AFPC: an evolution in support: AFPC does more than the assignment business, providing a personal touch to Airmen's careers

Airman, May, 2005 by Megan A. Schafer

It's the center of excellence for personnel functions, but more importantly, the center where thousands of actions are processed daily to improve the lives and jobs of Airmen around the Air Force.

Over the last decade, the support provided by the Air Force Personnel Center has evolved to a new level of care. Despite its improvements in technology, customer service and overall quality processes, many Airmen still undervalue its role in their careers. But it's the center's function to track Airmen's jobs, and more importantly, their careers, on a seemingly seamless progression.

"We're about treating people the way you'd like to be treated," Maj. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski, AFPC commander, said. "Every Airman is important. Now, with improvements in technology, everyone has access to the personnel system. That's evolution."

Cradle to grave in and beyond

The mission: provide full-circle personal care to Airmen through diverse personnel functions.

People are the Air Force's most important resource. So personal care shouldn't just be visible during the assignment process, but from the moment Airmen enter the service until the point they decide to hang up the blue suit for good.

"It's not the personnel center you think it is," said the general. "I [assumed command] with a mindset of the personnel center being people randomly making decisions about assignments. But it didn't take long to realize the wealth of programs and activities that have such great impact on every Airman in our Air Force."

And it's that mindset that the general wants to see changed--viewing the center as providing more than assignments.

"It's a cradle-to-grave process," the Chicago native said. The center supports you from your point of accession, through the many transitions you may have in your career--deployments, relocations, promotions, emergencies--to where you make a decision about your time in service--separation or retirement, he said. "And during retirement, we still are taking care of our people. There are thousands of military retirees and families of deceased Airmen that we continue to help and provide support."

At the heart of this process are approximately 2,000 experts who diligently work to assist the more than 1.3 million customers they serve around the globe--active duty, civilians, military retirees and survivors. Their mindset is simple--take care of people.

"People are the ultimate weapon system. No matter how much money we spend on war fighting equipment, if you don't have the human element to operate, maintain and employ the weapon, it's a dud," the general said in a recent news release. He views this cycle of support as the critical link to the warfighting effort.

The end result: an evolution in personnel functions and a change in Air Force mindset and culture.

Developing the force

The mission: apply a personal face to the assignment process by "developing the force, one Airman at a time."

Force development isn't a new phrase. It's been tossed around the service for the last three years, but it's only recently that the process has begun to take shape and affect Airmen.

The process will transform how the service trains, educates and assigns people to meet mission requirements and challenge. The beauty of it: It's mostly transparent to the user. A great deal of legwork is done behind the scenes--personnel experts melding minds to transform careers.

"We're constantly looking at your records, working to make your career a clear, deliberate, systematic roadmap," General Przybyslawski said. "So as long as you're in the Air Force, you have an expectation and you know through feedback where you're going, what opportunities are available, and what it takes to get you there."

Force development teams are working not only with officers, but also with enlisted, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel, and civilians, taking a vested interest in each Airman's career.

"It's a growing process," Col. Tim Cashdollar said. As the chief of the force management and analysis division, he's seen the hard work that's enabled this program to get off the ground. "We're working from the top down to change the culture of the Air Force, and for individuals to understand their responsibility to provide inputs as well."

The end result: interchangeability--giving Airmen the opportunity to development to the highest level they can.

Modernize and deploy

The mission: modernize personnel functions across the service to focus energy on the warfighting effort.

The Air Force's legacy of employing cutting-edge technology to confront threats to our nation's security has never been more evident than in recent conflicts, and for the personnel center, they too are leveraging technology to increase support to the warfighter.

"Our objective is to get the information available to you when you need it and where you need it," Col. Greg Touhill said. As the director of personnel data systems at the center, he's part of a coordinated effort to move many personnel transactions to user friendly processes--the "personnel services delivery" transfer.