WIESBADEN, Germany - Housing managers from across Installation Management Command Europe gathered recently along with some of their counterparts from Hawaii and Korea to learn more about the management of general flag officer quarters.
As members of the housing staff, many of whom are host nation employees, begin to retire at a greater rate, it’s important to ensure new staff are trained, especially on such a highly scrutinized program, said Geert-Jan Hendriks, IMCOM-Europe, G-4, housing management specialist.
“We have to ensure that we comply with all the statutory and regulatory thresholds,” Hendriks said.
Quarters in Europe, for all ranks, are either government-owned or leased housing, which is often smaller and older than what service members are used to with privatized housing stateside. Extensive training is offered on Army Family Housing and off-post housing management, budget and inspections. However, this didn’t offer enough information for those who work with GFOQs on a daily basis, so the separate, three-day GFOQ course was offered at the end of March at U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden to fulfill that training need for overseas housing staff.
The GFOQ course covered information on historic housing, budget cycles and approvals, request processing, special furnishings and authorizations, multi-year maintenance plans, customer service, cost reporting and more.
“What we owe the community, all the (housing management employees) and housing managers is to arm them with the tools to do their job efficiently and correctly. Not that they weren't before the housing crisis, but just that we need to assist them with new ways of doing business. Keep them informed,” said David Gettelman, IMCOM G-4 Operations Branch chief, who was on hand to provide the training along with Hendriks.
While the training was a refresher for some, it was a first for some of the newer staff. The challenge of an aging workforce has been identified for many years, Gettelman said, and with housing staff it’s important to keep up the transfer of knowledge and training for all staff.
“I think it's important just to keep up your training, with any job, it doesn't matter what it is. But most importantly, we have the most impact on housing families. And it doesn't happen on its own. It's something that needs to be done through housing and good housing managers,” Gettelman said.
Hendriks, who began working with Army Housing more than 36 years ago, stressed the importance of maintaining staff training especially with personnel turnover, but also highlighted challenges filling local national positions at the garrisons especially with competition in larger job markets.
“If you like working with people, then this is the right place to be. And, if specifically, you have an affiliation with the Army, with the military,” Hendriks said. “This is great for local nationals; there are a lot of local nationals who want to work for the U.S. government.”
For more information about Army Housing, visit https://www.housing.army.mil/.
For more information on local national positions across IMCOM-Europe, visit https://portal.chra.army.mil/hr_public?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0015152.
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