USAFE civilian personnel servicing moves to AFPC

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Elizabeth Culbertson
  • USAFE News Service
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) --  U.S. Air Forces in Europe family members looking for employment will soon have a centralized site for handling civilian personnel servicing when civilian personnel operations move July 10.

The move is part of the AF long-term plan to streamline operations by having the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB, Texas, handle civilian personnel servicing.

“This [move] is a good thing because it gives our customers one central site when they look for employment,” said John Steenbock, chief, USAFE civilian personnel and personnel resources. “When they log onto the AFPC website they can find out about the employment opportunities not only at their current location, but all of USAFE and the Air Force.”

Currently, the base civilian personnel flights are filling in as the “transactional arms” of civilian personnel servicing in USAFE.

The individual base flights have managed local recruitment efforts since the Regional Personnel Center closed in March, said Veronica Hinton, USAFE U.S. staffing program manager. After the move, these processes will be handled by civilian personnelists at AFPC, she said.

The initiative to move servicing to AFPC is not new. Since 1996, 80 bases, including those within Pacific Air Forces, have turned over their services.

Personnelists at AFPC work shifts to accommodate the needs of PACAF employees and will do the same for USAFE, said Ms. Hinton. “The people working at AFPC are experts on civilian personnel issues, and now we are going to let them take on some of our workload.”

The move will allow base-level civilian personnel flights to focus more on management advisory services.

“Relocating backroom services to AFPC allows base personnelists to become strategic advisors rather than transactional processors,” she said.

Base-level CPFs will still provide face-to-face interaction to ensure quality customer service in many areas including in- and out-processing, training, equal employment opportunity and overseas benefits and allowances.

Impact on current civilian employees, who already use the AFPC automated tools online, should be minimal, said Ms. Hinton. “They are already using the system on a regular basis, so this move shouldn’t affect them,” she said.

The most significant change will be to procedures for local hire and family member recruitment programs, she said. Rather than a manual, in-person application process, prospective employees will now use an automated, web-based system located through http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/menu/staticnav-civ.htm.

The web-based system should prove advantageous to many people, said Ms. Hinton.

“Instead of continually driving to base to seek employment, our employees and family members will be empowered to take control of their own careers,” she said. “They will have all the information necessary to search, apply, and check the status of jobs they are interested in, right from their home computer.”

Even though the change does not take place until July, family members are encouraged to use the new process now.

“Family members who are interested in applying through civilian personnel for a job shouldn’t shy away from the new process,” Ms. Hinton said. “It’s an easy and efficient system once employees start to use it.”