Personnel RIE aimed at improving hiring process

Published March 27, 2015
By Kimberly Woodruff
Staff Writer

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The Air Force Sustainment Center aims to improve hiring through participation in the Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command and Headquarters Air Force Personnel Center Rapid Improvement Events, but what makes it special is that the results will eventually affect not only the AFSC and Tinker, but all of Air Force and the way new personnel are hired.

"This is the first time HQ AFPC and HQ AFMC have gotten together to build a world-class hiring system," said Christina Lhamon, director of Air Force Sustainment Center Personnel Directorate. "Our future is this world-class hiring system -- it's that important."

On March 2, Tinker AFB recently hosted the second RIE that dealt with the roles and responsibilities of the Manpower office in the hiring process. During the event, significant re-engineering of current processes took place resulting in many action items that AFPC and AFMC are working to adopt. It is projected the efficiencies identified through this RIE will be incorporated into the pilot program towards the end of April. AFSC will be tracking the initiatives, measuring timeliness of the actions, and providing feedback to refine and improve the hiring process.

The next RIE events, which include all five centers within AFMC, HQ AFMC and HQ AFPC, will be held at various locations including Wright Patterson AFB, Kirtland AFB, N.M., and Randolph AFB, Texas, so everyone can have a chance to host and to keep TDY costs down.

"We're laying everything on the table in order to cut hiring down from an average of 180 days to meet the Art of the Possible - 80 days," said Ms. Lhamon. "We'll be reinventing the entire hiring process while maintaining the law and Air Force regulations."

Among the processes being looked at will be each hiring gate through the process, reducing redundant practices and streamlining standard rule sets.

"By streamlining, we can still do the things we need to, but maybe in a different way by determining what to delegate, and what to get rid of," said Ms. Lhamon. "We do great things, but we don't check back, so we're driving that with this initiative, so we can re-evaluate periodically."

She continued, "It's like a butterfly effect -- a true partnership. The Complexes have been phenomenal as a force multiplier and the functional community played a vital role in help supporting getting this initiative started. We are so grateful for the partnership."
Ms. Lhamon said by streamlining the hiring process and making it quicker to hire, the Air Force can stay competitive and get the best and brightest graduates in the program.

"This is something we can look back on and say, 'we did it,'" she said.