Spread the Word team addresses workforce concerns Published Nov. 18, 2008 By Derek Kaufman 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The commander of the Air Force Personnel Center brought her Spread the Word briefing team here Nov. 12 to 14 to communicate personnel changes with diverse groups of customers. Maj. Gen. K. C. McClain, is personally traveling with the team initially to each Air Force major command headquarters base and joint combatant command headquarters. Wright-Patterson was the second installation visited. Eventually the briefing team will visit every Air Force base to meet first hand with Airmen and civilian employees to share important personnel updates and to seek feedback on their concerns, McClain said. "Our objectives are twofold," McClain said. "To talk to our customers and help them understand what is happening in the personnel community. And, to give our customers an opportunity to talk to us; we want to hear what their issues and concerns are so we can work them." The Spread the Word team was able to tailor their message in direct exchanges to audiences at the Air Force Institute of Technology, National Air & Space Intelligence Center and Wright-Patterson Medical Center, before conducting a mass briefing at the base theater here Nov. 14. The team of military and civilian personnel experts covered topics ranging from Air and Space Expeditionary Force (AEF) deployment tempo bands, 365-day deployment tours, officer and enlisted assignments, to civilian staffing changes and developmental education opportunities. UDMs critical to deployment success "We are dedicated to our first priority of developing our Airmen to ensure the Air Force has the right person at the right time with the right skills," McClain said. She acknowledged that 365 day Airmen deployments first implemented in 2004 were not well understood, so the Spread the Word team responded by communicating in greater detail why they are necessary and how they work. The general said feedback she received during a recent meeting with Airmen deployed to the Central Command Area of Responsibility underscored the importance for personnel officials and unit deployment managers to work closely together to ensure people are deployment ready. "UDMs are critical to a good deployment," McClain said. "Some individuals relayed that their UDM was the best and he made sure that they got to the AOR with all of their requirements met...and then I had some who said quite frankly, their UDMs, weren't very helpful. So we took that note and are meeting with all UDMs to help them understand how important they are, and how critical they are to the success of an individual's deployment." Calling the Spread the Word team's face to face contact with Wright-Patt UDMs and the installation deployment officer "very valuable," McClain said while they are not in the personnel community, they are key in the execution of the AEF. Air Force personnel functions consolidation "We are changing," McClain said of her Air Force Personnel Center team at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Traditionally, AFPC had been a headquarters function that translates Pentagon policy into executable personnel programs implemented by personnel offices at each base. Now, personnel reductions across the Air Force and BRAC decisions have driven consolidation of a number of key personnel functions base personnel offices previously accomplished. So AFPC is doing actual customer service production work like accomplishment of DD Form 214s for separating service members and developing lists of potential civil service hiring candidates for base-level selection officials. Additionally, the AEF Center at Langley AFB, Va. also recently combined with AFPC at Randolph. The consolidation was accomplished a month ahead of schedule and $1 million under budget, McClain said, but hard work remains ahead. "All of the consolidation work is going to be challenging. It requires in depth planning and also resourcing. And that's the key," McClain said. "It's how to ensure the requirements are still met as we try to maximize the resources needed to do those requirements. It's incumbent that we do planning from both sides and that everyone understands their roles." Beyond mass briefings, the Spread the Word team met in round table discussions with their Wright-Patterson civilian personnel counterparts to discuss changing roles and responsibilities, along with "where the seam points are and how to smooth those seam points," McClain said. She called the exchange an excellent opportunity to refine processes and enhance understanding on how to execute the personnel mission. "This is a different skill set for us," she said. "Going from a higher headquarters skill set to an actual customer service production skill ...We will ask for your forbearance as we go through that transition and your assistance as we go through it to make sure we are meeting our customer needs. That's where you come in. Feedback on how we can improve." Wright-Patt employees offer candid feedback Following the Spread the Word Team's mass briefing, a number of base civilian employees and Airmen asked questions and identified some of their concerns. Responding to questions about the future of migrating Air Force civilians from the General Schedule to the National Security Personnel System or NSPS, the team acknowledged examples of benefits to both systems but noted that Department of Homeland Security did elect to abandon its original NSPS implementation plans and go back to the GS system, in part due to challenges associated with performance documentation. "When you do pay for performance--good or bad - you gotta have a system and a process. This one requires lots of documentation," said Jim Hale of AFPC's civilian force integration directorate. Officials said the future of NSPS will likely be scrutinized in 2009 with the new administration and remain in flux until then. Capt. David Diercks, a contracts negotiator with Aeronautical System Center's 577th Aeronautical Systems Group, recently returned from a overseas deployment and voiced his concern that Air Force contracting officers are likely to be placed in AEF Tempo Band "E" with a 1:1 dwell time, meaning they could expect to deploy for six months, then spend only six months at home station before becoming vulnerable to deploy again. Spread the Word briefer Col. Chris Sharpe acknowledged 91,900 Air Force enlisted members, 21,400 officers and 400 civilian employees deployed in fiscal year 2007 in support of combatant commander requirements. The new AEF construct uses a tempo-based rule set which assigns functional area unit type codes to one of five tempo bands. The baseline, tempo band "A," utilizes a 1:4 deploy-to-dwell tempo. Tempo bands "B" through "E" were added to provide predictability and rule sets for the nearly 50 percent of functional areas currently operating at a tempo greater than 1:4 or for a duration greater than 120 days. Those are postured in bands "B" through "E" in six month blocks, at a 1:4, 1:3, 1:2 and 1:1 deploy-to-dwell respectively. Security Forces, Office of Special Investigations and contracting are just a few of the functional areas facing very high deployment tempo. Sharpe said an entire career field generally isn't in the same tempo band together. While personnel officials work hard to find volunteers, tempo band determinations boil down to an algebra problem of matching requirements against available resources. He said tempo bands for a number of functional areas are still being finalized. "Within a functional career field - you can take the intel career field for instance - certain parts will be in band E but other parts could be in Band A depending on how big the requirement is for that specialty," Sharpe said. One Wright-Patt civilian who volunteered to deploy in support of the surge for Operation Iraqi Freedom said there is a large cadre of civilians who want to do their part in a deployed environment and that DOD and the Air Force have been too slow releasing policy guidance for the Civilian Expeditionary Corps proposed by President George W. Bush. Team members agreed adding however there are many details to be worked before DOD seeks to replace many deployed military authorizations with civilians. Wright-Patt a launching point for future Spread the Words Tech. Sgt. Lisa Coker, a personnel specialist currently assigned to the 88th Air Base Wing Command Chief's office at Wright-Patt said she found the team's visit to be very informative. One of her observations was the AFPC questions web site was difficult to navigate. She recommended improving the site and having the team demonstrate it in future base briefings. "If they could just streamline that a little bit, make it a little more user friendly, I think they'll be spot on," Coker said. Interestingly, AFPC Spread the Word briefings across the Air Force were eliminated several years ago, because of costs and the proliferation of new media technologies to communicate to the workforce. But Maj. Gen McClain said you can't replace face-to-face contact. "Given all of the changes happening within the personnel community we really need to come out and see our customers and talk to them. "It was encouraging to see the professionalism of all of our Air Force members - both military and civilians - and the passion they have for the job they are doing," McClain added, reflecting on the Wright-Patt visit. "We've had great support here at Wright-Patterson and it has been a very complex schedule with many moving parts. It's been an excellent opportunity to talk not only with our customers, but also to our counterparts who help us execute that mission." Many personnel questions are answered at the AFPC "Ask" website. For individual personnel questions, Air Force members should contact the Air Force Contact Center at (800) 616-3775.