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Personnel experts enhance Reserve's service to Soldiers

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris
  • 99th Regional Support Command
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  The Army Reserve's 99th Regional Support Command hosted a two-day training event May 19-20 at the Maj. John P. Pryor Army Reserve Center here.

The training was led by subject matter experts from the Army's Civilian Personnel Advisory Center located at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

"What we wanted to do was provide a centralized point of expertise from CPAC to come down to train all the civilian employees in the 99th," said Scott Farole, 99th RSC's Directorate of Human Resources branch chief.

Employees from the 99th RSC's Area Maintenance Support Activities and Equipment Concentration Sites throughout the region and several other Army Reserve units stationed here also attended the training.

"We have individuals from other organizations attending these briefings, and they bring that back to their supervisors and their subordinates and disseminate the information," Farole said.

The 99th RSC provides essential services and support throughout the nation's northeast region, caring for all Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to approximately 330 training, maintenance and storage facilities from Maine to Virginia. The command's Civilian FTS Branch supports nearly 1,200 employees by processing promotions, evaluations, awards, retirements, timecards, employee in- and out-processing and other personnel actions.

By improving their processes through training events such as this, human-resources personnel are better able to provide the support that enables unit commanders to focus solely on training and growing leaders to ensure the Army Reserve has the skills necessary to meet future mobilization demands.

"The information we received will help us both as folks who are applying for positions and folks who are conducting a review of resumes and documents we receive as part of the system," explained Bill O'Byrne,  Army Reserve's 78th Training Division staff operations training officer . "It's great when the 99th includes us in things like this because otherwise we wouldn't have access to this type of information."

O'Byrne and the other attendees received training on many human-resources topics including resume writing veteran's preference; interview practice; hiring action policies; management and employee relations; and the Military Technician program.

"[We want] to provide guidance to the selecting officials on some of our policies and procedures, and things that would help us get jobs filled more quickly," said Julie Lindsey, Fort McCoy CPAC senior human resources specialist.

Lindsey added that a key component of CPAC's mission is to help Army Reserve Soldiers use their military skills and leadership training in the civilian workforce as members of the MILTECH program.

"They're Reserve Soldiers, they're doing their weekend drills and their two weeks during the summer, but they need a good career to go along with that," she said. "What better for a Soldier than to have a civilian position with the federal government - I think it's a perfect fit."

For more information on CPAC, visit http://www.mccoy.army.mil/Civilians/CPAC.asp.