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AFPC Tinker Operating Location named best in Air Force

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. O'Brien
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The Air Force Personnel Center Tinker Operating Location recently achieved a remarkable feat, but it wasn't without great sacrifice.

In July, its staffing office averaged a 68-day fill rate for job vacancies, a statistic Tony Black, chief of Headquarters Staffing, said is the best in the Air Force. And, the office managed to achieve the deed while it was understaffed by seven employees. This fill rate is well below the 80-day Office of Personnel Management End-to-End Hiring Roadmap goal to transform federal hiring across agencies.

"It all goes back to the warfighter. Our folks receive a vacancy and they know how critical it is to have that job filled in a timely manner so that the aircraft can be received and repaired and back in the air," said Donna Zawisza, AFPC Tinker Operating Location Staffing chief. "That's why we're all here."

The AFPC Tinker Operating Location is responsible for hiring people for civilian positions for Tinker's assigned and tenant units, as well as off-base government entities such as the Next Generation Radar, or NEXRAD, system in Norman. When an organization has a vacancy and approval to fill the slot, its leadership will send appropriate paperwork to the Staffing Office. Staffing will hire an employee by way of off-base recruitment or internal fill methods such as promotion, reassignment or a change to a lower grade.

The Air Force as a whole has a current fill rate of 168 days. Prior to the July record, Tinker's highest fill rate within the last 13 months had been 98 days, achieved in February.

The office is responsible for filling approximately 1,300 competitive jobs a year, meaning positions in which are announced.

"We move thousands of people noncompetitively every year through reassignments, which is about 75 percent of our workload," said Mark Anderson, chief of Maintenance Staffing. Mr. Anderson oversees the hiring maintenance employees plus several programs.

Ms. Zawizsa said among the more challenging aspects of their position is balancing the customers' needs at Tinker with guidance from their AFPC chain of command in San Antonio, and then applying it at Tinker.

As is, her office is responsible for thousands of civilians. Within Mr. Anderson and Mr. Black's sections, alone, there are more than 14,000 civilians. JoJo Williams, chief of the Employment Office, oversees off-base hires and programs that support recruitment of students, military spouses and the off-base community. This year, already, Ms. Williams has filled more than 1,000 vacancies base-wide.

"As the workload changes, we adjust to it and we get the job done," Mr. Black said, who is responsible for hiring general schedule employees ranked GS-4 to senior executive service, plus programs that cater to those positions. "Any day could be a surprise. For example an organization could acquire a certain workload or hiring surge and we just get tapped on the shoulder with a 'hey.' It could crop up tomorrow, next week, next month or yesterday."