Workforce Management—Mr Todd Schafer

Air Force Comptroller, July, 2004 by Todd Schafer

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

--Warren G. Bennis

SAF/FM Skill-Gap Analysis Project

The Air Force (AF) Financial Management (FM) community is in the midst of a transformation process focused on redesigning its systems and procedures to increase value and maintain relevancy within the AF community. The vision is clear: financial managers must be viewed as strategic partners throughout the AF by providing world-class customer focused financial management and decision support. The Skill-Gap Analysis Project will analyze the gaps between the current AF FM workforce skills and the future competencies defined to fulfill the SAF/FM Vision. The analysis will then be used to determine the training, education and developmental programs necessary to move us to this desired goal of strategic partnership

We started the skill-gap analysis project with an on-line quantitative survey of the entire AF FM community in March 2004. The workforce responded admirably with 27% responding in less than three weeks. Phase two involved interviewing a sample segment (selecting representative interviewees aligned with grade and job responsibilities) of the FM workforce. These 90-minute interviews provided the team with a good foundation of how our workforce currently applies the skill sets of the FM competency model in their day-to-day work efforts. Over a 6-week period, 107 surveys were conducted.

Clarifying the difference between current capability and necessary future capability in the FM community is essential to accomplish the goal of transforming the FM community. While it is understood that the FM community represents significant diversity at many levels, from the unique organizational cultures of each MAJCOM, center, and squadron to the individual processes to accomplish tasks at hand, a broad and rigorous process of skill gap analysis must be taken at a macro level to insure the alignment of development and training systems. Simply put, we need a clear target of the strengths and needs of the organization in order to strategically invest our effort in necessary FM force development.

To accomplish as accurate a skill gap analysis as we can, an FM Competency model, with 10 competencies, has been created that draws on best practices from corporate financial operations throughout the private sector as well as within the Air Force Senior Leader Management Office (AFSLMO). The number and detail for each competency have been reviewed by FM leadership to insure accuracy and relevance. The competency model is congruent with the overall education, training and development efforts guided by AFSLMO and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to insure optimal improvement and effective equipping of the entire FM workforce. Each competency is mapped to the critical abilities necessary to support the Warfighter in the near future.

To further strengthen the accuracy and clarity of needed development, each competency has been broken down into specific behavioral skills. Measurable skills are laid out on a cascading scale to better identify a person's proficiency level with respect to the competency. For instance, the competency "Strategic Orientation" is broken down into the following: "Understands opportunities for change and is willing to respond accordingly;" "Is able to define own plan of response within the larger strategy for change;" and "Develops effective corporate or breakthrough strategy across business units, creating significant advantage." The questions in the skill gap analysis are created to measure competence against these skills.

With the on-line survey and face-to-face interviews complete, the SAF/FMPW team is analyzing all the collected data. From this data, the Skill Gap analysis will provide SAF/FM with a clear and thorough overview of the level of skill related to the ten transformational competencies at all levels of the organization. It will provide an analysis of the contributing factors to the current state of competency levels in our workforce. It will also have a comprehensive review of all our current training and educational programs and a list of recommendations for future improvement.

Our Skill Gap Analysis Project could not be successful with out you. We appreciate your taking the time to respond to our on-line survey and participate in our face-to-face interviews. With your help, we will make the improvements necessary to our education, training and development programs to push us even closer to our shared FM vision.

SAF/FMPW Farewells As the summer rotation cycle continues to roll-on, we in SAF/FMPW are losing a number of individuals

from our start-up team. I want to personally thank the following individuals from our team that are moving on to other challenging assignments for all their hard work and helping make the Workforce Management Directorate a reality:

Lt Col Terry Baugh

Lt Col Lilly Lopez

Ms Lorry Tanner

Maj Mary Carr

CMSgt (S) Joe Banks

Retirement of The Air Force Comptroller Editor

With the printing of this issue of The Air Force Comptroller, Ms Gloria R. Jaskiewicz will be retiring after serving 12 years as the Editor. Ms Jaskiewicz has been our person behind the scenes making sure our periodical gets published four times a year. This issue marks her 51st issue as editor. She has continued to enhance The Air Force Comptroller, since stepping-up to the Editor job back in 1992. Ms Jaskiewicz is retiring with 36 years of service to our nation. We are grateful for having her as our Editor these last 12 years and wish her the best as she heads off into retirement.