WIESBADEN, Germany -- Nearly 50 human resources Soldiers attended a professional development seminar Feb. 23-26 at Clay Kaserne to promote interoperability among the human resources community in Europe.
Army Europe's human resources PRIDE (Personnel Readiness Improvement Development) team from Clay Kaserne, Wiesbaden, has been leading a certification course for human resources personnel within units in the Army Europe footprint. The course focuses on improving efficiency and general core competencies.
"We go throughout the entire European theater and train on human resources core competencies," said Sgt. Maj. Christian Carr, Army Europe's personnel division's senior noncommissioned officer.
The three-day class teaches Soldiers who oversee various personnel actions at battalions and brigades how to properly and efficiently utilize various Army computer programs. The certification classes also gave the Soldiers more in-depth training on the programs, making them experts in their job field.
One of the systems students trained on was the Enlisted Distribution and Assignment System (EDAS), a real time, interactive, automated system, which supports the management of the enlisted force.
"EDAS is extremely important to me because there's so much information you can access in it that you either can't get from other places or show up in other places too late," said Sgt. Jacob McDermott, a human resources specialist assigned to 2-159th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, in Ansbach, Germany.
Sgt. Maj. David Davenport, Army Europe's senior enlisted advisor, took a moment to stop by one of the training sessions on Clay Kaserne via video call from the U.S. He assured attendees that completing the course would have an instrumental effect on their unit's personnel readiness and ability to accomplish mission tasks.
Another key point of the training emphasized the importance of taking care of sexual harassment or assault victims through unit to unit transfers. Knowing how to properly expedite the transfer of a sexual harassment or sexual assault victim is key for these professionals, especially considering Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, U.S. Army's chief of staff, has declared the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program one of the Army's top priorities.
"This is a way that for our professionals to directly affect the process," Carr said.
On the final day of the seminar, Carr and Sgt. Maj. Willie T. Grandison, G1 sergeant major, 5th Signal Command, hosted a breakfast at the installation dining facility to recap the training activities and to plan for future events.
"This was like a human resources week for us," Grandison said. "We were able to incorporate some productive training, answer questions and come together as a group."
"What each NCO in this class can benefit from is bringing this knowledge back to their Soldiers, peers and seniors," said Staff Sgt. Hector Romani, the noncommissioned officer in charge of U.S. Army Europe's Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion's personnel office.
Romani also explained that the class will have a positive effect on his unit's readiness and that senior leaders will have a better understanding of how to make the changes happen.
"All of you are serving in an S-1 which means you touch human beings' [lives] every day, and the customers you serve on a daily basis are your number one priority," Carr said. "The expectation is that every NCO in this (military occupational specialty) is passionate about this profession."
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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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