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These centralized programs are expanding to include selection of command sergeants major for brigade-level organizations. A pilot assessment program for battalion-level CSMs will continue in the fall, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe did the pilot last year, and this year is focused on [evaluating and selecting] the nominative sergeants major which are selected to go into certain brigade-level positions,\u201d Brito told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service is still crunching the numbers to determine whether commanders selected through these programs are performing better, according to McConville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a sufficient amount of data to show the results of commanders in command,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what we do have is data that shows that those we found not ready for command, we believe, would\u2019ve had some challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And those who weren\u2019t ready for command, McConville noted, were given feedback on how they can improve themselves and come back in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been cases where officers who had weaknesses were coached \u201cto address those weaknesses, and then come through the process and do much better,\u201d McConville added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army is also currently piloting a semi-centralized version of the assessment program for selecting first sergeants at each installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The First Sergeant Talent Alignment Assessment is designed to be administered at the division or installation-level rather than in one place for the entire Army, which is how other selection programs operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In practice, the first sergeant assessment is similar to the command and CSM assessment programs. Pilot versions have included a fitness test, behavioral interview and blind panels. The pilot program is set to expand in fiscal 2022, with potential implementation across the force in fiscal 2023, according to Army officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army has also worked in recent years to implement marketplace-style assignment processes for officers and NCOs who are earlier in their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The service\u2019s Talent Alignment Process for officers allows soldiers to browse unit vacancies and directly connect with those units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first full marketplace cycle, which covered summer 2020 assignments, saw approximately two-thirds of officers and units alike receive one of their top-three preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar program for NCOs completed its first iteration for staff sergeants through master sergeants earlier this year. While it did not have the same level of participation as the officer assignment marketplace, Army officials are confident it will deliver better assignment satisfaction for mid-career NCOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s soon to come<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army is also confident that the launch of the Integrated Pay and Personnel System-Army will play a central role in revolutionizing the talent management process for the entire force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IPPS-A, which is currently scheduled to go live for the Regular Army and Army Reserve in September 2022, will subsume an archipelago of legacy human resources and pay systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior leaders have hailed the new platform as transformative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see [IPPS-A] as a very positive, beyond 21st-century web-based system that allows us to take a very wide and deep portfolio of systems that managed all the HR aspects and put it into one,\u201d said Brito, the G-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McConville emphasized that IPPS-A will help keep all three components of the Army on the same page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to emplace [IPPS-A]; it\u2019s in the National Guard right now,\u201d McConville said. \u201cAnd over the next 12 to 18 months, [we want] to get that completely fielded in the Regular Army and Reserves so we have all of our components on one system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key selling points of IPPS-A \u2014 beyond eliminating outdated systems \u2014 deals with integrating aspects of the Army\u2019s talent management plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d McConville said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once fully implemented, IPPS-A will collect and manage the data that drives individual soldier talent profiles, Brito explained, in addition to hosting the officer and enlisted talent marketplaces. The new platform, if properly harnessed, will provide a massive injection of data to facilitate talent management and the assignment process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt gives you that capability to streamline and see the [talent] data on our field and this massive Army we have, and [it also helps to] transparently provide the human resource management and lifecycles that our soldiers and our Army deserves,\u201d Brito said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upcoming IPPS-A releases will also create a condensed display for each soldier\u2019s individual talent profile that is similar to existing record briefs, but with one key difference: civilian-acquired skills and work experience are listed on the front page. Those fields aren\u2019t even on traditional record briefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The switch will effectively raise the importance of civilian experience, and even soldiers\u2019 hobbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuture releases will aim\u2026to enable us to see [that] civilian expertise, the language skills they may have developed as a hobby, or some other attributes that might not be resident to your specific [job], regardless of the component you\u2019re in,\u201d Brito said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McConville pointed to a handful of active-duty soldiers with completely unrelated jobs who just successfully completed a coding tryout for the Army\u2019s new Software Factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d McConville said. \u201cThat\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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brito reflected on a similar experience he had with a reserve soldier during a 2005 deployment to Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile deployed several years back in Iraq as a battalion commander, we had a reservist that was supporting our operations who was an expert in road repair and development,\u201d Brito said. \u201c[Civilian expertise] is a level of data that you would just not ever see [then]. And I would not have learned [this without] talking to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo fast-forward to now, and then 2022 and beyond,\u201d Brito added. \u201c[With IPPS-A,] we\u2019ll see that type of thing. … It really just allows us to retain, see, attract and keep that level of talent we need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lots of data<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The service is also launching Project Athena, which Brito described as \u201cthe nexus\u201d of talent management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Athena is currently rolling out at various career milestone levels of professional military education, like the captain\u2019s career courses and Command and General Staff College. It offers a framework for leaders to \u201cidentify those attributes that they\u2019ll need [to improve] for command \u2014 it\u2019s about leader development,\u201d McConville said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Project Athena is an outgrowth of some of the early feedback that the Army received from its command assessment programs, McConville explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of the officers that went through [command assessment programs] said, \u2018I wish I knew that these were my weaknesses and strengths,\u2019\u201d the chief of staff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Project Athena may just be the beginning of the long-term changes to early career professional education sparked by the data gathered from the centralized assessment programs, according to Brito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPart of what this assessment program may also show us \u2014 and this is part of the data-rich feedback \u2014 is if we see what could be a trend and a gap in leader development [across the force], why not address it early?\u201d Brito said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Army senior leaders also see these data sets and talent management programs as a way to alleviate many of the so-called \u201ccorrosive behaviors\u201d across the force, like racism, extremism, sexual assault and harassment, suicide and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brito hopes that selecting better leaders for key positions will improve quality of life for soldiers under their command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat I expect to see is leaders that connect better or more effectively to their soldiers, leaders that not tolerate any harmful behaviors, [and] leaders that promote a positive command climate,\u201d Brito explained. \u201c[I expect leaders] that will put a firewall\u2026[against] these harmful behaviors \u2014 sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism, extremism, you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a data-driven world out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":67936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[78,29,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3470],"class_list":["post-31261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ausa-digital-show-dailies","category-digital-show-dailies","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6PTVKGHLHFHIRCHU5KNIXLZXXM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2021\/10\/13\/army-bets-on-data-as-it-sets-stage-for-talent-management-revolution\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6041581.jpg.jpg\")
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