Talent Management
Concept of Operations
for Force 2025
and Beyond
Department of the Army
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027
September 2015
United States Army Combined Arms Center
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
ii
Foreword
The U.S. Army is world renowned for its ability to develop leaders and produce action-oriented
people with valuable skills. This ability produces a competitive advantage for the Nation. For
over 30 years, however, the manner in which the Army conducts personnel management has
gone largely unchanged while the geopolitical and technological environments have changed
with unprecedented speed. Although the Army’s industrial-aged personnel management system
is adequate today, it will not support the Army’s needs in 2025 and beyond. Our senior civilian
leaders within the Department of the Army and the Department of the Defense recognize this and
are calling for a human capital management transformation that will enable our effort to meet
future strategic challenges more effectively. American history is filled with examples of military
services ignoring indicators that change was needed, resisting reforms due to parochialism or
cultural inertia, and forfeiting the initiative to change voluntarily. At times this has forced
civilian political leaders to dictate change. The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act is a prime example.
The Army can choose to shape and lead the coming transformation in human capital
management or it can wait, react, and follow.
For 2025, we must optimize the human performance of every Soldier and Civilian in the Army
Total Force and build cohesive teams of trusted professionals who thrive in ambiguity and chaos.
To fulfill this mandate, we must also optimize talent management through work force planning
and the acquisition, employment, development, and retention of Army Professionals. As we
build better teams comprised of the right individuals, we improve the Army. The principles and
functions described in this concept of operations are not intended to address symptoms or
second-order problems. Instead, they are designed to support a holistic transformation by
establishing the foundation required to implement and sustain the policies and practices that will
optimize talent management. This includes building an Integrated Talent Management Enterprise
with a single leader, or executive integrator, at the flag officer level to ensure unity of effort. The
Army requires a comprehensive Talent Management Strategy for Force 2025 and Beyond. This
concept of operations will inform the development of that strategy.
Robert B. Brown
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
Commanding
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
iii
Contents
Foreword ii
Contents iii
Executive Summary iv
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Vision 1
1.2 Purpose 1
1.3 Scope 1
2. Strategic Context 3
2.1 The Strategic Environment 3
2.2 Diverse Talent for a Complex World 3
2.3 Talent Management Requirements 4
3. Challenges 6
3.1 The Demand for Talent Management Transformation 6
3.2 Talent Management Capability Gaps 7
3.3 Impediments to Change 9
4. A Framework for Army Talent Management 11
4.1 Talent and Talent Management 11
4.2 Guiding Principles 12
4.3 Core Functions 14
5. An Integrated Talent Management Enterprise 17
5.1 Functional Integrators 17
5.2 Cohort Management 17
5.3 Decentralized Execution 18
5.4 Risks 18
6. Key Tasks for Transformation 20
7. Conclusion 22
Appendix A: Problem Areas 23
Appendix B: Promising Leads 26
Appendix C: Linkage to Concepts and Strategies 33
Appendix D: References 36
Appendix E: Endnotes 39
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
iv
Executive Summary
The strategic environment poses challenges that necessitate organizational change within the
Army. The most reliable insurance against an uncertain future is a sustained investment in the
human dimension of combat power. Therefore, the Army will optimize the talent management of
all Army Professionals and teams for their mutual benefit so they can thrive and win in a
complex world.
The fundamental purpose of this concept of operations is to inform the development of an Army
Talent Management Strategy by describing the overarching concept of talent management
principles and functions. Talent is the unique intersection of skills, knowledge, and behaviors in
every person. Talent management involves integrating various activities to generate a positive,
synergistic effect on organizational outcomes and harness individual aptitudes for the mutual
benefit of the individual and the organization. Talent management is a required capability
that impacts readiness.
Present day personnel systems will be inadequate to support Force 2025 and Beyond. The FY15
Capability Needs Analysis identified three high-risk capability gaps related to talent
management. A comprehensive study by the Army Science Board found that personnel
management is distributed, siloed, and lacks unified senior leadership and that workforce
planning does not take place beyond the Program Objective Memorandum cycle.
A talent management transformation cannot be derived from the sum of individual initiatives. It
requires a holistic, systems approach. The required system must optimize talent management
through work force planning and the acquisition, employment, development, and retention of
Army Professionals. In order to achieve this vision, the Army Total Force requires an Integrated
Talent Management Enterprise that can effectively provide accountability and appropriate
authorities, inform resource allocation, and ensure unity of effort in support of talent
management principles and functions. This concept of operations sets three goals for talent
management transformation:
a. The Army takes an enterprise approach to talent management with a single authoritative
integrator at the executive level responsible for holistic workforce planning and the
coordination of talent management functions.
b. Army talent management principles are embedded within all talent management
functions across the Army Total Force and are applied the career lifecycle of all Army
Professionals in a manner appropriate to each cohort and career field.
c. Functional integrators effectively collaborate with all proponents to determine talent
management requirements and capability gaps, then facilitate the integration of holistic
DOTMLPF-P solutions to close those gaps.
To meet the challenges of 2025, the Army must effectively manage diverse talent for a
complex world.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
1
1. Introduction
1.1 Vision
The Army transforms how it acquires, employs, develops, and retains human capital to optimize
the talent management of all Army Professionals and teams for their mutual benefit so they can
thrive and win in a complex world.
1.2 Purpose
In support of this vision, the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center has developed this Talent
Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond.
The U.S. Army Operating Concept institutes Force 2025 and Beyond (F2025B) as the Army’s
comprehensive effort for changing and improving land power capabilities in support of the joint
force.
1
The Army Human Dimension Strategy establishes the development of a F2025B Talent
Management Strategy for the Army Total Force as a required key task.
2
This strategy must
establish the talent management principles that will be applied to the core functions of the
Army's human capital management enterprise and
the career lifecycle of all Army Professionals through
a holistic, integrated approach. These core functions
are workforce planning, acquisition, development,
employment, and retention. This strategy must
establish a framework for managing talent
management systems and required capabilities. It
must identify the ways and means for integrating
talent management solutions across doctrine,
organization, training, materiel, leadership,
personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P)
domains. Lastly, an effective talent management
strategy must facilitate comprehensive organizational
transformation.
The fundamental purpose of this concept of operations is to inform the development of an
Army Talent Management Strategy.
1.3 Scope
As described in TRADOC Pamphlet 71-20-3 The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
Concept Development Guide, a concept of operations (CONOP) provides context and outlines a
broad framework for understanding how to solve an emerging military problem with future
capabilities.
3
In Chapter 2, this CONOP will outline the compelling reasons why talent management is a
required capability by reviewing the needs of the future force. Then in Chapter 3, it will explain
why the current system is insufficient to meet these needs by highlighting the findings of several
“How can we bring in more highly-
skilled people and how can we
reward those people and promote
people not simply on the basis of
when they joined but even more
and more on the basis of their
performance and talent? How can
we be that kind of organization?”
102
Secretary of Defense
Ashton B. Carter
30 March 2015
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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independent assessments. Chapter 4 will describe a framework for Army talent management
based on existing models and literature. Then Chapter 5 will describe the components of an
enterprise system for sustaining talent management and addressing the associated gaps in Army
capabilities. Finally, Chapter 6 will outline a plan of action for implementation. In short, this
CONOP answers five fundamental questions:
a. Why does the Army need talent management?
b. Why will the current system be insufficient?
c. What should Army talent management be?
d. How should Army talent management function?
e. What is the way ahead?
This CONOP reinforces continuity of effort by providing an amalgamation of research findings,
existing initiatives, and authoritative guidance and then synthesizes them into a useable
framework. This CONOP supports:
The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World
2014 Army Strategic Planning Guidance (ASPG)
It is subordinate to:
TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-0 The U.S. Army Capstone Concept (ACC)
TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1 The U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex
World (AOC)
TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-7 The U.S. Army Human Dimension Concept (AHDC)
It is informed by:
U.S. Army Mission Command Strategy FY 13-19 (AMCS)
Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS)
Army Doctrine Reference Publication 1: The Army Profession (ADRP1)
It is nested with:
The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to Win in a Complex
World (AHDS)
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2. Strategic Context
2.1 The Strategic Environment
The global security environment is increasingly complex and
shaped by several emergent trends: the rise of non-state actors;
an increase in hybrid threats; state challenges to the
international order; and expanding urbanization.
4
The
acceleration of economic change, shifting generational values,
and technological advances are leading to an ever more
competitive and interconnected world. Furthermore, progress in
cognitive science may revolutionize the way institutions recruit,
educate, train, and develop their human capital.
5
Another important aspect of this environment is
fiscal austerity and budget sequestration. Reduced funding for the Army will lead to significant
reductions in personnel end-strength, readiness, and investment through 2023.
6
The threats to U.S. national security we face in this environment are also evolving in
unprecedented ways. Now and in the future, a diverse group of adversaries will employ
traditional, unconventional, and hybrid strategies that challenge American interests. Threats may
emanate from nation states or transnational terrorists, insurgents, and criminal organizations.
Enemies will continue to apply advanced as well as simple and dual-use technologies. Enemies
will seek to avoid U.S. strengths and disrupt U.S. advantages. Additionally, to accomplish
political objectives, enemy organizations may expand operations to the American homeland or
subvert our efforts through infiltration. Enemies will operate in cyberspace, leverage social
media, and use propaganda and disinformation to rapidly affect public perception.
7
Taken together, these changes in the strategic environment will increase the value of unique
skills and capabilities which span the full range of military operations and challenge previous
assumptions that Army forces trained for one set of military missions are adequately trained for
all others.
8
Recent conflicts have reinforced the need to balance the technological focus of Army
modernization with an emphasis on the human, cultural, and political continuities of armed
conflict.
9
Therefore, the Army will require enhanced capabilities in the cognitive, physical, and
social (CPS) components of the human dimension and must optimize the performance of each
Soldier, Civilian, and team. These capabilities are necessary for the future Army to maintain
overmatch against its adversaries and win.
10
2.2 Diverse Talent for a Complex World
The nature of the strategic environment requires our Soldiers, Civilians, and teams to possess
more nuanced and diverse knowledge, skills, and behaviors (KSBs) than ever before and
necessitates optimizing the human performance of Army Professionals in several specific areas.
First, the Nation expects that Army Professionals adhere to the highest standards of conduct in
conflict, ensuring ethical and disciplined application of force. They must live the Army Ethic and
be professionals of character who are competent and committed.
11
Second, decentralized
operations in complex environments require adaptive leaders, cohesive teams, and resilient
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
4
Soldiers that thrive in conditions of uncertainty.
12
Third, Army Professionals must be able to
think broadly about the nature of conflicts and the larger context in which they operate. They
need to think critically, developing creative solutions to complex problems.
13
Fourth, Army
Professionals must possess social intelligence and leverage
cross-cultural expertise to operate among populations, promote
regional security, and be interoperable with other military
services, government agencies, and partner nations.
14
Furthermore, the effective practice of Mission Command also
requires new and different KSBs be inculcated across the
Army Total Force because the mission command philosophy
represents an intellectual and cultural shift for the Army.
15
To ensure cohesive teams of Soldiers and Army Civilians practice mission command and
produce solutions to complex human problems that are ethically right, tactically sound, and
strategically appropriate, the Army must change the way it recruits, trains, educates, and
manages its human capital.
16
,
17
2.3 Talent Management Requirements
To meet the demands of the global security environment, the Army’s senior leaders have
described their vision for the Army of 2025 and beyond and established strategic priorities for
the Army of today. Talent management is an implicit component of the ways and means required
to achieve this vision and support these priorities. The Army Vision states:
Improving our agility begins with changing how we recruit, develop, manage, and
train personnel. We will need a whole-of-Army recruitment and retention strategy and
must commit to personnel policies that better develop and manage Soldiers and Army
Civilians in order to optimize individual performance.
18
To support the vision and priorities established by Army leadership, the Army’s Training and
Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has developed numerous concepts and strategies of which talent
management is an integral part. The Army Human Dimension Concept focuses on human
performance optimization and provides ideas that would help synchronize and integrate
personnel policies with training, education, technology, and social science efforts to provide the
Army a dynamic competitive advantage.
19
The AHDC identifies 16 key required capabilities.
Over half of these required capabilities are related to talent management. These requirements
include:
“Future Army organizations require the capability to manage individual talent
throughout the lifecycle through an integrated approach leveraging accessions,
retention, professional development, and assignment strategies to ensure optimal
employment of all members of the Army Profession.”
20
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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“Future Army organizations require the capability to use cognitive, physical, and social
assessments that measure abilities and accurately predict future success of members of
the Army Profession to implement enhanced talent management so the right person
receives the right career assignment (to include training and education) at the right
time.”
21
“Future Army organizations require the capability to integrate and synchronize human
dimension initiatives (training and education, science and technology, medical, and
personnel policies, programs, and initiatives) to ensure they are effective and efficient in
providing adaptable, trained, and resilient forces that meet the Army's challenges in the
future operational environment.”
22
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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3. Challenges
3.1 The Demand for Talent Management Transformation
The threads of demand for talent management begin with strategic guidance from senior leaders.
These threads then run through many of the Army’s authoritative concepts and strategies and
convey an implicit need to transform the institution accordingly. New and emerging
requirements for talent management are based on five factors. They are:
a. The Nature of the Strategic Environment. The challenges and complexity of the future
will require the Army to possess a broader range of human capabilities derived from
more diverse talent in order to achieve desired strategic outcomes across the panorama of
global missions.
23
b. Economic and Generational Shifts. The Army’s ability to compete for talent in the
labor market will continue to be impacted by economic and societal trends. These include
the cost of higher education, the proliferation of social media, the career expectations of
Millennials, portability of benefits, and an aging workforce.
c. Science and Technology. New and rapidly advancing technologies (such as those in the
cyber domain) require Soldiers and Civilians possess new KSBs. Progress in cognitive,
social, and behavioral sciences will generate opportunities such as improved assessment
tools for matching aptitude to career fields and building more effective teams.
24
Big data
presents opportunities for enabling talent management with broader analytical
capabilities.
d. Values and Culture. The philosophy of mission command, the Army Ethic, and the
Army Profession all have implications for how the Army manages its human capital.
First, practicing mission command and upholding the Army Ethic require specific KSBs
the Army must be able to assess, measure, and track.
25
Second, to perpetuate these
behaviors and integrate them into our organizational culture, the human capital
management system must incentivize and reward them.
e. Fiscal Austerity and Downsizing. Cyclic expansion and contraction of the military
during and after periods of major conflict significantly impact human capital
management. First, these fluctuations acutely affect workforce planning and individual
career management. Second, when the active component shrinks to 450K in 2017 (a 21%
reduction from its post 9/11 high of 570K), the Army will be smaller than at any time
since WWII. As resources decrease, complexity and uncertainty in the security
environment continue to increase. Under these conditions, the smaller Army of 2025
cannot depend on the law of averages to provide the talent it requires. It will need to
manage talent with greater precision and efficiency than in the past.
As a result of these factors, the talent management systems we have today are not adequate to
produce or sustain the Army Professionals required for tomorrow.
26
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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The Army Vision states:
Our Army stands at an inflection point. Emerging from fourteen years of war, facing
significant budgetary pressures, and confronted with an increasingly complex security
environment, we must determine what kind of Army the Nation will need for the future.
Our exclusive use of previous paradigms is insufficient for the task ahead Instead,
we must change and evolve.
27
Consequently, it is much better to conduct analysis now and invest in transformation ahead of
need to prevent unforeseen events forcing the Army into a series of uncoordinated, short-term
fixes that generate unintended long-term consequences.
3.2 Talent Management Capability Gaps
Talent Management is a required capability that impacts readiness. The requirements for
Army Talent Management were established by the AHDC and are outlined in Chapter 2.
The Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC)
conducts an annual Capability Needs Analysis
(CNA) that helps leaders identify solution approaches
to Warfighting Challenges, seize opportunities, and
close capability gaps. Required capabilities that the
Army does not possess or cannot execute to standard
are classified as capability gaps. The CNA prioritizes
those gaps based on risk and the benefit new
capabilities may provide.
28
The FY15 CNA
identified the following high-risk capability gaps
related to Talent Management:
Talent Management System. The Army lacks the capability to manage individual talent
throughout the career lifecycle of Soldiers and Civilians through an integrated approach
of recruiting, accessions, retention, professional development, and assignment strategies
to ensure the optimal performance of all members of the Army Profession.
29
CPS Assessments. The Army lacks the capability to measure and track cognitive,
physical, and social potential and performance indicators throughout the Soldier and
Civilian career lifecycle to identify high potential leaders or match personnel to the
correct MOS / branch / career program in order to promote individual and team success.
30
The Army Ethic. The Army lacks the capability to identify attributes of character and to
assess the success of efforts to develop character so that Army Professionals consistently
demonstrate their commitment to live by and uphold the Army Ethic throughout a career
lifecycle.
31
“There is a revolution going on in
human resources today and we are
not taking part in it. What once
worked for us has, in the 21st
century, become unnecessarily
inflexible and inefficient.”
103
Under Secretary of Defense
for Personnel and Readiness
Brad R. Carson
24 June 2015
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Additional capability gaps and systemic problems have been identified in the past year (2014-
2015) by analytical efforts outside the CNA. The findings of four other comprehensive
assessments are outlined below.
A 2014 Army Science Board (ASB) study on talent management found the following:
32
Current Army personnel management is distributed, siloed, and lacks unified senior
leadership.
Workforce planning does not occur beyond the Program Objective Memorandum (POM)
cycle.
Talent acquisition does not use common talent assessment protocol across the enterprise
system (e.g. West Point, ROTC, Officer Candidate School).
Performance management is not standardized across the enterprise system (e.g. 360
degree evaluation / counseling not widely adopted).
An Integrated Talent Management Enterprise (ITME) is essential for the Army to
create a quality force capable of meeting global challenges with fewer Soldiers.
The Chief of Staff of the Army’s (CSA) 2015 Strategic Studies Group (SSG) reported that
traditional ways of developing future leaders to operate at the strategic enterprise level should be
reevaluated. The Army must ensure tomorrow’s senior leaders (O-6 and above) have been
exposed to institutional processes early on in their careers in order to provide them with the
requisite business acumen to develop or adopt best in class business practices.
33
A 2015 independent review of the Army’s accessions policy and recruiting strategy for the
Director of the Army Staff reported the following findings:
34
Without bold change, recruiting and accessions will cost more in recruiters and dollars
while struggling to compete for necessary talent. Finding Recommendation
Unity of effort is lacking.
There is no recruiting and accessions strategy for the future.
Measures focus on annual accessions.
Reducing first term early attrition from 41% to 31% could save more than $262M.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Force of the Future (FotF) “Develop & Utilize”
Working Group identified the following problem areas:
35
Visibility of Talent Requirements. The requirement for talent (specific KSBs) is poorly
defined.
Visibility of Talent Available. The personnel system does not adequately identify the
diverse talent inventory resident in the force.
Development of Talent. The military’s ability to develop talent is inadequate to meet the
emerging requirements of the future force.
Matching Talent to Requirements. The personnel system does not adequately match its
talent requirements to its talent inventory to optimize individual and team performance
and ensure unit readiness across the force.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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3.3 Impediments to Change
Simply identifying requirements, gaps, and solutions is not enough. Solutions to problems must
be funded, fielded, and integrated. Therefore, transforming the Army’s human capital
management system will require overcoming several enduring obstacles to change. They include:
a. Bureaucracy. Current processes, acquisition law, Department of Defense (DoD)
regulations, and service parochialism hinder responsive DOTMLPF-P solution
development and integration. Technology change is outpacing the ability of the DoD
acquisition system to develop and field capabilities.
36
b. Unity of Effort. The Army currently lacks a central, integrating authority for the various
functions of talent management. Only an executive agent with the necessary resources
and authority can coordinate the required actions of multiple stake-owning organizations,
synchronize efforts, and generate sustainable reform.
c. Culture. The Army is an institution whose roots of tradition run deep. Changes that
affect promotions, pay, assignments, leadership succession, and evaluations impact the
careers of everyone and have significant implications for organizational culture.
Furthermore, the department generally views talent management capabilities as a cost in
a resource constrained environment instead of an investment in human capital necessary
to sustain a smaller Army.
d. Immediate Needs of the Army. The demand to fill existing force structure and meet
current readiness requirements generates natural tension between short-term necessity
and long-term goals. This impacts the Army’s ability to properly balance broadening and
developmental career opportunities for individuals with the effective employment of their
existing talents.
e. Existing Statute. The Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980 (DOPMA),
as revised in 1990 and again in 1996, provides Service Secretaries some flexibility
regarding the management of promotion zones (Title 10 U.S. Code 623) but they are
constrained by time in grade requirements that limit tenure in billets (Title 10 U.S. Code
619).
f. Big Data Strategy. The Army lacks a comprehensive data usage and disclosure strategy
for personally identifiable information related to individual talents and medical data
related to physical readiness.
g. Information Equilibrium. The level of granularity and detail applied to information
regarding talent requirements must match the data available on talent inventory.
Maintaining this equilibrium requires data collection on individual KSBs to keep pace
with the development of KSB based job descriptions. It further requires unified
information technology (IT) solutions using a common lexicon.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
10
h. Agility and Scale. The Army Total Force consists of over a million people and Army
end-strength expands and contracts based on variables the department cannot control.
Therefore, talent management functional solutions must be scalable and workforce
planning strategies must include flexibility. Additionally, the inherent nature of warfare
demands that numbers not just talent remain part of the human capital equation. This
perpetuates the natural tension between quantity (personnel inventory requirements) and
accuracy (precision talent matching).
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
11
4. A Framework for Army Talent Management
4.1 Talent and Talent Management
Among the wide variety of interested scholars, theorists, and practitioners there exists no
consensus regarding an operational definition of either talent or talent management.
The Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) describes talent as:
the unique intersection of skills, knowledge, and behaviors in every person.
Talent represents far more than the training, education, and experiences provided
by the Army. The fullness of each person's life experience, to include investments
they've made in themselves, personal and familial relationships (networks),
ethnographic and demographic background, preferences, hobbies, travel,
personality, learning style, education, and a myriad number of other factors better
suit them to some development or employment opportunities than others.
37
Furthermore, the talent that the Army seeks to acquire, develop,
employ, and retain is talent of value to the Army. From that
description of talent, it follows that talent management is a
deliberate and coordinated process that aligns systematic
planning for the right number and type of people to meet current
and future Army needs with integrated implementation so the
majority of those people are optimally employed.
38
Talent management, also known as human capital management, is one component of the broader
human capital continuum. For example, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management describes a
human capital framework as including five components: strategic alignment, knowledge
management, talent management, culture, and accountability. Some academic and business
literature indicates a variance in scope between human capital management and talent
management or suggests that one is subordinate to the other, whereas OEMA considers them
fundamentally synonymous. Regardless, it is clear these two terms conceptually overlap and are
inextricably linked.
39
Talent management is transformational in nature and focuses on production value. Its combined
elements, entities, and processes are a holistic, complex system and not simply a set of discrete
elements unconnected from the whole. Talent management involves integrating various activities
to generate a positive, synergistic effect on organizational outcomes and harness individual
aptitudes for the mutual benefit of the individual and the organization.
In the Army, those activities support five core functions of talent management. They are: (1)
workforce planning, (2) acquisition, (3) employment, (4) development, and (5) retention.
40
These
activities and functions describe the what of talent management. Of even greater significance, are
the essential elements, characteristics, and goals of talent management. These are the guiding
principles that must be applied to the core functions of the Army's human capital enterprise and
the career lifecycle of all Army Professionals. These principles describe the why of talent
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
12
management. When taken together, these principles and functions provide a framework for
Talent Management.
4.2 Guiding Principles
The Army has 20 talent management principles that are organized into five categories.
Category
Principle
Talent Management is an Investment
1. Talent Management is an Investment
Effective Talent Management
Requires a Systems Approach
2. Internal Synergy
3. Vertical Consistency
4. Single Integrator
5. Senior Leaders Lead Change
6. Branding
7. Tailored to Fit the Organization
8. Balance Completeness with Simplicity
Effective Talent Management Must Balance the
Needs of the Individuals with the
Needs of the Organization
9. Individualism and Collectivism
10. Identifying and Leveraging Individual Talents
11. Diverse Career Portfolios
12. Optimizing Tenure
13. Validity and Transparency
Talent Management Must Ensure Job - Person Fit
14. Optimizing All Talent
15. KSB Driven
16. Right Person - Right Job - Right Team
17. Enabling Organizational Agility
The Talent Management System
Must Empower Employees
18. Employee Empowerment
19. Enhanced Employee Self-Awareness
20. Reward Desired Behavior
a. Talent Management is an Investment. Talent management is not free, but it should be
viewed as an investment rather than a cost.
41
The organizational leadership must
continuously assess the relevant economies of scale and return on investment (ROI) for
the various aspects of the talent management system.
42
,
43
b. Effective Talent Management Requires a Systems Approach.
(1) Internal Synergy. The talent management system must be designed with
practices that complement each other (horizontal fit).
44
(2) Vertical Consistency. Talent management practices and processes must be nested
into organizational strategy, values, culture, and operating concepts (vertical
fit).
45
,
46
,
47
(3) Single Integrator. Effective talent management systems require integration to
prevent bureaucratic tendencies toward the emergence of silos, independent
fiefdoms, and the adherence to calcified procedures that have ceased to be optimal
for the organization.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
13
(4) Senior Leaders Lead Change. The organization’s senior leaders need to lead the
design, implementation, and assessment of the talent management system and any
culture change required to sustain it.
(5) Branding. The organization’s branding must appeal to those whose talents and
skills are required for organizational success. It must also be consistent with its
culture, strategy, and operating concepts so employees can perpetuate it.
48
(6) Tailored to Fit the Organization. There is no such thing as a talent management
silver bullet. For effective performance, each organization requires a talent
management system specifically tailored to its unique situation and needs.
49
(7) Balance Completeness with Simplicity. The talent management system must
balance the requirement for completeness with the need for simplicity. The
system must not be so complicated and bureaucratic that leaders and managers
cannot fully comprehend it or recognize when it needs to change.
50
c. Effective Talent Management Must Balance the Needs of the Individuals with the
Needs of the Organization.
(1) Individualism and Collectivism. The talent management system must balance
the need for talent-based, individualized treatment and career paths of the
employees with the need for an organizational culture characterized by team
orientation, unit cohesion, and selfless service.
(2) Identifying and Leveraging Individual Talents. The talent management system
must possess and utilize the methods, processes, and instruments to accurately
identify and assess each individual’s talents and interests throughout his or her
career, and develop and employ him or her accordingly.
51
(3) Diverse Career Portfolios. The development of diverse career portfolios
facilitates the generation and retention of a broad talent pool
52
and enables
organizational agility.
53
(4) Optimizing Tenure. The talent management system must account for churn,
continuity, and stagnation. The tenure of employees filling unique, critical, or
developmental positions must be consistently appropriate. The tenure of senior
leaders must be sufficient to bring about organizational transformation.
54
(5) Validity and Transparency. Criteria and processes for selection, promotion, and
placement must be valid and reliable, based upon talent as opposed to time,
characterized by transparency,
55
and be viewed as such by the members of the
organization.
56
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14
d. Talent Management Must Ensure Job - Person Fit.
(1) Optimizing All Talent. To achieve human performance optimization, Talent
Management must apply to all of the organization’s human capital and all cohorts,
not just the organization’s top performers.
57
(2) KSB Driven. The knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by the organization
must drive the talent management system.
58
,
59
(3) Right Person - Right Job - Right Team. Effective Talent Management must
ensure the organization has the right number of the right people in the right places
at the right times doing the right things on the right team. This job - person
alignment is measured at a single point in time.
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(4) Enabling Organizational Agility. The talent management system must have the
ability to continuously assess and detect the need for change and rapidly transition
to a more optimal configuration as the strategic environment changes. This
organizational agility is measured over spans of time.
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e. The Talent Management System Must Empower Employees.
(1) Employee Empowerment. Talent management strategies must emphasize and
enable employee involvement in their career planning and with employment and
development decisions
62
for the mutual benefit of the individual, the team, and the
organization.
(2) Enhanced Employee Self-Awareness. Increased and more accurate employee
self-awareness promotes enhanced individual career preferences, goal-setting, and
self-improvement efforts.
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The talent management system must hold managers at
all levels accountable for ensuring employees receive accurate and timely
feedback regarding their talents, behaviors, and performances and include
instruments and processes for doing so.
(3) Reward Desired Behavior. The talent management system must effectively
incentivize the behaviors and performance espoused by organizational branding
and needed for organizational success.
64
,
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4.3 Core Functions
Army Talent Management involves five core functions. Each core function consists of several
related activities or subordinate functions. Several subordinate functions are cross cutting and
apply to more than one core function. The two most significant cross cutting activities are
assessments and evaluations.
Assessments are mechanisms for classifying and measuring data (such as data concerning
KSBs). Evaluations are a type of assessment that compares data to a standard or variable.
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15
Evaluations are competitive in nature. Most other assessments are not. Assessments support
analysis. Evaluations also support judgments. In this context, it is important to point out that
performance is a KSB output that can be evaluated. The Army’s talent management core
functions are:
a. Workforce Planning. Workforce planning consists of all activities required to ensure the
alignment of talent management outcomes with strategic objectives, shape the integration
of all talent management functions, and facilitate linkage with related Department of the
Army and generating force activities. Workforce planning subordinate functions
include:
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Strategic Objectives Alignment
Cultural Alignment
Functional Integration
Manage Talent Requirements
Manage Talent Inventory
Career Path Design
Planning, Programing, Budgeting & Execution (PPB&E)
Systems for Measurement, Accountability, and Forecasting
Change Management
b. Acquisition. Acquisition consists of all activities required to identify and recruit the
talent required for the future force, develop that talent for initial entry into the Army, and
set conditions for its optimized employment. Acquisition subordinate functions include:
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Talent Acquisition Planning
Demographic Analysis
Diversity Management
Marketing & Recruiting
Initial Entry Assessments
Initial Entry Career Field Selection
Commissioning Source Activities
Onboarding
c. Employment. Employment consists of all activities required to optimize the individual
career management of all Army Professionals and employ them based their unique talents
to meet current Army needs for the mutual benefit of the individual and the institution.
Employment subordinate functions include:
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Assignments
Succession Planning
Competitive Selections
Assessments & Evaluations
Individual Career Management
Subsequent Career Field Selections
d. Development. Development consists of all activities required to optimize the assessment-
based development of all Army Professionals so that their unique talents may be
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
16
employed to meet future Army needs for the mutual benefit of the individual and the
institution. Development subordinate functions include:
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Training
Education
Experience
Mentoring
Assessments & Evaluations
Individual Career Planning
e. Retention. Retention consists of all activities required to optimize the performance of the
Army workforce by incentivizing Army Professionals and maintain the talent inventory
required to meet current and future Army needs. Retention subordinate functions
include:
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Pay, Benefits, & Retirement
Quality of Life Programs
Performance Management
Assessments & Evaluations
Promotions
Release & Transition
Individual Career Planning
As depicted in the graphic below, the principles and functions provide a framework for the
strategic implementation of talent management across the Army.
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17
5. An Integrated Talent Management Enterprise
5.1 Functional Integrators
As previously cited in Chapter 2, the Army Human Dimension Concept established a requirement
for the capability to integrate and synchronize human dimension initiatives (including personnel
policies) to ensure they are effective and efficient. The Army Human Dimension Strategy
identifies a key task to, “optimize the efficiency of governance and business practices to
accelerate communication, decision making, and DOTMLPF-P integration.”
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In unison with
these goals, the Army Science Board recommended the Army design and implement an
Integrated Talent Management Enterprise (ITME) under a single leader. The Army Education
Advisory Council (AEAC) endorsed this recommendation in a memo dated 15 July 2015.
Currently, there is a consortium of different agencies and commands that manage and execute
talent management functions throughout the Army. Furthermore, there is no authoritative
integrator at the executive level responsible for holistic workforce planning, the application of
talent management principles across all functions, or the coordination of talent management
activities. To generate unity of effort and the synergistic effect on organizational outcomes talent
management seeks to achieve, the Army requires a single leader, or executive functional
integrator, at the flag officer level to take charge. This executive integrator would be
responsible for the core function of workforce planning. Each of the other four core functions
also require an organizational lead with the responsibility and authority to manage the integration
of all activities subordinate to that function across DOTMLPF-P. These lead functional
integrators (one each for acquisition, employment, development, and retention) will collaborate
with the associated community of practice to facilitate holistic DOTMLPF-P integration of those
functional activities throughout the Army. Existing force structure could be leveraged to achieve
this. Once the functional integrators are identified, an enterprise system for implementation and
execution could be developed.
The purpose of this enterprise approach is to generate two critical outcomes. First, research
demonstrates that if organizations deliberately “bundle” their strategic human capital practices to
ensure they’re mutually reinforcing, they enjoy significantly
higher levels of organizational performance.
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Second, when
talent management practices are designed and implemented to
fit in concert with each other (horizontal fit) and to fit with and
support the organization’s strategic objectives (vertical fit) they
have a much greater positive impact on organizational
performance than practices that were each designed by a
respective functional manager.
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5.2 Cohort Management
The principles and functions of talent management apply to the Army Total Force, meaning all
components (active, reserve, and National Guard) and all cohorts (Civilians, enlisted Soldiers,
and every type of officer). They also apply to all civilian career programs, military career fields,
and their subordinate branches, functional areas, and military occupational specialties (MOS).
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However, the unique characteristics and purpose of each cohort
and career field impacts the manner in which the principles and
functions of talent management should be applied to their
respective populations. Talent management is not a one-size-fits-
all concept. Different cohorts and career fields will require a
model for operationalizing talent management principles and
functions into the career pathways of their various professionals.
Every cohort and career field has an authoritative proponent
which manages its associated requirements, capabilities, and
DOTMLPF-P related activities. Functional integrators must collaborate closely with these
proponents to facilitate effective execution of talent management activities across the Army
Total Force.
5.3 Decentralized Execution
One of the talent management principles states that if human capital management systems are
overly bureaucratic or complex, they lack effectiveness. The majority of talent management
activities should not and cannot take place at the departmental or agency level. Decentralized
execution of many significant talent management activities inherently takes place at the lowest
levels of organizational management within both the operating and generating force. Therefore,
leaders and personnel managers in the field are the practitioners of talent management. The
broader network of talent management practitioners across the Army represent the community of
practice that functional integrators must collaborate with in a systematic way. Research
demonstrates the degree to which organizations empower subordinate leaders correlates
positively with desired organizational outcomes when and only when high levels of selective
staffing takes place (e.g. ensuring employee knowledge and behaviors matches the intended
results).
74
This represents the mission command aspect of talent management. The Army must
ensure that leaders are both empowered to execute talent management activities at all levels and
are properly versed in the principles of talent management. If the proper conditions are set, the
potential of every unit and organization in the Army practicing talent management is extremely
powerful.
5.4 Risks
A laundry list of talent management solutions and reforms will not be enough. For the whole to
be greater than the sum of its parts, the Army requires human capital transformation that
addresses principles and functions at the enterprise level. Without an integrated, holistic
approach for transforming human capital management, the Army will risk the following:
Numerous disparate, redundant, and conflicting efforts will not be synchronized. This
will result in wasted time and money.
Critical areas will remain unaddressed and the systemic impact of one area upon the
others will go unaccounted for.
There will be funding haves and have-nots that do not reflect strategic priorities.
A single, unified profession with permeability between cohorts will not be achieved.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
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The five functional integrators (one executive and four leads), the proponents for the various
cohorts and career fields, practitioners in the field, and other key stakeholders (agencies,
commands, departmental staffs, and senior leaders) will form the ITME. As depicted in the
graphic below, the ITME provides a sustainable structure for Talent Management across the
Army Total Force.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
20
6. Key Tasks for Transformation
The three goals for talent management transformation are:
a. The Army takes an enterprise approach to talent management with a single authoritative
integrator at the executive level responsible for holistic workforce planning and the
coordination of talent management functions.
b. Army talent management principles are embedded within all talent management
functions across the Army Total Force and are applied the career lifecycle of all Army
Professionals in a manner appropriate to each cohort and career field.
c. Functional integrators effectively collaborate with all proponents to determine talent
management requirements and capability gaps, then facilitate the integration of holistic
DOTMLPF-P solutions to close those gaps.
In support of these goals and other desired outcomes, there are 12 key tasks that must be
accomplished. These key tasks are:
a. Appoint an authoritative body with a singular focus, co-led by a military flag officer and
a civilian in the senior executive service, to develop and implement a Talent
Management Strategy for the Army Total Force. There are two suitable, feasible, and
acceptable courses of action (COA) available for achieving this.
(1) New permanent force structure. The CSA’s SSG recommended that a periodic,
comprehensive, strategic review of the Army’s human capital enterprise be
executed by a new two-star Human Capital Strategy Directorate in the Office of
the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1.
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This entity would be charged with developing
and implementing an Army Talent Management Strategy, then transition to its
permanent role as the Army’s executive integrator for talent management.
(2) Temporary agent for change. A two-star Talent Management Task Force would
be established to develop an Army Talent Management Strategy and supervise the
initial execution of its implementation until conditions are set for transfer of
oversight. The task force would then conduct transfer of oversight to an
appropriate and permanent executive integrator for Talent Management. The
F2025B Executive Committee endorsed this COA on 21 August 2015.
b. Identify the ITME functional integrators and empower them with the appropriate
authority and resources to fulfill their responsibilities.
c. Establish the appropriate relationships and governance required to bring key stakeholders
into the ITME.
d. Develop a broader talent management community of practice beyond the ITME.
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21
e. The functional integrators must:
(1) Identify, describe, and prioritize the required capabilities for their function.
(2) Identify and describe the gaps, challenges, and opportunities within their function.
(3) Propose suitable, feasible, and affordable DOTMLPF-P solutions.
(4) Identify and describe the required steps to implement the solutions as informed by
risk, cost, and additional authority required.
(5) Manage pathways into the PPB&E process for the solutions.
*Note: Appendix A Problem Areas and Appendix B Promising Leads are intended to inform
this process.
f. All proponents must:
(1) Identify and describe the KSBs required for the future force within their cohort
and career field in conjunction with applicable Army concepts.
(2) Develop a hybrid model for operationalizing the talent management principles
and functions into the career pathways of the various Army Professionals within
their cohort and/or career field. These operational models must adhere to the
guidelines for career path design established by the executive integrator. These
models must also account for periods of normal force generation and periods of
persistent conflict.
g. Develop a synchronized approach for researching and establishing individual talent
requirements.
h. Collect, interpret, and track a broad set of data on the KSBs
of all Army Professionals to support current and future
talent requirements.
i. Identify, measure, and track the CPS indicators required to
assess performance and potential.
j. Leverage multi-cohort organizations to holistically pilot talent management principles
and functions.
k. Implement pilot programs as appropriate throughout the Army for talent management
initiatives and DOTMLPF-P solutions.
l. Assess and measure the talent management system’s performance.
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22
7. Conclusion
At West Point on 25 February 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates asked, “How can the
Army break up the institutional concrete - its bureaucratic rigidity in its assignments and
promotion processes - in order to retain, challenge, and inspire its best, brightest, and most
battle-tested young officers to lead the service in the future?
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To effectively address this enduring challenge, the Army Total Force must build an Integrated
Talent Management Enterprise that provides accountability and appropriate authorities, informs
resource allocation, and ensures unity of effort in support of talent management principles and
functions. A talent management transformation cannot be derived from the sum of individual
initiatives. It requires a holistic, systems approach.
The principles and functions themselves provide a framework that can help the Army shape and
lead the coming transformation in human capital management. This framework requires a single
authoritative integrator responsible for holistic workforce planning and the coordination of talent
management functions. Functional integrators collaborate with the proponents for all cohorts and
career fields to determine talent management requirements and capability gaps, then bring about
effective DOTMLPF-P solutions to close those gaps. Lastly, 12 key tasks must be acted on to
achieve transformational goals and produce desired outcomes.
To meet the challenges of 2025, the Army must effectively manage diverse talent for a
complex world.
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Appendix A: Problem Areas
Appendix A provides a list of talent management problem areas that functional integrators may
wish to consider in connection with applicable key tasks identified in Chapter 6. This list is not
comprehensive, but is based in part on work done by the OSD FotF initiative.
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Talent Requirements
1. The military centralizes the definition of individual talent requirements preventing
adaptation to local needs and emerging requirements.
2. The centralized talent definitions are narrowly scoped and non-specific to regional
requirements.
3. Billets and position descriptions provide rudimentary information (MOS, grade, rating)
but not talent requirements (i.e. skills, knowledge, and behaviors).
4. The manpower, programming, and budgeting processes are neither effective nor timely at
predicting emergent talent requirements.
5. The inability to predict future talent requirements creates development gaps and
discourages adaptation as conditions change.
Talent Inventory
6. The military personnel system has limited capability to identify, measure, and track the
full range of talents resident in the labor force.
7. Skills, knowledge, and behaviors developed outside of a service member’s career
lifecycle are not systematically tracked and do not inform personnel decisions.
8. Service member talents are not adequately characterized using qualitative and
quantitative measurements for personnel management decisions.
9. The military personnel system lacks the ability to find personnel that match emerging
talent requirements.
Evaluations, Promotions, and Succession Planning
10. The performance evaluation, promotion, and selection systems measure composite
performance through a stack ranking system that compares the relative value of
individuals in the organization at that time, without KSB differentiation.
11. The performance evaluation, promotion, and selection systems rely primarily on top-
down subjective evaluation of recent performance to determine future potential producing
a myopic view of human performance resulting in an assessment void.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
24
12. The evaluation system does not provide adequate mechanisms to differentiate between
average performers or recognize high performers who serve institutional needs outside
the “command / leadership” track.
13. The current promotion system values time in grade and evaluations but lacks a rigorous
assessment mechanism to evaluate future potential.
14. Past performance is insufficient to fully assess future potential.
15. The talent pool available for promotion and succession planning is currently constrained
by time in grade, which results in managing populations by cohort year group.
16. The talent pool available for promotion and succession planning is currently constrained
by limits on both lateral entry and active component / reserve component (AC/RC)
permeability.
17. Current succession management does not ensure appropriate tenure for critical billets.
Assignments, Development, and Career Management
18. Excessive personnel churn makes organizations less productive and is disruptive to
individual development and military families.
19. Talent development systems do not consistently use tailored, innovative, or electronically
supported learning that is synchronized to job requirements to ensure proper training is
delivered at the right time.
20. Rigid career milestones create insufficient opportunities for deep or broad development
and disadvantage personnel if milestone timing is disrupted or mismanaged.
21. While authorized in law, service culture often does not value sabbaticals or broadening
assignments (civilian education, fellowships, training with industry, joint experience,
reserve duty, intergovernmental experience).
22. The military assignment system lacks mechanisms to ensure appropriate follow-on
assignments after broadening to ensure a return on investment.
23. The military personnel system off-boards talent when it provides the greatest utility to the
force via 20-year cliff vesting and 30-year mandatory retirement.
24. The current up-or-out system does not provide sufficient flexibility to retain service
members based on KSBs.
25. The military lacks sufficient funding and is over structured to realize the external
educational requirements of the future force.
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25
26. Professional Military Education (PME) programs are not rigorously credentialed nor do
they adequately differentiate between students who fail to meet desired outcomes,
marginally meet outcomes, or excel at learning outcomes.
27. The current assignment system does not consistently assign personnel based on their
specific talents, in part, because current assessment and evaluation systems do not
provide optimal, real time information about talents to support best match.
28. The current assignment system lacks transparency and flexibility in matching the talent of
individuals to job requirements.
29. Individual talents, beyond those minimally required for a position, are often not
considered in the assignment process leading to sub-optimal outcomes for the institution.
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26
Appendix B: Promising Leads
Appendix B provides a list of potential opportunities and solutions (to include current programs
and initiatives) that functional integrators may wish to consider in connection with applicable
key tasks identified in Chapter 6. Many of these promising leads would require further study to
assess their suitability, feasibility, and affordability. The appropriate functional integrator would
be responsible for assigning advocacy and establishing time horizons. This list is based in part on
work done by the OSD FotF initiative (#1-31) and the CSAs SSG (#32-37) and is entirely
pre-decisional.
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,
79
,
80
,
81
1. Accession Modernization. The Accession Modernization Working Group (AMWG) is
researching the ability to eliminate paper processing and begin the prescreening of
applicants earlier by changing business practices that govern when data is captured and
transmitted electronically to accession systems.
2. Establish Feedback Loop Between Education, Training, and Military. Use leadership
laboratories of basic training, service academies, and ROTC to establish a baseline of
talent measurement for use throughout a career.
3. Interest Assessments. An objective and accurate vocational interest profile developed
for each enlisted service applicant.
4. Assessment Centers. Services should have the ability to create a talent assessment and
management concept that adequately identifies both KSBs required at each level of the
organization, and the KSB resident in the Services for labor force to optimize the
matching.
5. Pilot Relief from Goldwater-Nichols Requirements. Develop legislative proposal to
allow Services relief from Joint Duty Requirements and Joint Professional Military
Education in desired low density, high demand skill areas.
6. Transparent Talent Requirements and Job Postings. Develop an on-line listing of all
open military billets/positions that would be accessible to military members up for new
assignment.
7. Marketplace Job Application Process. Commands would identify a future billet
opening and write a billet description. This opening would be placed on an online
“marketplace” for advertisement.
8. Market Driven Approach to Assignments. Develop an alternative assignment system
that increases the amount of information on both talent requirements and talent inventory.
9. Blind Selection Boards. Test the selection board process in multiple Services Initially
board the selection group per Service policy. During the next board cycle, redact all
identifying information of the Service member (name, sex, photo, race, creed, etc.) and
re-board. Compare and analyze the results.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
27
10. Extended Careers / Eliminate Up-or-Out. Eliminate mandatory age restrictions and
high-year tenure allowing each Service to tailor their force to match their requirements.
Allow personnel to serve as long as they physically meet standards and the Service has a
need for their expertise. Eliminate up-or-out and make promotion optional.
11. Manage Tenure / Reduce Churn. Bin jobs as developmental (requiring rotation) or
elemental (long-term stability encouraged) to reduce churn.
12. Officer Promotion Alternatives. This initiative would allow officers who lagged their
peers in traditional experience due to prolonged education or other factors
(pregnancy/childbirth; participating in lengthy career broadening experiences; etc.) to
temporarily withdraw from promotion consideration.
13. Flexible Careers. Develop flexible career paths that focus on event driven decision
points without rigid milestone timelines (e.g. compete for command after completing the
required prerequisites vs. when a cohort year group is in the zone).
14. Lateral Entry. Expand the capability to access individuals across a wide range of grades.
15. Enterprise Permeability. Obtain statutory authority, if required, develop policies,
procedures and information technology (IT) architecture that will support a business
enterprise process for on and off boarding active duty military Service members to the
Reserve Components and reduce barriers to permeability between the military and
civilian cohorts.
16. Portability of Benefits and Skill Sets. Portable benefits and skill sets will enable
permeability between the civilian and military with the federal government. For example,
the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a portable benefit. Medical, dental, retirement, leave, and
life insurance are examples of other benefits where portability would enhance
permeability.
17. Identify Positions for Civilianization. Using the annual inherently governmental and
commercial activities (IG/CA) data set and authoritative manpower systems to identify
billets designated for military performance that do not have a demonstrated military
essentiality.
18. Expanded Talent Pool. Formally create a technical specialist track with separate
compensation and personnel policies to realize potential of highly capable
enlisted/warrant force.
19. Increase Female Enlisted Accessions. The DoD should continue to place emphasis on
attracting, recruiting, and retaining women to work in career fields / MOS in which
women are under-represented.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
28
20. Attract Female Science Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) Talent. Pilot a
program that improves ability to harvest the rich talents of women in STEM programs
from high school and the two and four year collegiate system.
21. Advancing Diversity in Technical Fields. Address the absence or growth of diversity
and inclusion in the future force.
22. Increase Number of Officers with the Technical Degrees. Create a program across the
services that incentivizes college students who are obtaining degrees in technical fields
needed in the services to go to Officer Candidate School (OCS) upon graduation. Create
an initiative to expand the high school Junior ROTC curriculums to include technical
courses for students to grow the technical base that will migrate to ROTC at the college
level.
23. Identify Service Member Preferences for Pay & Benefits. Commission a study or
survey to collect data on service member preferences for pay and benefits. The
homogeneity in the compensation system means it pays service members, directly or
through in-kind benefits, for things they do not really value, and fails to provide them
with things that may be more meaningful to them than money.
24. Properly Price Retired Pay and Health Accruals. Price retired pay and retired health
accruals (over 65) correctly so that junior personnel are not vastly overpriced and mid-
career personnel vastly underpriced.
25. Differentiated Pay Table. Determine the extent to which special and incentive (S&I)
pay has resulted in permanent wage differences across occupations and assess whether
making such differentials explicit would improve retention and decrease redundancies
among S&I pays.
26. Lucrative Signing Bonuses. Offer lucrative signing bonuses to attract individuals with
highly specialized skills and talents.
27. Provide Market-Based Pay to Recruits. Recruit highly skill individuals into the
military at a grade and salary level commensurate with their existing private sector jobs.
In addition to direct accessions, the department could offer bonuses and special pays to
offset these individuals’ salaries to attract them to the military.
28. Tours in Industry and National Security (Broadening Sabbatical). Positively select
high-potential officers for 2-3 year tours with industry. Instead of current fellowship
programs which ask for volunteers and nominations, presupposing “release from
community track” by personnel managers, have branch/community leaders choose
officers who are coming up on their minimum service requirement to serve in these
positions with industry. At the same time, using talent management firms which are not
prime contractors for DoD, provide 2-3 year opportunities to serve on major joint or
Service staffs in positions of responsibility.
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29. Increased Opportunities for Graduate Education (Broadening Sabbatical). Expand
fully-funded, in-residence graduate degree opportunities at civilian institutions. Services
will identify proven operators to represent DoD at our nation’s top institutions and bring
knowledge and expertise back to the Services. Branch and community leaders select their
best prior to reaching minimum service requirement, based on performance and potential.
30. Off-Board Unneeded Talent with More Agility. Provide authorities to break enlistment
contracts more quickly for due cause as well as making room for talent pool additions.
Provide authorities to abrogate minimum service obligation / minimum service
requirements.
31. Connecting with America to Increase Awareness of Military Service. The tools
available to close the widening civil-military gap are marketing, the youth development
programs, and the community outreach programs.
32. Social Performance Requirements. Identify the social performance requirements
needed for mission success and articulate the impact of social domain capabilities.
Leverage social performance requirements to shape all phases of the talent management
lifecycle.
33. Profile High Performers. Develop profiles of high performing individuals to inform
deliberate and robust succession planning.
34. Critical Non-Cognitive Skills. Identify critical non-cognitive skills (a prime example is
grit) and leverage this understanding to enhance selection, assignment, and training of the
force.
35. Non-Cognitive Assessments (TAPAS). The Army Research Institute (ARI) will
establish a baseline to begin universal administration of non-cognitive assessments (e.g.,
Tailored Adaptive Personality Assessment System [TAPAS]) designed to capture social /
interpersonal aptitudes and abilities. Establish a baseline of data to enable further / future
research, and to better understand gaps in social capability.
36. Additional Skill Identifiers (ASI) for Unique Experiences. Many broadening
experiences are vital to the interests of the Army and operational missions provided an
opportunity for officers to develop new skills. For example, Cultural Support Team /
Female Engagement Team experiences required officers to develop and demonstrate
skills related to the engagement warfighting function. To ensure that these experiences
are valued and to enable future talent matching, the Army should codify the resulting
skills through ASIs. This concept can be applied to other valuable assignment
experiences, such as a Combat Training Center (CTC) Observer/Controller Trainer
(O/CT), that develop skills directly applicable to other assignments.
37. Data-Driven Approach to Functional Area Transfers. Functional area proponents,
with the advice of OEMA, should establish specific desired attributes for each functional
area. Captains interested in voluntary transfer to a functional area should take a battery of
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
30
assessments to determine, based on these defined attributes, in which functional areas
they might serve well. In the long term, all captains should take this assessment battery to
inform them of where they might be best able to contribute to the Army.
38. Language Capability / Requirement for Officers. Provide a system whereby
commissioned officers learn and maintain a second language. Cadets and candidates
would be provided the resources to acquire an approved second language based on Army
needs and the individual’s aptitudes. Cadets and candidates would achieve a minimum
Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) score of 1/1/1 reading/listening/speaking
prior to commissioning. Prior to consideration for promotion to Major, officers in
designated branches/functional areas/career fields would be required attain a 2/2/2 rating
in their language.
39. Structured Development World Traveler Program. Select high potential officers for 6
month to 1 year tours to travel the world. Branch / organizational leaders select
appropriate officers approaching completion of their minimum service requirement to
spend time in a region of the world for the purpose of learning and understanding local
social, economic, and cultural issues. The region must be linked to strategic value /
relevance and the officer’s individual aptitudes. This program could be built on a
framework similar to existing programs such as the Olmstead Scholars program, minus
the fully funded education.
40. Enhanced Accessions. OEMA has implemented a pilot program at West Point to
enhance the accessions process by providing Cadets with targeted, individual feedback
regarding their own knowledge, skills, and behaviors and how they align with those
required by the various branches. This feedback has been found to have a strong impact
on Cadet preferences for branch selection. U.S. Army Cadet Command will pilot a
similar program beginning AY16-17 and OCS will follow.
41. Big Data. Solutions for big data include information technology capable of managing
voluminous amounts of structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be
mined for information. The Army should more fully develop and strengthen the inclusion
of Human Capital Big Data within the existing DoD/DA strategy. Many big data issues
are extensions of current data use issues and the existing framework must be expanded to
encompass human capital specific issues.
42. People Analytics. People Analytics refers to the application of predictive analytics to
talent management functions. Using algorithmic assessments to determine a workers’
potential is new and not much hard data yet exist demonstrating its effectiveness.
However, when combined with big data solutions, the potential for People Analytics to
empower talent management practitioners by delivering real-time objective data to the
point of need is significant.
43. Big Data Analytics to Generate Recruiting Leads. Develop a common
application/database that expands on the work already accomplished by JAMRS (Joint
Advertising Marketing Research and Studies database) to add additional elements such as
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
31
data from SAT/ACT, DEERS, ASVAB, social media, census data, etc. with the objective
of identifying quality leads for recruiters.
44. Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A). IPPS-A is the Army’s future
web-based human resources record system. Still under development, IPPS-A will
standardize, streamline, and integrate Soldier personnel and pay processes and data
across the Army Total Force. The phased release of IPPS-A is underway and projected to
be complete no earlier than FY18. When fully implemented, IPPS-A will create one
comprehensive personnel and pay record for each Soldier, link personnel and pay
transactions to improve timeliness and accuracy, and make data base use more simple and
accessible. However, IPPS-A was not originally conceived nor is currently designed to
support managing the comprehensive data on individual knowledge, skills, and behaviors
required for precision talent management. The IPPS-A Requirements Traceability Matrix
(RTM) is currently being revised to include talent management capabilities. Future
versions of IPPS-A could then leverage PeopleSoft to incorporate talent management
functionality into the system. This has the potential to create a unified human capital
information system for collecting, organizing, and delivering critical personnel data to the
point of need in support of talent management decisions.
45. Evaluation Entry System (EES). With the introduction of the new Officer Evaluation
Report (OER) in 2014, the Army stood up an IT system consisting of two web-based
applications called the Evaluation Entry System and the Evaluation Reporting System
(ERS). EES allows OERs to be accessed, filled-out, and managed on-line through a
unified data repository. ERS allows human resource practitioners to data mine OERs in
support of human capital management functions.
46. Green Pages. Green Pages was developed by OEMA as a web-based, social media tool
(similar to LinkedIn) that would establish a searchable repository of data related to
individual professional experience, skills, education, training, certifications, and licenses.
It was originally intended to support the unique needs of the Engineer Branch, but can be
applied to many other military career fields. Green Pages could be leveraged as an
interim solution to fill the current IPPS-A talent management gap.
47. The Army Career Tracker (ACT). The Army Career Tracker is a web-based tool for
career management developed by TRADOC’s Institute for NCO Professional
Development. ACT provides Army personnel (enlisted, officer and civilian cohorts) a
system to manage their professional development and to monitor progress toward
training, education, and career goals. ACT interfaces with more than a dozen source
systems in providing data such as assignment history, training history, education history,
and certifications.
48. WholeSoldier. WholeSoldier is a multi-attribute performance appraisal system designed
to support counseling, assessments, talent management decisions and decision analysis,
and predict performance potential.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
32
49. 360 Degree Assessments. The Army’s existing web-based Multi-Source Assessment and
Feedback (MSAF) 360 and Commander 360 tools could be leveraged to achieve greater
self-awareness, enhance performance counseling, and facilitate more frequent and
accurate assessments.
50. Army University. Develop civilian-recognized credentialing, certifying, and licensing
for Army education and training to provide clear, objective evidence of an individual's
competence, thus improving individual capabilities while in the Army and improving
their ability to transition into quality employment after their service.
51. Cyber Branch. The recent establishment of a Cyber Branch provides a unique and
timely opportunity to pilot talent management reforms and initiatives. Building a new
branch that requires highly technical and specialized KSBs will require the Army to
directly compete with the private sector for talent. Lateral entry, flexible career timelines,
individualized career management, and management by work roles / proficiencies are a
few examples.
52. Civilian Workforce Transformation (CWT). Established in 2010, this program is
chartered to offer recommendations for modifying the Army's civilian workforce
management to better attract and retain top talent and prepare the civilian workforce to
succeed in leadership positions. CWT addresses the functions of hiring, management,
training, and sustainment. Initiatives include a formal Civilian Education System and a
Supervisor Development Course, 31 distinct Career Programs for managing occupational
specialties and mapping professional development, and the Emerging Enterprise Leader
(EEL), Enterprise Talent Management (ETM), and Senior Enterprise Talent Management
(SETM) programs. Any comprehensive, holistic talent management program for the
Army Total Force must leverage and incorporate CWT.
53. DOPMA Reform / Relief. DOPMA was a major revision to Title 10 of the United States
Code and serves as the legal basis for the personnel management of the officer corps. It
forms the foundation of the officer promotion and centralized selection system. It
establishes time in grade requirements that impact promotion eligibility and limit tenure
(Service Secretaries have some flexibility regarding the management of promotion
zones). Legislative reform or relief would likely target Sections 616 and 619 of Title 10.
54. Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC).
The MCRMC made 15 recommendations to Congress in January 2015 regarding military
pay and retirement, health benefits, and quality of life. Among their recommendations
was a blended retirement plan that leverages both defined benefits and defined
contributions with more available options for service members to choose from.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
33
Appendix C: Linkage to Concepts and Strategies
Talent management is an implicit component of the ways and means required to support the
Army’s strategic priorities and an integral part several key concepts and strategies. The purpose
of Appendix C is to provide additional context regarding these linkages.
The Army Strategic Planning Guidance establishes five strategic priorities for the Army Total
Force. The first priority is, “Adaptive Army Leaders for a Complex World,” and identifies
their required KSBs as, “morals, ethics, individual toughness, fighting spirit, intellectual
capacity, tactical competence, technical proficiency, and strategic perspective.”
82
This implies
the Army must be able to assess, measure, and track these nine KSBs. In support of this priority,
the ASPG describes several key tasks that must be accomplished. They include the following:
Recruit, Identify, and Develop Talent Informed by Long-Range Trends… recruit
and develop the talent, both physically and intellectually, in the quality and quantity that
will support the leader base of the future force…”
83
“Educate Leaders for an Uncertain Future… [so they are] capable of applying not only
tactics, but far more importantly, the appropriate operational art, informed by strategy, to
attain the policy goals that govern military action.
84
“Train Leaders and Provide Them with Relevant Experience… through traditional
assignments and broadening opportunities...”
85
“Reinforce the Army Profession in the 21st Century eliminating toxic leadership…
[and] retain professional leaders who demonstrate the resilience, values, trust, and skills
to build a self-policing organization…”
86
Another priority is, The Premier All Volunteer Army,” meaning, “a professional force
composed of the highest quality Soldiers and Civilians dedicated to the Army for the long
term.”
87
In support of this priority, the ASPG describes several key tasks that must be
accomplished. They include the following:
“Improve Programs Supporting Soldiers, Civilians, Families and Wounded Warriors…
Quality of Life (QOL) for its Soldiers and families as a critical factor in maintaining the
all-volunteer force…”
88
“Safeguard the Nation’s Trust in a Professional Army... support Soldiers, Civilians and
families through appropriate compensation [and] sustainable benefits…”
89
Optimize Soldier and Civilian Acquisition, Management, and Development
remove obstacles to effective personnel management…”
90
The Army Operating Concept introduces Army Warfighting Challenges (AWFCs) as an
analytical framework for integrating force modernization efforts. AWFCs are enduring, first-
order problems, the solutions to which improve the combat effectiveness of the current and
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
34
future force.
91
Talent management has crosscutting effects impacting multiple AWFCs and is
specifically framed by four of them. They are:
“#4. Adapt the Institutional Army… maintain an agile institutional Army that ensures
combat effectiveness of the total force… ensures QOL for Soldiers and families, and
possesses the capability to surge or expand the active Army.”
92
“#9. Improve Soldier, Leader, and Team Performance… develop resilient Soldiers,
adaptive leaders, and cohesive teams committed to the Army Professional Ethic that are
capable of accomplishing the mission...”
93
“#10. Develop Agile and Adaptive Leaders… develop agile, adaptive, and innovative
leaders who thrive in conditions of uncertainty and chaos…”
94
“#19. Exercise Mission Command…understand, visualize, describe, and direct
operations consistent with the philosophy of mission command… across the range of
military operations.”
95
The Army Human Dimension Strategy brings together multiple Army efforts and reframes those
efforts within the context of the emerging requirements described in the AOC. Implementation of
the AHDS is essential to the Force 2025 and Beyond initiative. Two key concepts underpin this
strategy. First, the Army must develop cohesive teams of trusted professionals that thrive in
ambiguity and chaos. Second, the Army must optimize the performance of its diverse talent
through better assessments of individual potential, customized learning programs, and tailored
career management.
96
The AHDS outlines 13 supporting objectives. Supporting objective 3.1 is talent management.
To achieve this objective the Army must, “recruit, assess, develop, and manage Soldiers and
Army Civilians throughout their lifecycle, with increased focus on individual competencies and
attributes, to build effective teams and meet Army needs.”
97
Additionally, the AHDS identifies
40 key tasks (10 of which support talent management). These key tasks include:
“3C. Organization and Structure. Optimize the efficiency of governance and business
practices to accelerate communication, decision making, and DOTMLPF-P
integration.”
98
“3D. Talent Management Strategy. Develop a F2025B Talent Management Strategy
that establishes the talent management principles that will be applied to the core functions
of the Army's human capital management enterprise and the career life cycle of all Army
Professionals through a holistic, integrated approach.”
99
“3E. Talent Acquisition. Develop a synchronized approach for researching and
establishing individual talent requirements and strategies for acquiring the individuals
with the necessary talent to meet those requirements.”
100
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
35
“3F. Talent Employment. Optimize the assessment-based employment and career path
of all Army Professionals to ensure their diverse individual knowledge, skills, and
attributes match Army needs.”
101
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
36
Appendix D: References
Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. Independent Review of the Army’s Accessions Policy and Recruiting
Strategy for the Director of the Army Staff. McLean, VA: July 2015.
Boudreau, John W., and Peter M. Ramstad. “Talentship and the New Paradigm for Human
Resource Management: From Professional Practices to Strategic Decision Science.”
Human Resource Planning 28, no.2 (2005): 17-26.
Colarusso, Michael J. and David S. Lyle. Senior Officer Talent Management: Fostering
Institutional Adaptability. Carlisle Barracks, PA: United States Army War College
Press, 2014.
Collins, D.G., and K. Mellahi. “Strategic Talent Management: A Review and Research Agenda.”
Human Resource Management Review 19, no.4 (2009): 304-313.
Delery, John E. “Issues of Fit in Strategic Human Resource Management: Implications for
Research.” Human Resource Management Review 8, no.3 (1998): 289-309.
Dyer, Lee, and Jeff Erickson. “Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace Agility Through
Workforce Scalability.” CAHRS Working Paper #06-12. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University,
School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies,
2006. Accessed 6 April 2015. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/454.
Dyer, Lee, and Todd Reeves. “Human Resource Strategies and Firm Performance: What Do We
Know and Where Do We Need to Go?” CAHRS Working Paper #94-29. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced
Human Resource Studies, 1994. Accessed 7 April 2015.
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/254.
Ehlert, Ted. “Investing in Human Capital for the Future of War: The Price of Adaptation and
Victory.” The Medium Online. https://medium.com/the-bridge/investing-in-human-
capital-for-the-future-of-war-2bbceab64e. Accessed 11 April 2015.
Halter, Scott M. What is an Army but the Soldiers? A Critical Assessment of the Army's
Human Capital Management System. Military Review 92, no.1 (Jan-Feb 2012): 16.
Headquarters, Department of the Army. 2014 Army Strategic Planning Guidance. Washington,
D.C.: 2014.
Headquarters, Department of the Army. Army Doctrine Reference Publication 1: The Army
Profession. Washington, D.C.: June 2015.
Headquarters, Department of the Army. The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex
World. Washington, D.C.: 2015.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
37
Ichnioski, Casey, Kathryn Shaw, and Giovanna Prennushi. “The Effects of Human Resource
Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines.” The American
Economic Review 87, no.3 (1997): 291-313.
Kepes, Sven, John E. Delery, and Nina Gupta. "Strategic Human Resource Management: A
Systems Perspective." Academy of Management Proceedings 2008, no.1 (2008): 1-6.
Kerr, Steven. “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B.” The Academy of
Management Journal 18, no.4 (1975): 769-783.
Landy, Frank J. and Laura Shankster. “Personnel Selection and Placement.” Annual Review of
Psychology 45, (1994): 261-296.
Lawler, Edward E. III and Christopher G. Worley. Nine Principles for Sustainable Talent
Management. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California, Marshall School of
Business, Center for Effective Organizations, 2011. Accessed 11 April 2015.
http://ceo.usc.edu.
Lepak, David P., Hui Lao, Yunghyung Chung, and Erika E. Harden. “A Conceptual Review of
Human Resource Management Systems in Human Resource Management Research.”
Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management 25, (2006): 217-271.
Office of Personnel Management. The Human Capital Assessment and Accountability
Framework: Systems, Standards, and Metrics. Washington, D.C.: 2006.
Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army. Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Studies Group III
Executive Summary. Washington, D.C.: July 2015.
Office of the Secretary of Defense. Informational White Paper, Military Personnel Develop and
Utilize Reform Proposal. Washington, D.C.: July 2015.
Office of the Secretary of Defense. Informational White Paper, Military Personnel Recruit
and Access Reform Proposal. Washington, D.C.: July 2015.
Office of the Secretary of Defense. Informational White Paper, Support and Retain Working
Group Reform Proposal. Washington, D.C.: July 2015.
Rajagopalan, Nandini. “Strategic Orientations, Incentive Plan Adoptions, and Firm Performance:
Evidence from Electric Utility Firms.” Strategic Management Journal 18, no.10 (1997):
761-785.
Silvia, Paul J., and Ann G. Phillips. “Self-Awareness, Self-Evaluation, and Creativity.”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30, no.8 (2004): 1009-1017.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
38
Stulp, Gert, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst, and Thomas V. Pollet. “Tall Claims? Sense and
Nonsense About the Importance of Height of U.S. Presidents.” The Leadership Quarterly
24, no.1 (2013): 159171.
United States Army Capabilities Integration Center. Army Warfighting Challenges.
http://www.arcic.army.mil/Initiatives/army-warfighting-challenges (accessed 28 August
2015).
United States Army Combined Arms Center. Army Leader Development Strategy. Fort
Leavenworth, KS: 2013.
United States Army Combined Arms Center. The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building
Cohesive Teams to Win in a Complex World. Fort Leavenworth, KS: 2015.
United States Army Combined Arms Center. U.S. Army Mission Command Strategy FY 13-19.
Fort Leavenworth, KS: June 2013.
United States Army Mission Command Center of Excellence. White Paper, Talent Management
in the Army: Review, Comment, and Recommendation on Talent Management Models.
Fort Leavenworth, KS: April 2015.
United States Army Mission Command Center of Excellence. White Paper, Talent Management
in the Army: The Principles of Talent Management. Fort Leavenworth, KS: May 2015.
United States Army Office of Economics and Manpower Analysis. Talent Management.
http://talent.army.mil/ (accessed 9 April 2015).
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S.
Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World. Fort Eustis, VA: October 2014.
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-7, The U.S.
Army Human Dimension Concept. Fort Eustis, VA: May 2014.
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. TRADOC Pamphlet 71-20-3, The U.S.
Army Training and Doctrine Command Concept Development Guide. Fort Eustis, VA:
December 2011.
Wright, Patrick M., and Gary C. McMahan. “Theoretical Perspectives for Strategic Human
Resource Management.” Journal of Management 18, no.2 (1992): 295-320.
Wright, Patrick M., and Scott A. Snell. “Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and
Flexibility in Strategic Human Resource Management.” The Academy of Management
Review 23, no.4 (1998): 756-762.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
39
Appendix E: Endnotes
1
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S.
Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World (Fort Eustis, VA: October 2014).
2
United States Army Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building
Cohesive Teams to Win in a Complex World (Fort Leavenworth, KS: 2015).
3
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 71-20-3, The U.S.
Army Training and Doctrine Command Concept Development Guide (Fort Eustis, VA:
December 2011).
4
Headquarters, Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex
World (Washington, D.C.: 2015).
5
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
6
Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2014 Army Strategic Planning Guidance (Washington,
D.C.: 2014).
7
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
8
Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World.
9
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
10
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-7, The U.S.
Army Human Dimension Concept (Fort Eustis, VA: May 2014).
11
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World.
12
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
13
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World.
14
Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World.
15
United States Army Combined Arms Center, U.S. Army Mission Command Strategy FY 13-19
(Fort Leavenworth, KS: June 2013).
16
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World.
17
Combined Arms Center, U.S. Army Mission Command Strategy FY 13-19.
18
Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World: 7.
19
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-7, The U.S. Army Human
Dimension Concept.
20
Ibid, 23.
21
Ibid, 22.
22
Ibid, 22.
23
Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World.
24
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
25
Headquarters, Department of the Army, Army Doctrine Reference Publication 1: The Army
Profession (Washington, D.C.: June 2015).
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
40
26
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World.
27
Department of the Army, The Army Vision: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World: 2.
28
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
29
Thomas Christensen, email message to author, 4 August 2015.
30
Ibid.
31
Ibid.
32
Army Science Board, Talent Management, 18 September 2014.
33
Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Studies Group III
Executive Summary (Washington, D.C.: July 2015).
34
Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., Independent Review of the Army’s Accessions Policy and
Recruiting Strategy for the Director of the Army Staff (McLean, VA: July 2015).
35
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Informational White Paper, Military Personnel Develop
and Utilize Reform Proposal (Washington, D.C.: July 2015).
36
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
37
United States Army Office of Economics and Manpower Analysis, “Talent Management,”
http://talent.army.mil/ (accessed 9 April 2015).
38
United States Army Mission Command Center of Excellence, White Paper, Talent
Management in the Army: The Principles of Talent Management (Fort Leavenworth, KS: May
2015).
39
Office of Personnel Management, The Human Capital Assessment and Accountability
Framework: Systems, Standards, and Metrics (Washington, D.C.: 2006).
40
United States Army Mission Command Center of Excellence, White Paper, Talent
Management in the Army: Review, Comment, and Recommendation on Talent Management
Models (Fort Leavenworth, KS: April 2015).
41
Mary Crannell, interview by author, 13 April 2015.
42
John W. Boudreau and Peter M. Ramstad, “Talentship and the New Paradigm for Human
Resource Management: From Professional Practices to Strategic Decision Science,” Human
Resource Planning 28, no.2 (2005): 17-26.
43
David P. Lepak, Hui Lao, Yunghyung Chung, and Erika E. Harden, “A Conceptual Review of
Human Resource Management Systems in Human Resource Management Research,” Research
in Personnel and Human Resources Management 25, (2006): 217-271.
44
John E. Delery, “Issues of Fit in Strategic Human Resource Management: Implications for
Research,” Human Resource Management Review 8, no.3 (1998): 305.
45
Sven Kepes, John E. Delery, and Nina Gupta, “Strategic Human Resource Management: A
Systems Perspective,” Academy of Management Proceedings 2008, no.1 (2008): 5-6.
46
Lee Dyer and Todd Reeves, “Human Resource Strategies and Firm Performance: What Do We
Know and Where Do We Need to Go?” CAHRS Working Paper #94-29 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource
Studies, 1994), 14, accessed 7 April 2015, http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/254.
47
Patrick M. Wright and Scott A. Snell, “Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and
Flexibility in Strategic Human Resource Management,” The Academy of Management Review
23, no.4 (1998): 756-762.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
41
48
Edward E. Lawler III and Christopher G. Worley, Nine Principles for Sustainable Talent
Management (Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business,
Center for Effective Organizations, 2011), accessed 11 April 2015, http://ceo.usc.edu.
49
Casey Ichniowski, Kathryn Shaw, and Giovanna Prennushi, “The Effects of Human Resource
Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines,” The American
Economic Review 87, no.3 (1997): 291-313.
50
Ted Ehlert, “Investing in Human Capital for the Future of War: The Price of Adaptation and
Victory,” The Medium Online, https://medium.com/the-bridge/investing-in-human-capital-for-
the-future-of-war-2bbceab64e, accessed 11 April 2015.
51
D.G. Collins and K. Mellahi, “Strategic Talent Management: A Review and Research
Agenda,” Human Resource Management Review 19, no.4 (2009): 304-313.
52
Lawler and Worley, Nine Principles for Sustainable Talent Management, 2-3.
53
Patrick M. Wright and Gary C. McMahan, “Theoretical Perspectives for Strategic Human
Resource Management,” Journal of Management 18, no.2 (1992): 295-320.
54
Michael J. Colarusso and David S. Lyle, Senior Officer Talent Management: Fostering
Institutional Adaptability (Carlisle Barracks, PA: United States Army War College Press, 2014):
145-158.
55
Thomas S. James, Jr., “Talent Management,” Army Leader Development Forum 14-2, 26
February 2014.
56
Frank J. Landy and Laura Shankster, “Personnel Selection and Placement,Annual Review of
Psychology 45, (1994): 261-296.
57
Colarusso and Lyle, Senior Officer Talent Management: Fostering Institutional Adaptability:
145-158.
58
Landy and Shankster, “Personnel Selection and Placement,” 2.
59
Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst, and Thomas V. Pollet, “Tall Claims? Sense
and Nonsense About the Importance of Height of U.S. Presidents,” The Leadership Quarterly
24, no.1 (2013) 159-171.
60
Wright and Snell, “Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and Flexibility in
Strategic Human Resource Management,” 756-752.
61
Lee Dyer and Jeff Erickson, “Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace Agility
Through Workforce Scalability,” CAHRS Working Paper #06-12 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource
Studies, 2006), 14, accessed 6 April 2015, http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/454.
62
Dyer and Reeves, “Human Resource Strategies and Firm Performance: What Do We Know
and Where Do We Need to Go?” 14.
63
Paul J. Silvia and Ann G. Phillips, “Self-Awareness, Self-Evaluation, and Creativity,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30, no.8 (2004): 1009-1017.
64
Nandi Rajagopalan, “Strategic Orientations, Incentive Plan Adoptions, and Firm Performance:
Evidence from Electric Utility Firms,” Strategic Management Journal 18, no.10 (1997): 761-
785.
65
Steven Kerr, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, while Hoping for B,The Academy of
Management Journal 18, no.4 (1975): 769-783.
66
Mission Command Center of Excellence, White Paper, Talent Management in the Army:
Review, Comment, and Recommendation on Talent Management Models.
67
Ibid.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
42
68
Ibid.
69
Ibid.
70
Ibid.
71
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World: 17.
72
Mission Command Center of Excellence, White Paper, Talent Management in the Army: The
Principles of Talent Management.
73
Ibid.
74
Mission Command Center of Excellence, White Paper, Talent Management in the Army:
Review, Comment, and Recommendation on Talent Management Models.
75
Office of the Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Studies Group III
Executive Summary.
76
Scott M. Halter, “What is an Army but the Soldiers? A Critical Assessment of the Army's
Human Capital Management System,” Military Review 92, no.1 (Jan-Feb 2012): 16.
77
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Informational White Paper, Military Personnel Develop
and Utilize Reform Proposal.
78
Ibid.
79
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Informational White Paper, Military Personnel Recruit
and Access Reform Proposal (Washington, D.C.: July 2015).
80
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Informational White Paper, Support and Retain Working
Group Reform Proposal (Washington, D.C.: July 2015).
81
Office of the Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Studies Group III
Executive Summary.
82
Department of the Army, 2014 Army Strategic Planning Guidance: 18.
83
Ibid, 18.
84
Ibid, 19.
85
Ibid, 19.
86
Ibid, 19.
87
Ibid, 24.
88
Ibid, 24.
89
Ibid, 24.
90
Ibid, 24.
91
Training and Doctrine Command, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, The U.S. Army Operating
Concept: Win in a Complex World.
92
United States Army Capabilities Integration Center, “Army Warfighting Challenges,”
http://www.arcic.army.mil/Initiatives/army-warfighting-challenges (accessed 28 August 2015).
93
Ibid.
94
Ibid.
95
Ibid.
96
Combined Arms Center, The Army Human Dimension Strategy: Building Cohesive Teams to
Win in a Complex World.
97
Ibid, 9.
98
Ibid, 17.
99
Ibid, 17.
100
Ibid, 17.
101
Ibid, 18.
Talent Management Concept of Operations for Force 2025 and Beyond
43
102
Jacqueline Klimas, Pentagon Peril: Private Sector Jobs, Unfit Civilians Threaten U.S.
Military Recruiting,” The Washington Times, 30 March 2015,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/30/carter-dod-must-adapt-recruit-younger-
generations (accessed 20 August 2015).
103
Joe Gould, “DoD Personnel Official Rips Outdated System,” Defense News, 24 June 2015,
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/2015/06/24/brad-carson-personnel-
systems-reform-outdated-ash-carter-attrition-retirement-human-resources (accessed 20 August
2015).