Lean Army times make for challenges

By Ms Kari Hawkins ( Redstone)April 5, 2012

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William Marriott, left, deputy chief of staff of personnel at the Army Materiel Command, congratulates Clint Howard of the Garrison during a basic leadership graduation ceremony at Heiser Hall. In the background is Buddy Wooten, an instructor with th... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Army's human resources professionals are working in an environment today that can be described as a dichotomy.

On one hand, they are struggling with civilian employee cutbacks, a reduction in job positions due to a shrinking military budget. Yet on the other hand, they are in need of hiring well-qualified employees to fill specific mission requirements.

At the Army Materiel Command, the Army's largest civilian employer, that dichotomy is a situation its human resources professionals struggle to address every day.

And that's where good leadership comes in.

Speaking on Friday to a graduating class of 34 Redstone Arsenal employees who completed the requirements for the basic leadership class offered by the Army Management Staff College, William Marriott, a senior executive service officer and deputy chief of staff of personnel for the Army Materiel Command, described the current Army budget situation, saying it will take good leaders to manage and communicate change during leaner times.

Marriott quoted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who said "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

To that, Marriott added: "Leadership is motivation and communication."

The basic course, normally offered at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as part of the Army's Civilian Education System Leader Development Program, is now being offered at Redstone Arsenal through a partnership with the Army Materiel Command, Installation Management Command and the Army Management Staff College. The basic class is part of a progressive leader development program designed to transform Army civilians into multi-skilled, agile leaders of the 21st century who personify the Warrior Ethos in all aspects, from war-fighting support to statesmanship to enterprise management. The basic course will be offered at Redstone several times in 2012. Registration is through the Civilian Human Resources Training System website.

Before presenting the students with their graduation certificates, Marriott shared with them the three top issues he is confronting daily as a leader with the Army Materiel Command.

The first of those issues is responsible reduction, dealing with the need for reducing the civilian work force without losing capabilities.

"Over the past year, we have had to reduce civilians by nearly 10,000," he said, referring to the overall Army budget. "Budgets will be lower than in the past, maybe lower than fiscal 2010 levels.

"But at the same time, we have increased requests for civilians with specific skills."

The Army still needs to make 4,000 personnel cuts by the end of fiscal 2012, and it is hoped that goal will be reached through early retirement offers, buyouts and attrition. The cuts are being made in 37 states at 70 different locations across eight commands and agencies, with nearly 90 percent of the cuts occurring in the Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command, and Training and Doctrine Command.

Yet, in fiscal 2013, the Army has 7,300 new personnel requests.

The key to fulfilling those requests is hiring employees with the right skills.

"We will need every tool in our tool kit to keep the best and the brightest," Marriott said. "Leadership is about managing scarce resources. And there's only one way to do this and that's through having motivated leaders who can understand the strategic implications and communicate that."

Of the Army's leaders, only 14 percent are in supervisory roles. At AMC, only 10 percent of its leaders are in supervisory roles.

"All of you have the potential to become a leader in your areas of expertise," Marriott told the graduating class. "You have a tool kit now. Think in strategic terms. This is a very stressful time of reduction. Leaders need to know how to move the Army forward."

The second issue Marriott works to address is the need for work force development. In this area, too, there are drastic cuts across the Army.

"How do we train people to have the right skills the Army needs?" he said. "Almost 100 percent of all Army civilians are in a career program. Some 20,000 blue collar workers at AMC are in a career program. How do we train and develop that work force? How are we going to continue in a time of dwindling resources to develop our employees?"

Marriott's third issue is the well-being and health of the work force, both civilian and military.

Describing the Army and its employees as being under enormous stress, he said the Army must work to build resiliency in both the military and civilian work force. The suicide rate for civilians is high both at the Army level and the AMC level.

"We're looking for every way we can to relieve some of that stress," Marriott said, mentioning incorporating the idea of telework into the traditional work environment by allowing 20 percent of the Army Materiel Command, Security Assistance Command and Army Contracting Command to work eight days of every pay period from home. If such an idea was incorporated into the work environment, it would improve employee well-being while also affecting the Army bottom line by allowing the three organizations to save money on space requirements for these employees.

"Ideas like this become more than ideas. They become transformation," Marriott said.

Ideas like teleworking can transform the Army and its organizations in many positive ways. But to incorporate such ideas would mean also transforming management styles, communications and other aspects of the work environment.

"I don't have the answers. But the solution is leadership. … Leadership is understanding the vision. It's communicating to your people. It's communicating up and down the channels," Marriott said.

"Take what you learned and apply it and be persistent. Communicate."

Col. Stevenson Reed, commandant of the Army Management Staff College, also spoke to the students, telling them they are among a "great population of talent."

"Today is not the end of the course. It's the beginning of the course," he said. "You've learned about high performance teams, about how to communicate, about how to deal with difficult people. When you go back to your workplace, your leadership will measure you. Are you different? Are you better? You need to show that you have the tools to become better leaders."

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