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Over the last several years the Navy has invested considerable time and energy in developing a human resource strategy that emphasizes the link between personnel quality and operational readiness. Success will require the linkage of human resource approaches with the accomplishment of organizational goals; implementation of recruiting, selection, training, and retention approaches that foster mission accomplishment; and transformation to a results-oriented organizational culture. One human resource component that will play a vital role is personnel advancement. The process of identifying potential candidates for advancement, and selecting those to be promoted is critical for an organization's continuing success and productivity. Organizations use a variety of different personnel advancement systems to facilitate the decision-making process, and many of these systems incorporate multiple criteria to improve accurate evaluation of candidates. For Navy Enlisted Sailors, the current advancement system provides for the orderly progression of qualified personnel to higher levels of responsibility throughout their naval careers. Generally, advancement is based on demonstrated proficiency in assigned duties, on the performance evaluation and recommendation of the commanding officer, and on written examinations.

Over the last several years, the Navy has been developing new strategies for revolutionizing Navy strategic human capital management. This includes a renewed emphasis on approaching a Sailor's career as a lifelong learning continuum gauged toward producing motivated and well-trained Sailors. This perspective suggests that everyone has the capability to grow in some way, at anytime during their career. Thus, an important component of strategic human capital management is understanding and helping each individual realize that potential. At the heart of this initiative is what is known as "The Sailor Continuum," that incorporates five distinct vectors forming the foundation on which the Navy identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that Sailors need to succeed in today's Navy. This five-vector model encompasses: professional development, personal development, leadership, certifications and qualifications, and job performance. This broad vision sees the Sailor Continuum as an executable career roadmap and resume that precisely maps and measures an individual's career progress and identifies learning resources that lead to achieving career milestones, as the Sailor moves through the recruit, apprentice, journeyman, and master career levels. By allowing Sailors to identify and diagram different career paths, they will be better equipped to apply for educational opportunities and future duty assignments.

People are an indispensable element in mission accomplishment. Consequently, the Navy has begun to underscore the notion that a Sailor's career is a lifelong learning continuum. This strategy aims toward producing motivated and well trained Sailors who possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do their jobs. Initiatives such as Task Force EXCEL (Task Force for Excellence through Commitment to Education and Learning) and Sea Warrior have already begun to operationalize this strategy. The Task Force Excel Performance Vector Research Team (PVRT) recently completed development of new performance management and appraisal systems for all supervisory and non-supervisory personnel in the U. S. Navy. The new "counseling" component is known as the Human Performance Feedback and Development (HPFD) model. The performance appraisal component utilizes the behaviors identified in the HPFD model, and consists of one form for supervisory-level personnel and a separate form for non-supervisory-level personnel.

The objective of this study was to assess a pilot version of the Web-based, behaviorally based, performance management (HPFD) and appraisal system (ePerformance). Specifically, the objectives were to capture quantitative and objective data as well as qualitative and subjective data from participants to identify potential sources of error and user burden. To capture these data, the Performance Vector Research Team (PVRT) and RTI International conducted usability testing and user surveys. This study assessed problems and errors using the Web-based system and the users' perceptions about the proposed new system., RTI Project No. 09166.002.

When a single job is the target, established job analysis approaches provide relatively straightforward methods for identifying performance requirements. However, when multiple jobs are involved, the identification of a single set of relevant performance dimensions can be more daunting. In the application here, there was also a compelling requirement to develop a dimension set that conformed with U.S. Navy fleet personnel perceptions of the performance domain. Accordingly, the behavioral performance constructs that experienced Navy officers believed differentiate effective from ineffective supervisory performance were gathered using a personal construct theory protocol. We then used a methodology suggested by Borman and Brush (1993) to integrate and summarize these personal work constructs, to provide-through a series of qualitative and quantitative strategies-a dimension set targeted toward supervisors in all Navy communities. The resulting dimensions revealed certain themes that might not have emerged if traditional job analysis strategies had been used. The dimension set and the resulting behaviorally anchored rating scales appear widely relevant to Navy supervisor jobs, and the performance appraisal system that employs the scales is nearing implementation., Published in Military Psychology, v16 n4 p231-243, 2004. Prepared in cooperation with Organizational Solutions Group, Excelsior, MN, and Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, Minneapolis, MN.

Over the last several years the Task Force Excel Performance Vector Research Team (PVRT) has been working on developing scientifically-based tools to support Navy efforts to re-engineer performance management, performance appraisal, and advancement programs. During Fiscal Year 2002, the PVRT successfully developed a new performance management and appraisal system for all supervisory and non-supervisory personnel in the U. S. Navy (Hedge, Borman, Bruskiewicz, & Bourne, 2002). That effort was followed by development of new Flag Fitness performance dimensions and Executive Mentoring products designed to support senior Navy leadership. The PVRT is also involved in preliminary activities to examine the Navy's current advancement system, and recommend ways to enhance the system by emphasizing factors most predictive of career advancement (Borman, Hedge, Bruskiewicz & Bourne, 2003; Hedge, Bruskiewicz, Borman, & Bourne, 2004). These activities are an important part of the Navy's strategic human capital management transformation, and reflect the Navy's drive to adopt a systematic and comprehensive approach to their most important asset --their people. Because there is an obvious link between personnel quality and operational readiness, an organization's approach to strategic human capital management must be judged by how well that vision, strategy, and process help the organization achieve results and pursue its mission. For the Navy, people are an indispensable element in mission accomplishment. They not only play a critical role in determining the organization's performance capabilities, but they also represent its institutional knowledge base and help define its culture.

The U.S. Department of the Navy has a number of challenges in facilitating a high level of military readiness. Currently, operational commanders and policymakers examine ratings on the Status of Training and Resources System (SORTS) as a readiness metric. SORTS generally consists of three primary military readiness factors--manning levels, equipment and supplies, and completed training evolutions. Clearly, Sailor retention and training play key roles in developing and maintaining military readiness. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) chartered the Executive Review of Navy Training (2001), which subsequently led to the formation of a Task Force for Excellence through Commitment to Education and Learning (EXCEL). Task Force EXCEL's goal was to identify new ways for the U.S. Navy to train, grow, place, and utilize personnel who maximize the Navy's ability to accomplish its military mission while developing a more productive yet satisfying workplace. Task Force EXCEL consists of five components or vectors that are essential to how personnel meet their missions and manage the Navy workforce. These five vectors include Professional Development, Personal Development, Professional Military Education and Leadership, Certifications and Qualifications, and Performance. The primary tasking of the Performance Vector includes an examination of the Navy performance appraisal and management system. One challenge for the Performance Vector was the need for a performance appraisal and management system that is aligned with the changing workplace performance needs of the U.S. Navy. Since 1996, the Navy has operated with a trait-based performance appraisal system, where supervisors have rated personnel on traits such as leadership, teamwork, equal opportunity, and military bearing/character (BUPERSINST 1600.10, 1995). One recommendation from initial Task Force EXCEL meetings was a behaviorally based performance appraisal system.

The aim of virtually every organization is a productive workforce. One of the most challenging strategic actions, therefore, is the development of employees during their tenure with the organization. Accurate evaluation and performance feedback are crucial components of any performance management and development process. This report highlights the activities undertaken to create new performance management systems, and performance feedback and development tools for supervisory and non-supervisory jobs in the United States Navy.

In complex organizations, quality leadership entails the solicitation of membership feedback for problem-solving and problem prevention. The impact from changing conditions on membership attitudes and perceptions is considered highly relevant to the continued success of the organization. To provide such organizational information to the senior leadership of the U.S. Navy Dental Corps, the Chief of the Dental Corps requested that the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) develop and execute a study to assess organizational issues and outcomes within the Dental Corps. This study would provide specific decision-support information to evaluate existing policies, improve management practices, and facilitate long-range planning.

Based on issues raised by the Bureau of Personnel and Input from Command Fitness Coordinators (CFCs), the Naval Health Research Center developed a 22-item survey to evaluate: (a) physical readiness testing procedures, (b) remedial conditioning programs, and (c) command attitudes toward the Navy Physical Readiness Test (PRT). In total, 343 CFCs returned anonymous surveys for analysis. Responses were divided into either "large" (i.e., greater than 524 personnel) or "small" (no less than 25 but no more than 524 personnel) and "shore" vs "nonshore" (i.e., surface ship, air, submarine) commands. The results of this initial study suggested that the majority of commands (86.8%) are conducting the PRT, and remedial help is widely available. Command attitude toward the PRT proved to be a very important factor in the perceived physical fitness of the command. Regression modeling predicted that the major factors associated with the physical readiness of the command were: (1) perceived physical fitness of the commanding officer, (2) effective remedial conditioning programs, (3) attendance at nutrition/diet programs, and (4) a high percentage of personnel actually taking the PRT.