ONE TEAM: The AAW HCSP defined development efforts in three core components: training and education, action learning, coaching and mentoring. (Photo by Polina Zimmerman, Pexels)
by Rebecca Wright
The Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) has the imperative duty of providing Soldiers with the knowledge and expertise that they need to be successful. These needs vary across a wide spectrum of requirements from designing and building weapons to information technology to financial management and purchasing.
To strengthen the workforce in these efforts, the Army Director for Acquisition Career Management (DACM) Office implemented the AAW Human Capital Strategic Plan (HCSP), a five-year strategy that establishes the framework for AAW professionals to meet the needs of the Army. The initial HCSP was published in October 2016, and then subsequent revisions were released in October 2020 and 2024. The HCSP maps out a pathway that invests in the development of over 33,000 Army acquisition professionals—both military and civilian—to ensure that they have the required skills to provide Soldiers with the equipment and services needed to accomplish their missions.
“In the Army, we’re all about people,” said Ronald R. Richardson Jr., director of the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center and the Army DACM. “It’s my job as the director for acquisition career management to ensure our people—the civilians, officers and NCOs [noncommissioned officers] that make up our Army Acquisition Workforce—are trained and have the tools and support they need to get their job done in support of the Soldier.”
FIGHTING FOR TALENT
In July 2024, the DACM Office announced the most recent revision to the HCSP. The latest update is a result of evolving operational needs and strategic goals, adjusting priorities to meet mission requirements and the inclusion of additional enhancements that better align with the Army People Strategy and the Civilian Implementation Plan.
The Army People Strategy outlines an objective to build teams that are ready, professional, diverse and integrated. These cohesive teams will pursue four lines of effort defined in the HCSP derived from the Army People Strategy. These lines of effort are acquiring, developing, employing and retaining talent. To achieve these objectives, the DACM Office is focusing on training and certification to develop AAW personnel, engaging in career fairs to network with and potentially acquire talent, using expedited hiring processes and offering incentives to employ and retain talent.
“Recruiting is an area where we have expanded our efforts that we had not previously focused on since the Army People Strategy and the Civilian Implementation Plan came out. And it was a great thing for our team to see where Army was going and then an opportunity for an area that the DACM Office hadn’t emphasized,” said Scott Greene, the strategy and communications division chief with the DACM Office. “That is probably the biggest area where we’ve shifted our focus since the inception of the Army People Strategy and that’s within recruiting, mostly on the civilian side, but the military as well.”
While it is a general understanding that the federal hiring process can be lengthy, the HCSP encompasses multiple initiatives that can assist in accelerating the hiring process such as direct-hire authority (DHA) and the Rocket Hire Initiative. DHA provides agencies with the flexibility to use expedited hiring procedures for specific job positions by bypassing some of the traditional processes such as rating applicants and applying limits to the number of applications received.
The Rocket Hire Initiative is a pilot program introduced by Army Materiel Command to expedite the Army civilian hiring process by performing background checks and screening applicants in real-time. The Rocket Hire Initiative has already significantly increased the number of tentative job offers. In one case, the initiative was piloted at the BEYA (Becoming Everything You Are) career conference in Baltimore, Maryland in February 2024. Rather than a potential candidate scheduling an appointment for preemployment vetting and waiting for the results of a background check (which may take weeks), security personnel were present at the conference to prescreen candidates and issue tentative job offers.
“Not only were they prescreening candidates and issuing tentative job offers—should they meet the right candidate—but they had security there to do fingerprinting and begin that process on the spot,” said Aaron Hutson, the strategy and policy branch chief with the DACM Office. “There was one case where there was already an active Army employee there. They were able to issue a start date at the career fair. So, this is just an opportunity to streamline that; have the HR [human resources] side present with the CHRA [Civilian Human Resources Agency] and the screeners, making sure the individual is qualified, bringing on the security side as well and expedite the time to hire in the process,” Hutson said.
FAST-TRACKING FUTURES: Morgan Hood, right, a prospective employee, speaks with Idia Osaghae, a division chief with Aberdeen Proving Ground Army Contracting Command, during the 38th Annual BEYA Conference in Baltimore in February 2024. (Photo by Hannah Miller, Aberdeen Proving Ground Public Affairs Office)
The HCSP also suggests leveraging programs that bring in collegiate students, such as the Defense College Acquisition Intern Program (DCAIP), to extend awareness of acquisition job opportunities in DOD. The DCAIP is a paid 10-to-12-week internship for second- and third-year college students enrolled in an undergraduate program that provides hands-on experience in a wide variety of skills and career fields within the acquisition workforce.
CONTINUING ON THE KNOWLEDGE PATH
The HCSP structure provides the AAW a continued path toward focusing on education, training and upskilling. The AAW HCSP has defined the development line of effort with three core components: training and education, action learning, coaching and mentoring. This includes the implementation of the Back-to-Basics framework. Back-to-Basics was launched in February 2022 to provide tailored training to code acquisition-coded personnel in their specific functional area versus using uniform training across all personnel regardless of their position. By implementing Back-to-Basics, AAW professionals can access training that is specific to their job, eliminating unnecessary courses that are unrelated to their profession. (Read more about Back-to-Basics in “Navigating Elective Learning” in the Winter 2024 issue of Army AL&T.)
SEEK AND FIND: Army Medical Logistics Command Human Resources Director Kenneth Daniels discusses career opportunities with a potential candidate at BEYA in February 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. The annual event that attracts thousands of job seekers primarily in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. (Photo by Ellen Crown, U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command)
Along with Back-to-Basics, the DACM Office launched the MOREin’24—a campaign to enhance digital expertise and promote ongoing skill development among AAW personnel. By promoting continuous digital learning courses (offered through Udemy), acquisition-coded employees can obtain the Digital Foundations certification while also enhancing their professional development and digital proficiency. (Read about MOREin’24 in “Serving the Digital Entrée” in the Summer 2024 issue of Army AL&T.)
In addition to upskilling and education, the HCSP focuses on employee retention through various other initiatives. These include the Talent Based Career Alignment program, which offers career stability and incentives for high-performing officers, and the Student Loan Repayment Program which may offer eligible employees financial assistance to repay their educational debt. These incentives not only cultivate a culture of learning but also assist in retaining current talent within the workforce.
CONCLUSION
The HCSP continues to build upon the core components established in previous versions. Further accomplishments include establishing the Recruitment and Sustainment Center of Excellence (now the Army Acquisition Workforce Civilian Human Resources Service Center), which has reduced time-to-hire and implementing competency assessments to identify and address skill gaps. Additionally, the expansion of the Training With Industry Program and the introduction of the Acquisition Leader Assessment Program have both further bolstered leadership development.
“Some of my favorite outcomes of the Human Capital Strategic Plan over the last eight years have been largely through the sharing of best practices,” Greene said. “Some of those include our new Army Acquisition Workforce onboarding training. Another one includes a focus on centralized recruiting efforts. Finally, the kind of earliest notable outcome was an emphasis on focusing on the reduction of time-to-hire and seeing that come to fruition, not only for the Army Acquisition Workforce, but I think that largely led to help for the overall Army.”
Through an ongoing commitment to skill development, staff motivation and focusing on and investing in knowledge, the HCSP continues to strengthen and empower a talented and loyal AAW. “This is a team effort—one that will require everyone to play their part, from our most senior acquisition leaders to our supervisors to the workforce member. A strong workforce is critical to making sure our Soldiers are never in a fair fight,” Richardson said. “As our operating environment continues to rapidly evolve, it’s more important than ever that we are deliberate in our human capital planning. We must be agile to adapt quickly to new trends and we must take proactive measures to ensure our workforce remains ready, professional, diverse and integrated. The latest iteration of the AAW Human Capital Strategic Plan is designed to frame these efforts and set actionable and measurable objectives that my office, as well as our stakeholders across the Army acquisition enterprise can leverage to strengthen the workforce.”
By consistently monitoring and adjusting mission priorities as needed, maintaining a high level of expertise and accomplishing the goals set forth by the HCSP, the AAW can support Soldiers in a way that enables them to accomplish current missions and be ready for the ones in the future.
For more information, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/hcsp or email usarmy.belvoir.usaasc.mbx.usaasc-aaw-hcsp@mail.mil.
REBECCA WRIGHT is a writer and editor with Army AL&T and the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. She has more than 14 years of experience writing and editing for DOD and the U.S. Department of Justice.
