ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. – With a few hundred positions still needing to be filled in the Middle East, the solution to satisfying the needs of the active-duty Army with a potential labor pool of qualified and interested Army National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers should come from those already in-theater, saving time and money, according to military research.
And, the key to matching the "supply and demand" could be as simple as establishing and managing two databases that capture the capabilities and requirements.
These are among the findings culled from six months of research from a team of six officers, including two stationed at Fort Bragg. One member is assigned to 1st Sustainment Command (Theater), who initially became aware of the issue during her recent deployment to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Capt. Estela Barrios, the strength management officer-in-charge at 1st TSC, and Lt. Col. Terrance Adams, of U.S. Army Reserve Command, were among several officers along with others from U.S. Army Central, or USARCENT, and a college professor, who presented their discoveries Oct. 28 at the 2015 U.S. Army Operations Research Symposium held at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The team submitted an abstract this summer, and was selected in August. The presentation was titled, "In-Theater Human Capital Management: Is it time for a job fair in theater?"
Symposium organizers say the presentation marked the first time a representative from any of those groups, including members of the Army National Guard, has presented at the annual convention. Going on its 53rd year, the event brings in operations research analysts from throughout the Army to discuss trends and analysis ranging from human development and cyber analysis to future capabilities and force development.
The group presented during the Manpower, Personnel and Training Analysis session. Other officer-researchers included Lt. Col. Gary Pruiett Jr., and Maj. Ivan Zasimczuk of USARCENT G1, Maj. David Leiva and Capt. Steven Coon of USARCENT's National Guard Affairs directorate. Adams was formerly of USARCENT's Army Reserve Engagement Cell in Kuwait.
'Supply and demand' fix
Barrios said solutions began to surface when an Army National Guard member stopped by the personnel office at 1st TSC to discuss extending in theater. When the topic came up, there was a pause, a puzzled look, and numerous questions.
"For nearly a decade I had handled all kinds of human resources issues in Korea, Fort Bliss, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord. But this was the first time an (Army National Guard) Soldier came by, and I wasn't sure how to handle the process," said Barrios, who served as the deputy G-1 during the deployment.
She said the staff received an education on the process of keeping currently deployed National Guard and Reservists on another tour, particularly, since that Soldier's paperwork was just the start of dozens of packets who made up the ranks of the 1st TSC.
Dr. Brian Richard, assistant director at the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University, served as the project advisor and offered his oversight. The location quotient, or LQ, is typically used by economic development professionals to search for workforce strengths and weaknesses in their local region, Richard said. In this case, the researchers' choice to view the concentration of needed military occupational skills in a region as the LQ was appropriate.
"With expected defense dollars tightening, the number of bases expected to shrink, and the dwindling of the Army over the next few years, understanding the LQ and its implications will pay off dividends. Not understanding it would likely be very costly. Just ask those communities that struggle with employment," he said.
The researchers' next issue was figuring out how to link the needs of those units that had vacancies in them with reserve component Soldiers who had the qualifications, interest and backing of their commands to remain.
"At the heart of this is a simple function of supply and demand," said Maj. David Leiva, a National Guard civil affairs officer who holds a master's degree in economic development.
Leiva said economists commonly call this "structural unemployment imbalance," where a position may be located in one part of theater, but the potential Soldier to fill it is located in another part of the region, and neither is aware of the other.
Capt. Steven Coon, an Army National Guard human resources officer who works for USARCENT's National Guard Affairs directorate, said since there was no process to capture the names of Soldiers willing to extend, NGA began collecting them and placing them into a database. The database would be available to USARCENT G1 and 1st TSC G1 to sift through and begin a "virtual job fair" linking MOSs with specific vacancies being held on a different database.
At a town hall, nearly 150 names were collected that day, he said.
Pruiett, the interim executive officer for the G-1 at USARCENT in Camp Arifjan, called the team's energy "a truly herculean effort" to put the study together while in a deployment environment.
"It operationalizes this process, and it nests with the synergistic efforts in order to maximize our human capital in theater," he said.
The presenters said that the idea has since been given a name, "It's Too Easy," an acronym for "In-Theater Solutions To Overseas Opportunities by Extending And Staying Another Year."
Barrios said the concept fits in with the Total Army Force, a priority for the commanding general of 1st TSC, Maj. Gen. Paul C. Hurley Jr., to establish a partnership with all active, Guard, and Reserve units to build an effective and cohesive multi-component team.
"I think we did just that, and the analysts at the annual symposium wanted to hear more about it," she said.