FORT BELVOIR, Va. - Defense Logistics Agency Aviation's Customer Operations Directorate is in the final stages of an organizational restructuring that began nearly a year ago. More than 1,000 employees co-located at Air Force air logistics centers will have new position descriptions by the end of February, which will signal the end of the realignment for them.
The changes affect supply, storage and distribution and forward-presence employees who realigned under the directorate in spring 2010 at DLA Aviation sites in Ogden, Utah; Warner Robins, Ga., and Oklahoma City.
"Our number one goal in moving employees from working under Air Force position descriptions to DLA PDs was to do it without an adverse impact on employees," said Ann Brandon, deputy director for the Customer Operations transition team. She said senior managers focused heavily on communicating with employees about the changes to limit adverse impacts.
Town hall meetings were held at DLA Aviation's home in Richmond, Va., and at Air Force and Navy sites affected by the realignment; training was provided; and several related articles were published both on DLA Today and in the Plane Talk newsletter, which was launched last year to primarily address the realignment.
Brandon said Customer Operations worked to standardize position descriptions across the enterprise where applicable and create opportunities for employee growth.
"Historically, several general supply specialist positions topped out at a GS-07 grade level. The new PDs were built to allow growth potential with built-in career paths," she said.
Brandon cited the new sustainment specialist and material management positions as two positions with growth potential to the GS-13 grade level. She said employees at the ALC sites are ready to move into the new positions:
"They completed Enterprise Business Systems training last November and December to prepare them for their new roles," she said.
Brandon said all but a few of the supervisory and wage schedule/wage grade positions have been reviewed and graded by DLA Human Resources. She said PD move dates are still undetermined for DLA Aviation employees co-located at Navy fleet readiness centers, who realigned under Customer Operations the same time as their Air Force counterparts last year.
"We are in the infancy stage of mapping those employees to job positions," Brandon said.