The emphasis on supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace starts at the highest levels of the Army, and is being fostered on through to subordinate commands and organizations, and ultimately to individual Soldiers and Civilian employees. But, the individual level is where change will become most evident.
“We want to ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion is an integrated part of how we do business in the Army. We want to make sure that at some point in time, we can talk about diversity, equity and inclusion without actually saying the words because it’s just the way we do business,” said Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Personnel.
The U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command is following these tenets to ensure change at the individual employee level impacts diversity in its workplace, all across the JMC enterprise.
“A diverse workforce is not just about race, age or gender,” said JMC’s commander, Col. Gavin J. Gardner. “Diversity and inclusion are already strengths of the Joint Munitions Command, however, we must continue to challenge the status quo and evolve to remain effective. People remain our number one priority and we will continue to invest in and manage our workforce’s talent, leverage our diverse perspectives, and develop our employees, in order to optimally accomplish the JMC mission.”
In order to measure progress in the upcoming years, JMC has established a baseline and a plan to advance diversity within its organization.
The JMC’s plan focuses on three lines of effort: Leader Awareness and Commitment, Education and Training, and Transformational Talent Management.
The strategic objectives and tasks of Leader Awareness and Commitment focus on building and fostering relationships through mentorship, leader/employee engagement, and continuous listening sessions. Leader awareness and commitment require leaders to be vulnerable, accessible and available to their employees. This engagement is expected to foster an organization-wide culture of trust and transparency.
Through Education and Training, programs such as Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (also known as SHARP), Suicide Prevention, and other credentialed resources, are available to provide JMC’s workforce a work environment free from discrimination, harassment and assault.
The strategic objectives and tasks outlined in the third line of effort, Transformational Talent Management, focus on expanding recruitment efforts to hire future employees who possess the right skillsets. As part of its succession planning efforts in the near term, JMC will recruit 14 build-the-bench interns and 18 Minority College Relations Program interns. JMC will continue to foster external relationships for future recruitment engagements, but also will engage in internal actions to ensure that it has programs and policies in place to retain the talented workforce it already employs.
In the months and years ahead, JMC will continue to listen, learn, build upon and further develop its lines of effort to promote, support and educate employees in order to promote a resilient, diverse, inclusive and professional workforce that will enhance the ability to successfully execute the JMC mission.
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