AFRL wins workforce development award

  • Published
  • By Larine Barr
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFPN) --  The Air Force Research Laboratory's director of personnel is excited about winning a highly coveted award, not just for her own organization, but because of what it says about the entire lab.

"This is an AFRL award, an enterprise-wide effort, that says AFRL cares about its people," said Personnel Director Ms. Polly Sweet, whose organization has earned the prestigious undersecretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Workforce Development Award for 2007.

The award was established in 2004 as a way to recognize field organizations that have made exemplary contributions to the career-long learning and development of their workforce. The goal of the award is to help promote objectives of the USD (AT&L) Goal 1 - a high performing, agile and ethical workforce. The lab won the Bronze award in the 5,000 personnel and above category.

With a workforce of more than 5,800 world class scientists and engineers, the lab is recognized for instituting innovative programs to recruit, motivate, and retain its people, along with developing the next generation of Air Force leaders.

The award gives credit to several AFRL programs aimed at cultivating workforce development, training, and a mutually supportive climate at formal and informal levels. Among the most successful practices are the lab's work at establishing a culture of learning, leadership's commitment to workforce development, a strong mentoring program to direct the efforts of young scientists and engineers that align with their interests and talents, significant career broadening opportunities, strong ties with colleges and universities, an industry exchange program, and supervisors' regular review of metrics to assess and enhance progress.

Ms. Sweet noted that because AFRL is geographically dispersed across the United States, this presents an ongoing challenge to maintain cohesion and integration of programs. To address this, her organization set up a formal structure for managing workforce development by establishing personnel policy boards at each of the nine technical directorates and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and a workforce council composed of personnel policy board chairs from each directorate.

"The board looks at issues like succession planning, core competencies, and how to ensure we get the right people who have the core competencies they need and the training required, along with who needs career broadening," Ms. Sweet said "This has proven to be a good construct for the last year and a half."

Another enterprise-wide policy implemented by the workforce council was to require new graduates to work as bench-level scientists for the first three years before taking on other efforts such as program management, and establishing an AFRL-wide standardized process to announce division and branch chief positions.

With its emphasis on innovative work, AFRL is recognized for its ability to retain its employees through numerous learning opportunities and respect for the individual. The implementation of the Lab Demo Contribution-based Compensation System has offered an additional tool to motivate and retain AFRL's scientists and engineers. Annual raises have ranged as high as 32 percent, depending on the level of contribution, demonstrating to employees that success is recognized and awarded. Another aspect of the Lab Demo program offers researchers a sabbatical of up to six months to pursue an area of scientific interest.

The lab's recruiting program is lauded for its multiple programs to attract new talent. Each directorate conducts recruiting at top regional colleges and universities and AFRL sponsors biannual college-level competitions to design and build small satellites as part of its University NanoSat Program. Other programs include AFRL's summer internship programs, the Wright Scholar Research Assistant Program at Wright-Patterson AFB, and the Student Career Experience Program.

Workforce development within AFRL encompasses the current workforce and the workforce of the future. The lab's successful education outreach program encourages the study of science and engineering in the United States by fostering programs for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

Ms. Sweet said that support from AFRL leadership -- from headquarters to directorate management -- has been the key to success. "AFRL leadership is very committed to workforce development, hiring and retaining our people. They put a lot of time and effort into mentoring our workforce," Ms. Sweet said.

In an organization charged with solving urgent warfighter needs and creating the Air Force of the future, Ms. Sweet acknowledges that maintaining the right culture is not a luxury, but is mandatory. "We are a strategic asset for the Air Force and are excited about our mission. The men and women of AFRL are committed to serving their country through their passion for the important work they do."

The Honorable James C. Finley, deputy undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology) presented the award to AFRL Nov. 6 during the Program Executive Officers/Systems Command Commander's Conference luncheon at Fort Belvoir Officer's Club, Md.

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