Examination of the U.S. Air Force's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce Needs in the Future and Its Strategy to Meet Those Needs (2010) / Chapter Skim
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6 Managing STEM Personnel to Meet Future STEM Needs Across the Air Force
6 Managing STEM Personnel to Meet Future STEM Needs Across the Air Force
Pages 75-99
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From page 75... ...
Thus, a key personnel management goal for the Air Force should be a process and a set of tools to ensure that its future STEM requirements can be filled by trained and ready personnel. The Air Force has four sources of STEM-degreed and STEM-cognizant personnel: members of the active-duty force, members of the Air Force Reserve Component, civilians, or contract labor.
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From page 76... ...
, major commands, and functional areas. The committee determined that the current Air Force personnel management process, which is aligned by AFSC and function, is not adequate for managing STEM personnel.
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From page 77... ...
The Need to Model Personnel Management Options Unlike the "STEM Corps" and "Do Nothing" approaches to managing STEM-degreed and STEM-cognizant personnel, there were a range of other approaches on which the committee was unable to make definitive recommendations because data on which to access their outcomes were unavailable and unattainable without a suitable workforce model. These approaches were suggested by committee members, briefers, or others involved in the study, Examples are bonuses to increase retention in certain year groups, increased recruitment in Reserve Officer Training Corps programs, changes in initial assignments of STEM-degreed graduates of the U.S.
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From page 78... ...
In addition to these and other similarities, there are some significant differences. STEM personnel management includes civilian employee and contractor options; rated management does not.
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From page 79... ...
will be a task for a STEM workforce management system and decision support model. The experience attributes analogous to the basic experience measure of flying hours for rated personnel may, in a STEM management system, need to be tracked by specific assignments, time in a particular AFSC, or other characteristics such as those included in the certification required under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA)
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From page 80... ...
and its enumerated leadership competencies.8 The FMDC serves as a corporate body to provide an institutional perspective on Air Force– wide force development issues and to make recommendations to the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff, Air Force. The Air Force Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Air Force functional authorities, vice commanders of the major commands, the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, and appropriate Air Reserve Component and civilian representation make up the FMDC and provide a review of total force management.
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From page 81... ...
The Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition should be the functional advocate for all STEM personnel, and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel (AF/A1) should oversee STEM decision support modeling, as well as recommending and implementing STEM personnel policies.
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From page 82... ...
The perception of the young officers or civilians 9 In 2008, the Air Force was unable to meet its accession goals for six S&E career fields. 10 The Air Force's civilian workforce comprises 22 percent former enlisted personnel and 6 percent former officers.
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From page 83... ...
Finally, because of the shortage of STEM-degreed officers, there has been a rush to contract out some inherently governmental tasks, including CONOPS development and requirements generation on the operational side and some project management responsibilities and oversight on the acquisition side. In the committee's judgment, this use -- or misuse -- of contracting affects the perceived value of an individual's contributions and sometimes creates the impression that military officers are merely performing a contractor's job without bringing any special attributes or viewpoints to the table.
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From page 84... ...
to understand long-term impacts of cuts in authorization or manning for career fields requiring a STEM degree and to ensure that the leadership understands all the likely impacts of such cuts. Options for Meeting STEM Needs with the Existing STEM-Degreed Officer Workforce The committee identified three general options available to the Air Force to meet current and future STEM needs with existing officer assets.
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From page 85... ...
resides in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve officer components. Table 6-1 shows the officer populations in both reserve components for the five career fields requiring a STEM degree and for the 63A Acquisition Management career field.
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From page 86... ...
Finding 6-5. The Air Force has not assessed the potential for STEM-degreed officers in the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard to help meet the Air Force's requirements for STEMdegreed personnel.
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From page 87... ...
The Air Force should periodically access the capability of AFIT to help meet projected future requirements for STEM-degreed personnel by providing selected officers and civilians with educational opportunities leading to an award of a STEM degree. In addition, the STEM personnel decision support model (see Recommendation 6-1)
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From page 88... ...
. Almost 1,800 of these 9,500 USAFA graduates currently serve in one of the five career fields that require a STEM degree or in the 63A Acquisition Management career field.
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From page 89... ...
Moreover, of this 41 percent, a significant number enter rated AFSCs or other AFSCs for which a STEM degree is not a formal requirement.16 However, since the USAFA is an asset organic to the Air Force, the Air Force leadership has the option of directing the USAFA to require that a larger percentage of cadets pursue STEM degrees. The Air Force leadership can also influence curriculum content to some degree, subject to a number of constraints.
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From page 90... ...
There is no current requirement that all students commissioned through the AFROTC program be at least STEM-cognizant. Thus, if acknowledging and managing STEM cognizance is recognized as part of the solution for meeting future STEM needs, establishing and implementing such a requirement for AFROTC scholarships would in time substantially increase the accession of STEM-cognizant officers.
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From page 91... ...
While OTS offers more flexibility and quicker response time for producing more STEM-degreed officers than do the USAFA or the AFROTC program, as a STEM option it would need to focus on candidates who already have an undergraduate STEM degree and are motivated to join the Air Force. Historically, OTS has produced relatively fewer officers than either the USAFA or AFROTC.
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From page 92... ...
Several leaders of logistics and product centers who discussed civilian workforce retention problems with the committee believe the Air Force is lagging the private sector in competing for STEM-degreed civilians and in training its existing civilian workforce to assume greater responsibilities in positions that require STEM capabilities.18 As is the case for military officer positions, fill rates are an important indicator of civilian job value. Based on committee members' experience, confirmed by discussions with Air Force presenters, the committee believes that if civilians see their colleagues leave and they are not replaced, this inaction sends a powerful message that those positions are not on the "A Team." Currently, the Air Force has a 15 percent vacancy rate in civilian STEM positions requiring a 17 See text discussing Figure 3-1, as well as Finding 3-2, for STEM-degreed civilians in positions requiring a STEM degree and Figure 4-2 for STEM-degreed civilians in AFMC.
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From page 93... ...
The following year, the Air Force tried to rehire these same people but was largely unsuccessful. The Air Force does have some limited ability to enhance the STEM capabilities of its existing civilian workforce.
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From page 94... ...
The first is related to funding; the second relates to the lengthy process to recruit and hire new civilians who are not currently in the Federal Civil Service. Funding New Civilian Hires The funding of civilian pay continues to be a significant challenge to those in the Air Force recruiting STEM personnel.
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From page 95... ...
can make on-the-spot hiring offers.22 The process factor results from the procedures imposed by the Office of Personnel Management to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements such as veterans' preference, as well as from policies and procedures dictated by OSD and the Air Force. The organizational factor results from the Air Force policy to centralize nearly all civilian personnel servicing at the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC)
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From page 96... ...
It takes the Air Force far too long to fill civilian STEM positions. The Air Force cannot compete effectively with other government and nongovernment organizations that can recruit and hire the best-qualified STEM candidates much more quickly.
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From page 97... ...
activity, providing essential STEM capability to the Air Force. Several FFRDCs were established to play an important role in Air Force development and acquisition by providing highly qualified STEM personnel with specific domain knowledge.
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From page 98... ...
The committee heard anecdotal reports of situations where more-costly contractor support was used because limited civilian personnel funding would not support hiring Air Force civil service personnel at grades that would attract fully qualified candidates, even though the comparable costs favored use of Air Force civilians. While the committee has no doubt that such situations have occurred (and continue to occur)
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From page 99... ...
2008. Air Force Policy Directive 36-26, August 27, 2008, Personnel Total Force Development.
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