Improving HR To Support The Future Force

The United States is at war, and the Army Reserve has been called upon to play an integral part in defending the nation's interests. When the call comes to mobilize and deploy to points around the globe, the Army Reserve needs to be ready with Soldiers who are trained, available and accessible. As part of its transformation to the Future Force, the Army Reserve has committed to improving the way it recruits, develops, trains and cares for its Soldiers, families and employees. The Army Reserve has begun to implement the first of these changes, and it continues to evaluate new ideas that will improve readiness, Soldier development, and family support.

Brigadier General Gary Profit, Deputy Chief, Army Reserve, responded to questions on the new human resources programs in November, 2003. Following is an excerpt from that interview:

Q: The Army Reserve is working on a number of changes to its Human Resources policies and practices. Why are these changes being made?

A: The simple answer is that we must in order to remain ready and relevant, while at the same time caring for Soldiers and their families. We're working on dozens of initiatives that will help us better organize, man, train, equip, mobilize, and deploy our Soldiers and units. A number of them are being tested and rolled out now. Others are still in the planning stages. These programs represent some of the first steps to move the Army Reserve from the Current Force to the Future Force.

Q: You mentioned the need to improve readiness. How will these changes help Army Reserve readiness?

A: A large part of what we're doing is reorganizing so unit Commanders can focus on training Soldiers instead of doing paperwork. For instance, If a Soldier isn't qualified in his military occupational specialty (MOS), he'll be moved out of his unit and a trained personnel manager will work with him to get him qualified. The soldier will get better guidance and more attention from these managers, and the Commander is free to focus on training the Soldiers available for deployment to higher levels of proficiency.

Another goal is to reserve unit slots for Soldiers who are qualified and available for deployment. That will instantly increase readiness. The Delayed Entry Program (DEP) is one example. Instead of recruiting new Soldiers and assigning them to a unit before they go to Basic Training, they'll stay in the DEP and be the responsibility of the recruiter. This keeps slots in units open for qualified and available soldiers and focuses the Commander's time on creating a unit that is 100% ready and available for deployment at all times.

The Individual Augmentee (IA) program is designed to solve a different readiness problem. More and more, the Army needs just one or two people to augment an Active Component unit. Today, we pull them from a unit. This solves the Army's need, but creates a hole in one of our units and decreases that unit's readiness. By setting up an Individual Augmentee program, we can have a group of Soldiers in high-demand specialties who are trained and ready to go when needed without hurting unit readiness.

Q: When do the changes take effect?

A: It varies. We're making changes as quickly as we can because the environment demands it. Several programs are being piloted in the 81st Regional Readiness Command (RRC) right now. The implementation is going as expected. We're capturing lessons and learning from them to ensure we achieve the results we want. We'll be expanding to other RRCs by the beginning of next fiscal year. Other initiatives, including the IA program, are on schedule to be implemented later this fiscal year.

Q: What's the impact on individual soldiers?

A: Soldiers will benefit from these changes in many ways. First, they will receive better attention because we're developing programs that target Soldiers with different needs. Second, Soldiers will benefit from an organization and leaders who are more focused on readiness and training. Third, Soldiers will be better informed about their status and options with these new programs.

Q: What's next?

A: As I mentioned before, we're working on dozens of initiatives and ideas to achieve our goals of readiness and Soldier support. We're constantly reviewing and evaluating proposals, and we keep the good ones and throw out the not so good ones. If it's a no-brainer, we move to implementation right away. If it's more complex, we'll pilot the program in one part of the country to learn before doing. Then we can expand to the rest of the organization.

In our current situation, change is the only constant. I'm optimistic that we're on the right path with these HR initiatives, and I expect more positive changes in the future.

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