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NCOs Can Now Rank Their Assignment Preferences Under a New Army System

For the first time, the U.S. Army will allow noncommissioned officers to rank where they would like to be assigned.

Similar to its Assignment Interactive Module for officers, in use since 2016, the service announced earlier this month that it will roll out the virtual "Assignment Satisfaction Key -- Enlisted Marketplace" (ASK-EM) for the 2021 manning cycle.

Those eligible include active-duty soldiers in the ranks of E-6 through E-8, according to a release. They can give their top five choices for assignment location.

Read Next: Fort Bragg Now Admits its Twitter Account Wasn't Hacked

"Soldier preference is important because we believe a Soldier performs at a higher level when they're in an assignment that interests them," Col. Michael McGregor, director of the Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate, said in the release. "Soldiers have some input into their assignments now, but that will increase significantly as we field ASK-EM."

The goal is to more accurately pair noncommissioned officers with their duty station based on their "knowledge, skills, behaviors and preferences," the release states.

"These initiatives optimize the Army's ability to get the right Soldier with the right talents to the right assignment at the right time. It will also allow commanders to maximize the talent provided them," McGregor said.

The new program is set to go live Nov. 11, according to a separate announcement .

Leaders will get more information about when a soldier is best available for a permanent change-of-station move or temporary duty assignment to match gaps the service needs to fill.

"Heightened awareness about Soldier talent, along with knowing when he or she is available to move, will help us make informed decisions when assigning the most qualified Soldiers to meet Army requirements," McGregor explained.

ASK-EM follows two pilot programs that involved 1,700 NCOs, according to Army Human Resources Command.

According to Col. Bryan Harris, Armor Enlisted Branch chief at the command, 55% of those participating received one of their top five choices.

The automated marketplace will someday serve an average of 35,000 NCOs per year, and will be tied to "five enlisted manning cycles per year, compared to two cycles for officers," the command said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.

Related: Air Force to Let Fighter Pilots, Crew Stay at Preferred Bases

Oriana Pawlyk

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Winning in the Marketplace: How Officers and Units Can Get the Most Out of the Army Talent Alignment Process

Kyle Greenberg , Mark Crow and Carl Wojtaszek | 11.05.20

Not too many years ago, if the Army had wanted you to have an opinion about your next assignment, it would have issued you one with your duffel bag. The same had been true for units, as well. Leaders at every level largely left it to the Army to fill their formations with individuals based not on talent, but on having the right rank, branch, and availability date. In 2019, this changed when the Army introduced a market into its assignment system. Gone were the constraints that offered familiar comfort to both units and officers but that also prevented maximizing the talents and productivity of our officer corps. Within the assignment marketplace, some found the competition and ability to tell their own story liberating. Others cursed the comparative chaos and extra work it created. However, in the end, the Army’s first large-scale implementation of assignment markets not only demonstrated they can improve how we assign our people, but they can also uncover for units and officers the keys to succeeding in future markets.

This fall, nearly fifteen thousand officers and five hundred units are participating in the Army’s second major iteration of the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP) through the Assignment Interactive Module Version 2.0 (AIM 2.0). Analysis and feedback from last year’s ATAP showed many areas of success. Officer preferences, often shaped by their talents, were the most important factor in determining future assignments; units could directly influence who entered their formations by ranking officers they preferred; and the Army discovered additional information about the many talents resident in our officer corps and about the unique talent demands of each job. More importantly, the Army learned several lessons from its first iteration of ATAP that can help officers, units, and the Army improve.

What Officers Can Do

Officers can greatly influence their chances of receiving the jobs they prefer in the market. Most importantly, moving officers should build their resumes in AIM 2.0 . If officers are the engine of the marketplace, then the information they share on their AIM 2.0 resumes is the fuel that keeps it humming along smoothly. Complete and informative resumes allow units to better identify officers with backgrounds or experiences that are a particularly good fit for a specific job or type of work. Surprisingly, though, only 60 percent of officers in last fall’s marketplace took the time to describe their talents within the AIM 2.0 resumes. Choosing not to do so is a missed opportunity as officers with resumes benefited significantly, receiving 40 percent more #1 votes from units than officers without detailed resumes. There is no magic formula for what to include on a resume, but discussions with units suggest that most were looking for officers who could write reasonably well and who put forth the effort to prepare a resume.

In addition to building resumes, moving officers should interview with units they are interested in joining . In a survey given to all units at the end of last year’s marketplace, 35 percent said that interviews were the most important factor in determining how to rank officers in the market. Even though AIM 2.0 is online, the marketplace is designed to facilitate person-to-person interaction, albeit predominately via phone or video conference. Moving officers who reach out to unit POCs and schedule interviews early in the marketplace have better chances of finding the jobs they want than officers who wait for units to contact them.

A third way an officer can maximize the benefit of ATAP is to submit truthful preferences to the assignment market. While this is not immediately obvious, it becomes clearer once an officer understands how they are paired to jobs after the marketplace closes. The Army uses a deferred acceptance algorithm to match officers to jobs. While that might sound complicated, it is a relatively straightforward process—but one that works best when officers and units submit truthful preferences. T he advantage of a deferred acceptance algorithm is that it produces the best match even when a #1 to #1 match—meaning an officer and a unit both rank each other as number one—is not possible . For example, if a moving officer’s most preferred job is in the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 82nd ranks him #2, then it is still in the officer’s best interest to rank this job #1. This is because there is no guarantee the 82nd will receive its most preferred officer—who may be looking at the 101st. In other words, officers cannot achieve a better outcome by misreporting their actual preferences, or “gaming the system.” In fact, officers often hurt themselves when they do this. The design is intentional and allows officers to list “reach assignments” without penalty. So, go ahead and reach for that dream job knowing your chances of success in the market will not be diminished. (You can learn more about deferred acceptance algorithms at here or here .)

There is substantial evidence that officers did not understand this point in the 2019 market. Post-marketplace surveys revealed that 31 percent of officers admitted that they did not place their true first preference #1 in the marketplace. Furthermore, roughly 75 percent admitted that at least some of their preferences were not truthful. Unfortunately, these officers potentially hurt their chances of receiving their most desired assignments. After all, no algorithm can know what you truly want if you do not share that information. If you are a moving officer, your best strategy is to truthfully rank as many jobs as possible according to your true preference for each job. The deeper you rank jobs, the better chance you have of getting a job that aligns with your preferences and takes advantage of your unique talents.

What Units Can Do

Just like officers benefit if they truthfully preference as many jobs as possible, units benefit by ranking as many officers as possible. U nits that rank all of the officers they are interested in will do better than units that only consider officers who rank their jobs #1. If a unit does not receive its most preferred officer, the deferred acceptance algorithm will attempt to match that unit with its second-most preferred officer, and so on. Therefore, units should not exclusively chase #1 to #1 matches. Instead, units should rank all officers that interest them, which will increase their chances of getting an officer who is a good talent fit.

A second suggestion for units is to put your best foot forward and professionalize your hiring processes . Many officers in last year’s market found little more than boilerplate job descriptions and had difficultly contacting units and scheduling interviews. Lacking detailed information about the job and unit’s hiring process, officers would call the incumbent listed in a job’s AIM 2.0 profile. This often resulted in a negative first impression of the unit and a missed opportunity for the unit to connect with an officer interested in its job. The best units made it easy for officers to understand the unique aspects of their jobs, were enthusiastic about selecting their teams, and executed well-coordinated and structured interviews.

We also recommend units engage with officers in their formations who are in the marketplace and who expect to move this summer . For units, these officers can provide a great resource to identify other units’ best practices, share what attracts officers to jobs in the marketplace, and help scout for their talented replacements in the market. Commanders, likewise, can serve as references on the AIM 2.0 resume, supervisors can call units on behalf of their moving officers, and units can lead professional development workshops to train their officers on how the marketplace works. Because both the unit and officers within the unit are in the marketplace, both can benefit from what the other is seeing and doing.

What the Army Can Do

Finally, there are several changes the Army should implement to make the marketplace more effective for both officers and units. First, the Army should better educate the force on how officers pair to units. As the first ATAP iteration showed, officers and units that work with ATAP incentives will have better outcomes than those that do not take advantage of ATAP opportunities. As more units and officers participate in the marketplace, they should naturally grow more acquainted with how to make the process work best for them. But the Army should also actively seek to inform units and officers on how best to leverage the marketplace to their advantage. A marketplace with well-understood rules and processes builds trust, encourages more information sharing, and is more effective in aligning talent.

Second, the Army should limit the number of “signals” officers can send to units to indicate their interest. During last year’s marketplace, officers adjusted their preferences multiple times to signal interest to different units at different times. This resulted in an unlimited number of signals for officers to use and generated substantial problems. It also frustrated many units who could no longer be certain which officers were genuinely interested in them and which officers were likely to change their preferences immediately after a phone call or interview.

The Army should give every officer a specific number of “market coins” to be sent to units of their choosing independent of their preference list. This would help units learn which officers are interested in their jobs without requiring officers to repeatedly change their preferences. The method of using signals to quickly identify interested participants has a proven record of making other matching markets more efficient . Admittedly, officers should think carefully about how they use these signals, but with this mechanism in place they would no longer need to strategize or manipulate their preferences, which are kept secret. Signals also put officers on a level playing field: every officer can receive the same suggestions regarding how to use their signals, and no officer can gain an advantage by repeatedly adjusting preferences. Furthermore, when officers have a limited number of signals that cannot be reused, units that receive the signal can be confident in the officer’s intentions. Likewise, units that receive very few signals will know that they need to work harder to garner more interest in their positions.

A final recommendation is to continue building tools within AIM 2.0 that help participants find the right talent in the marketplace. Units and officers alike found AIM 2.0 difficult to navigate from a talent perspective. The Army should start by including dropdown boxes categorized by relevant talent dimensions such as previous military experience, education (level and discipline), civilian credentials or qualifications, language experience, and hobbies or interests. KSBs—Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviors—which units can use to find officers with particular talents, should be incorporated into these talent dimensions. Such dropdown boxes are most effective when units have the ability to customize the categories they search within, and when the Army can add to or remove elements from dropdown fields as more information becomes available. For example, if several officers reveal that they have a particular computer programming skill on their resumes, then this specific skill could be added to dropdown boxes in future markets.

The potential payoff of the Army’s transition from a centrally managed officer assignment system to an assignment marketplace is high. However, it will take several more years of hard work from officers, units, Human Resources Command, and other stakeholders to continuously improve it. As officers gain more control over their careers and units gain more control over who joins their teams, better talent alignment will increase productivity, improved officer satisfaction will boost retention, and the sharing of talent supply and demand data will give the Army valuable information about its most important resource—its people.

Maj. Kyle Greenberg, Lt. Col. Mark Crow, and Col. Carl Wojtaszek are labor economists teaching in the Social Sciences Department at the United State Military Academy. Their research focuses on talent management, labor market outcomes, and human capital development within the Army.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.

Image credit: Cpl. Rachel Diehm, US Army

Thank you for this well written article. I am going through this process for the first time this cycle. One issue that you did not introduce is HRC intervention. In effect, a particular branch can choose to “manage” key positions. An officer will receive an email stating that they were selected for a position, with instructions to rank that position #1. The unit is also instructed to rank the selected officer #1 artificially creating a 1 to 1 match. The result is a partially fixed market.

The second element that this article does not address is the use of labels. Officers are assigned labels (e.g. Nominative, Post CSL, JDAL) which can be used as screening criteria for what positions they can match with. It is unclear if this would actually prevent a mutual match, but officers are being instructed that they will only be assigned to positions that match their assigned label. For instance an officer not identified with a nominative label may not match with a nominative assignment, even if the unit and officer mutually select each other. Conversely, a an officer with a Post CSL label cannot match with a position not labeled as Post CSL.

This is my second time using the marketplace and I like it quite a bit, in theory. As Perry mentioned, a lot of jobs in our category have been pre-slated and they don't reflect as such. It's very frustrating trying to guess which positions are already filled and which ones are open for contact. You can only signal interest to so many units and trying to not waste those signals turns into attempting to game the system. I'm not sure which ones are still open, so I'll switch up my preferences every so often to try and maximize my signal to the ones that are actively looking. It would be a little easier if the unit contact information was updated and accurate. I would also recommend allowing for more signals. I have known officers that ended up with their 45th choice or more. With a large pool of jobs, you never know which one will be a great fit for sure. A little more wiggle room would be awesome.

The ATAA is actually not a faithful representation of the Gale-Shipley algorithm (GS).

1. The information about preferencing shared between unit and officer is an addition to the algorithm.

-Units cannot be expected to rate all officers in the marketplace. They therefore reasonably rely on the signal of interest in order to narrow their search space. -Right now, this signal of interest is the ‘green check’ that signals to a unit that an officer has ranked the unit in the top 10% of their preferences. -This cap naturally drives officers to change their preferences many times, in order to maximize the number of units that will see them as interested.

-In GS, rankings are not revealed before it comes time to match. The National Resident Matching Program solves this interest problem by requiring Medical Students to apply to the residencies they are interested in. This imposes a cost on the students (so that they cannot freely indicate interest to all programs) but allows the student to apply to as many programs as they wish (not arbitrarily limiting them at 10%). They also keep rankings separate from applications so that students can be honest in their preferences.

-AIM2 should incorporate some mechanism to show interest that does not rely on an officer ranking a unit in their top 10%. This could be a simple form for officers to fill out when applying to different units, and allow each unit to specify a short prompt in order to prevent officers from copying and pasting the same generic note of interest multiple times.

-The ‘top 10%’ rule also discourages officers from listing ‘reach’ units as the authors advocate. If only the top 10% of units ranked are alerted to an officer's interest, then wasting these precious slots on reach assignments is not in an officer’s interest. Instead it encourages officers to ‘play it safe’ and only rank assignments in their ‘target range’, in order to maximize the chance of being matched with something ‘good enough’ and avoid the possibility of missing each of the reach assignments and being relegated to the officer’s last choice.

2. A true stable solution to GS requires the ability to choose to go unmatched. That means, if an officer is not given any of the assignments they ranked, then they should not be mandated to fill the least desirable slots (those still left open). This would require the Army to incentivize undesirable positions with things like increased pay, responsibility, or other perks in order to attract talent to undesirable positions.

Great comment,

All this AIM2 business is allowing me to see what other interesting jobs are out there, sure I rank them, but I still reach out to the ones I care about. If some respond I moved them up in the rankings.

I am currently competing in the 21-02 marketplace and find the whole process immature, frustrating and distasteful.

1) Units are extremely uneducated about the AIM marketplace, its process and what the officer is dealing with on their end. Units may be reviewing officer resumes but aren't aware that they can contact officers and sell their unit to those officers. Those that I have dealt with that ranked me in their top 10% told me that they didn't know how to contact the officers. It appears that the information provided in the AIM system isn't available to the units beyond what is on the resume (which lacks any fields for POC info). Many units consider a phone call from an officer asking for information about the unit/position as a sign of extreme interest making for frantic phone calls from the unit and for uncomfortable conversations when they don't see the officer mark the unit with the "green checkmark". Units also are unaware of the business rules for the marketplace demanding years worth of OERs, PT cards, additional resumes and agreements to 2-3 years worth of service to the unit. I found joint units and agencies to be the most uneducated and to some extent hostile to individuals contacting them asking for more information or consideration as they believe they have already selected 1-3 candidates in the first phase and their task is complete.

2) Information about units and positions was substantially lacking 70% of the time. Many units are uploading power point presentations about the unit while failing to provide any useful details about the position, the sub organization/staff section the candidate would work in, and POC info. I can't count the number of times I had to contact the incumbent and ask them to speak with the hiring POC to contact me back because the information provided was wrong or the POC was "busy" with other matters. This lack of upfront information eats up a crazy amount of time on behalf of the officer while they are also doing their current job. Units are also failing to realize that officers have families and in addition to information about the unit and position, need to understand the family side of life. Schools, housing, extra curricular activities, traffic, spousal employment, etc. All of this information must be researched and discussed with the family for 50+ assignments; its daunting and emotionally draining. Providing as much of this information upfront as possible (or at the very least providing solid links to the information) would save multitudes of time for all candidates. Many units during interviews couldn't answer any family life questions and were not prepared to provide contact information for the installation.

3) The online AIM system is clunky for both officers and units. Officers have no place to record notes about assignments. Units have no place to record notes about officers. The AIM assignments and officer lists are not exportable to any format so everything must be done on paper. Additionally, the website itself suffers terribly from programing bugs flakes out scrambling the information provided on the page (requiring constant refreshes) or it will display information that was filtered out, causing confusion. There is no in system messaging service requiring units and officers to contact each other using traditional methods of email and telephone. Sadly not everyone is in the same time zone so most messaging falls to email and I don't know about most of you but I get way too much email already; as a result I have missed several emails from units. As a leader and mentor, I don't have access to the AIM system for my subordinates and thus no way to advise and counsel them on their assignment choices unless they screenshot and print me a list. Considering HRC has basically stepped out of the line of fire for assignments and is no longer willing to act in an advisory role for junior officers, seniors really need some way to know what is being offered so they can better counsel their troops.

4) There is a lack of closure/disclosure on behalf of the officer and the unit. Some units graciously contacted me and let me know where I was located on their list and I greatly appreciated that because it allowed me to rank other units higher on my list. Others played their cards close to their chest hoping to have the officer rank them higher on the list as a fall back if their #1 pick fell through. I'm sure this is also happening with officers who are being non-committal to their 2-n unit choices in hopes that they will be rank higher as a fall back to their number 1 pick. This cat and mouse game is very unprofessional and distasteful in my professional opinion but based on the system the Army set up, this seems to be how they want the assignment game played. The units I was upfront with and notified where they were on my Order of Merit List, dropped me from their top 10% the next day.

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New enlisted marketplace, promotion board changes arriving

Some big changes for enlisted soldiers are being implemented this coming year, including an “assignment marketplace” for staff sergeants through master sergeants and promotion boards dialing in on how much non-commissioned officers know about their subordinates, according to Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston .

Also on the horizon, a phone application for squad leaders to help with administrative tasks and a prototype for what is expected to become a Sergeants Major Assessment Program , Grinston told Army Times during an Oct. 1 interview.

Many of the changes fall under Grinston’s signature push during his tenure as the ranking enlisted soldier within the Army, known as “ This is My Squad ." The initiative aims to build more internal cohesion at some of the smallest unit levels within the service. For many troops, that’s the squad.

Promotion boards

A Sept. 5 memo codified some of the initiative’s changes for soldiers going before promotion boards in the future.

“We want to reinforce team and squad leader understanding of how our Army cares for its soldiers,” Grinston said during the telephone interview. “So promotion to sergeant and staff sergeant will include situational questions.”

Rather than just being asked about regulations or telling a board about their own assignments and accomplishments, soldiers will be asked about those for whom they’re responsible.

“So now we want them to come in, and maybe not tell them about themselves,” Grinston added. “Talk about their squad. How many people do you have? What’s [this] private’s first name? How many kids does he have? Where did he grow up?”

Grinston said he’s also assembling a panel of 24 staff sergeants from a variety of jobs and commands across the globe to assist with This is My Squad . That panel is expected to meet for the first time in November.

“They’re going to stay on that panel for a while to give me feedback on how can we get this culture going and what tangible things I can do to really replicate this throughout the Army,” he said.

The sergeant major of the Army has also been working with the service’s Futures Command to develop a phone app for squad leaders that will assist them with tracking training, sponsorship and counseling documents.

“We’ve gone to the combined arms center, through TRADOC, trying to develop a new counseling form,” Grinston said. “I actually want to digitize this counseling form. So … it gets uploaded and … helps the squad leader with some of those administrative tasks that they have to do on a daily or monthly basis.”

ASK-EM going live

The new Assignment Satisfaction Key-Enlisted Module, or ASK-EM, goes live Nov. 11.

It will allow E-6s, E-7s and E-8s to use an assignment process similar to the one rolled out last year for officers. One key difference is that a human resource manager selects enlisted for their next assignment, whereas the officer marketplace allows units to do so.

“That’s going to be available for all enlisted soldiers, staff sergeants to master sergeants, you’ll see those locations that are available [and] you can preference those," Grinston said. “And then the manager looks at those and puts you on assignments based on your preferences. … That’s something coming out that we’re really excited about.”

Enlisted job marketplace launches this summer for select soldiers

Armor, intelligence and some quartermaster troops will test a new assignment market system that launches this summer and is scheduled to go service-wide beginning in january 2021..

The pilot program could provide those enlisted troops more choices in their careers than the old assignment system, which forced troops to choose six basing options — three in the United States and three overseas, Sgt. Maj. Wardell Jefferson, the Army G-1′s senior enlisted soldier, explained in March.

A pilot program for ASK-EM took place in June and was open to 700 NCOs in armor, military intelligence and quartermaster specialties. Of the soldiers who participated in the program, 55 percent received one of their top five choices, according to an Army Human Resources Command release.

ASK-EM is intended to give NCOs more input into where they want their career to go next by letting them provide other details about their backgrounds and skills that can be used by HR managers during assignment slating.

Soldiers also will be able to see how popular an assignment is, giving them insight into how other soldiers are ranking positions.

Eventually, an average of 35,000 NCOs per year are expected to view and preference assignments through the new system, according to the HRC release.

Prototype assessment program

The Army is preparing to introduce a senior enlisted assessment course, similar to the one that kicked off earlier this year for officers hoping to become battalion commanders.

“We’re going to have 32 sergeants major, in November, go through the battalion commander assessment program ," Grinston said. “That will help us shape what we’re going to do for the sergeants major assessment program.”

The battalion commander assessment program takes place at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and involves sit-downs with Army psychologists, a leader reaction course and argumentative essays.

The battalion commander candidates also went before “blind boards," which required an individual’s background paperwork to be scrubbed of personally identifying information. A sheet was used to separate the panel and the interviewee.

When the battalion commander assessment program started in January, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville called it a “transformational change” in how the service chooses battalion commanders.

This past spring, Grinston received feedback from some of senior sergeants major who spent the winter sitting in on blind boards , providing input to the panels.

Any potential program wouldn’t be borne out of the prototype until 2022 at the earliest, Grinston previously told Army Times. But whatever does come of those prototypes likely won’t deviate significantly from what the officers were doing, he added at the time.

Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.

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ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Voice for the army - support for the soldier, army to test enlisted assignment marketplace.

An Army pilot program to test a marketplace-style assignment system for enlisted soldiers, like the new system now in use by the officer corps, is set to launch this summer with selected soldiers.

Soldiers and NCOs in armor, military intelligence and quartermaster MOSs will begin testing the Assignment Satisfaction Key-Enlisted Marketplace in June ahead of the planned implementation for the entire enlisted force by January 2021, according to an Army news release.

Using spreadsheets and email correspondence, a small number of armor soldiers tested the marketplace concept last year, an exercise that helped improve the web application that will be used in June by the larger group of soldiers. 

With the web-based system, soldiers will see a full list of available positions to choose from, a fundamental departure from the current assignment system in which soldiers are locked into six basing options at home or overseas. The new system will allow soldiers to rank their assignment preferences based on their needs and those of their families.

The effort is part of the Army’s overhaul of its personnel management system. Talent management is a top priority for Army leaders as they seek to refine the way the service acquires, develops, employs and retains its uniformed and civilian force.

In addition to the enlisted assignment pilot, the Army also is implementing several initiatives to streamline its civilian hiring process.

Civilian hiring time has been reduced from about 130 days to less than 80 days, according to data collected during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020. This is due, in part, to the Army’s streamlined security clearance process for select occupations, direct hiring and noncompetitive appointing authorities, the release said.

An Army pilot taking place at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is testing a new preemployment drug test procedure in which new applicants can start their onboarding process as they wait for their drug test to be approved, which could take several weeks.

“We know that less than 1% of the applicants come back positive on a drug test. It is a low risk, but we still want to be careful,” Carol Burton, director of the Army’s Civilian Human Resources Agency, said in the release. “We are committed to trying to improve the process and reduce the hiring time.”

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HRC updates NCO talent management process with ASK-EM

Fort knox, kentucky, united states, story by lt. col. matthew fontaine  , u.s. army human resources command.

FORT KNOX, Ky. – U.S. Army Human Resources Command completed an analysis of the first-ever Army wide market in the Assignment Satisfactions Key – Enlisted Module in February. Four of five noncommissioned officers received one of their top five choices for assignments that will start between July and October 2021. The data shows that 74% of the eligible staff sergeants through first sergeants submitted five or more assignment preferences in ASK-EM to find their next assignment. “With ASK-EM, not only were Soldiers able to see all available assignments and preference them, but their Families were able to be involved as well,” said Sgt. Maj. Roger Rendon, the Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate Sergeant Major at HRC. “They had time to look at them, weigh those installations against each other, research them, and then rank order them - not just a few assignments, but many assignments at once.” This innovative talent management tool for active component enlisted troops is designed to improve Army readiness and empower Soldiers to make better informed decisions for themselves and their Families. ASK-EM, which first ran as a limited pilot in June, reduces the number of annual enlisted movement cycles in a year from five to four, simplifying the process for career managers and providing more stability to Soldiers and Families. It also serves as a bridge from the legacy assignment selection processing to the new IPPS-A Marketplace, which is scheduled to debut in the active Army in December. One of the key components of the new ASK-EM process is a slating optimization algorithm used to inform assignment matches based on both the needs of the Army and Soldier preferences. Using an algorithm reduces bias and improves equitable distribution of potential assignments. "While an aid to the assignment process, what we're really trying to get after is the adage 'Mission first, people always,'” said Maj. Matt Ferguson, the Operations Research Officer who developed and implemented this new assignment slating tool for HRC. “By removing even the perception of bias and providing transparency in assignment decisions, this tool can optimize readiness and preference while supporting the Army People Strategy.” ASK-EM was modeled after the Active Duty Officer Assignment Interactive Module Version 2 (AIM.2), which manages officer moves, and shares several of the same attributes. In addition to using an algorithm like AIM.2, ASK-EM also employs the Year/Month Available to Move, or YMAV, to identify potential movers which increases stability and predictability for NCOs and their families. “We also want Families to know that their Soldiers can request to stabilize by requesting to change their YMAV date. This is a very valuable predictability tool for units and their leadership, as well as a contract that the Army has with the individual Soldier and their Families,” Rendon said. “Knowing how long you will be in a current installation helps the Soldier and the Family plan life events.” For information about ASK-EM, visit the HRC website at www.hrc.army.mil.

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This work, HRC updates NCO talent management process with ASK-EM , by LTC Matthew Fontaine , identified by DVIDS , must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright .

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