Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville says his eye is on the service\u2019s people in the coming year. It\u2019s a wide-ranging priority that involves new software programs, leadership selection courses and investments for families.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
But McConville is also closely watching the Army National Guard\u2019s operational tempo, which has been increasing as Guardsmen across the country have been called up to deal with natural disasters, the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest over the past two years. Then there\u2019s the upcoming move to take sexual misconduct charging decisions out of the chain of command, a major step for the military at large.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
McConville sat down with Army Times ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s annual conference to discuss those matters. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. Can you lay out your \u201cpeople agenda\u201d for the upcoming fiscal year?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
People, for me, [are] still the number one priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been a year of the Guard and Reserve \u2014 we have asked tremendous amounts of them from helping defeat COVID to some of the storms we\u2019ve had [and] wildfires. You name it, the National Guard has been involved in it, along with their overseas missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s an important point of why we want to continue what we\u2019re doing with \u201cpeople first.\u201d We\u2019ve got to have a [human resources] system \u2014 the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A). We\u2019re continuing to emplace that; it\u2019s in the National Guard right now<\/a>. And over the next 12 to 18 months, the intent is to get that completely fielded in the Regular Army and Reserves so we have all of our components on one system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The intent is that we move from an industrial age personnel management system where we manage soldiers by two variables \u2014 their rank and their MOS \u2014 and we go into a much more comprehensive [talent] management system where we take advantage of their knowledge, skills, behaviors, and even preferences that they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We just set up a Software Factory<\/a>. We put out a call for those who would be interested, and three of the people who signed up \u2014 one was a medic, another was an automotive mechanic, and another was a baker. That\u2019s what their MOS was, and then we find out they\u2019re actually world-class coders, and [now] they\u2019re going to be coding for the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other thing that\u2019s continuing to happen is [a focus on] getting the right leaders in the right place at the right time. So we\u2019ve had comprehensive command assessment programs \u2014 the battalion command assessment program<\/a> is on its third year; the colonels command assessment program is on its second year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n