No time to spare

[CommunityEditor]

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 per*son*nel 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.


Article: URL TBD

[Bleedblue]

Additional duties are 90 % made up busy work that stems from the days where we were fat with manning.
Most could be eliminated.
Training on line has keep the requirment on paper, but nothing replaces hands on courses, most people cheat with those on line training requirments anyways, they just need a certificat to give to the Training NCO so he/she can get back to work and stay off the "Bad boy List' on the weekly slide show.

[Cornbreadrules]

Originally Posted by Bleedblue

Additional duties are 90 % made up busy work that stems from the days where we were fat with manning.
Most could be eliminated.
Training on line has keep the requirment on paper, but nothing replaces hands on courses, most people cheat with those on line training requirments anyways, they just need a certificat to give to the Training NCO so he/she can get back to work and stay off the "Bad boy List' on the weekly slide show.

How do I sell some CBT's to the USAF? My retirement is coming in a few years and need to have a job!

[Bleedblue]

Originally Posted by Cornbreadrules

How do I sell some CBT's to the USAF? My retirement is coming in a few years and need to have a job!

Computer based training.....
first you take a hands on class....say....first aid...and make it all on a super boring software program that everybody clicks thru untill they get to the test.....

[Measure Man]

Originally Posted by CommunityEditor

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 per*son*nel 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.


Article: URL TBD

Well they do say...the first step is admitting you have a problem.

[omertalifestyle]

First I would get rid of the requirement that you need to show a certificate of completion for any course. All training would be completed once a year at a scheduled Refresher day(which could be spaced out for each person so that it wouldn't affect manning). This would include courses such as SABC and CBRNE, and I would eliminate the requirement that CBTs have to be completed prior to coming to the class.

All Airmen would be able to get all their training done in 1-2days compared to the 15-20 days that we currently have with all the training spaced out.

I would get rid of security monitors in each individual sections and have all security clearance/Line Badge paperwork/issues maintained in the mobility section of each squadron.

1 Training monitor for every 100 airmen, because there is no point for having a squadron with 150 people having 5-6 training monitors, while those with over 800 have 2. This would balance out the work, and squadrons that work a 2-3 shift schedule would always have training monitor to handle issues such as upgrades and TBA discrepancies.

Getting rid of Augmentee duty for not SF personnel (thats why they hired Civilians)

Pass the drug testing program back to the Medical squadron (since they are trained on handling Biohazardous material.

Those are a few for right now, but I'll think of more later:-)

[Measure Man]

We could save 1,000s of hours if we would just eliminate "Because this is the military" as an acceptable answer to why we do so many things...

[smarg]

The fighter pilot CSAFs started all of this, mainly with the last 2, Jumper and Moseley and their "trade bodies for planes" garbage.

Get used to it.

[BlindLemonMeringue]

As on old manpower guy, I cross trained to Manpower in 1972, the additional duties have been a problem forever. You would think after 30 years or more they would have the problem solved.

[Bleedblue]

Well, If we could all stop trying to burn each other (QA anyone ?) and work as a team across the board,
way too many union cards out there.....
Too much read tape
Reduce programs to whats only needed by LAW.
training needs to be realistic and time effective.....do I really need Flight line drivers training every year or two....once should cover it untill you PCS to a different Air feild.
I also think all inspection should be No-notice....ORI....LSET etc.