Army Acquisition Workforce Recruitment and Sustainment Center of Excellence

Mission

This Center of Excellence supports an integrated strategy to recruit, hire, sustain and retain our best and brightest talent to meet current and future Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) requirements.

Vision

Applying cutting edge HR modernization to recruit and retain Army’s best and brightest Acquisition professionals to meet future AAW Requirements.

Introduction

Background: In coordination with the Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA), the Army Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM) Office embarked on a revolutionary change regarding the recruitment, hiring and sustainment of civilian Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) professionals. In the Fall of 2019, CHRA and the Army DACM Office stood up the AAW Recruitment and Sustainment (R&S) Center of Excellence (COE), headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, with several satellite locations across the globe.

Why Did This Happen? This strategic initiative began in 2016 when the defense acquisition community and the civilian human resources community met in a joint forum to discuss recruitment and hiring challenges. In discussions regarding direct hiring authorities (DHA) enabled by Congress, specifically for the defense acquisition workforce, the Army was especially challenged in its execution. As a result, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASA M&RA) in coordination with the Civilian Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA ALT) determined a pilot in a centralized location, focused on centrally hiring AAW professionals using DHAs was necessary. The pilot was a resounding success, reducing time to hire from 131 days to 84, well on the way of meeting the 60-day hiring goal established by the Secretary of the Army in June 2018.

What Does This Mean for You? For the supervisors of AAW professionals, you may have noticed an increase in the speed of delivery of recruitment and hiring actions. For the senior leaders of the acquisition community, this centralized civilian AAW recruitment initiative ensures you have quality acquisition professionals focused on the mission and enabling Army readiness much sooner than in the past.