Quarterly town hall stresses employee, leadership development

Photo By Nell King | Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall federal civilian employees attend a town hall Nov. 19 at the Joe Rosenthal Theater on the Henderson Hall portion of the joint base. The town hall, one of a series JBM-HH leadership will hold every three months, focused largely on how to help joint base employees plan and track their careers and performance. (Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall PAO photo by Nell King)  

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, UNITED STATES

11.25.2015

Story by Guv Callahan 

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall leaders met with the base’s civilian employees Nov. 19 for a marathon town hall meeting in which they discussed the JBM-HH strategic plan and developing the workforce for the decade to come.

The town hall, one of a series JBM-HH leadership will hold every three months, focused largely on how to help joint base employees plan and track their careers and performance.

JBM-HH Chief of Staff Glenn Wait said the goal of the town hall meetings is to improve communication with civilian employees and keep the workforce up to date on the opportunities and resources available to them.

“It is my intent to ensure that nobody misses an opportunity,” he told a crowded Joe Rosenthal Theater on the Henderson Hall portion of the joint base. “I’m not going to make you do it, but I’m going to afford you the opportunity for human capital development, whether it’s training, different assignments, or just saying, ‘Hey, where do you want to be five, 10 years from now?’”

Providing those opportunities is a key focus of the joint base’s strategic plan, which will help JBM-HH achieve the leadership’s goal of becoming the premier installation in the National Capital Region by 2025 through workforce development, savvy resource management and infrastructure maintenance.

“We are here to make sure that we have the right employees doing the right jobs in the right positions,” said La Vonda Lessane, strategic planner at JBM-HH’s Plans, Analysis and Integration Office.

Lessane said leaders are working to develop a joint base succession plan, so that the installation can set its workers on a career path and keep them empowered to achieve their goals and, in turn, maintain the garrison’s customer service.

That means trying to enhance and implement training and education programs for base employees, according to Lessane.

“We’re setting this up for you to really understand where you can go as far as in the Army or another organization,” she said. “Your leadership has designed this for you.”

Wait and JBM-HH Human Resources Director Ken Washington also stressed the importance of Army Career Tracker and the various education programs available to employees.

“There is some amazing information you can find out about yourself,” Washington said of Army Career Tracker, an online tool that every employee can access in order to analyze their career trajectory and progress.

He and Wait agreed that retaining employees with the skillsets needed to make JBM-HH the best it can be is critically important.

According to Washington, at least 35 percent of the workforce will move on to other opportunities over the next 10 years. Another 55 percent will retire in that same time frame, he said.

So the joint base must provide better leadership development opportunities, such as competitive internal promotions, pertinent training sessions and mentoring programs, Washington said.

“That’s something we need to do if we want to keep our higher performing employees,” he said.
To view the full town hall presentation, including information about training, visit http://goo.gl/ElGHcB.

For more information about Army Career Tracker, visit https://actnow.army.mil.

• Date Taken: 11.25.2015
• Date Posted: 11.25.2015 12:03
• Story ID: 182868
• Location: JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US