WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. (June 17, 2015) -- Some might believe that after more than 200 years of continuous operation the Watervliet Arsenal would have perfected a workforce development program by now. But the word perfection is an elusive dream as today's arsenal leaders have recognized.
Just as the arsenal's product lines have been transformed through the years, the arsenal now finds itself urgently needing to transform its workforce development program, said William O'Brien, the Arsenal's director of installation management.
"We have learned through the years that in order for the arsenal to survive the ebb and flow of defense budgets, we must continuously adapt ourselves to the ever changing operational environment," O'Brien said. "Our workforce development program will never be perfect, but we have got to get it pretty close to perfection if we are to continue to be the Army's first choice for large caliber weapon production."
In the year that O'Brien has been the director of Installation Management, the arsenal has surveyed the workforce on two occasions in an effort to get critical feedback on the perceived state of the command.
Last summer, the arsenal conducted a command climate survey that measured the workforce's perceptions on such issues as organizational effectiveness and diversity. More recently, the arsenal conducted a second survey that measured the employees' awareness in 18 workforce development sub-programs, ranging from mentorship to critical skill retention.
Armed with survey results, O'Brien said that he and other senior-level leaders here quickly realized that there needed to be a wholesale transformation of the current workforce development program.
"After several years of reduction in force and organizational restructuring in the late 1990s, several critical employee programs, such as training management and leader development, got lost in the transition," O'Brien said. "What these surveys have shown is that our workforce today not only desires, but also demands a wholesale change to the way we currently address their professional development."
And so, O'Brien, and arsenal Chief of Staff Barbara Hill, recently put together a team that is focusing on the 18 sub-program areas of workforce development through a Lean A3 process, which is a problem-solving, continuous improvement process. The team consists of a good cross-section of leaders and workers who spent a week defining the problem and then mapping out solutions that will address the needs of the workforce.
"We are not here to solve all the problems in the world, just these 18 program areas," O'Brien said during the kickoff of the Lean event. "The lack of a comprehensive workforce development program that incorporates these 18 areas has constrained our workforce from doing their jobs to the best of their ability."
It is also believed by the arsenal leadership that intangible considerations, such as morale and motivation, are also affected by the current state of the workforce development program. Those intangibles not only have a direct effect on the arsenal's quality and on-time delivery rate, they also effect retention.
When it takes the arsenal more than 8,000 hours of hands-on training to produce one machinist, every loss is painful and hard to replace. But the desire to retain a critical skill base transcends the production floor, as there are critical skills in non-production areas such as in resource management, contracting, and public works.
"We had to come out of the A3 event armed with a strategy that will have the full support of the Board of Directors," O'Brien said. "But, more importantly, a strategy that will demonstrate to the workforce that their concerns have been recognized and that action will be taken."
Although the A3 workforce development strategy will address the "low hanging fruit" first, O'Brien said he envisions the entire strategy to be fully implemented within one year.
The 18 areas for review are: Training Management; Supervisor Professional Development; Project Management Skills, Mandatory Training, Position-specific Training; Aspiring Leader Development; Critical Skills Retention; Developmental Training; Centrally Funded Training; Communications Management; New Employee Orientation; Succession Planning; Organizational Management; Performance Management; Hiring and Retention Management; Career Program Management; Awards Program Management; and Mentorship.
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Today's Arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most advanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark has an annual economic benefit to the local community in excess of $90 million, and its 2014 revenue was about $117 million.
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