Photo By William Costello | U.S. Army Human Resources Command gathered to recognize graduates of the command’s...... read more read more
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Five Department of the Army civilian employees with U.S. Army Human Resources Command completed a year-long professional development initiative designed to improve the command’s civilian talent management efforts.
HRC leaders launched the Gemstone Program in late 2018 to develop potential candidates for Senior Executive Service, the Senior Enterprise Talent Management (SETM), and the Enterprise Talent Management (ETM) programs. The program is open to eligible members of the command in grades GS-4 to GS-15.
The graduates completed an intensive 125-hour program of instruction that consisted of briefings, senior leader shadowing experiences, brown bag luncheons, seminars, classroom instruction, distance/distributed learning, professional readings, and other applicable developmental opportunities.
"The Gemstone program is the perfect example of ‘People’ being the Army Chief of Staff’s top priority. Gemstone was informed by the civilians, developed by civilians and implemented by civilians," said Lt. Gen. Jason T. Evans, U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9 who returned to HRC to attend the inaugural graduation ceremony. HRC created the Gemstone Program when Evans, who commanded HRC from 2017-2019 deemed “Civilian Workforce Development” as one of his own command priorities.
The program occurred during the employee’s normal civilian duty hours and did not require any travel for training allowing those who participated to experience professional growth and still fulfill any obligations at home.
Participants learned how to strengthen their leadership abilities and other skills through interpersonal engagement; oral communication; written communication; creativity and innovation; strategic thinking; conflict management; leveraging diversity; team building; decisiveness; problem solving; partnering; and influencing/negotiating, and other transformations stimulating commitment to personal and professional development.
During the year-long experience, the program of instruction developed and matured just as much as the participants.
“The first group of employees to participate in the program understood that there would be some potential problems along the way. However, they came together as a team, and met every objective set before them,” said Jamie K. Worthy, Sr., HRC’s Gemstone Program manager.
“It takes special dedicated professionals to make civilian workforce development happen and we have those people here at HRC,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph R. Calloway, HRC’s commanding general.
According to Worthy, HRC leaders and members of the civilian workforce all saw value in continuing the individual development program. In 2018, six of eight applicants were selected to attend. (One employee moved to a new job before completing the program.) In 2019, applications soared to 33 and the command responded selecting 27 for the second iteration that will start on Jan. 30.
Lisa Roberson, one of the graduates, valued the experience and encouraged others to apply in the future.
“Gemstone students will learn more about themselves than they realized and have a new found group of emerging leaders to depend on when dealing with questions or difficult decisions. The learning tools in the course were essential as times have changed from the "old way" of thinking. We are moving to a more dynamic, more strategic force and the Gemstone Program provides you with tools to move forward,” said Roberson, a member of HRC’s enlisted personnel management directorate.
Eligibility for Gemstone requires HRC employees be in a permanent Army Civilian appointment, unless otherwise directed by statute; have completed or enrolled in grade- and position-appropriate Civilian Education System (CES) course and have served at least one year at full performance level in his/her occupation and have a performance rating of 3- Fully Successful or higher on the most recent performance appraisal.
During the ceremony it was revealed that each of the five graduates were promoted in grade over the course of their enrollment in the Gemstone program.
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 01.16.2020 14:38 |
| Story ID: | 359444 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KY, US |
| Web Views: | 449 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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