Army’s talent management opportunities open career potential

Photo By Eben Boothby | Graphic  

REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, UNITED STATES

09.29.2017

Story by Kari Hawkins  

U.S. Army Materiel Command   

Professional growth and career advancement are goals for a series of civilian training opportunities offered through an Army development program that includes Enterprise Talent Management and Senior Enterprise Talent Management.

Both ETM and SETM are obvious ways to further civilian careers. But they are meant to be much more than that as the Army uses them to infuse the civilian workforce with leadership potential and military knowledge.

“Enterprise Talent Management breaches the gap that existed between functional training and technical training, in the area where leadership is developed,” said Angel Maldonado, program manager for ETM. “The objective is to get civilians to understand the uniform side of the Army so they can serve in a better capacity. Civilians can carry on the overall mission better if they have an understanding of the operational mission and the strategic mission. Also, it’s about maintaining continuity going forward by making the workforce better acquainted with the future Army of 2025.”

Managed through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, both SETM and ETM involve a lengthy application process that interested employees should begin now if they want to participate in the next round of student selections in the spring of 2018. The application process begins with employees self-nominating themselves at https://www.csldo.army.mil/.

Because of its large number of DA civilians, Redstone Arsenal is a major focus for informational sessions regarding ETM and SETM, which are usually held in the early months of the new calendar year. Pamela Myers of the Army Materiel Command’s G-1 Human Resources assists AMC employees throughout the AMC enterprise with their applications.

“There is a program that will fit any employee situation,” Myers said. “Many require training that takes employees away from their organization for several months. Other programs offer distance learning or training that can occur at an employee’s current location. Many of the programs involve formal instruction and mobility agreements.”

Formal instruction can include the Command and General Staff Officer Course, Army War College or other senior service colleges. Participants can also be involved in senior leader shadowing, developmental assignments and self-development activities.

“These are developmental and training opportunities. It’s there for the taking,” Maldonado said. “It’s something that’s going to put a special caveat on an employee’s resume. It makes them a better staff officer, a better action officer, wherever they go.”

SETM and ETM pick up where the Army’s Civilian Education System leaves off in terms of basic leadership development.

“GS-13 has been the stagnating point for Army civilian professional development,” Maldonado said. “On the CES side of the house, DA civilian training includes Foundation and Basic, and then Intermediate for GS-12, and then Advanced for GS-13s through GS-15s. Once completed, the GS employee was basically on their own to search out further training. GS-14s and 15s still had master degree programs they could pursue, but GS-12s and GS-13s were stagnant.”

The talent management program includes three levels of employee training –SETM for GS-14s and GS-15s; ETM for GS-13s and, by exception, GS-12s; and the newly developed and command/organizationally implemented Emerging Enterprise Leader for GS-11s and GS-12s.

“CES, along with ETM and SETM, bridge the leadership gap,” Maldonado said. “It’s about building the bench for the future, and it’s better to start early rather than late. Instead of focusing all training on senior GS-14s and 15s who are already at the top of their employment and professional experience, we also need to reach out to more junior employees, those with less years of experience, to become the senior leaders of the future within the Army civilian workforce.”

SETM launched in 2012 as a result of the Civilian Workforce Transformation congressional mandate of 2009. ETM was established in 2015. Emerging Enterprise Leader will become active this fall.

“Problems within the Army to develop senior leaders have been evident in the lack of Army civilians attending the Command and General Staff College and other formal leadership development programs,” Maldonado said. “But we are changing that situation and seeing more DA civilians every year apply for all the programs we are offering.”

Take the Command and General Staff Officer Course, for example. Graduating classes of 1,200 students have included mostly Soldiers and international uniformed personnel, Department of Defense civilians, and federal employees from across the U.S. government to include the Border Patrol, Department of the Interior and Department of State.

But Army civilians were not attending this high level of leadership training.

Because of ETM, the June 2017 graduating class was the first to include four DA civilians. A second 2017 class that began this summer included 13 DA civilians, including AMC’s Winston Cordis, located at Fort Bliss, Texas; Dwayne McMichael, who is an Aviation and Missile Command logistics management specialist at Redstone Arsenal; and Nancy Welliver of the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

“I started applying for this program about a year ago,” said Cordis, who is a retired sergeant major. “The Command and General Staff Officer Course is a broadening assignment opportunity. I work in brigade logistics support, and this opportunity will build on my military skill set and allow me to give back even more to the Army as a civilian. I will bring added value back to my organization in terms of supporting the warfighter and the mission.”

Other DA civilians from Redstone have had the opportunity to attend the Army War College, including AMC’s Matt Taylor.

“I’ve been a government civilian since 2000, and I’ve progressed up through the grades,” Taylor said, who worked as a supervisor at the Natick Soldier System Center, Massachusetts.

“In 2009, I decided I wanted to broaden my experience and I came to AMC headquarters. When SETM became available, I recognized the potential of the program and the opportunity it provided to progress either in this organization or another. But, even at that, I didn’t realize the tremendous opportunity it would provide.”

Taylor, who had gained a world perspective earlier in his career while serving in the Air Force, received a master’s degree in Strategic Studies through the Army War College.

“It was one of the most unique training environments I’ve ever been involved with,” he said. “I chose the War College because of the prestige and because it was the closest choice for leveling the playing field between my background and the background of an Army officer. The War College brings together such a diverse audience and very experienced people from who you can glean a broad world view that is so important because the Army doesn’t operate in isolation.”

While ETM offers plenty of opportunities, it also requires supervisors to learn how to manage their employee talent internally. While they may lose an employee for several months to these training opportunities, they gain an opportunity to allow others to learn from ad hoc developmental assignments.

“As an employee enters the ETM/SETM training schedule, it opens up temporary and possibly permanent positions for lower grade team members that will also help them to develop,” Maldonado said. “The program creates developmental opportunities for employees who want to fill in while the ETM/SETM candidate is in training. Everyone gets a developmental opportunity provided the command and the supervisors are fully involved in the endeavor.”

As ETM/SETM becomes more integrated in the Army civilian culture, the program managers are relying on supervisors and leaders to push the information about the opportunities to employees Army-wide.

“In 2011 and 2012 when the program started, it required a change in mentality for supervisors to accept this as a way to train and develop future Army leaders,” Maldonado said. “But now, five years later, many graduates of ETM or SETM are supervisors in the field. Senior Executive Service leaders and General Officers are supporting this program because they have seen the results.”

In the end, the results of both ETM and SETM offset any issues related to offering the opportunities to employees, said Maldonado.

“More adapted and better trained employees are coming back to organizations or moving on to other higher levels to serve both the Army, as well as the DoD enterprise in an expanded role,” she said. “These programs allow employees to acquire additional skills and experiences so they can move more horizontally through their organizations and the Army enterprise. When employees stagnate in a vertical track in their career, it’s not good for them, for their command or for the Army. These programs make employees more horizontal in their aspirations, better well-rounded and able to serve at various levels. We give back to the Army a better civilian employee who is on the same level as their uniformed counterpart in their understanding of the Army at the operational and strategic levels, and totally educated on how the Army runs.”



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Department of the Army civilians can participate in several different training programs through Enterprise Talent Management and Senior Enterprise Talent Management. Enterprise Talent Management (GS-13 and GS-12s by exemption) and Senior Enterprise Talent Management (GS-14/15) are designed to expose DA civilians to Department of Defense and Army enterprise concepts. Each program has different requirements that must be met for participation. Information on these requirements can be found at: https://www.csldo.army.mil/

The training programs include:
Enterprise Talent Management –

•Command and General Staff Officer Course: A 10-month graduate-level program aimed at expanding participants’ knowledge of the operational and tactical Army, and preparing them for challenges faced in a dynamic and complex global environment. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Executive Leader Development Program: A 10-month series of learning and training experiences that blend experiential and academic learning with hands-on opportunities focused on the role of the warfighter. Participants gain a joint interagency and enterprise-wide experience; a greater understanding of the DoD mission and culture; and leadership training that parallels selected military training and ensures cross-component exposure.

•Naval War College Intermediate Level Course: Participants with experience in DA national security policy and Defense agencies interaction will gain a master’s degree in Defense and Strategic Studies. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Shadowing Experience: A 20-day opportunity to accompany and observe a senior leader in their daily work environment to gain insight about working as a senior DA civilian at the Army enterprise level.

•Temporary Duty Assignments: Ninety-day developmental assignment on a special project or with a working group to experience challenging work in a different environment and to gain a broadening experience at the enterprise level.

Senior Enterprise Talent Management –
•Enterprise Placement Program (EEP) (Option 1) Reassignment: Re-assignment of highly qualified GS-15s to a vetted Enterprise duty position through the SETM board competitive process. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Enterprise Placement Program (EEP) (Option 2): The re-assignment of senior GS-15s vetted by the SETM board process to Senior Executive Service vacant positions for a maximum period of one year on a developmental assignment detail. Continued Service Agreement required.

•Army Civilian Fellowship Program: A 12-month student followed by a 12-month utilization assignment ending with a permanent reassignment that leverages experiences gained and lessons learned. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Defense Senior Leader Development Program: Two-year program that includes a 10-month course at the Senior Service College at the Air War College, Naval War College or National Defense University, followed by four- to six-month inter-service or inter-agency developmental assignment, and ultimately by a permanent reassignment that leverages experiences gained and lessons learned. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Army Senior Civilian Fellowship: A 12-month study at different organizations and agencies followed by a 12-month utilization assignment ending with a permanent reassignment that leverages experiences gained and lessons learned. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Senior Service College: A 10-month student at the Army War College or Dwight D. Eisenhower strategic learning educational experience. Mobility and Continued Service Agreements required.

•Senior Service College Distance Education: A 24-month non-resident learning experience that includes select seminars and workshops at the Army War College. Continued Service Agreement required.

•Temporary Duty Assignments: Up to 179-day developmental assignment on a special project or with a working group to experience challenging work in a different environment and to gain a broadening experience at the enterprise level. Continued Service Agreement required.

The newest civilian development program – Emerging Enterprise Leader for GS-11/12 employees – requires Army organizations to implement a leadership development program that includes mentoring, self-development activities, team-based problem solving and developmental assignments. EEL is developed internally by each organization.

• Date Taken: 09.29.2017
• Date Posted: 09.29.2017 15:05
• Story ID: 250037
• Location: REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, US