FMWR Employee, Customer Covenant officially unveiled

By Mr. Rob Mcilvaine (ARNEWS)January 28, 2010

FMWR Employee, Customer Covenant officially unveiled
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Leadership from the Army's Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command signed an employee and customer covenant here Wednesday.

Rich Gorman, FMWRC executive director and chief operating officer, officially unveiled the Family and MWR Employee and Customer Covenant as part of the command's training and professional development symposium.

"We are here to touch lives in a positive way," Gorman told 1,200 MWR employees attending the event.

The theme for this year's forum is "Change and the Human Dimension," with focus on implementing the Soldier Family Action Plan to reduce stress on Soldiers and Families.

Accordingly, "We touch the lives of Soldiers who stand up and volunteer to go into harm's way, and we touch the lives of their Families. After all, Families serve just as much as our Soldiers do," Gorman said.

The command has hired 15 customer service coordinators who will spend two weeks at Ft. Knox, Ky., training how to orient newly hired Family and MWR team members to educate them how they affect Soldiers and Families.

The FMWRC workforce averages about 30,000 employees, and there is a large turnover due in part to the number of workers whose spouses are active-duty, and the transient nature of military service.

Jason Bell, FMWRC Customer Service program manager, who has been with the MWR Academy since 2004, said 15 more customer service coordinators will be hired and trained by June, with all 30 heading out to support about 100 garrisons. Some will obviously serve more than one, with some being stationed solely at large garrisons such as Ft. Bragg, N.C.

"But they'll be doing much more than just providing orientation and giving tours of the garrison to newly hired employees," Bell said. "They'll also make sure best practices at one garrison will have the chance to become standardized across all garrisons. They'll also ensure that annual employee evaluations will be performed and recognition programs be installed."

Formal and informal training will be instituted to develop skills and career development opportunities for employees to reach their full potential.

As for the covenant:

*Family and MWR employees promise to respect customers as individuals who are valued; provide timely, accurate and helpful information; offer high quality products and services; and offer the opportunity to provide feedback.

*On the employee side of the covenant, leadership promises to provide a robust orientation to the command; clear performance standards; formal and informal training; performance support tools; and recognition and incentives to reward excellent service.

Overall, the covenant emphasizes the command's commitment to the Army Family Covenant by focusing on not just our Soldiers and their Families, but also on the workforce who supports the Army.

As Wil James of Toyota said in his keynote address before the covenant signing, "People don't care what you know until they know that you care."

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