The AUSA 2021 Contemporary Military Forum: #2 - People First: Now and into the Future, moderated by Ms. Gaylia Campbell, included panelists, GEN Paul E. Funk, Commanding General United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Mr. Mark R. Lewis, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the
Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower & Reserve Affairs), LTG Gary M. Brito, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1United States Army, MG Kevin Vereen, Commanding General United States Army Recruiting Command and MG Johnny K. Davis, Commanding General United States Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox. The panel, held at the AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., on October 10, 2021 discussed current and future efforts to acquire, train and retain the Army’s number one priority – its people. | Photo by Brenadine C. Humphrey, U.S. Army Cadet Command Public Affairs Office
WASHINGTON — The inaugural Army People Synchronization Conference, held virtually Jan. 25-26, helped synchronize how people enterprise processes meet the Army’s current needs while also facilitating the Army’s transition to a future Multi-Domain Operations-capable force. The conference, hosted virtually by U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and the Army G-1 included more than 200 participants.
“The focus of this conference was really to get after how the people enterprise will meet the personal demands generated by the Army’s ReARMM framework, which provides our glide path for achieving an MDO-capable Army,” said Col. John W. Hankins, director of the Army G-1 and ASA, Manpower and Reserve Affairs Strategic Initiatives Group. “This conference fostered an opportunity to define, align and advance the people enterprise programs and processes with the current force’s needs, as well as those of a future MDO-capable Army.”
“The Army People Synchronization Conference was an amazing opportunity to come together and balance our efforts to ensure all our systems are optimized to support MDO and build the Army of 2030,” said Gen. Paul E. Funk II, commanding general of TRADOC.
MDO describes how the Army, as part of the joint force, can counter and defeat an adversary with capabilities that may rival the U.S. The domains are multi-faceted and cover defense objectives defined in the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model.
“ReARMM is the framework to transform the Army into a multi-domain-capable force ready for competition, crisis, and conflict. ReARMM postures the Army to agilely adapt to national defense planning and guidance,” Hankins said. “This framework will evolve the force into a multi-domain capable Army in the areas of modernization, restructuring, training and operations.”
In 2020, senior leaders approved ReARMM as the Army’s unit life cycle model to balance the production of modernized, highly trained and ready forces for employment. One of the major objectives of ReARMM is to be people focused; the major backdrop of the conference.
“From a people enterprise perspective, the conference is just a tremendous opportunity to collectively synchronize our efforts to set conditions for the Army of 2030,” said Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, the Army G-1. “By projecting, assessing, and meeting the future demands of an MDO-capable Army, the human resources enterprise will serve as the critical component for how we compete for, develop, employ and retain the talent needed to meet those objectives over time.”
The morning of day one of the virtual two-day conference set the stage by facilitating discussions on the operational environment overview, which necessitates the Army’s need to adapt in order to sustain a competitive advantage. The U.S. Army Combined Arms Center discussed force design efforts that will achieve Army 2030 objectives, after which the Army G-3 focused on ReARMM to enable a shared understanding of the framework that will transform the Army into an MDO-capable force, while sustaining a competitive advantage. U.S. Army Recruiting Command led discussions on the recruiting environment, competition for talent and trajectory for meeting the needs of the MDO force through accessions.
Additional sessions focused on how the people enterprise will meet prioritized requirements as first defined by ReARMM ahead of manning processes. The Director of Military Personnel Management defined how critical factors within the personnel environment impact how many Soldiers are available for assignment to ReARMM requirements both now and into the future.
U.S. Army Human Resources Command then defined the considerations, processes and systems leveraged to precisely match individual Soldiers to prioritized ReARMM requirements. According to HRC’s commanding general, getting talent management right not only helps the Army’s overall mission but is in the best interest of Soldiers as well.
“There are only small windows of time to allocate resources, so setting the personnel market and identifying requirements far in advance are critical to maintaining readiness and giving predictability to Soldiers and Families,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Drew, commanding general, AHRC. “I’m confident the APSC will help HRC provide world-class HR support to the Total Army family.”
DMPM further reviewed the proposed FY23-25 Army Manning Guidance business rules, which prioritize how AHRC assigns Soldiers throughout the Army. Additional breakout sessions provided opportunity for more in-depth discussion among senior leaders on how current processes will meet requirements defined by ReARMM, as well as the construct of future conferences.
Eventually, the plan is to hold these conferences twice a year, and as COVID conditions improve, hold them in person.
“The Army is a People Business,” Funk said. “We can’t treat people like numbers, so we need to make sure we go through modernization while keeping the promises in the Army People Strategy. This conference was a big step forward, because it was an acknowledgement that we need to work together to move the People Enterprise forward. This won’t be an easy problem, but in the Army we do hard things.”
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