SecNav Announces DoN Talent Management Initiatives

[Mjölnir]

Some stuff we knew, PT track suit, patch for Outstanding PRT, female choker whites/ unisex combo covers, but some new stuff. Mostly vague, few details on how, but some good ideas.

Elimination of officer year groups by FY 2017 for promotion purposes sounds interesting. Supposedly 'performance based timing' for promotion.

Ending NKO based GMT as of 1 June (2015???), and allowing COs to determine if/when those training topics are needed.

Expanding Career Intermission Program from 40 to 400 by next year.

SECNAV's Industrial Fellowship program- sending top-performing officers to tours working for civilian companies.

Increasing fully funded in-residence graduate education programs (he specifically mentioned Harvard).

Doubling maternity leave.

Replacing Command Advancement Program with "Meritorious Advancement Program," totaling 5% of the force annually, and allowing COs to give back or petition for more advancements.

DoN Talent Management Initiatives: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/innovation/Documents/2015/05/TalentManagementInitiatives.pdf

[rturcic72]

Agree, many good ideas, but although some of these may be in play already, it is ambitious and maybe a bit more of an aggressive timeline one might expect. I predict that at least half of these ideas will be implemented and the rest will not make the projected aggressive timeline, with at least a couple of these not coming to fruition like possibly the PFA top-performer recognition that I've listened to several arguments within the command.

The SPECWAR/OPS folks killed the old program when the lowest scored event was your overall score. Senior Enlisted and Officers shut down an actual scoring system on the FITREP because a top performing Officer can pass the PFA with a decent score, but do they really need to an Excellent and above when just the spread between Good and Excellent is considerably wide? Some older Officers are great athletes, many are not in some communities. A talented Service Member that can pass the PFA, but with an injury that prevents them from pushing beyond the Doctor's prescribed limits because it could exacerbate the injury further...do we promote him because he is truly the best, or needs a matching physical status? I would imagine our reviewers and board members would exercise common sense on a case-by-case basis in all factors because it is really for selecting the best qualified candidates if this is implemented.

This just an example, and I like using the PFA from what I've seen in the last 25 years. This could be used as a discriminator that could be fair or abused based on the circumstances of a board for a program or advancement. Our SPECWAR Milestones require stringent physical qualifications as part of the selection process. If the Sailor can swim, do the push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups, but cannot meet run times because they had knee surgery and his safest PFA option is the bike or elliptical, then they need to be screened for a different type of milestone.

If we were to adopt a similar point system used by the Marine Corps that would be great. I like it because it takes several performance traits and physical fitness into account and provides weights for the board to see how well rounded the candidate is to be selected for promotion. You can correct me on this as well since I have not been in the Marine Corps and have a nephew who just joined about a year ago and finished BRC for the Force RECON training pipeline.

Anyway, this really is a great discussion point because change is inevitable and if that change is for the better in improving the overall readiness of the Navy today from where it was 20+ years ago, then I support those changes that benefit our Sailors and Senior Leadership to meet today's global maritime challenges and strategies.

[COMEVIL]

Elimination of officer year groups by FY 2017 for promotion purposes sounds interesting. Supposedly 'performance based timing' for promotion]

This will require legislation and buy in from the other services.

[Mjölnir]

Elimination of officer year groups by FY 2017 for promotion purposes sounds interesting. Supposedly 'performance based timing' for promotion]

This will require legislation and buy in from the other services.

Correct. The exact wording from the handout was:

Revised Year Group management (2017) – Propose legislation to eliminate officer management by year group to ensure performance determines timeline and eligibility for promotion and leadership assignments. Allows those who are not ready for promotion to continue to serve in same paygrade longer, or for those ready, to advance through the system faster.

A few of the other initiatives have the phrase Propose legislation in them:
-Proposal to extend maternity leave (2016) – Propose legislation that will double paid maternity leave from 6 to 12 weeks.
-Expanded Career Intermission Program (2015, 2016) – Have proposed legislation this year that will allow us to expand CIP from 40 billets to 400. Next year we will propose legislation developing a customized menu of compensation, length of intermission and payback options.
-Increased bonus opportunities – Propose legislation allowing Department of the Navy leaders to selectively grant bonuses based on specific skill-sets and talent, rather than across the board.