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LIEUTENANT GENERAL
DONALD L. PETERSON
DEPUTY
CHIEF OF
STAFF,
PERSONNEL
UNITED
STATES AIR FORCE
18
JULY 2001
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Chairman and members of the
Committee, it is a great honor to come before
you to represent the men and women of the
United States Air Force and report the status
of our Air Force personnel programs and
policies, including recruiting, retention and
quality of life efforts.
Our people are our most crucial
readiness component, and as we begin a new
millennium, we must continue to recruit and
retain the best and brightest to sustain the
force. We rely on a highly skilled, diverse, educated and technologically
superior force of world-class officers,
enlisted men and women, and civilians to
function as an effective war-fighting team.
Despite the challenges they
face, our people remain willing to give the
extra effort needed to achieve the mission --
and our families support those decisions.
Our people are proud of their
contributions to our nation's security and
cognizant of how that security contributes to
our nation's unprecedented prosperity and
the freedoms we all enjoy.
Air Force leadership values their
service and is committed to taking care of our
people and their families.
A
key to our ability to execute the National
Military Strategy is establishing end strength
at a level where our resources are appropriate
to our taskings. Then, we must attract sufficient numbers of high quality,
motivated people, train them, and retain them
in the right numbers and skills.
Meeting end strength has been
challenging during a decade of sustained
economic growth, record low unemployment,
increasing opportunity and financial
assistance for higher education, and declining
propensity to join the military.
In fact, exit surveys show that
availability of civilian jobs is the number
one reason our people leave the Air Force. In addition, we have severely stressed parts of our force,
primarily those individuals who man our
low-density/high-demand (LD/HD) systems.
The Quadrennial
Defense Review (QDR) will help us refine our
mission and determine the right end strength.
However, we already know that the
current situation cannot persist -- we must
either add end
strength or reduce taskings.
With Congress' continued
support, we will be able to address this issue
and correctly size and man our force to
perform our mission and achieve our national
objectives.
People
are essential to readiness.
During
the past year, we averaged over 13,000 active
duty and reserve men and women deployed daily
around the world, and another 76,000 are
forward based on permanent assignment.
They do what is necessary to execute
the mission -- work long hours and endure
prolonged separation from their families. At the same time, individuals at home station pick up
the duties of those who are forward deployed.
Earlier this year, I traveled to
Europe, the Pacific, and Southwest Asia to
talk with our people, to see the conditions
under which they are working, and to listen to
their concerns.
Despite the fact that our people are
tired, stressed, and strained, morale is high.
Almost universally, our people
expressed concern for our Air Force and pride
in what they do.
They are interested in understanding
and executing leadership priorities.
They also want their concerns listened
to, understood, and acted upon.
They do not ask for much.
They simply want the appropriate tools
and enough trained people to do the job, and
they want to know their families are being
taken care of.
We need to attract America's best and
brightest, and we must retain them.
While
patriotism is the number one reason our people
-- both officers and enlisted -- stay in the
Air Force, patriotism alone cannot be the sole
motivation for a military career.
We must provide our people with
quality of life commensurate with the level of
work they perform and the sacrifices they make
for their country.
RETENTION
We
are unique among the Services in that we are a
retention-based force.
Our expeditionary mission and our
complex weapon systems require a seasoned,
experienced force and we depend on retaining
highly trained and skilled people to maintain
our readiness for rapid global deployment.
However, we expect the "pull" on
our skilled enlisted members and officers to
leave the Air Force to persist.
Businesses in the private sector place
a high premium on our members' skills and
training, which makes retaining our people a
continuing challenge.
In addition, manning shortfalls,
increased working hours and TEMPO continue to
"push" our people out of the Air Force.
The result of these "push" and
"pull" factors is that our human capital
remains at risk.
Enlisted
Retention
Highly
trained, experienced enlisted men and women
are the backbone of our personnel force; they
are vital to the success of our mission.
Adverse retention trends, particularly
for our first-term (4-6 years) and second-term
(8-10 years) enlisted members, have been our
number one concern. We measure reenlistment rates by the percentage of those
members eligible to reenlist who reenlist.
For first-term enlisted members, our
reenlistment goal is 55 percent, 75 percent
for second-term members, and 95 percent for
career (over ten years) members.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2000, we missed all
three goals. The first-term reenlistment rate
was 52 percent, second-term reenlistment rate
was 69 percent, and the career rate was 91
percent.
However, FY 2001 reenlistment rates
show some improvement.
As of 31 May 2001, the cumulative
reenlistment rate for first-term was 57
percent; for second-term it was 70 percent and
for career airmen, it was 91 percent. While
second-term reenlistments are slightly up from
FY 2000, the continued shortfall in this area
continues to be our most significant enlisted
retention challenge.
Second-termers are the foundation of
our enlisted corps; they are the technicians,
trainers, and future enlisted leaders.
Our career airmen reenlistment rate
also continues to be of concern.
While the rate remained constant at 91
percent, it is still below goal by 4 percent.
Figure 1 illustrates retention trends
since 1979.
Figure
1 (As of 31 May 01)
Retaining the right skills in our
enlisted force is just as important as
retaining the right numbers.
Figures 2 and 3 show trends in first-
and second-term reenlistment rates for
critical and key warfighting skills.
We have shown progress in some areas.
However, most of these skills are still
below goal.
For example, while the second-term
reenlistment rate for communications/computer
systems control specialists is up 10 percent
from FY 1999 to FY 2001, the rate is still 30
percent below goal.
Figure
2 (As of 31 May 01)
Figure
3 (As of 31 May 01)
The
Air Force, unlike a business, cannot recruit
many already trained members, such as F-16
avionics specialists.
It literally takes us eight years to
replace the experience lost when an 8-year
noncommissioned officer leaves the Air Force.
There are no shortcuts.
In addition, it costs less to retain
than to recruit and retrain, and when we
retain, we maintain skill, experience and leadership.
Now, more than ever, we must address
the factors that encourage our people to leave
or stay. Approximately seven out of every ten enlisted men and women
will make a reenlistment decision between FY
2001 and FY 2004 -- over 193,000 enlisted
members.
Considering today's strong economy,
potentially large numbers of our enlisted
force, our technical foundation, will likely
continue to seek civil sector employment and
more stable lives for themselves and their
families.
In our 2000 retention survey,
availability of comparable, well-paying
civilian jobs and inadequate pay and
allowances were cited as top reasons our
people leave the Air Force.
It is essential we address these issues
now to minimize impact on our readiness.
Officer
Retention
Officer
retention is also challenging our Air Force.
We measure officer retention by
cumulative continuation rates (CCR), the
percentage of officers entering their 4th year
of service (six years for pilots and
navigators) who will complete or continue to
11 years of service given existing retention
patterns.
Our navigator and air battle manager
(ABM) CCRs showed improvement from FY 1999 to
FY 2000; the navigator CCR increased from 62
percent to 69 percent and the ABM CCR from 45
percent to 51 percent.
However, our non-rated operations and
mission support CCRs declined from FY 1999 to
FY 2000.
Our non-rated operations CCR was 51
percent in FY 2000, 6 percentage points below
the FY 1999 rate, and 8 percentage points
below the historical average of 59 percent --
the rate as of March 2001 is 49 percent.
In FY 2000, our mission support officer
CCR was at 43 percent, down from 45 percent in
FY 1999-historical average has been 53
percent.
Figure 4 illustrates historical CCRs in
these specialties.
Figure
4 (As of 31 Mar 01)
As
with the enlisted force, we have difficulty
retaining officers with skills that are in
demand in the private sector.
We are particularly concerned about
retaining our scientists, engineers, and
communications-computer systems officers.
We are not meeting our desired levels
in these critical specialties.
In FY 2001, we have shown some
progress, as CCR for developmental and civil
engineers and communications-computer systems
officers improved slightly.
However, we remain below historical CCR
for these officers.
Figure 5 illustrates historical CCRs
for selected critical skills.
Figure
5 (As of 31 Mar 01)
Retention
Initiatives
Through
a number of initiatives, we are fighting back;
progress is slow but steady.
For our enlisted troops, we increased
the number of career specialties eligible to
receive a Selective Reenlistment Bonus over
the past three years.
Now, 154 of 197 skills (78 percent of
enlisted specialties) receive a reenlistment
bonus. The number of enlisted men and women who received initial
bonus payments increased dramatically from
approximately 2,500 in FY 1995 to over 17,000
in FY 2000.
Over 23,600 members received
anniversary payments and nearly 193 received
accelerated payments, which are provided to
members experiencing hardship situations.
The result has been a moderate
improvement to first-term retention, and the
ability to hold steady in second-term and
career retention.
We
appreciate the legislative authority you
granted us to offer our people the Officer and
Enlisted Critical Skills Retention Bonus of up
to $200,000 over their careers and the
increase in Special Duty Assignment Pay to a
maximum of $600 per month.
This will help us turn around the
crisis we are experiencing in retaining our
mission support officers and enlisted members
in our warfighting specialties.
We also implemented a liberal High Year
Tenure (HYT) waiver policy to allow
noncommissioned officers with skills we need
to stay past their mandatory retirement.
In FY 1999, we granted nearly 1,600
such waivers, and we granted over 1,100 in FY
2000. As
of 31 May 2001, we granted 643 HYT waivers.
On
the officer retention front, our Acquisition
community held a Scientist and Engineer Summit
to review our long-term strategy for
recruiting, retaining and managing these
highly technical officers and civilians.
A key outcome of the Summit was that
our Acquisition community was identified to
serve as the interim
central manager for scientists and
engineers.
They are developing a concept of
operations for our scientists and engineers,
and analyzing scientist and engineer manpower
requirements.
A second summit is being planned to
review and prioritize the requirements,
establish career path guidance and request
civilian hiring practices to make us
competitive with industry.
We have also outsourced many of our
officer engineering and programming
requirements.
Pilot
Retention
Management
of our pilot force has been a top priority
since the fall of 1996 and is one of our most
difficult challenges.
The "pull" of civilian airline
hiring and "push" of TEMPO continue to
impact our pilot retention.
Major airline hiring is far exceeding
predictions.
Since 1994, annual airline hires have
nearly quadrupled: from 1,226 in Calendar Year
(CY) 1994 to 4,799 in CY 2000.
The 14 major airlines could hire every
fixed-wing pilot that the United States Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force produces and
still not meet their requirements for the
foreseeable future.
Figure 6 graphically portrays this
challenge.
Figure
6
In
addition, the overall increase in TEMPO over
the past several years has affected the pilot
force. A
recent Air Force study of pilot retention
concluded that high TEMPO carries significant,
adverse retention impacts, and recent surveys
cite TEMPO as among the leading causes of
pilot separations. In FY 2000, there were 1,084 approved pilot separations
compared to only 305 separations in FY 1995.
As a result, we ended FY 2000
approximately 1,200 (9 percent) below our
pilot requirement.
Our pilot CCR of 45 percent in FY 2000
is down from a high of 87 percent in FY 1995.
We project a pilot shortage of
approximately 1,200 (9 percent) by the end of
FY 2001.
We
are aggressively attacking the pilot shortage
from numerous angles. We are focused on fully
manning our cockpits and have prioritized
rated staff manning.
We established temporary civilian
overhire billets and implemented a Voluntary
Rated Retired Recall Program.
We also increased pilot production from
650 in FY 1997 to 1,100 in FY 2000 and beyond.
In October 1999, we increased the
active duty service commitment for pilot
training to ten years.
Additionally, the Expeditionary
Aerospace Force is helping us manage TEMPO for
our people, affording us greater
predictability and stability.
Under
a provision of the FY 2000 National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA), we began offering
Aviation Continuation Pay (ACP) payments
through a pilot's 25th year of
aviation service at up to $25,000 per year.
We also expanded eligibility to include
pilots through the rank of colonel.
This ACP restructuring resulted in a
substantial increase in committed man-years
and improved force predictability.
We made further enhancements to the
pilot bonus program in FY 2001. The up-front lump sum payment cap was raised from $100,000 to
$150,000 and up-front payment options were
expanded for first-time eligible pilots.
These enhancements are designed to
encourage pilots to take longer-term
agreements. Although the bonus take rate for first-time eligibles has
declined over the past two years, due in large
measure to the growing effects of the
sustained "pull/push" retention forces
described, the ACP program continues to play a
vital role in partially countering these
effects.
All
of these efforts, along with significant
improvements in quality of life, are helping
us manage the pilot shortage, allowing us to
hold the line in a tough retention
environment.
RECRUITING
Since
our transition to an all-volunteer force in
1973, we met our enlisted recruiting goals in
all but two FYs: 1979 and 1999. More high school graduates, approximately 70 percent, are
choosing to enroll in college versus pursuing
a military career -- in many cases, they
don't realize what the military has to
offer. Our
footprint in the civilian community is getting
smaller.
There are fewer military influencers --
parents, grandparents, teachers, counselors,
and community leaders -- who have served in
the military.
In fact, only 6 percent of our
population under age 65 have military
experience.
These factors, combined with the
longest sustained economic growth in our
nation's history, have made recruiting a
diverse all-volunteer force extremely
difficult.
However, we have taken significant
steps to reverse the downward trend in
recruiting.
In FY 2000, we waged an all-out war to
recruit America's best and brightest -- and
won. We
increased recruiter manning, developed more
competitive accession incentives, instituted
an expanded and synchronized marketing,
advertising, and recruiting effort, and
broadened our prior service enlistment
program. Additionally, we targeted minority recruiting markets with a
goal to increase diversity.
Using
these weapons, we ended FY 2000 at over 101
percent of our enlisted accession goal,
accessing 34,369 towards a goal of 34,000. In addition, we did not sacrifice quality.
We still require 99 percent of our
recruits to have high school diplomas and
nearly 73 percent of our recruits score in the
top half of test scores on the Armed Forces
Qualification Test.
Additionally, 848 prior service members
returned to active duty, compared to 601 in FY
1999 and 196 in FY 1998.
For FY 2001 year to date, we have
accessed 487 prior service members.
Enlisted
Accession Goal History
|
FY92
|
FY93
|
FY94
|
FY95
|
FY96
|
FY97
|
FY98
|
FY99
|
FY00*
|
FY01
|
|
35100
|
31500
|
30000
|
31000
|
30700
|
30200
|
31300
|
33800
|
34,000
|
34,600
|
*
Lower than projected retention/accessions
increased FY99 goal by 2,300, FY00 goal
further increased to 34,000. FY01 goal set
at 34,600 (NPS/PS Goal combined this FY)
Table
1
As
of 31 May 2001, we had accessed 101 percent of
our year-to-date recruiting and net
reservation goals.
The significance of this achievement is
clear when you compare it to the same point in
FY 2000, when we had accessed 83 percent of
our recruiting goal and 93 percent of the net
reservation goal.
Being ahead of our year-to-date
recruiting targets alleviates the pressure
associated with surging during the summer
months to overcome a mid-year deficit -- the
bottom line is we have sent enough enlistees
to basic training and have enough applicants
under contract for this fiscal year --
exceeding FY 2001 recruiting goals.
We should enter FY 2002 with a healthy
bank of applicants holding enlistment
reservations.
Also, successful recruiting means
enlisting airmen whose aptitudes match the
technical skills we need.
Recruiting is more than just numbers --
we are concerned about accessing the
appropriate mix of recruits with mechanical,
electronics, administrative, and general skill
aptitudes.
In FY 2000, we fell about 1,500 short
of our goal of 12,428 recruits with mechanical
aptitude. In response to this shortfall, we developed a targeted sales
program that is now being taught to all our
field recruiters to highlight the many
opportunities we offer to mechanics.
Additionally, we have targeted
enlistment bonuses against the skills we need
and our efforts have paid off.
Through May 2001, we accessed 8,199
mechanical recruits against our goal of 7,703
(106 percent).
We've
also recognized the need for additional
recruiters. At the beginning of FY 1999, we had 985 production
recruiters.
Since then, we've made significant
improvements in recruiter manning.
As of June 1, 2001, recruiter staffing
was at 1,466 -- 88 percent towards our goal of
1,650.
Figure
7
Bonuses
have also proven effective in helping us meet
recruiting goals.
We expanded the enlistment bonus
program from 4 skills in 1998 to 85 in FY
2001, and increased the maximum payment to
$12,000 -- 69 percent of our bonus eligible
accessions selected a 6-year initial
enlistment in FY 2000.
Additionally, an up to $5,000
"kicker" incentive program helped us fill
the ranks during hardest-to-recruit months
(February through May).
To encourage "trained" personnel to
return to certain specialties, in Apr 01 we
introduced the Prior Service Selective
Reenlistment Bonus of up to $14,000 to target
a previously untapped pool of prior service
personnel.
The bonus targets high-tech,
hard-to-fill positions.
In FY 2001, the bonus program remains
an instrumental tool in our recruitment
arsenal.
The effectiveness of the FY 2001
initial enlistment bonus program is
illustrated by our year-to-date success in
making recruitment goals. Additionally, the Air Force maintains an aggressive and
integrated advertising and marketing campaign
in order to saturate the applicant market and
reach a cross section of American society.
Officer Recruiting
In
FY 2000, we achieved 97 percent of our line
officer accession target, even though FY 2000
production was 21 percent greater than FY 1998
and 5 percent above FY 1999.
The
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)
anticipates shortfalls of 191 officers in FY
2002 and 169 in FY 2003.
However, we are working on several initiatives to reduce
these shortfalls, such as offering contracts
to non-scholarship ROTC cadets after the
freshman rather than sophomore year, and some
legislative initiatives to ensure a strong and
viable officer corps in the future.
Recruitment
of health care professionals has also been
difficult.
Many medical, dental, nurse and
biomedical specialties are critically
undermanned -- only 80 percent of our clinical
pharmacy positions are currently filled.
In FY 2001, for the first time, we will
offer a $10,000 accession bonus to pharmacists
who enter active duty.
QUALITY
OF LIFE
The
welfare of our men and women serving our
nation is critical to our overall readiness
and is essential to recruiting and retention.
But more than that, providing our
people with adequate quality of life is the
right thing to do.
With continued strong support from
Congress, we will pursue our core quality of
life priorities: adequate manpower, improved
workplace environments, fair and competitive
compensation and benefits, balanced TEMPO,
quality health care, safe and affordable
housing, enriched community and family
programs, and enhanced education
opportunities.
This
year, we added two new core quality of life
priorities: manpower and workplace
environments.
Updated wartime planning factors and
real-world operations validate increased
manpower requirements beyond our FY 2000
level. Meeting
our current mission requirements with our
current end strength is wearing out our people
and equipment at an unacceptable rate.
It is essential that we match resources
to taskings -- manpower requirements must be
programmed to the necessary level to execute
today's missions and meet tomorrow's
challenges. We need to increase our force,
primarily in combat, combat support,
low-density/high-demand, and high TEMPO areas.
RAND conducted an independent
assessment of our requirements and reported
that manning requirements may be understated.
To keep trust with our men and women,
we must provide the essential manpower to help
balance TEMPO and to meet the national
military strategy.
The
Air Force recognizes that workplace
environments significantly impact readiness
and morale.
Our workplace environments have been
neglected over the years -- requirements
exceed available resources.
Our infrastructure accounts have
continually been tapped to pay for readiness.
Sustainment, restoration, and
modernization (SRM) have not been fully
funded, allowing only day-to-day recurring
maintenance and life-cycle repairs, creating a
backlog of required SRM.
Military construction has been
drastically reduced since the mid-1980s.
The resulting degraded and unreliable
facilities and infrastructure negatively
impact productivity on the flightline, in
maintenance shops and administrative areas,
and also adversely influence career decisions.
In the long term, reduced funding
results in reduced combat capability and
readiness, increased SRM, parts and equipment
backlogs, and creates larger bills for the
future.
Providing
our people with safe, affordable living
accommodations improves quality of life,
increases satisfaction with military service,
and ultimately leads to increased retention
and improved recruiting prospects.
Our
unaccompanied enlisted personnel desire and
deserve privacy; the Air Force will continue
to pursue a private room policy for our airmen
using the 1+1 construction standard.
Currently, 86 percent of our
unaccompanied airmen housed on base has a
private room with a shared bath.
This percentage represents airmen
living in newly constructed dorms configured
to the DoD construction standard, as well as
airmen who are living in 2+2 dorm rooms (rooms
once shared by two individuals). The Air Force
goal is to provide a private room to all
unaccompanied airmen (E-1 to E-4) by FY 2009.
The 1+1 construction standard will
allow our members to live in a private room
with a shared bath.
We are also focusing efforts to
improve, replace, and privatize over 12,800
family housing units for our members with
families by FY 2010 -- 59,000 of our housing
units need revitalization, as their average
age is 37 years. Ensuring members and their families have adequate visiting
quarters and temporary lodging facilities is
also a priority.
We
are committed to ensuring our personnel are
adequately compensated - this is crucial in
helping us recruit and retain quality
personnel. Congressional support in achieving
gains in military compensation played a
significant role in improving overall quality
of life for our people.
We are encouraged by the positive
momentum gained from the improved compensation
packages in the FY 2000 and 2001 National
Defense Authorization Acts. Our 2000 retention survey indicated officer and enlisted
intent to stay in the military increased in
nearly all categories over the 1999 survey
results -- from 24 to 31 percent for
first-term airmen, 36 to 43 percent for
second-term airmen, and 81 to 84 percent for
career enlisted members.
Company grade pilots' intent to stay
increased from 25 to 42 percent, and the
intent of other company grade officers
increased from 52 to 59 percent.
Field grade pilots' intent to stay
increased from 63 to 77 percent, but other
field grade officers' intent decreased from
87 to 84 percent.
In
the 2000 Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Quality of Life Survey, First Sergeants ranked
pay and benefits as the number one quality of
life priority within their units, and
commanders ranked pay and benefits as second
-- TEMPO ranked first.
In the October 2000 Major Command
Revalidation, all major commands commented
that we must continue to improve compensation
and benefits.
All major commands ranked pay and
benefits in their top three quality of life
priorities.
The
3.7 percent pay raise (one half percent above
private sector wage growth) authorized in the
FY 2001 NDAA and the targeted pay raise for
E-5s to O-4s were important and positive
developments.
The need to widen our bonus footprint
to cover more career fields, coupled with
current retention rates, is strong evidence
that the basic pay structure is too low. The
Secretary of Defense's revised budget
submission contains targeted pay raises to
help balance military with private sector
wages for same education and experience and to
also ensure we continue to reward promotion
and avoid pay table compression.
The revised submission also contains a
military pay raise for all others of 5%.
Both are needed to remain competitive
in this robust economy.
Out-of-pocket
expenses are also an area of concern.
Recent improvements in the Basic
Allowance for Housing (BAH) will help prevent
further growth of out-of-pocket expenses.
In CY 2001, our members' out-of-pocket
housing expenses are reduced from 18.9 to 15
percent--the stated OSD goal is to eliminate
them by CY 2005.
This is an added expense and is likely
to be included in the Secretary of Defense's
review of quality of life issues.
It
is also important our members are not
adversely impacted by moves required by the
government.
Our members are particularly concerned
about the loss of their spouses' incomes
when transferring to an overseas location.
The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is
designed to defray the difference between the
cost of living in the CONUS and OCONUS, not to
replace lost spousal income.
Overseas employment for spouses often
is not available or is only available at
reduced income levels due to local custom or
Status of Forces Agreements. The loss of
spousal income due to assignment to overseas
locations is causing difficulties in filling
overseas billets and is discouraging members
from continuing active duty service.
To
help reduce out-of-pocket moving expenses, the
FY 2001
NDAA equalized the Dislocation Allowance
for E-5s and below and authorized advanced
payment of temporary lodging allowance as well
as a pet quarantine reimbursement up to $275.
However, members who are ordered into
or out of base housing (including
privatization or renovation of housing) at
their permanent duty station without a
permanent change of assignment do not receive
a dislocation allowance.
Again,
we appreciate the support of Congress.
Enhancing community and family programs
is crucial to the readiness of a force that is
62 percent married.
We created the Community Action
Information Board (CAIB) to bring together
senior leaders to review and resolve
individual, family, and installation community
issues that impact our readiness and quality
of life and to improve the synergy of our
resources.
The
Air Force maintains one of the nation's
largest childcare programs -- 55,000 children
per day.
As part of a recent force-wide
retention initiative, we launched a major new
child care initiative called the Extended Duty
Child Care Program to provide child care homes
for parents whose duty hours have been
extended or changed.
Despite these initiatives, we are able
to meet less than 65 percent of the need for
child care in support of active duty members.
We must continue to invest in quality
childcare facilities and programs.
We
recognize the economic benefits our members
and their families derive from strong
community and family programs such as youth
programs, family support centers, fitness
centers, libraries and other recreational
programs that support and enhance the sense of
community.
Physical fitness is a force multiplier;
thus investments in fitness facilities,
equipment and programs directly impact our
capabilities.
We also support the commissary benefit
as an important non-pay entitlement upon which
both active duty and retired personnel depend.
We
have an excellent on-line tool available for
military members and their families to access
detailed information on all our installations.
The website, www.afcrossroads.com,
provides a host of support programs to include
a spouse forum, pre-deployment guide,
eldercare hotlines, school information, and a
spouse employment job bank.
It also offers an avenue for young
people to chat with youth at the gaining
installations so they can learn from their
peers what it is like being a young person at
the installation to which the family will be
moving. The
job bank allows spouses to search for jobs
submitted by private industry and post up to
three resumes for review by potential
employers.
In further support of spouse employment
needs, we are participating with other
Services in providing IT training to a limited
number of spouses.
This website is receiving seven million
hits per month.
Although
our current TEMPO can make educational
pursuits difficult, our Learning Resource
Centers and distance learning initiatives
offer deployed personnel education and testing
opportunities through CD-ROM and interactive
television.
The Montgomery GI Bill contribution
period of one year ($100 a month) is a
financial burden for new airmen.
Additionally, we have joined with the
other Services, the Department of Labor, and
civilian licensing and certification agencies
to promote the recognition of military
training as creditable towards civilian
licensing requirement.
We
are committed to providing quality,
accessible, and affordable health care for our
Air Force people, their families and our
retirees.
We greatly appreciate the many health
care programs authorized in the FY 2001 NDAA,
such as TRICARE for Life for approximately 1.5
million retirees over the age of 65.
By enrolling in Part B Medicare, they
will be able to visit any civilian health care
provider and have TRICARE pay most, if not
all, of what Medicare does not cover.
We
look forward to implementing extended TRICARE
Prime Remote to our family members who are
accompanying their military family member on
assignment to remote areas, eliminating
co-payments for family members, establishing
chiropractic care for active duty members at
some selected sites, reducing the TRICARE
catastrophic cap to $3,000 per year, and
improving claims processing.
We have established patient advocates,
beneficiary counseling/assistance coordinators
and debt collection assistance officers at
medical treatment facilities to assist our
people with TRICARE processing issues.
CIVILIAN WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
No
discussion of Air Force recruiting and
retention would be complete without including
our civilian workforce.
In fact, our Air Force civilians are
more critical to our mission than ever before.
With an expeditionary aerospace force,
they provide critical reachback capability and
we have turned more and more to them for
critical technical and professional expertise.
However, our Air Force civilian
workforce is not structured to meet
tomorrow's mission, a challenge that is
faced by the entire federal civilian
workforce.
Our Air Force workforce is out of
balance because of significant personnel
reductions during the drawdown years.
As a result of actions taken to effect
these reductions, in the next five years, over
40 percent of our civilian career workforce
will be eligible for optional or early
retirement.
This contrasts significantly with our
civilian force in 1989 -- 16% of our permanent
U.S. professional and administrative personnel
were in their first five years of service.
Now, only 8 percent of the workforce
are in their first five years of service.
While we are fully meeting our mission
needs today, without the proper force shaping
tools, we risk not meeting tomorrow's
challenges.
Figure 8 illustrates our civilian
workforce challenge.
Figure
8
In
order to sustain our civilian force, we need a
diverse mix of developmental, mid-level, and
senior employees.
We have not been complacent.
We developed a four-prong strategy to
attract and recruit civilian employees,
streamline our hiring process, better align
civilian salaries with those of private
industry, and pursue special salary rates for
hard-to-fill occupations.
We must invest in civilian workforce
development to meet today's demands of an
increasingly technical force.
Job proficiency training, leadership
development, academic courses, and retraining
are fundamental in addressing our civilian
workforce retention concerns.
We
will also use separation management tools to
properly shape our civilian force.
Using methods such as voluntary
separation incentive pay and voluntary early
retirement authority, we will retain employees
with critical skills and create vacancies so
that our workforce is refreshed with new
talent. Vacancies created as a result of these
shaping programs will be used to create an
increasingly diverse workforce with new talent
with current skills.
IN
CLOSING
Recruiting
and retaining high-quality military members
and balancing our civilian workforce are key
Air Force issues that impact our readiness --
issues that must be addressed if we are to
maintain the expeditionary culture of our
force. We
cannot easily replace the experience lost when
our people depart the Air Force, nor can we
assume that a replacement will be available.
The "pull" forces that have
severely impacted our recruiting and retention
will continue, and while these factors are
good for our nation overall, they represent a
challenge for us.
We have addressed their impact on
recruiting through a strategy that is
increasing recruiter manning, synchronizing
marketing, advertising and recruiting
programs, targeting our bonuses to critical
skills, and pursuing prior service members to
bring back needed experience.
Retention
is affected by both "push" and "pull"
factors.
In particular, our members and their
families are stressed by a way of life that
cycles between temporary duty and regular
55-hour work weeks at home.
Our retention strategy is based on the
premise that if we take care of our people and
their families, many of them will stay with us
despite the pull factors.
Our core quality of life programs
underpin the strategy.
We must match resources to taskings and
recapitalize our people, readiness,
modernization and infrastructure areas.
We need to upgrade neglected workplace
environments, provide safe and affordable
living accommodations, adequately compensate
our people, enhance community and family
programs, provide educational opportunities
and affordable health care. Reducing out-of-pocket expenses, and access to health care
are two areas in which Congress' support is
key.
Finally,
we recognize the increasingly important role
of civilians to our armed forces.
They are our scientists, engineers and
support force that provides reachback for
deployed and forward-based forces.
We need flexible tools and policies to
manage this force.
We depend on a highly skilled, diverse, educated and
technologically superior force of world-class
men and women to function as an effective
war-fighting team.
Air Force people are an indispensable
part of our national military strategy -- men
and women who are dedicated and selfless
professionals. There is no substitute for high-quality, skilled and trained
people. You have provided many of the tools we
need and we will work hard to gain your
continued support for legislation, funding and
the flexibility we need to manage our force.
These tools are critical to the Air
Force's future and to the future of our
nation.
I
appreciate the opportunity to speak to this
Committee and share the initiatives we have
taken to combat our retention and recruiting
challenges and convey to you the appreciation
of our extremely capable and committed Air
Force people.
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