Study seeks civilians' views on training, leadership

WASHINGTON (Army New Service) -- More than 95,000 Army civilians will be asked to complete a survey in what some say is an unprecedented attempt to include civilian input with military findings in the final phase of the Army Training and Leader Development Panel study.

ATLDP, the largest study of its kind, has been gathering information from surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with soldiers and family members, over the past year and a half. The first three phases of the study focused on Army officers, NCOs and warrant officers.

The civilian study was added in an attempt to assess the total state of the force, officials said.

Maureen Viall, chief of Plans and Strategies for the assistant secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affiars) is the civilian study’s director. "The ATLDP civilian study is particularly timely," Viall said. "Because the Army’s future state is the nucleus of our transformation and this study -- along with cutting-edge initiatives such as Civilian Personnel Management System XXI -- support the transformed Army."

"Civilians are part of the total force, and our inclusion in this study really demonstrates that," said Sharon Scott, an employee development specialist temporarily detailed to assist with the implementation of the project. "It’s important that every civilian who gets one completes it and returns it no later than Feb. 28. There have been dramatic results already from the previous phases of the study.

The broad-based civilian survey asks questions about Army culture, employee job satisfaction, and seeks to determine if civilians believe that operational and institutional training is encouraged and available to enhance their job performance, said Scott.

Some of the changes following the previous panel recommendations affect both soldiers and family members.

One initiative will offer soldiers who have a high school senior the opportunity to request stabilization at their present duty station. It allows them to delay moving their family to a new location until after graduation.

Based on panel recommendations, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki directed the rewrite of training manuals FM 25-100, Training the Force and FM 25-101, Battle Focused Training.

"Civilians are leaders, too. Civilians are supporting soldiers and soldiers can’t go to war without civilians," said Beth Jones, personnel management specialist with 30 years of Army civilian service who is also working with the project. "It is important that we assess training and leader development of the entire Army -- both military and civilian."

Both Scott and Jones say the anonymous survey is a valuable opportunity for employees to impact change, insure attainment of the civilian objective force to support transformation, and build cohesiveness between the Army’s soldiers and civilians.