In an effort to bolster employment opportunities at the National Training Center and Fort Irwin Garrison, the installation hosted a delegation of officials from the Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA), and other agencies for a weeklong strategy session to discuss civilian hiring and employment strategies.
This weeklong meeting was the first of its kind to develop such strategies down to the garrison level. “This all started because Fort Irwin has a hard time recruiting talent,” said Jackie Denton, Chief of Fort Irwin’s Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC). “Trying to get top talent to come to this remote and isolated installation is a challenge we face and we’re happy our partners came here to help us overcome it.”
During the week, the agency representatives held an ACS in-brief, attended the Fort Irwin Town Hall, and held meetings with the Fort Irwin CPAC office.
Such agencies included Installation Management Command ID Readiness, as well as Army Community Services.
“Our goal overall, is try to strategically address the issue of spouse employment,” said Shaunya Murrill, Chief, Army Community Services (ACS). “We’re here trying to develop a comprehensive and multipronged approach to spouse employment.”
Under ACS’s umbrella, they have embedded the Employment Readiness Program in which they educate and posture family members and Soldiers with resume building classes, interview preparation classes, career counseling. “With CHRA and IMCOM Readiness being here with the local CPAC office, we’re coming together to advance the issues that family members face and better the quality of life of everyone here on Fort Irwin.”
One such plan is putting together a taskforce that will tackle several strategies such as streamlining the hiring actions of civilian personnel. According to Hong Miller, the current Deputy Director of CHRA, the agency is looking at modifying existing policy, while also providing additional manpower resources to reach a job fill rate of 90 percent by March 2022. “The tools and strategies we use here on Fort Irwin will most certainly be utilized at other installations as well,” Miller said.
The sessions concluded with a meeting with both the command teams of the National Training Center and Fort Irwin Garrison.
According to Fort Irwin’s Family and Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Director Brandi Crist, the weeklong session proved beneficial. “There are new platforms, that they will help implement to connect incoming spouses with some of our positions. By achieving a 90 percent fill rate we will have more capabilities for childcare, expanded hours for all our services, and gives us the opportunity to add new services and amenities for those living here on Fort Irwin.”
For those interested in working at the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, please visit usajobs.gov and type in Fort Irwin as your location to see all available positions in the area.
