Online levy brief begins; saving customers time, post money

By Dave Larsen, III Corps and Fort Hood Public AffairsJuly 5, 2011

Online Levy Brief
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT HOOD, Texas, July 5, 2011 -- Fort Hood’s Directorate of Human Resources has changed the way Soldiers complete levy brief requirements for reassignments. DHR’s Installation Reassignments Processing Branch launched an online levy brief for Soldiers, July 1, 2011.

The change to an online service came “as a result of customer suggestions,” said Teresa Crooms, acting chief of the Reassignments Processing Branch. “That’s how the program was developed.”

Crooms said the operations of her branch were analyzed using the Lean Six Sigma process, a business management strategy aimed at maximizing productivity using statistical methodology. The development of an online levy brief began in February 2010.

She said common complaints from customers from the live levy briefs were the availability of times briefs could be held, as well as the length of the process. She said the online solution solved both those issues.

“We timed it while we were doing the training,” Crooms said of the new online levy brief. “It took anywhere from seven to 15 minutes to complete, depending on how fast a person types.”

Compared to the levy briefs formerly conducted at the Copeland Center, which was given in 30-minute blocks of instruction and could last longer than 90 minutes, Crooms said customers needing levy briefs should be pleased with the online version.

Besides making the levy brief process faster and easier for customers, the installation will also save money in manhours and supplies required to conduct the live briefs.

“The total financial benefit statement is set to be finished in July,” Crooms said. “(It will be) easily more than half a million dollars per year.”

The online briefs can be completed on any computer tied to the Fort Hood network, but Soldiers pending reassignment will need to see their serving battalion or brigade military personnel office, or S1, to get into the program, Crooms said.

She said training was conducted with military personnel specialists from June 13-16, and again on June 21. She said 118 support personnel attended the training, though her office is prepared to provide make-up training in July, if needed.

The online levy brief, Crooms said, needs to be completed on a Fort Hood network computer due to “security concerns, and the fact that we deal with personally identifiable information.”

Crooms said the software developer of the online brief and Fort Hood’s Network Enterprise Center are working to be able to open this up so that, in the future, a servicemember can have access to the brief from anywhere in the world.

In the meantime, Crooms said, the first stop for Soldiers on assignment instructions and needing a levy brief is their battalion or brigade-level S1.

“We’ve got a motto -- ‘See your one, then get it done,’” Crooms said. Supporting military personnel offices will provide Soldiers with the password needed to access the online program.

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