DFAS continues operations during pandemic year (Part 1)

Photo By Eileen Hernandez | This timeline illustrates the steps the Defense Finance and Accounting Service took at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning December 2019 through March 2021.  

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, UNITED STATES

04.19.2021

Story by Christopher Allbright 

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

INDIANAPOLIS, April 19, 2021 — Just over a year ago, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service moved its operations to a widespread and sustained telework environment in response to COVID-19 conditions.
The decision on March 17, 2020, to authorize liberal telework across the agency was months in the making as senior leadership used its existing Disaster Management Group (DMG) to work closely with DoD Leadership and monitor emerging conditions globally and nationally.

"The number one consideration was how we keep the workforce safe," said DFAS Principal Deputy Director Jonathan Witter, "and then, how do we continue to support the mission and support our customers?"
Witter said they understood that if they could keep their employees from being exposed unnecessarily to the spreading pandemic, then they could manage some of the other variables.

Witter, who was the Deputy Director for Operations and the chair of the DMG at the time, said that they were closely watching information and directives coming from the Defense Department, but also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and local communities.

"Our contingency folks were tracking that carefully, as were our Information Technology folks to determine what types of preparation should be taking place so we would have flexibilities in place to respond," Witter said.

Early days, warning signs
In December 2019, members of the DMG, including Chuck Claus, the Office of Preparedness director, and A.J. Jones, the DFAS Safety Officer, were already monitoring the emerging situation overseas, and then-Enterprise Management Services Director Mike Leist, was briefing senior leadership, including then-acting Director Audrey Y. Davis, twice a day.

"Very early on, we established pandemic response teams at the agency and site levels and also an operations pandemic response team," said DFAS Deputy Director for Strategy and Support Tony Hullinger. "These teams often stretched beyond the walls of DFAS to our customers and key stakeholders to give us insights in helping interpret and evaluate mission impacts."

"We were a fast-moving train without any stops," said Jones, who said that they were running at sprint pace while preparing for a marathon-length race. "We got to the end of the existing plan and had to start creating a new one in real-time."

Shortly after the pandemic arrived in the U.S., Leist asked Altaf Hussain, director of Support Services, to begin a regular cadence of engagements with site support representatives, chiefs of staffs for directorates, Human Resources, the Office of General Counsel, and others to report on the evolving situation.

"When we picked up steam as the number of cases were happening around us, Mr. Gillison was prescient in anticipating that the situation had the potential to grow really big," Hussain said.

DFAS officials kept a close eye on the situation. "I kept asking about masks because it seemed places in the rest of the world were using them to slow the spread, but the guidance here was not consistent," said Aaron Gillison, who is now the deputy director for Operations, but then sat as deputy director for Strategy and Support.

Behind the scenes, Jones was inventorying supplies and equipment on hand, such as hand sanitizer, wipes, and even masks, which weren't officially part of the equation yet. DFAS had a supply of surgical masks on hand, which was helpful because the supply internationally was diminished.

In February, site directors, who, according to Gillison, are like battlefield captains, were given wide discretion to adjust to local conditions calling for "maximum flexibility" as public schools began to talk about closing or going to a virtual environment.
From U.S. health officials, a national stand-down of "two weeks to slow the spread" was being promoted to avoid "a tsunami of COVID-19 cases flooding the emergency rooms."

To stay ahead of the situation, the team maintained a three-a-day meeting schedule to brief leadership and for sites to report status.

"It was a brutal schedule," Hussain said, "Our focus was the people and the mission."

Technology was Key
In February, Information Technology Director Paul Gass had his team working on increasing the Virtual Private Network and other capabilities to support widespread telework. Many offices were already on partial telework schedules, so the question was just multiplying that by a factor to meet the need.

"We wanted to make sure people had access to the network, and the network could respond, those were some of the initial challenges," Witter said.

On March 7, 2020, a DFAS site director reported the first two employees with confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to both Gillison and Jones. The pandemic was at DFAS's own door. Contact tracing revealed the possibility of a potential spread because of one person's position and physical location, according to Jones.

Site directors were invaluable in reporting what was happening in local communities. As local travel and gathering restrictions were being put into place as recommended by the CDC, communities were preparing for a general "two-week shutdown to slow the spread." Gillison said individual site directors were empowered to authorize liberal telework.

Move to mass telework
According to Leist, DFAS had begun positioning itself years ago by implementing best practices from the first major telework rollout a decade ago as directed by Witter, who was then the Columbus site director.

Leist said the agency had already proved it could use the telework environment effectively because most of the directorates had their employees on regularly scheduled telework on a limited basis.

Moving into an increased telework posture was not without challenges. For DFAS senior leadership, the primary focus was on the safety of the employees and the ability to carry out the mission.

Reporting procedures for personnel issues, including confirmed COVID cases, became increasingly important for leaders to make informed decisions.

On March 17, 2020, DFAS leadership, in coordination with the DMG and safety officials, determined it was in the best interest of employees to continue their mission in a telework environment.

"We went to minimal on-site staffing to ensure operations continued, but maximum telework environment," Hussain said. "We were proactive in our planning and execution, and that helped immensely."

The move was nearly transparent, and technology issues were resolved quickly. "The technology helped save the mission," Hussain said. "The ability to teleconference was critically important."

"The initial challenge was to make sure everyone had what they needed to do the mission, so we were able to make sure they had computer equipment, accesses, and capabilities to connect to the network, and the network was able to respond," Witter said.

Witter pointed to the entire IT team working with various directorates in both Operations and Strategy and Support to ensure there was "a reliable network so folks could do their jobs."

All the while, messages were being sent to employees or posted on the Portal.

"Communication was key," Hussain said, citing the efforts of the Corporate Communications team efforts in getting critical information out quickly to the workforce.

With DFAS in a widespread and sustained telework environment, Gillison said the agency proved it could do well in a stressed environment under conditions that were not optimal, but they were able to adjust. He noted that keeping information flowing and supporting employees was essential.

Deputy Director for Strategy and Support, Tony Hullinger, said he was, "proud of how DFAS handled ourselves in accomplishing the mission and taking care of our people throughout the entire process."

"DFAS never missed a beat as we seamlessly transitioned to a virtual environment, remained resilient in supporting the mission to our customers despite a myriad of changes and requests that came our way, and always ensured the safety, security, and well-being of our workforce the whole way," Hullinger said.

As one of the world’s largest finance and accounting operations, DFAS supports military and civilian customers. Our mission emphasizes the importance of DFAS’ role as a primary contributor in standardizing and improving finance and accounting activities across the DoD. Our strategy supports our efforts to provide superior services to our customers now and in the future.

• Date Taken: 04.19.2021
• Date Posted: 04.19.2021 15:23
• Story ID: 394195
• Location: INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US