Personnel center cares to improve

By Ms Kari Hawkins (Redstone)March 14, 2012

Personnel center cares to improve
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Personnel center cares to improve
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As the largest civilian human resources activity in the Army, the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center at Redstone Arsenal is working to set the military standard for human resources support to managers and employees.

And recently they were given a tool that will help the organization's 120 human resources specialists do just that.

A new initiative titled "ICARE" is being used at all 17 civilian personnel advisory centers that make up the South Central region of the Civilian Human Resources Agency. The 2012 initiative -- which is named as a synonym for integrity, compassion, advocacy, resourcefulness and excellence -- is designed to build on the "soft skills" of human resources professionals so that they are more integrated as part of management teams throughout the region.

"This program is quite an undertaking for us," Vanessa Midgett, director of the Redstone CPAC, said. "Customer service and delivery of that service is critical. It's paramount of the work we are doing.

"I already think we are the best at what we do. But with every program there is always room for improvement. We always need to be looking at what we are doing and looking for ways to improve."

In fact, Team Redstone supervisors surveyed in 2011 said they were 92.99 percent satisfied with CPAC's quality, 99.87 percent satisfied with its timeliness and 97.31 percent satisfied with its availability of candidates. These averages surpass Armywide averages in all categories.

But with the Army transformation calling for hiring reform initiatives, the shift from using Resumix to USA Staffing for gaining new employees, the need to streamline and speed up the civilian hiring process, and the challenge of civilian recruiting, there is a need to improve partnerships between human resources specialists, and the managers and employees they serve.

By definition, human resources specialists are called on to provide high-quality applicants with specific skills, manage the hiring process and provide comprehensive, life-cycle support in the areas of staffing, training, classification, compensation, management and employee relations, performance management, labor relations, workers compensation, records maintenance, succession planning and out-processing/retirement.

But when it comes to providing those services, human resources specialists need the skills that will better enable them to be participants in the everyday management/employee team. It is hoped that with a combination of technical and "soft skills," human resources specialists will be sought out by managers, supervisors and employees for assistance in managing the entire civilian employment life cycle.

"We are undergoing a cultural change in human resources," Midgett said. "The ICARE initiative dovetails into what we are trying to do.

"The Army is transforming itself completely. The off-shoot for Human Resources means we need to revamp and retool ourselves to be more efficient and effective. We need to think more strategically. We need to be doing more up-front preplanning and prepositioning so that we develop more partnerships with management. When we talk strategically, we have to ask how do we gain trust, respect and integrity with our partners, and how do you teach those concepts when you are strategically working in perhaps a different culture?"

The ICARE initiative gives human resources specialists the "opportunity to work on our own skills and partner better with our managers," she said.

With the largest customer base in the Army -- 14,000 appropriated funds Army civilians and 500 non-appropriated funds Army civilians -- the Redstone CPAC has become the largest CPAC in the Army. It's customers include Army Materiel Command headquarters, Security Assistance Command, Army Contracting Command/Expeditionary Contracting Command, Aviation and Missile Command, Space and Missile Defense Command, Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center, Logistics Support Activity, Huntsville Corps of Engineers, Program Executive Offices for Aviation and for Missiles and Space, Redstone Test Center, Medical and Dental Activity-Redstone, the Garrison and several other Army organizations at Redstone.

"The strength of the Army is really heavily laden in its civilian support," Midgett said. "When the Army shifts, it impacts the civilian work force. For that reason, we have to be very much aware of and understand the current government strategic plan and what it means for the work force. ICARE is the kind of program that helps us to become a strategic partner. It will help us become that ideal CPAC we all want to be."

The ICARE initiative launched in January throughout the South Central region. Its five standards of excellence -- integrity, compassion, advocacy, resourcefulness and excellence (for which the ICARE synonym is derived) -- are promoted through 12 supporting behaviors that will be emphasized during the 12 months of 2012. For integrity, the supporting behavior of attitude was emphasized in January and professionalism was emphasized in February while commitment is being emphasized in March. For compassion, courtesy will be emphasized in April, respect in May and communication in June. For advocacy, safety will be emphasized in July and privacy in August. For resourcefulness, stewardship will be emphasized in September and creativity in October. And for excellence, quality will be emphasized in November and ownership in December.

"These are standards that are important to the Army," Midgett said. "For the human resources specialist, the core competency is a myriad of hard and soft skills encompassing these behaviors.

"But, to me, integrity is the underpinning. Integrity is the beginning of everything and the root of everything. We are stewards of taxpayer money and we should have the integrity to help managers make decisions about recruiting, pay and other personnel issues. You can learn technical skills, but it is just as important to have the sound integrity to deliver services to managers that positively impact the mission. We are not only impacting individuals, we are impacting the larger Army with our line of sight focused on supporting the Soldier in the field. Whether you know us or not, we are an integral part of what managers do."

During each month of ICARE, the region's CPACs develop programs and activities that promote that month's supporting behavior. Each CPAC competes to receive recognition for their programs and activities. For instance, in January, as they promoted the behavior of attitude, Fort Benning, Ga., the ICARE winner in the large category, hosted a kickoff with a guest speaker, created an ICARE Rap Dance that was posted on You Tube, and publicized the program on electronic marquees, in the post newspaper and on its Facebook page, among other things. The medium category winner, Fort Stewart, Ga., conducted USA Staffing briefings with managers and employees, each CPAC employee created a personal poster on attitude and conducted weekly ICARE training sessions, among other things; and Fort Polk, La., the winner in the small category, initiated such things as a customer service pledge, conducted town halls to introduce USA Staffing to employees and provided customer service awards to CPAC employees who received positive comments about attitude from their customers.

ICARE also recognizes individual accomplishments by recognizing star performers each month. At Redstone CPAC, Andora Crawford was recognized in January for her positive and upbeat attitude as she managed the moves of furniture and equipment for the Redstone CPAC, regional office and virtual teams, working as a facilitator between contractors and employees to ensure a smooth transition to new offices.

ICARE was developed and initiated by a team led by John Bentley of the regional Civilian Human Resources Agency in part because of reforms mandated by the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense and Army requirement to reduce the hiring process from an average of 96 days to an average of 80 days by the end of the summer 2012.

"We need to be able to hire the best, brightest, most qualified people out there for the Army," Bentley said. "That requires us to have a stronger relationship with managers. We need to be able to partner with them and have trusting relationships to meet this goal. This program helps us to show our customers that they are the No. 1 priority."

ICARE can help CPACs as large as Redstone's 120 human resources specialists and as small as the three that work for the Charleston, W.Va., Corps of Engineers promote the "soft skills" needed by all human resources specialists, Bentley said.

"We want them to communicate, demonstrate and celebrate these behaviors," Bentley said. "Human resources people are very professional and they want to do a great job. This program shows them the behaviors they need to have to do a great job.

"Once our CPACs saw this program, they became excited. We are not telling them exactly what to do. We are saying we want you to live these behaviors and then we are letting them use their creativity to implement that message. And we want to show how living these behaviors can make a difference for your customers and yourselves. It's not that we aren't doing these behaviors. It's that we need to recognize them and publish them, and align what we are doing with what our leadership at Civilian Human Resources Agency headquarters wants us to do."

Bentley said he has been encouraged by the response CPAC employees have had toward ICARE. Although the program will have a larger impact on newer CPAC employees, it does offer plenty of opportunities to grow professionally for both new and seasoned CPAC employees.

"I've been here for about 30 years, but you can still teach me new stuff. There are still things I can improve on and there are always areas where we can learn from each other," Midgett said.

Both Bentley and Midgett hope ICARE will emphasize and influence behaviors long after the 12-month initiative is complete. They hope the behaviors will become habits for CPAC employees.

"In human resources, we are always dealing with people, so we need to be excellent not only on our hard skills but also on our soft skills," Midgett said.

"I've had a very rewarding career, and it's because of the mix of hard and soft skills that you need to do this job. I want my staff to have that same fulfillment by knowing they are key at the table supporting the management team and helping management execute the mission. We are working to make a better Army. We are key members making a difference for the Army."