Job Design as Part of the Navy Enlisted Personnel Individualized Career System

Abstract

The Navy, faced with the prospect of decreasing personnel availability, lower entry-level skills, and increased training costs has decided to develop and evaluate a personnel system concept with innovative technical manuals (Job Performance Aids) as the principal means for obtaining early and productive personnel performance. Significant features of this new concept are: (1) innovative job performance aids (JPA's) to guide minimally trained personnel in productive work, (2) deferred, front-end formal training, and (3) accounting for and individualizing the long-term aspects of the personnel system, such as job structures, career paths, performance appraisal, and advancement. The process of defining JPA-based jobs and integrating them into a total personnel system is referred to as a job design process.

Total job design will be accomplished in several phases. First, the tasks necessary to operate and maintain a system will be clustered into work units called positions. A position is comprised of tasks which have some commonality of system factors and are homogenous with respect to personnel skill and knowledge demands. Positions are then arrayed in dependent sequences and ordered according to skill demands. Next, position competency requirements will be determined. A determination will then be made as to how position performance competency can be achieved, particularly through the use of innovative JPA's. The third phase is to combine positions into jobs which meet system performance objectives and result in both productive personnel performance and job satisfaction. The final phase of the job design process is to design career patterns which will provide for increased performance development through utilization of more advanced JPAs, additional job-oriented training, and continual performance assessment and advancement.

The eventual product of the EPICS job design process will be a complete personnel system which emphasizes the use of JPA's or technical manuals, includes complementary training, and ensures a complete career potential for individuals who are both motivated and capable of job-oriented performance.