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Solutions sought to concerns about extra duties

Nothing irritates airmen like the seemingly endless proliferation of additional duties and training requirements that waste their time.

When we asked you what you thought about the issue, dozens sounded off with your own stories and pet peeves.

“Why does every squadron have a safety NCO, or a security manager?” asked an engineering noncommissioned officer stationed in Europe.

“Couldn’t either of these jobs be filled by civilians at the wing level?

“And why isn’t there just a training office on base instead of at every single squadron?”

Good questions. And it seems the Air Force is listening. Teams with the Air Staff and Air Force Personnel Center are looking for things airmen do other than their primary jobs. The goal: To eliminate some and make others less painful.

The effort is still in the early stages, but AFPC officials say a number of steps are being considered, including

* Curtailing additional duties assigned to airmen.

* Reducing ancillary training requirements.

* Streamlining training courses.

* Enhancing Web-based personnel management tools.

* Holding personnel training sessions for squadron commanders.

* Using off-the-shelf task-management software to relieve administrative burdens on commanders and supervisors.

Col. Bill Foote, AFPC’s director of personnel services, said it’s too early to promise the Air Force will get rid of unpopular duties such as telephone control officer, but he promises they’re giving everything a tough look.

“I think the door is wide open to try to do as much as we can to reduce workload,” Foote said. “In this expeditionary world that we’re in, we want airmen to focus in on their jobs and [we want to] try to reduce as much as we can those things that are just kind of extraneous.”

The effort began with a time assessment team that Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel, dispatched to bases to see how commanders and airmen spend their time, and what demands were particularly burdensome.

The team, led by Foote and Mark Doboga, director of personnel programs integration at Air Force headquarters, also looked for innovative solutions already used at bases that perhaps could be applied across the Air Force.

In August, the team spent about a day at each of 10 bases — RAF Mildenhall, England; Spangdahlem and Ramstein, Germany; Andrews, Md.; Peterson, Colo.; Nellis, Nev.; Travis, Calif; Yokota, Japan; Kunsan, South Korea; and Hickam, Hawaii. At each base, team members visited with airmen of every stripe.

“We asked for the unvarnished view,” Foote said.

Here’s what they found:

Too many additional duties

Additional duties such as telephone control officer, safety NCO, ancillary training NCO and security manager are eating into airmen’s time. The Air Force Manpower Agency has identified 72 Air Force-directed additional duties, and is now reviewing them to eliminate some and reduce the time required to perform others.

“They’re trying to get a good solid … base for what are the important additional duties and what we should be focusing on,” Foote said.

Ancillary training is a burden

Despite an effort last year under then-Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley to reduce the amount of time spent on ancillary training, the requirements remain a burden on airmen.

The assessment team found a number of problems, including a lack of computers in some units — such as maintenance squadrons — that airmen can use to complete computer-based training and poorly tailored courses that make some airmen spend more time on training than is necessary.

A personnel and manpower development team under Newton is looking at how to reduce the number of training requirements, keep new ones from creeping in and better provide the right training.

Fewer personnel specialists have caused administrative headaches

The Air Force has reduced the number of personnel at bases and consolidated them into mission support squadrons and force support squadrons, which has left commanders, first sergeants and superintendents shouldering the administrative burden.

While personnelists are unlikely to return to commanders’ orderly rooms, the team found that the base-level service delivery model’s Web-based personnel functions can be improved to streamline administrative work. The personnel center’s personnel services group is working to improve the Web-based personnel management.

Another solution at some bases, Foote said, is to use software such as Microsoft Sharepoints to improve management of documents such as performance evaluations and decorations paperwork.

It could be some time before the Air Force announces reductions to ancillary training and additional duties or rolls out better personnel management tools, but Foote said the Air Staff and personnel center are working hard to alleviate commanders’ and airmen’s frustration.

For now, you’ll have to pass your time as telephone control officer.

DISCUSS: What do you think should be eliminated?