expectations and standards. Finally, it blends world class business practices with the Army’s operational and institutional missions. There are seven areas of focus in APIC: Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer Focus, Information and Analysis, Human Resource Focus, Process Management, and Business Results. The APIC assessment is in use throughout the Installation Management system and in Army units and activities.

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Consideration of Others

Consideration of Others is a program designed to heighten soldiers’ and DA civilians' awareness in areas relating to the human dimensions of combat readiness. It is based on the premise that human relations subjects are best addressed by small group instruction, led by selected military or civilian facilitators, which emphasizes the responsibility of the soldier or civilian as a member of a military team. The specific content of Consideration of Others lessons, and the subjects to be addressed, are based on a commander’s assessment of his or her command’s needs. Consideration of Others was implemented throughout the Army in 1998-1999. The Human Resources Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, published a Consideration of Others Handbook, which is being used throughout the Army. Equal Opportunity Advisors (EOAs) are key players in this program, and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) civilian personnel have also received formal orientations at their world-wide training conferences.

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Please send questions or comments to: leadingchange@hqda.army.mil

Last revision: 18 Aug 2008