TALENT MANAGEMENT - POLITICAL SCIENCE

Homework help

: Analysis will includes:
Identifying the talent management; recruitment and retention; globalization; employee engagement and the retaining millennial.
· Globalization and Human Resource Management.
· Attracting Retaining Millennial and Millennial Workers and the Employee Engagement Phenomenon.
· High levels of Employee Engagement, The Leaders Role in Employee Engagement and Measuring Employee Engagement.
· Trends and Future of Talent Management.
· Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program.
· Conducting a presentation on an assisted topic.

Learning Domain: Cognitive

Level of Learning: Analyzing

ASSIGNED STUDENT READINGS

(1) S301RA: Human Resources Management, Issues, Challenges and Trends “Now and Around the Corner” Chapters 2, 8 and 9, pp. 33-52, pp.163-184-160 and pp. 185-200 (51 pages) [127.5 minutes]

(2) S301RB: Employee Engagement, Creating positive energy at work, Chapters 1, 6 and 7, pp. 1-24, pp. 145-182 and pp.184-206 (82 pages) [205 minutes]

(3) S301RC: Trends and Future of Talent Management, pp. 212-241 (27 pages) [67.5 minutes]

(4) S301RD: Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program, Army Regulation 600-81, pp. 1-27 (27 pages) [67.5 minutes]

Reflection Questions during readings:

(1) Why does a company need talent management?

(2) Why is trust so important for a manager/team leader?

(3) Is servant leadership the answer?

(4) What is the mission of the Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program?

View the short video, while watching the video take a few minutes to reflect on previous interactions that you have had with HRC in your career. The Human Resources is a huge field that affects several different areas of business and even other personal aspects of employees. HR managers must tackle issues within Technology, Talent management, Labor Relations and on how to keep employees develop and engage.

Keep in mind HR management applies across
· Consider reflecting and think about “How has human resource management changed in the workforce from the 20th to the 21st Century?
· What do you think the workforce will look like in the future for Soldiers and Family members?
· What do future generations have to look forward to in the workforce?

Human Resources Management,
As there is a growing recognition of the importance of human resources in the organizations by the employers, they have started to invest more time and money on the talent management departments of their enterprises. The trends in the talent management field have been growing and changing with a rapid pace in the recent past years, the managers have started to employ better methods to look after the employees and their skill sets.
After reading sections 9.1 and 9.3 of Chapter 9 of Reading A.
Ask yourself, what are so of the reasons an organization needs talent management?
Some possible reasons could be:
· Right person at right place
· Timely rotation of employee
· Hiring of the right people
What are some of the other reasons you can think of?
Consider some trends associated with Talent Management and it’s impact on an organization.
· Talent promotion
· Pool of talent
· Technology and Talent Management (how doe technology impact talent management?)
· Population growth/ demographics

Reflection Point: How does the Army manage talent?
What is it? It’s 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.
Who has it? Talent is not some “top 10 percent” of workers. Everyone has talents that can be extended and liberated, provided those talents are recognized and cultivated. Doing so creates optimal levels of performance in a much larger segment of an organization’s workforce.

TALENT MANAGEMENT.

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 talent demands with integrated implementation to ensure the majority of those people are optimally employed.

Talent management extracts the most productivity and value from an organization’s greatest asset – its people. Army talent management integrates people acquisition, development, employment and retention strategies. It begins with entry-level employees and aligns their talents against the demand for them during their entire careers, to include positions at the very top of the Army.

A trusted and open system for managing Army talent will incentivize a culture of development, strength and service

1. Sustains Long-Term Readiness: Talent Management delivers readiness for this fight while preparing for the next.
2. Managing People As Individuals: Talent Management recognizes that everyone has talent strengths, and great organizations maximize individual talents to meet organizational needs by placing the right person in the right job at the right time over time.
3. Better Data leads to Informed Decisions: Talent Management strives to give people and organizations more relevant information to drive better decisions.
4. Empowers Leaders & Individuals: Talent Management allows individuals to define career success for themselves, advertise their talents, seek opportunities in line with those talents, and employed by leaders with direct hiring authority and understanding their team’s specific needs.
5. Tech-Enabled, People Focused: Technology is a compliment to, but not a substitute for, the human dimension of talent.
6. Influences Behavior: Talent Management uses markets and incentives to drive behavior.
7. Fosters a Culture of Assessments: Talent Management promotes organizational, leader and self-awareness through rigorous assessments of individuals and teams
8. Builds Trust: Talent Management builds trust over time through consistency, transparency, balancing individual and family needs with the needs of the Army and honoring commitments made through the management process.
9. Retain Talent: Talent Management reveals granular information about people leading to better and more focused retention decisions of high demand talent.
10 Personal Accountability. Talent Management requires every officer to take ownership of their own personal and career decisions.
11. Flexibility. Talent Management builds flexibility into our career models to better accommodate personal and professional choices to apply to the needs of the Army.
12. Enhances Organizational Agility. Talent Management Army promotes increased organizational agility and innovative out-of-the-box thinking in response to new challenges and opportunities.

Globalization and Human Resource Management:
Human Resources Management Issues, Challenges, and Trends “Now and Around the corner” Chapter 2. During this section the challenge is to link your understanding of the Globalization and Human Resource. Could you explain what is the “global village”. pp. 31-35( Reading A). This chapter discusses globalization and implications and impacts on HRM in the future.

Reflection Point for Chapter2:
· Why do you think companies need to understand the global environment?

·
· Political: • New state tax policies for accounting • New employment laws for employee handbook maintenance • Political instability in a foreign partner country.
· Economic: • International economic growth • Changes in interest rates.
· Sociocultural: • Shift in educational requirements and changing career attitudes • Population growth rate.
· Technological: • Automated processes in the industry • Rate of innovation • Changes in technology incentive.

Consider the millennial generation, who are they and why are they important to Human Resource management?

Something to consider; According to the Pew Research Census Bureau, more than a third of workers today are millennials, born between 1981–2000 (Fry, 2015). Research shows that this large and growing sector of the workforce expects a different work experience than their predecessors, such as GenXers and baby boomers.

As a senior leader, think about why having a fundamental understanding of millennials are important to Army Talent Management and Human Resources?

Human Resource departments exist to find the right people and to keep the right people once they are found. Among other objectives, this mission relates to three specific strategies:
Recruiting, Rewarding and Retaining high-performing employees.
All three strategies are integrated, and, in fact, there are significant overlaps among them (see Figure 8.1). Pp.172-178.

This fundamental strategy holds true for the US Army.

Employee Engagement

Chapter 1 Employee Engagement Creating Positive energy at work (Reading B) by Joan Peters. pp. 2-4.

As you re-read and reflect upon the readings consider the below areas for deep reflection and processing
· What we mean by the term “employee engagement”.
· Is employee engagement the same as employee satisfaction?
· The term “Employee Experience” is used often. Is that the same as employee engagement?
· Is “engagement” just another term for “workaholism”?
· Can the impact of employee engagement on company performance be quantified?
· How important is it to employees that they feel highly engaged at work?
· How does work contribute to well-being?
· How well are companies doing when it comes to employee engagement?

How or what does employee engagement mean within the Army? Does some of the same principles apply based upon your readings?

The concept of employee engagement has become ambiguous, a work-related psychological measure influenced by factors that scholars and researchers have focused on identifying. While the realm of research scholars seeks to identify it, the obvious effects of employee engagement, or, rather, disengagement are consistently
observed in the workplace.

Employee engagement has thus become a high priority for all organizations, as for a company to be successful in a tough business environment, it needs highly competent and highly engaged employees who can meet the employer’s high expectations of them.

The general belief is that when people are engaged and love their work, they do better work. According to a survey conducted by HR.com, over 90% of respondents believed that there is solid evidence linking engagement to performance, and that engagement
has the strongest impact on customer service and productivity.

There is no single definition of employee engagement, but there is wide agreement that it is an emotional commitment to one’s work and a willingness to give of one’s best at work. It is how people feel about their work that determines their levels of energy, ownership, persistence, commitment and initiative.

Does this concept hold true for the Army? Why or why not?

The challenge for leaders is to provide a work experience that brings out the best in all their people, which means more focus on the intangible factors that affect the way people feel about their work. This is often not familiar territory for many leaders, and is certainly an important aspect in our development and growth as leaders.
According to Army Doctrine leader development must foster the cognitive, social, and physical competencies associated with the human dimension. War fundamentally remains a human contest of wills, despite the advances in technology. Producing a professional NCO corps demands a comprehensive Human Dimension Strategy oriented on the individual, the team, and the institution.

The roles and responsibilities for the NCO have always been to lead, train, and care for Soldiers and equipment while enforcing standards. The Army must have a cohort of competent and committed NCOs of character as trusted professionals who thrive in chaos, adapt, and win in a complex world. The Army’s NCO 2020 Strategy provides the ways, means, and ends to develop a professional, trained, and ready NCO corps that is essential to remain as the world’s premier fighting force.

Leader development is further enhanced by recognizing, developing, and maturing talents in Soldiers while simultaneously managing talent to meet the immediate and long-term goals of the ALDS. Together, leader development and talent management build on the fundamentals.

Talent is the intersection of three dimensions—skills, knowledge, and behaviors—that create an optimal level of individual performance, provided individuals are employed within their talent set. Talent management is a way to enhance Army readiness by maximizing the potential of the Army’s greatest asset—our people. By better understanding the talent of the workforce and the talent necessary to meet capability needs by unit requirements, the Army can more effectively acquire, develop, employ, and retain the right talent at the right time. In Army talent management, “best” equals best fit for the work at hand.
_

Assignment Instructions:
Analyze the concepts and theories you read about in S301; utilizing key language and terms from these concepts and theories, write a 800-1200 word paper on the challenges of talent management and how a SGM can engage organizational members for competitive success in future assignments while ensuring their organizational members remain adaptable. Keep in mind your analysis of the content material and your personal experience will help you with this paper. This paper can incorporate personal experiences to help illustrate your understanding of the material and to show examples. This assignment also allows for you to write in first person as you illustrate certain experiences within your paper.
Ensure to use good APA 7th Edition writing style, list the references used, and cite them within the paper.

Lesson S301
Human Resource Management Processes and Systems

Reading A
Human Resources Management Issues, Challenges and

Trends: “Now and Around the Corner”
Chapters 2, 8 and 9

Human Resources Management Issues, Challenges and Trends:
“Now and Around the Corner”, pages 31–52.
Copyright © 2019 by Information Age Publishing
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 31

CHAPTER 2

GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Ronald R. Sims

The environment in which today’s organizations find themselves continues to be
more globalized as the world is becoming a “global village.” This globalization
is driven in part by continued growth in multinational investment to include more
and more companies entering into alliances with foreign companies, exporting
their products overseas, and building plants in other countries. All of the human
resource management (HRM) challenges, issues and opportunities discussed in
previous chapters in this book are interrelated conceptually and operationally in
the international context.

This chapter discusses a number of the HRM challenges, issues and opportuni-
ties HRM professionals and their organizations will need to address in today’s and
tomorrow’s global world of work. The chapter first takes a look at today’s global
organization and some HRM issues. Next, the discussion turns to the globaliza-
tion of business and factors affecting HRM in global markets before focusing
on an analysis of levels of global or international and HRM operations. Finally,
the chapter discusses globalization and implications and impacts on HRM in the
future.

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Account: s4061880

32 • RONALD R. SIMS

TODAY’S GLOBAL ORGANIZATION AND
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ISSUES

For the past decades, there have been profound changes in the international busi-
ness scene. With geographic national borders being almost replaced by multi-
national firms, and a heightened level of labor mobility around the globe, the
implication of HRM to design and develop firms’ global business strategy, and
to direct individuals (i.e. managers and professional staff alike) for working in
different countries, is undoubtedly significant. Rosalie Tung (2016) has recently
suggested that in the past three decades or so, globalization/regionalization, mi-
gration and reverse migration (also referred to as “brain circulation”), the ascen-
dancy of emerging markets, the demand for people with a global mindset, and
the worldwide war for talent have brought about fundamental changes to the na-
ture, magnitude, and raison d’etre for HRM in a global context. And, that these
changes require HRM professionals and their organizations to adopt new lenses to
fully understand the dynamics that impact global or international human resource
management policies and practices.

Organizations are attempting to gain competitive advantage, which can be pro-
vided by international expansion as these countries are new markets with large
numbers of potential customers. For example, organizations that are producing
below their capacity can use expansion to possibly increase sales and profits. Still
other organizations are building production facilities in other countries as a means
of capitalizing on those countries’ lower labor costs for relatively unskilled jobs.

Importing and exporting goods and services is the easiest way to “go global.”
India has the world’s second-largest population (1.2 billion people) and a grow-
ing middle class, so businesses are increasingly trying to expand their exports to
that country (U.S. News & World Report, 2016). According to Snell and Morris
(2019), Apple is one of those companies. Although the iPhone dominates the U.S.
market, only 5 percent of smartphones in India are iPhone. Partnerships, mergers
and takeovers are other ways companies are addressing globalization.

The reality is that most organizations now function in the global economy.
For example, U.S. businesses are entering international markets at the same time
that foreign companies are entering the U.S. market. Consider the reality that
many American and foreign firms have partnered with Chinese firms to expand
in China, which is the world’s most populous country, with 1.3 billion people.
In turn, cross-border mergers continue to increase (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart &
Wright, 2019; Shen, 2016) as Chinese and other foreign companies are merging
with American firms (Sheng, 2016). Consider also that it has been suggested that
globalization is the dominant driving force in the world economy, reshaping soci-
eties and politics as it changes lives (Cascio, 2019).

Globalization has also resulted in the blurring of national identities of prod-
ucts. Many may think of Budweiser as an American beer, but its maker (Anheus-
er-Busch) is owned by a Belgian company called InBev. Like many other compa-
nies, Anheuser-Busch InBev has been purchasing or partnering with factories and

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Globalization and Human Resource Management • 33

brands in other countries such as China and Mexico to expand its sales. Similarly,
BMW is a German brand, but the automaker builds cars in the United States, Chi-
na and elsewhere (Choi & Schreiner, 2014; Duprey, 2013; Snell & Morris, 2019).

Giant multinational corporations such as Nestlé, Unilever, and AstraZeneca,
began to lose their national identities as they integrated and coordinated product
design, manufacturing, sales, and services on a worldwide basis. Further, many
other U.S. firms, for example, generate a substantial portion of their sales and
profits from other countries; companies such as Coca-Cola, Exxon/Mobil, and
Microsoft derive a significant portion of total sales and profits from outside the
United States (Dewhurst, Harris & Heywood, 2012). In 1982 GE, for example,
generated 20 percent of its sales outside the United States and 70 percent in 2017
(Mann & Spegele, 2017). Many foreign organizations have taken advantage of
growth opportunities in the United States. For example, Toyota, based in Japan,
has grown its market share and increased its number of jobs in the United States
and elsewhere in North America. Also, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and other Japa-
nese automobile manufacturers, electronic firms, and suppliers have maintained
operations in the United States (Mathis, Jackson, Valentine, & Meglich, 2017).

Higginbottom (2017) has recently argued that these are indeed “uncertain
times” (i.e., for global (and local) organizations and HRM professionals). The
last several years have played host to seismic political events such as Brexit and
the election of Donald Trump as the U.S. president in 2016. The acronym VUCA
which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is a trendy
management term that perfectly encapsulates the conditions that many multina-
tionals are operating under.

Brexit, for example, which stemmed from a slim majority of U.K. voters de-
ciding in a June 23, 2016 referendum, that they no longer wanted to be governed
largely from a bureaucracy located in Brussels, Belgium, continues to pose a seri-
ous threat to the European Union. The EU and Britain are currently negotiating
the terms of their separation which will have major implications for global busi-
nesses and many observers predict that, at least in the short term, this exit will
have a negative impact on the British economy (see, Amadeo, 2018a; Partington,
2018; Romei, 2018).

Numerous free-trade agreements forged between nations over the past 60
years, like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948 and the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, helped quicken the
pace of globalization. However, the election of Donald Trump as president of
the U.S. in 2016 has created uncertainty for organizations making their location
decisions in his efforts to renegotiate, for example, NAFTA which is the world’s
largest free trade agreement. In an effort to keep companies from moving produc-
tion outside the United States, Trump announced a 35 percent tariff on steel and a
10 percent tariff on aluminum on Canada, Mexico and the EU. President Trump
campaigned on renegotiating NAFTA and frequently berated companies seeking

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34 • RONALD R. SIMS

to build plants in Mexico, for example, particularly when it entails closing plants
in the United States (see Amadeo, 2018b; Stoll & Colias, 2016).

While factors like Berxit and the election of Trump as the U.S. president are
impacting globalization, perhaps none is more important that the rise of Inter-
net technologies (Dreyfuss, 2017; Quora, 2017; Sato, 2014). The Internet, as it
continues to develop, has certainly changed the ways that people live and work.
Indeed, in some industries, such as music and e-commerce, it has completely
revolutionized the rules of the game (Cascio, 2019).

The Internet gives everyone in the organization, at any level and in every func-
tional areas, the ability to access a mind-boggling array of information-instanta-
neously from anywhere. Ideas can be zapped around the globe in the blink of an
eye instead of seeping out over month or years. A global marketplace has been
created by factors such as the following:

• Global telecommunications enhanced by fiber optics, satellites, and com-
puter technology.

• E-commerce that makes organizations global from the moment their Web
sites are up and running, as customers from around the world log on.

• Financial markets are now open 24 hours a day around the world (Lioudis,
2018).

• Cost pressures (that prod firms to move where labor and other resources are
cheapest), coupled with a search for new markets (as firms and consumers
around the world seek foreign goods and services).

• The integration of cultures and values through international travel, as well
as the spread of goods such as music, food, and clothing. In combination,
these have led to common consumer demands around the world (Tarique,
Briscoe, & Schuler, 2016).

• The emergence of global standards and regulations for trade, commerce,
finance, products, and services (Gunther, 2005).

The rapid increase in telecommunications and information technology en-
ables work to be done more rapidly, efficiently, and effectively all over the world.
Friedman (2016 has suggested that an expanding high-tech, information-based
economy increasingly defines globalization and shapes the business cycles within
it. That is, much of the flow of capital, labor, services, and goods among Asia,
America and Europe are technology based. Without chips, screens, and software
help from Asia, the U.S. economy would grind to a halt. Clearly, open borders
continue to allow new ideas and technology to flow freely around the globe, ac-
celerating productivity growth and allowing businesses to be more competitive
than they have been in past decades.

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Globalization and Human Resource Management • 35

Globalization and HRM

Due to globalization, companies have to balance a complicated set of issues
related to different geographies, including different cultures, employment laws,
and business practices, and the safety of employees and facilities abroad. HRM
issues underlie each of these and other concerns. They include such things as
dealing with employees today and tomorrow who, via the Internet and social me-
dia, are better informed about global job opportunities and are willing to pursue
them, even if it means working for competing companies or foreign companies.
Determining the knowledge and skill base of workers worldwide and figuring out
how best to hire and train them (sometimes with materials that must be translated
into a number of different languages) is also an issue for companies in the global
environment.

There is every indication that the recent social and political changes have con-
tributed to globalization and the movement toward international competition. De-
spite the reasons an organization may have for expanding operations globally,
HRM is critical to the success of any global initiative. If one adopts the basic prin-
ciple that HRM strategy must be derived from corporate strategy and that people
do determine an organization’s success or failure, then the HRM function needs
to be a key strategic partner in any global operations. Still, in some instances
HRM is often neglected in the planning and establishment of global endeavors.
Despite such neglect, today’s and tomorrow’s HRM professionals must continue
to develop their own and other organizational members competencies or skills in
the ever-growing international context of the world of work. This means not only
understanding the events and factors that continue to increase the global nature of
business but also their role in helping to improve their organization’s competitive
advantage in global environments.

UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

It is important for HRM professionals to continue to recognize that because politi-
cal, economic, social and technological conditions are constantly shifting around
the world, how employees are managed in those changing environments will need
to shift as well. HRM professionals can better understand the global environment
by regularly conducting a political, economic, sociocultural, and technological
(PEST) analysis which can act as an audit of a company’s environmental influ-
ences to assist in determining the corporate strategy and accompanying HRM
response(s) (see, for example, Post, 2017; Snell & Morris, 2019).

By conducting a PEST analysis HRM professionals and other organizational
leaders are able to scan different contextual environments to understand the long-
term trends and how they might impact a company. A PEST analysis can help
HRM professionals to 1) spot business or human resource opportunities, and give
them advanced warning of threats, 2) identify trends in the business environment
so they can proactively adapt to these changes, 3) help to avoid implementing

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36 • RONALD R. SIMS

HRM practices in a particular country where they may fail, and 4) put an end to
old habits and assumptions about how people should be managed to help bring
about innovative ideas for the entire organization.

Political Factors

Government regulations and legal issues affect a company’s ability to be profit-
able and successful, and this factor looks at how that can happen. Issues that must
be considered include tax guidelines, copyright and property law enforcement,
political stability, trade regulations, social and environmental policy, employment
laws and safety regulations. Companies should also consider their local and fed-
eral power structure and discuss how anticipated shifts in power could affect their
business.

HRM professionals can assess the political factors by examining a country’s
labor laws, property rights, and patents. When Lincoln Electric, the Ohio-based
welding company, for example, started operations in Brazil, they could not offer
their yearly bonus program based on performance because any bonuses paid for
two consecutive years became a legal entitlement (Siegel & Larson, 2009).

Property rights in many countries are poorly protected by governments. Who-
ever has the political power or authority can seize others’ property with few or
no repercussions. Civil unrest can also lead to the poor enforcement of property
rights. Businesses have less incentive to invest in countries or locate factories
in countries experiencing strife. Another issue that has implications for global
companies relates to the intellectual property rights—rights related to patents,
trademarks, and so forth.

Economic Factors

This factor examines the outside economic issues that can play a role in a
company’s success. Items for HRM professionals and other organizational mem-
bers to consider include economic growth, exchange, inflation and interest rates,
economic stability, anticipated shifts in commodity and resource costs, unemploy-
ment policies, credit availability, unemployment policies, and the business cycle
followed in the country.

By looking at trends around market and trade cycles, specific industry changes,
customer preferences, and country economic growth forecasts HRM profession-
als and other organizational members can best understand the economic issues
that are bound to have an impact on the company. For example, in 1995, the World
Trade Organization (WTO) was formalized as a cooperative forum for country
leaders to come together and increase free trade across the world. As of Decem-
ber 2017, the WTO member countries represented over 164 member-nations and
covered 97 percent of all international trade (Amadeo, 2018c). In addition, coun-
tries are continually negotiating free trade agreements with each other in hopes of
increasing their economic activity.

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Globalization and Human Resource Management • 37

Since China joined the WTO in 2001, its economy has grown dramatically,
drastically altering its political and trading relationship with many nations. In a
strange twist of fate, Xi Jinping, the leader of the communist world and China’s
president, has taken to defending free trade and globalization, whereas U.S. presi-
dent Donald Trump, leader of the free world, has taken to attacking them as noted
previously (Elliott & Wearden, 2017).

Sociocultural Factors

The sociocultural factor analyzes the demographic and cultural aspects of the
company’s market. These factors help companies examine consumer needs and
determine what pushes them to make purchases. Among the items that should be
examined are communications, religion, values and ideologies, education, social
structure, demographics, population growth rates, age distribution, cultural limi-
tations, lifestyle attitude, attitudes towards work and job market trends.

An understanding of sociocultural factors has important implications when it
comes to a company’s decision about when and how to do business in a country.
For example, because of low labor costs and language similarities, many U.S.
businesses have found India an attractive place to locate their facilities, particu-
larly call centers.

By recognizing and accommodating different ideologies, religious beliefs,
communication styles, education systems, and social structures, HRM profession-
als and other organizational members stand a better chance of understanding the
culture of a host country—a country in which an international business operates.
Even in countries that have close language or cultural links, HRM practices can
be dramatically different. For example, employers might be expected to provide
employees with meals while at work and transportation between home and work.
In most of the Islamic Middle East, it is completely acceptable to ask coworkers
very personal questions about their children, especially their sons, but never about
their wives (Tulshyan, 2010; Vollmer, 2015).

Technological Factors

Technology issues affect how an organization delivers its product or service
to the marketplace. Specific items that need to be scrutinized include, but are not
limited to, government spending on the maturity of manufacturing equipment,
information systems, technological research, technological advancements, the life
cycle of current technology, the role of the Internet and how any changes to it
may play out, and the impact of potential information technology changes. Even
in less-developed countries where manufacturing is typically stronger due to low
cost of labor and high cost of capital-intensive equipment, labor-saving technolo-
gy is becoming more affordable and accessible. Take, for instance, a textile factor
in Vietnam. It is more cost effective for the factory to purchase high-tech thread-
ing equipment to spin the cotton into thread than to hire hundreds of people to

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38 • RONALD R. SIMS

thread the cotton by hand, even when the average wage for such employees is less
than $100 a month. Just like the other factors, companies should consider genera-
tional shifts and their related technological expectation to figure out how they will
affect who will use their product and how it’s delivered (Snell & Morris, 2019).

While advances in technology have pushed for more service-based jobs, infor-
mation systems and technology platforms have also increased the rate at which
these services can be traded across countries. Along with the creation of the WTO,
1995 also signifies the beginning of the Internet era mentioned early which is a
major driver of the increase in globalization.

Table 2.1 provides an example of PEST analysis that can give HRM profession-
als and other organizational members a clear understanding of how this works:

Every country varies in terms of its political, economic, sociocultural and tech-
nological systems. These variations directly influence the types of HRM systems
that must be developed to accommodate the particular situation. The extent to
which these differences affect a company depends on how involved the company
is in global markets.

Today, employees around the world continue to become empowered to com-
pete without the need of a large company. For example, many websites such as
guru.com have developed an online marketplace where individuals can offer vari-
ous services and compete for business throughout the world. Consider the reality
that one might be interested in developing a new website for their company. By
going to the Internet one can select various individuals offering specific services.
They may be from different parts of the world. In conclusion, these PEST factors
shift the way companies are formed and how they and their HRM professionals go
about managing their human resources in a global environment.

ANALYZING A COMPANY’S LEVEL OF
INTERNATIONAL AND HRM OPERATIONS

Today’s international business operations can take several different forms. A large
percentage of these operations carry on their international business with only lim-
ited facilities and minimal representation in foreign countries. Others have exten-
sive facilities and personnel in various countries of the world. Managing these

TABLE 2.1. Sample Pest Analysis

Political Economic Sociocultural Technical

• New state tax policies
for accounting

• New employment
laws for employee
handbook maintenance

• Political instability in a
foreign partner country

• International economic
growth

• Changes in interest
rates

• Shift in educational
requirements and
changing career
attitudes

• Population growth rate

• Automated processes
in the industry

• Rate of innovation
• Changes in technology

incentives

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Globalization and Human Resource Management • 39

resources effectively, and integrating their activities to achieve global advantage,
is a challenge to a company’s leaders and HRM professionals.

Often we hear companies referred to as “multinational” or “international.”
However, it is important for HRM professionals to understand the different levels
of participation in international markets. This is especially important because as
a company becomes more involved in international trade, different types of HRM
challenges, problems, and opportunities arise.

Bartlett and Ghoshal (1991) identified the following four international organi-
zational models:

• Decentralized federation in which each national unit is managed as a sepa-
rate entity that seeks to optimize its performance in the local environment.
(This is the traditional multinational corporation).

• Coordinated federation in which the center develops sophisticated man-
agement systems enabling it to maintain overall control, although scope is
given to local management to adopt practices that recognize local market
conditions.

• Centralized hub in which the focus is on the global market rather than on
local markets. Such organizations are truly global rather than multinational.

• Transnational in which the corporation develops multi-dimensional stra-
tegic capacities directed towards competing globally but also allows local
responsiveness to market requirements.

Adler (2008) offers another categorization of the four various levels of inter-
national participation from which a company may choose and includes the fol-
lowing levels of involvement or participation: domestic, international, transna-
tional, multinational. The four basic types of organizations differ in the in degree
to which international activities are separated to respond to the local regions and
integrated to achieve global efficiencies.

Domestic. Most organizations begin by operating within a domestic market-
place. For example, a business that starts in the U.S. marketplace must recruit,
hire, train, and compensate …

Lesson S301
Human Resource Management Processes and

Systems

Reading B
Employee Engagement: Creating Positive Energy at

Work
Chapters 1, 6 and 7

Employee Engagement

Chapter 1
High levels of employee engagement
benefit everyone

In this chapter we will explore the following topics:

■ The challenges we face as HR and as leaders in companies.

■ The reasons why employee engagement has become a
high priority for organisations.

■ How companies prioritise the importance of the customer,
the shareholder and the employee.

■ The changing expectations that employees have of their
employers.

■ What we mean by the term “employee engagement”.

■ Is employee engagement the same as employee
satisfaction?

■ The term “Employee Experience” is used often. Is that the
same as employee engagement?

■ Is “engagement” just another term for “workaholism”?

■ Can the impact of employee engagement on company
performance be quantified?

■ How important is it to employees that they feel highly
engaged at work?

■ How does work contribute to well-being?

■ How well are companies doing when it comes to employee
engagement?

■ Reflective questions.

Co
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t
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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 2/21/2021 4:52 PM via US ARMY SGTS MAJOR
ACADEMY
AN: 2322279 ; Joan Peters.; Employee Engagement: Creating High Positive Energy at Work
Account: s4061880

Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

The challenges we face

Rochelle leaned back in her chair as her team left her office after their
weekly meeting. She was feeling uneasy. Rochelle was new to her
company, RoofCo, a manufacturer of roof tiles, having only joined
two months ago. She headed up the Marketing team, which was
responsible for functions such as sales forecasts, identifying sales
outlets, market research, promotions and advertising.

Rochelle had inherited a small team of talented and well-qualified
people. Two team members were over the age of 45 and had great
knowledge and experience with the company. This should have
made them an excellent support to the four younger employees
who were below the age of 35. Rochelle’s expectations were that
team meetings and one-on-one meetings should generate lively
discussions and many ideas, and that people should be energised in
their roles and willing to take on projects and test ideas.

So far this was not the case, however. Meetings were fairly quiet; only
one or two employees offered any ideas and people seemed to be
waiting for instructions. There was a strange, cautious atmosphere
with little initiative and low energy. Rochelle was wondering what
her strategy should be to build higher levels of energy amongst
her team. The goals for the department were tough, so she needed
everyone to be fully engaged and to collaborate, innovate and
achieve the targets she had agreed to.

Meanwhile, 20 kms away in the industrial area, the CEO of Rozzby,
Daniel, was preparing for a Board meeting. His frustration level was
rising as he worked through the numbers; customer satisfaction was
down, absences were edging higher and warranty costs were rising,
which was no surprise as the in-house quality management system
was highlighting many faults picked up at the end of the production
line, despite the extra quality checking stations they had installed.
There was constant conflict between the people in the production,
quality and engineering divisions. Employee turnover was low, but
in the past three months, four of the company’s top talent had

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Employee Engagement

resigned. It seemed to Daniel that his employees just did not care
about the company or the quality of their work.

In a thoroughly bad mood, he phoned Laurisha, the HR Director.
“Looking at company performance figures, I would say we have a
people problem. And don’t tell me we don’t pay people enough.
We pay above the market rate! We’ve upgraded the facilities on the
line as well as the offices. We introduced flexible work hours for the
office staff and the managers received great bonuses. It seems to
me people just don’t care about the company, the product or the
customer. And the people we recruited at great cost to help us turn
the situation around are also resigning. There’s no loyalty anymore.
We have a Board meeting coming up so I am putting you on the
agenda to give the HR view on this and recommend a way forward.”

Employee engagement has become a high priority for
organisations

As a leader in your company or as a Human Resources leader,
I am sure you can relate to these scenarios. The challenge for
leadership and HR is how to consistently get the best performance
from employees so that the company can achieve its targets of
productivity, customer experience, product quality and profitability.
The business environment is certainly tough for most companies:
customers are more demanding, the economy is sluggish, new
competitors and technologies can suddenly emerge and disrupt the
business, product life cycles are shorter as customers head off to buy
the latest novelty, customer service must wow the customer, not just
satisfy them, and products need to be manufactured faster, cheaper
and better.

The customer, the shareholder and the employee

Traditionally, companies placed a high priority on the importance
of the shareholder and the customer to the business. Leadership
believed that for the business to be successful and profitable, the
organisation needed to focus on their customers’ experience of doing
business with the company and keeping the shareholders happy.

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

Then there was the realisation that the company’s employees
determined the customers’ experience. A good customer experience
is the result of engaged employees throughout the value chain. Think
of every group of employees in a business who have an impact on
customer experience, directly or indirectly. These include employees
who:

■ designed, made and sold the product;

■ managed the customer’s account;

■ recruited and trained the employees in the business so they
were able to do a good job;

■ set up the production lines, ordered parts and got them to the
line on time;

■ developed business processes and systems;

■ managed and motivated others;

■ cleaned the offices; and

■ paid the staff.

Every employee contributes to the quality of the product or the
service experienced by the customer, and the customer’s experience
is the deciding factor on whether or not he or she will continue to do
business with that company.

The Gallup organisation conducted research that supports the view
that employee engagement is an important factor in organisational
success. Their view is that “engaged workers are the lifeblood of their
organizations” and to win customers, companies need to win the
hearts and minds of their employees.1

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Employee Engagement

Leadership and
Team

My job

Connection
Support
Trust

Aligned to my
strengths

Purpose and
meaning

Growth and
development

Belonging
Achievement
Well-being

Great job
performance

Initiative

Great Employee
Experience

Engaged
Employee

My job

Figure 1: Employee Experience and Customer Experience

If engaged employees lead to engaged customers, companies need
to focus on how to engage their employees, meaning the employees’
experience at work becomes an important topic for business leaders.
We need to reflect on how we create an employee experience that
leads to engaged employees.

In practice…

Richard Branson was able to build Virgin into a global powerhouse by
focusing on customer service, yet he revealed that Virgin does not put the
customer first. In fact, Virgin employees are the company’s top priority. As
Branson sees it, the formula is very simple: Happy employees equal happy
customers. Similarly, an unhappy employee can ruin the brand experience
for not just one, but numerous customers.

“If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not
going to do things with a smile,” Branson says. By not treating employees
well, companies risk losing customers due to bad service. Branson says he
has made sure that Virgin prioritises employees first, customers second,
and shareholders third. “Effectively, in the end shareholders do well, the
customers do better, and your staff remains happy,” he says.2

Employee engagement has thus become a high priority for all
organisations, as for a company to be successful in a tough business
environment, it needs highly competent and highly engaged
employees who can meet the employer’s high expectations of them.

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

These include:

■ making sure the customer has a memorable experience;

■ being innovative and making the product more appealing,

■ creating better quality and less expensive to manufacture
products;

■ being results-driven, hard-working and quick;

■ staying up-to-date with rapid changes in the field;

■ being collaborative;

■ being flexible; and

■ keeping their phones on so the company can contact them when
they are not at the workplace.

The general belief is that when people are engaged and love
their work, they do better work. According to a survey conducted
by HR.com, over 90% of respondents believed that there is solid
evidence linking engagement to performance, and that engagement
has the strongest impact on customer service and productivity.3

In addition, according to executives at the World’s Most Admired
Companies, a list prepared by Fortune magazine and Korn Ferry,
an engaged workforce is essential to effectively cope with change.
“Engaged employees are more willing to accept and embrace the
organizational changes needed to address customer concerns and
cost issues.”4

For all these reasons, the issues of retention and employee
engagement have become high priority issues for business leaders.
As employers’ expectations of employees increase, so do employees’
expectations of their employers. According to research undertaken
by Deloitte, the employee work contract has changed.5 Talented
employees are in a strong position, the job market is highly
transparent, and companies are competing for highly skilled
employees. However, as employers’ expectations of employees
increase, so do employees’ expectations of their employers.

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Employee Engagement

Talent in the form of well-educated and tech-savvy people is
generally not daunted by a demanding work situation. Many of
these people have the approach of, “I would love to be part of the
business challenge. It sounds exciting. I want to be challenged and to
be part of exciting projects. However, I have my own expectations of
the Company as my employer and of my leadership. The salary and
benefits are important to me but my needs are greater than that. I
am looking at the total work experience and things like meaningful
work, the opportunity to be creative, ongoing development, inspiring
leadership, recognition and a sense of belonging are also important
if you want the best out of me”.

Talent in the form of the worker on the shop floor who is now
working with sophisticated equipment and expected to turn out top
quality work that would have been unthinkable a few years ago is
also typically saying, “I am proud to be working at this company and
I love the product. However, if you want the best out of me, please
don’t treat me like a number or as an extension of the machine. Talk
to me, listen to my ideas and concerns, address my problems with
parts and equipment, respect me, get to know me, support me and
involve me”.

Talent in the form of the older, wiser, more experienced and possibly
less-qualified employees also has needs. They are saying, “Change
and new demands are all happening rapidly, so I need support and
reassurance. I have been doing a good job for years, I like my team,
we’ve been together for a long time, and I don’t always agree that
there is a need to change. For me, the old way still works fine, but if
things need to change, please make sure I get the necessary training
and the time I need to adjust”.

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

What do we mean by the term “employee
engagement”?

There is no single definition of employee engagement, but there is
wide agreement that it is an emotional commitment to one’s work
and a willingness to give of one’s best at work. It is how people feel
about their work that determines their levels of energy, ownership,
persistence, commitment and initiative.

Signs of high engagement include:

■ the extent to which employees commit to achieving results and
how hard they work;

■ a passion and purpose for what they do and a sense that they
are contributing to something bigger than themselves, i.e. they
want to make a positive difference to something;

■ how much initiative people take;

■ how long they stay in the organisation;

■ a high level of innovation and effort to assist a company or unit
in the company to reach its goals/strategy;

■ the high, positive energy and enthusiasm with which people
approach their work;

■ the level of ownership and involvement with their work that
people display;

■ a willingness to take on a new challenge;

■ a receptiveness and openness to change;

■ the high standards people set for themselves in terms of their
conduct at work, the quality of their work and the pride people
take in their work;

■ a focus on the customer or client and meeting their needs;

■ efforts made to learn more about their field so they can do more
and be more innovative;

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Employee Engagement

■ a willingness to be collaborative with colleagues in an effort to
leverage others’ skills and the inputs that are needed to deliver a
quality result or to solve a problem quickly;

■ how long a person perseveres when things are not going well;
and

■ the extent to which people are prepared to “go the extra mile”.
When employees care, i.e. when they are engaged, they put in
the extra effort needed to resolve a customer’s problem, make
sure the new process is working, or sort out a quality problem
on the line.

This is referred to as “discretionary effort”; it is the level of effort
people could give if they wanted to, above and beyond the minimum
required. I can recall many examples of discretionary effort by
employees, such as maintenance teams who worked through
the night to get a vital piece of equipment working or a logistics
employee who drove at night to the supplier’s warehouse to fetch
critically needed parts to keep the production line going. In one
case, a supplier had a fire at their premises so employees from the
customer company volunteered to work at the supplier over the
weekend to help them get their production going again.

Engagement levels influence a person’s willingness to go the extra
mile at work. Engaged employees put in discretionary effort because
they love their job and want to see their company succeed!
Disengaged employees drag our business down. You will recognise
the disengaged employee as they:

■ tend to do the minimum;

■ display low energy levels;

■ are often negative or cynical, especially about any proposed
changes;

■ see the customer or client as simply too demanding;

■ are not interested in learning and innovation as it looks like too
much of an effort;

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

■ want to reduce their role and responsibilities rather than expand
them; and

■ have a negative impact on the team climate: younger employees
tend to wonder if this is how you should be at work? Is this
disengaged person maybe showing them the realities of work
and how to survive?

It is very sad, of course, if your disengaged team member was once
full of positive energy and has been closed down by bad experiences
at work.

The bottom line is, your employees can come to work every day,
but if they aren’t truly engaged in their work, they are harming your
business in some way as mediocrity and minimal effort become the
norm. Many organisations struggle with employees who are at work,
but not fully contributing.

Is employee engagement the same as employee
satisfaction?

Engagement is a feeling; it’s an emotional commitment to your work
and comes about as a reaction to the intangible factors at work.
Satisfaction, on the other hand, is based more on an employee’s
rational assessment of the tangible workplace issues. If we map
ENGAGEMENT and SATISFACTION as two separate topics, we can
come up with the following scenarios:

SA
TI

SF
A

CT
IO

H
IG

H High satisfaction/low
engagement

High satisfaction/high
engagement

LO
W Low satisfaction/low

engagement
High engagement/low
satisfaction

LOW HIGH
ENGAGEMENT

Figure 2: Satisfaction and engagement scenarios

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Employee Engagement

High satisfaction/low engagement: Have you ever felt like the
person who says this?

My job ticks all the boxes:

■ I earn a good salary.

■ I work for a company with a great reputation and
product.

■ I have an impressive job title.

■ I have a beautiful office.

■ I have a great laptop and cell phone.

■ I enjoy high status at work and in my community.



However, I really cannot say that I love my job. In fact, I feel a little
depressed at the start of the work week and I have to talk sternly to
myself. I am paying off a house and car and my kids’ education is
expensive. Plus, I have to save for retirement one day, so I need this
job with its perks and benefits, and I enjoy the status it gives me in
my family and community.

This scenario is sometimes referred to as “golden handcuffs”. Looking
at this person’s work situation from the outside, one may feel a little
envious and think this person has it made, yet high satisfaction alone
does not lead to high engagement or mean you love your work.
Many people start off their career aiming to achieve these factors,
only to find that there are other intangible factors pulling at them.
They may achieve their goals in terms of money and status, for
example, but still feel something is missing. The relationship between
the tangibles and the intangibles is actually more complicated than
we realise.

Low satisfaction/low engagement: Being dissatisfied and
disengaged is the worst scenario for the company and the employee!
This person will hate coming to work and will radiate negativity. This
is a no-win situation: the customer and colleagues will all have a bad
experience dealing with this person.

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

High engagement/low satisfaction: This is the “flight risk” scenario.
In this scenario a person would say: “I love:

■ the work that I do;

■ the challenges I face and the problems I solve;

■ the difference I make;

■ the colleagues and the leaders I work with;

■ the positive environment I experience at work; and

■ the sense of achievement.”

This person loves the work but feels the company is taking advantage
of them. They feel they are giving a lot and are not appreciated or
sufficiently valued in return in terms of salary, seniority or other
tangible benefits. This person will soon be looking around for a
new position and when they resign, there is often a quick scramble
to make a counter-offer in the hopes of retaining their skills and
positive energy.

High satisfaction/high engagement: This is the best scenario for
the company and the employee. The person loves the work they do
and feels fairly compensated and acknowledged by the business.

Many people confuse engagement with satisfaction and try to
remedy engagement problems with solutions like pay increases,
better offices, gym memberships, fixing the employee car park,
improving the canteen, introducing concierge services and so
on. These solutions do have an impact on satisfaction, but more
satisfaction does not lead to more engagement. It is the equivalent
of trying to buy love, so for high engagement, we need different
solutions.

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Employee Engagement

I hear the term “Employee Experience” used often. Is
that the same as employee engagement?

Employee experience includes all the workplace, employee policies
and management practices that impact people on the job. If we
look at the four scenarios above, whatever box you find yourself in,
that is your “employee experience”. Companies need to examine all
employment and management practices so that both the satisfaction
and the engagement factors are top class. People are looking to
work for organisations where they experience a fulfilling, rewarding
and enjoyable work experience, i.e. high engagement and high
satisfaction. Companies therefore need to reflect on how their
employees experience the workplace and ensure it leads to high
engagement.

Is engagement just another term for workaholism?

Positive psychology researchers view engagement and workaholism
as two different ways of experiencing work.6 Whether you are
engaged or a workaholic, you work hard but the experience differs.
People who are highly engaged are in a positive state of “flow”,
enjoyment and enthusiasm, whereas workaholics tend to experience
more negative energy in the form of feeling tense, driven, irritable
and under pressure. Engagement is a good type of working hard,
whereas workaholism can lead to burnout.

Can the impact of employee engagement on company
performance be quantified?

One organisation that has measured the impact of engagement on
company results is Gallup. Gallup researchers studied the differences
in performance between engaged and actively disengaged work
units, and found that those scoring in the top half on employee
engagement nearly doubled their odds of success compared with
those in the bottom half.7

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

Gallup’s data reveals that …

Lesson S301
Human Resource Management Processes and

Systems

Reading B
Employee Engagement: Creating Positive Energy at

Work
Chapters 1, 6 and 7

Employee Engagement

Chapter 1
High levels of employee engagement
benefit everyone

In this chapter we will explore the following topics:

■ The challenges we face as HR and as leaders in companies.

■ The reasons why employee engagement has become a
high priority for organisations.

■ How companies prioritise the importance of the customer,
the shareholder and the employee.

■ The changing expectations that employees have of their
employers.

■ What we mean by the term “employee engagement”.

■ Is employee engagement the same as employee
satisfaction?

■ The term “Employee Experience” is used often. Is that the
same as employee engagement?

■ Is “engagement” just another term for “workaholism”?

■ Can the impact of employee engagement on company
performance be quantified?

■ How important is it to employees that they feel highly
engaged at work?

■ How does work contribute to well-being?

■ How well are companies doing when it comes to employee
engagement?

■ Reflective questions.

ap
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ic
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le
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op
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aw
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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

The challenges we face

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Employee Engagement

resigned. It seemed to Daniel that his employees just did not care
about the company or the quality of their work.

Employee engagement has become a high priority for
organisations

The customer, the shareholder and the employee

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

■ designed, made and sold the product;

■ managed the customer’s account;

■ recruited and trained the employees in the business so they
were able to do a good job;

■ set up the production lines, ordered parts and got them to the
line on time;

■ developed business processes and systems;

■ managed and motivated others;

■ cleaned the offices; and

■ paid the staff.

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Employee Engagement

Leadership and
Team

My job

Connection
Support
Trust

Aligned to my
strengths

Purpose and
meaning

Growth and
development

Belonging
Achievement
Well-being

Great job
performance

Initiative

Great Employee
Experience

Engaged
Employee

My job

Figure 1: Employee Experience and Customer Experience

In practice…

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

These include:

■ making sure the customer has a memorable experience;

■ being innovative and making the product more appealing,

■ creating better quality and less expensive to manufacture
products;

■ being results-driven, hard-working and quick;

■ staying up-to-date with rapid changes in the field;

■ being collaborative;

■ being flexible; and

■ keeping their phones on so the company can contact them when
they are not at the workplace.

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Employee Engagement

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

What do we mean by the term “employee
engagement”?

Signs of high engagement include:

■ the extent to which employees commit to achieving results and
how hard they work;

■ a passion and purpose for what they do and a sense that they
are contributing to something bigger than themselves, i.e. they
want to make a positive difference to something;

■ how much initiative people take;

■ how long they stay in the organisation;

■ a high level of innovation and effort to assist a company or unit
in the company to reach its goals/strategy;

■ the high, positive energy and enthusiasm with which people
approach their work;

■ the level of ownership and involvement with their work that
people display;

■ a willingness to take on a new challenge;

■ a receptiveness and openness to change;

■ the high standards people set for themselves in terms of their
conduct at work, the quality of their work and the pride people
take in their work;

■ a focus on the customer or client and meeting their needs;

■ efforts made to learn more about their field so they can do more
and be more innovative;

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Employee Engagement

■ a willingness to be collaborative with colleagues in an effort to
leverage others’ skills and the inputs that are needed to deliver a
quality result or to solve a problem quickly;

■ how long a person perseveres when things are not going well;
and

■ tend to do the minimum;

■ display low energy levels;

■ are often negative or cynical, especially about any proposed
changes;

■ see the customer or client as simply too demanding;

■ are not interested in learning and innovation as it looks like too
much of an effort;

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

■ want to reduce their role and responsibilities rather than expand
them; and

It is very sad, of course, if your disengaged team member was once
full of positive energy and has been closed down by bad experiences
at work.

Is employee engagement the same as employee
satisfaction?

SA
TI

SF
A

CT
IO

H
IG

H High satisfaction/low
engagement

High satisfaction/high
engagement

LO
W Low satisfaction/low

engagement
High engagement/low
satisfaction

LOW HIGH
ENGAGEMENT

Figure 2: Satisfaction and engagement scenarios

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Employee Engagement

High satisfaction/low engagement: Have you ever felt like the
person who says this?

My job ticks all the boxes:

■ I earn a good salary.

■ I work for a company with a great reputation and
product.

■ I have an impressive job title.

■ I have a beautiful office.

■ I have a great laptop and cell phone.

■ I enjoy high status at work and in my community.



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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

High engagement/low satisfaction: This is the “flight risk” scenario.
In this scenario a person would say: “I love:

■ the work that I do;

■ the challenges I face and the problems I solve;

■ the difference I make;

■ the colleagues and the leaders I work with;

■ the positive environment I experience at work; and

■ the sense of achievement.”

High satisfaction/high engagement: This is the best scenario for
the company and the employee. The person loves the work they do
and feels fairly compensated and acknowledged by the business.

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Employee Engagement

I hear the term “Employee Experience” used often. Is
that the same as employee engagement?

Is engagement just another term for workaholism?

Can the impact of employee engagement on company
performance be quantified?

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Chapter 1: High levels of employee engagement benefit everyone

Gallup’s data reveals that …

UNCLASSIFIED

Army Regulation 600 – 81

Personnel-General

Soldier for
Life –
Transition
Assistance
Program

Headquarters
Department of the Army
Washington, DC
17 May 2016

SUMMARY
AR 600 – 81
Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program

This administrative revision, dated 13 November 2019–

o Incorporates guidance from Army Directive 2015 – 12, Implementation Guidance for Credentialing Program and
Career Skills Program (chap 8).

This new Department of the Army Regulation, dated 17 May 2016–

o Clarifies specific “warm handover” guidance for Soldiers separating with an under other-than-honorable condition or
characterization of service, or with a bad-conduct discharge (paras 7–2e(2) and 7–8c).

o Includes language to permit students and trainees to receive transition assistance program services, on a space-
available basis, for up to 180 days post DD Form 214 date, and is consistent with the transition Soldier Life Cycle
(chap 7).

o Prescribes the policies for the Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program (throughout).

o Includes changes to reflect 10 USC 1142, which excludes Servicemembers who have not completed 180 continuous
days of active duty not including full-time training duty, annual training duty, and days attending a service school
while in active service (throughout).

o Incorporates Army Directive 2014 – 18, Army Career and Alumni Program (hereby superseded) (throughout).

*This regulation supersedes AD 2014–18, dated 23 June 2014.
AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016

UNCLASSIFIED
i

Headquarters
Department of the Army
Washington, DC

*Army Regulation 600 – 81

17 May 2016 Effective 17 June 2016
Personnel-General

Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program

History. This publication is an adminis-
trative revision. The portions affected by
this administrative revision are listed in the
summary of change.
Summary. This regulation prescribes
policies governing the Soldier for Life –
Transition Assistance Program. This regu-
lation implements DODD 1332.35 and
DODI 1332.36.
Applicability. This regulation applies to
the Regular Army, the Army National
Guard/Army National Guard of the United
States, and the U.S. Army Reserve, unless
otherwise stated.
Proponent and exception authority.
The proponent of this regulation is the Dep-
uty Chief of Staff, G – 1. The proponent has

the authority to approve exceptions or
waivers to this regulation that are consistent
with controlling law and regulations. The
proponent may delegate this approval au-
thority, in writing, to a division chief within
the proponent agency or its direct reporting
unit or field operating agency, in the grade
of colonel or the civilian equivalent. Activ-
ities may request a waiver to this regulation
by providing justification that includes a
full analysis of the expected benefits and
must include formal review by the activ-
ity’s senior legal officer. All waiver re-
quests will be endorsed by the commander
or senior leader of the requesting activity
and forwarded through their higher head-
quarters to the policy proponent. Refer to
AR 25 – 30 for specific guidance.
Army internal control process. This
regulation contains internal control provi-
sions in accordance with AR 11 – 2 and
identifies key internal controls that must be
evaluated (see appendix B).
Supplementation. Supplementation of
this regulation and establishment of com-
mand and local forms are prohibited with-
out prior approval from the Deputy Chief of
Staff, G – 1 (DAPE – HRP – TD), 300 Army
Pentagon, Washington, DC 20310 – 0300.
Suggested improvements. Users are
invited to send comments and suggested

improvements on DA Form 2028 (Recom-
mended Changes to Publications and Blank
Forms) directly to the Deputy Chief of
Staff, G – 1 (DAPE – HRP – TD), 300 Army
Pentagon, Washington, DC 20310 – 0300.
Committee management. AR 15 – 1
requires the proponent to justify establish-
ing/continuing committee(s), coordinate
draft publications, and coordinate changes
in committee status with the U.S. Army Re-
sources and Programs Agency, Department
of the Army Committee Management Of-
fice (AARP – ZX), 9301 Chapek Road,
Building 1458, Fort Belvoir, VA
22060 – 5527. Further, if it is determined
that an established “group” identified
within this regulation later takes on the
characteristics of a committee, as found in
AR 15 – 1, then the proponent will follow all
AR 15 – 1 requirements for establishing and
continuing the group as a committee.
Distribution. This publication is availa-
ble in electronic media only and is in-
tended for command levels C, D, and E for
the Regular Army, and D and E for the
Army National Guard/Army National
Guard of the United States, and the U.S.
Army Reserve.

Contents (Listed by paragraph and page number)

Chapter 1
Introduction, page 1
Purpose • 1 – 1, page 1
References • 1 – 2, page 1
Explanation of abbreviations and terms • 1 – 3, page 1
Responsibilities • 1 – 4, page 1
Mission • 1 – 5, page 1

Chapter 2
Responsibilities, page 2
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs • 2 – 1, page 2
Deputy Chief of Staff, G – 1 • 2 – 2, page 2
Chief, National Guard Bureau • 2 – 3, page 4

Contents—Continued

ii AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016

Chief, Army Reserve • 2 – 4, page 5
Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management • 2 – 5, page 6
The Surgeon General • 2 – 6, page 9
Commander, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command • 2 – 7, page 9
Commander, U.S. Army Recruiting Command • 2 – 8, page 9
Army commanders at all levels • 2 – 9, page 9

Chapter 3
Structure, page 10
Overview • 3 – 1, page 10
Statutory and Department of Defense requirements • 3 – 2, page 10
Principles of support • 3 – 3, page 10
Standards of service • 3 – 4, page 10

Chapter 4
Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program, page 11
Command responsibility • 4 – 1, page 11
Transition priority for services • 4 – 2, page 11
Transition participation • 4 – 3, page 11
Virtual curriculum in Joint Knowledge Online • 4 – 4, page 13

Chapter 5
Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program process, page 14
Veterans Opportunity to Work requirements • 5 – 1, page 14
Career readiness standards requirements • 5 – 2, page 14
Program Career Tracks • 5 – 3, page 14
Capstone process (completion is mandatory) • 5 – 4, page 15
Program transition timeline • 5 – 5, page 16
Early steps in the program • 5 – 6, page 16
Identifying Soldiers for transition services • 5 – 7, page 16
Notifying Soldiers for transition services • 5 – 8, page 17
Preseparation counseling • 5 – 9, page 19
Preseparation counseling for Soldiers within the Integrated Disability Evaluation System • 5 – 10, page 22
Preseparation counseling for prisoners • 5 – 11, page 23
Preseparation counseling for eligible, pre-deploying Active Component Soldiers • 5 – 12, page 23
Directed initiatives—Partnership for Youth Success program • 5 – 13, page 23
Initial counseling • 5 – 14, page 25
Individual transition plan • 5 – 15, page 25
Follow up with new clients • 5 – 16, page 25
Military occupational specialty crosswalk process • 5 – 17, page 25
Department of Labor Employment Workshop • 5 – 18, page 25
Department of Labor Employment Workshop exemptions • 5 – 19, page 26
Veterans Administration Benefits Briefings • 5 – 20, page 27
Financial Planning Workshop • 5 – 21, page 27
Wrap-up counseling • 5 – 22, page 27
Installation clearance • 5 – 23, page 27
Army retention • 5 – 24, page 27

Chapter 6
Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve, page 27
Army Reserve Component Soldiers • 6 – 1, page 28
Army National Guard • 6 – 2, page 28
Army National Guard model • 6 – 3, page 28
U.S. Army Reserve • 6 – 4, page 29
U.S. Army Reserve model • 6 – 5, page 29

Contents—Continued

AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016 iii

Chapter 7
Soldier for Life–Transition Assistance Program Client, page 30
Eligible clients • 7 – 1, page 30
Soldiers • 7 – 2, page 30
Spouses and dependents • 7 – 3, page 30
Exceptions to eligibility • 7 – 4, page 31
Eligible retirees and veterans • 7 – 5, page 31
Eligible Soldiers referred to the Integrated Disability Evaluation System • 7 – 6, page 31
Eligible Soldiers assigned or attached to a Warrior Transition Unit, and Soldier and Family Assistance Center cli-

ents • 7 – 7, page 32
Eligible prisoners • 7 – 8, page 32
Eligible Soldiers subject to the Army Stop Loss Program • 7 – 9, page 32
Eligible demobilizing Reserve Component Soldiers • 7 – 10, page 32
Involuntary separations • 7 – 11, page 32

Chapter 8
Army Career Skills Program, page 33
Objective • 8 – 1, page 33
Implementation • 8 – 2, page 33
Sample screening and selection process for commander use • 8 – 3, page 37
Criteria for Career Skills Programs • 8 – 4, page 37
Army Reserve career skills • 8 – 5, page 38

Chapter 9
Connect Soldiers: Soldier for Life, page 39
Objectives • 9 – 1, page 39
Task organization • 9 – 2, page 40
Connection with Army personnel • 9 – 3, page 41
Outreach, networking, and connecting • 9 – 4, page 41
Grassroots Army network development • 9 – 5, page 42
Retired Soldier services • 9 – 6, page 43
Tracking and reporting • 9 – 7, page 43

Chapter 10
Employment Assistance and the Employment Process, page 44
Employment assistance • 10 – 1, page 44
Employment assistance process • 10 – 2, page 44
Job search process • 10 – 3, page 45
Federal job application training • 10 – 4, page 46
U.S. Army Reserve employment assistance • 10 – 5, page 47

Chapter 11
Soldier Life Cycle and Transition, page 47
Soldier Life Cycle • 11 – 1, page 47
Soldier Life Cycle – Transition Assistance Program timeline • 11 – 2, page 48
Initial phase (0 – 1 year) • 11 – 3, page 48
Service phase (1 – 10 years) “Serve Strong” • 11 – 4, page 49
Service phase: (reenlistment) “Serve Strong” • 11 – 5, page 49
Service phase: (unemployed or at-risk RC Soldiers) “Serve Strong” • 11 – 6, page 49
Careerist (10 years-retirement) “Serve Strong” • 11 – 7, page 49
Transition phase (12 months prior to transition) “Reintegrate Strong” • 11 – 8, page 50

Chapter 12
Support: The Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program Staff, page 50
Transition services manager • 12 – 1, page 50
The transition services manager’s role in the process • 12 – 2, page 51

Contents—Continued

iv AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016

Chapter 13
Web-Based Support, page 53
Job portal • 13 – 1, page 53
Program Web site • 13 – 2, page 53
Accountability and monitoring • 13 – 3, page 54
Asynchronous training • 13 – 4, page 54

Chapter 14
Quality Assurance and Quality Control, page 54
Objectives • 14 – 1, page 55
Concept • 14 – 2, page 55
Measuring success • 14 – 3, page 55
At the installation-site level • 14 – 4, page 56

Appendixes
A. References, page 57
B. Internal Control Evaluation Checklist, page 60

Table List

Table 4 – 1: Timeline for meeting phased transition requirements, page 12
Table 4 – 2: The five consecutive-days model, for rapid transitions, page 12
Table 5 – 1: Automated preseparation counseling for eligible Soldiers, page 20
Table 5 – 2: Manual preseparation counseling for eligible Reserve Component Soldiers, page 21

Figure List

Figure 5 – 1: Sample notification memo to Soldiers, page 19
Figure 5 – 1: Sample notification memo to Soldiers–Continued, page 19
Figure 5 – 2: Partnership for Youth Services information sheet, page 24
Figure 8 – 1: Sample participation letter, page 35
Figure 9 – 1. Soldier for Life regional alignment map, page 41
Figure 11 – 1: The life cycle for a Soldier in transition, page 48

Glossary

AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016 1

Chapter 1
Introduction

1 – 1. Purpose
This regulation prescribes the policies for the Soldier for Life – Transition Assistance Program (SFL – TAP). The SFL – TAP
is a component of the Transition Soldier Life Cycle model, designed to deliver a world-class transition assistance program
that will “prepare” Soldiers, Department of Army (DA) Civilians, retirees, and Soldiers’ Family members for a new career,
and “connect” Soldiers, with employers primed to hire veterans. The SFL – TAP ensures all eligible Soldiers in transition
have the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence necessary to be competitive and successful in
the global workforce and to achieve their post military service goals. The SFL – TAP helps transitioning Soldiers, DA
Civilians, retirees, and Soldiers’ Family members make informed career decisions through benefits counseling, career
preparation, and employment assistance to bring about a successful transition.

1 – 2. References
See appendix A.

1 – 3. Explanation of abbreviations and terms
See the glossary.

1 – 4. Responsibilities
Responsibilities are listed in chapter 2 of this regulation.

1 – 5. Mission
a. SFL – TAP is an enduring program, institutionalized within the Army culture and life cycle functions. The SFL – TAP

provides a broad spectrum of programs, services, and networks. These are designed to prepare and connect Soldiers, DA
Civilians, retirees, and Soldiers’ Family members, who are making critical career and transition decisions long before their
separation date as stated on DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty). The SFL – TAP is not a
job-placement service but instead a program through which a wide range of services are made available to users. This is
done through a combination of services provided by the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Labor (DOL),
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Small Business Administration (SBA), sister Services, and the U.S. Army. Transi-
tion counseling and career planning during the Soldier Life Cycle is the cornerstone service that helps the user properly
focus on their career path, and the value of their experience, should they remain on active duty or make the transition to
civilian life. Individuals using services have access to an abundance of reference materials and a wealth of information
about benefits, civilian employment opportunities, career planning, and services available through many Federal, State,
and local government agencies. SFL – TAP establishes a strong partnership between the Army and the private sector, creates
a connection multiplier, improves employment prospects for personnel in transition, reduces unemployment compensation
costs to the Army, and allows career Soldiers to concentrate on their mission.

b. The SFL – TAP fosters and promotes Army retention, both on active duty and in the Army National Guard (ARNG)
or U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). The SFL – TAP helps Soldiers compare and contrast Army benefits and compensation with
similar public or private sector occupations, to make informed career decisions. When Soldiers decide to leave active duty,
the SFL – TAP shows them how continued service in the ARNG or USAR can supplement their income, provide education
and career opportunities, and expand their contacts in the community.

c. The Army SFL–TAP’s dedication to Soldiers and their Families engenders a positive feeling toward the Army, and
improves the Army’s ability to recruit young men and women. Soldiers who believe military service prepared them to
succeed in their next career are more likely to remain loyal to the Army and to recommend serving in the Army to their
friends and Family.

d. The SFL – TAP provides effective transition and employment assistance services to help Soldiers in transition assess
their skills and objectives, then set goals and get help to achieve them. The transition process, and the personal coaching
received, enables Soldiers in transition to overcome barriers. Personal coaching also engenders individual motivation,
which encourages the Soldiers to return for more services. Services provided in a caring manner build trust and result in
desired outcomes.

2 AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016

Chapter 2
Responsibilities

2 – 1. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs
a. The ASA (M&RA) will—
(1) Provide policy oversight of the SFL – TAP.
(2) Assign the appropriate departmental deputy assistant secretary or director to serve as an Army Transition Assistance

Program Senior Steering Group member.
(3) Provide representation to the SFL – TAP Executive Committee working groups, as necessary.
(4) Coordinate legislative matters that affect Army transition services to ensure adherence to Federal law.
b. Director, Army Marketing and Research Group. The Director, AMRG, on behalf of ASA (M&RA), will—
(1) Introduce employer partners to SFL – TAP.
(2) Synchronize outreach efforts and engagements with industry through SFL – TAP.
(3) Provide a list of Partnership for Youth Services (PaYS) Program Soldiers to USAR and ARNG, and ensure that a

methodology for interviews exists.
(4) Report PaYS employment related metrics to SFL – TAP for inclusion in the “Quarterly Connection Update” briefing.
(5) Help develop and synchronize the marketing and branding of SFL – TAP.

2 – 2. Deputy Chief of Staff, G – 1
a. The DCS, G – 1 will—
(1) Develop and publish Army policies for transition, credential-fulfillment programs, apprenticeship programs, private

sector internships, on-the-job training (OJT), and/or job-shadowing programs for the Active Component (AC) and Reserve
Component (RC).

(2) Implement and administer the SFL – TAP in accordance with law and policy.
(3) Represent the SFL – TAP at DOD level.
(4) Review Army SFL – TAP services.
(5) Coordinate Army-wide SFL – TAP in the context of other life cycle and well-being programs.
(6) Ensure appropriate funding across all commands and agencies that support SFL – TAP.
b. The Chief, Soldier for Life (SFL), on behalf of the DCS, G – 1, will—
(1) Be responsible to the Chief of Staff of the Army and DCS, G – 1 for all Army transition assistance services that

connect a Soldier with an employer, to include retirement-connect missions and synchronizing efforts to connect stake-
holders.

(2) Develop virtual career fair and/or hiring events to support Soldiers in transition who seek employment.
(3) Support the SFL – TAP by clearing a path for community and retired Soldier networks.
(4) Report connection data and/or metrics to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command (HRC) Transition Division

and senior Army leadership.
(5) Support the SFL – TAP strategic communications plan.
(6) Ensure employers wanting to hire veterans are introduced to SFL Fusion Cell (at http://soldierforlife.army.mil/) and

directed to go there to post meaningful employment opportunities to the Army-designated job portal.
(7) Encourage the development of community networks that benefit those in transition.
(8) Provide community resources and points of contact by zip code and state to support eligible Soldiers’ transitions to

the HRC Transition Division.
(9) Promote the Transition Soldier Life Cycle (SLC) model to reintegrate the Soldier and/or Family within the commu-

nity.
(10) Form an Executive Transition Advisory Group, comprised of Army and corporate leaders, to support transition

outreach efforts.
(11) Under authority of the DCS, G – 1, coordinate with ASA (M&RA) and Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)

to sustain and capitalize on OSD job fairs.
(12) Develop feedback systems from industry.
(13) Maintain communications with retirees to keep the path open to mentorship, employment connections, and access

to community resources.
(14) Compile data from the ARNG, USAR, Installation Management Command (IMCOM), U.S. Army Recruiting

Command (USAREC), and Army Marketing and Research Group (AMRG) to support SFL – TAP assessment.

http://soldierforlife.army.mil/

AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016 3

(15) Submit a “Quarterly Connection Update” to senior Army leaders through the HRC Transition Division. The update
should report the participation and success measures related to Soldier outcomes (for example, job interviews, offers, and
acceptances) with more detailed analyses as possible by region, economic sectors, and installations.

(16) Complete a quarterly analysis of unemployment compensation for ex-Servicemembers (UCX) expenditures, for
Army veterans, by state, for Army senior leaders. The update should also include some indication or analysis on where
employment opportunities exist for Soldiers in transition.

c. The Commander, U.S. Army Human Resources Command (USAHRC), on behalf of the DCS, G – 1, will–—
(1) Be responsible for all Army transition assistance services that prepare a Soldier, to include transition policy and

regulations.
(2) Allocate adequate resources to the Army Transition Division, HRC to accomplish its mission.
(3) Coordinate with the DOL, VA, and SBA for recommended curriculum changes.
(4) Coordinate with OSD to define transition program execution at Joint bases—and lines of responsibility and common

output level standards—and to adjust transition policy as it pertains to the Army Transition Program.
(5) Integrate transition policy within Army counseling and career counselor requirements.
(6) Maintain Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) as the Army Web site for information on credential- fulfill-

ment.
d. The Director, Army Transition Division, on behalf of the DCS, G – 1, will–—
(1) Provide established standards, policy, and program guidance to Headquarters (HQ), IMCOM for program execution

and oversight on the installation.
(2) Develop, coordinate, resource, budget, and write program objective memorandum (POM) requirements for a con-

solidated budget request that is “defended” throughout all phases of the planning, programming, budgeting, and executing
system and/or POM process. Examples include requirements for all SFL – TAP, Public Law 101 – 510 (The Veterans Op-
portunity to Work Act of 2011), and/or career readiness standards (CRS), in support of all AC and RC Soldiers.

(3) Help eligible Soldiers prepare for a smooth transition from active duty.
(4) Track and report all metrics for the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act (VOW) and/or CRS, to include SLC require-

ments as they become institutionalized.
(5) Ensure that transition assistance services and resources are maximized; collaborate with other military and civilian

agencies to maximize the use of allocated resources.
(6) Review and provide recommendations to transition programs developed by IMCOM and other commands, to ensure

implementation and compliance with policy requirements.
(7) Coordinate with DOL and Department of Education (ED) for recurring, accurate, and timely projections on national

and regional labor market trends. These projections must support credential-fulfillment, apprenticeship, OJT, job-shadow-
ing, and/or internship programs.

(8) Develop an over-arching quality assurance (QA) program to ensure standard delivery; assess compliance, employ-
ment skills initiatives, and connection effectiveness; and provide periodic transition assistance curriculum reviews. This
will include a face-to-face QA and staff assistance visit (SAV) at each SFL – TAP location, a minimum of every 2 years,
in coordination with IMCOM transition regional leaders.

(9) Establish a process within the military personnel organizations of the Army to receive a legible copy of the com-
pleted, and authenticated, DD Form 2648 (Preseparation Counseling Checklist For AC, Active Guard Reserve (AGR),
Active Reserve (AR), Full Time Support (FTS), and Reserve Program Administrator (RPA) Service Members) or DD
Form 2648 – 1 (Transition Assistance Program (TAP) Checklist For Deactivating and/or Demobilizing National Guard and
Reserve Service Members) from the SFL – TAP staff. The process will include a mechanism to verify transmission of the
form to the eligible Soldier’s permanent official military personnel file.

(10) Update the site management manual to include Web-based “TAP XXI” application access, policies and proce-
dures, as well as resources at the local level (SBA, VA, DOL, Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) and Military Service
Organizations (MSOs)); provide training and guides for resources and tools such as the TAP XXI database and the Army
Career Tracker (ACT) Web site.

(11) Establish program elements or accounting codes to separately and independently verify and review the monthly
Military Department-funded execution data (for example, program funding levels, obligations, disbursements) in Defense
Finance and Accounting Service reports and submit through ASA (M&RA) to Transition to Veterans Program Office
(TVPO) quarterly. Any reduction to the SFL – TAP annual program funding of 5 percent or greater must be reported to
TVPO.

(12) Maintain a list of State Government agencies that approve VA programs and State Government military advisory
councils; publish it in the site management manual, and post it on the SFL – TAP Web site.

(13) Establish, maintain, and update all pertinent transition regulations and transition implementation instructions; pub-
lish guidance for transition assistance procedures for USAR and the ARNG’s State adjutants general.

4 AR 600–81 • 17 May 2016

(14) Develop requirements and budgets for the POM; the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP); program budget
reviews; and as required to comply with the SFL – TAP requirements. Coordinate through ASA (M&RA) with OSD TVPO
for the SFL – TAP resource advocacy throughout these cycles.

(15) Identify and submit the SFL – TAP related issues at the general officer and senior executive service equivalent
level, through ASA (M&RA), to TVPO in a timely manner. This ensures that the SFL – TAP related issues can go before
the Senior Steering Group for discussion and decision.

(16) Coordinate with TVPO to implement any new information technology (IT) systems or capabilities and revisions
to existing systems that support the SFL – TAP, and ensure IT systems are compatible with OSD systems.

(17) Distribute adequate resources to allow the SFL – TAP to accomplish its mission.
(18) Use Army-approved standardized individual assessment tools.
(19) Ensure that eligible Soldiers receive an individualized assessment of the various positions of civilian employment

in the private sector for which Soldiers may be qualified. The qualifications would encompass skills developed through
military occupational specialty (MOS) qualification, successfully completing resident training courses, attaining military
ranks or rates, or other military experiences.

(20) Act as the Army Staff (ARSTAF) point of contact for Army transition data management and SFL – TAP QA.
(21) Manage and monitor the centralized SFL – TAP services contract, and ensure transition assistance and employ-

ment services rendered on installations are appropriate to the needs of eligible individuals.
(22) Coordinate Army-wide transition assistance services and SFL – TAP, in the context of other life cycle and well-

being programs.
(23) Monitor and provide technical assistance to ensure that transition assistance services are accessible, effective, and

responsive to the needs of eligible individuals.
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Click on the “Place Order” tab at the top menu or “Order Now” icon at the bottom and a new page will appear with an order form to be filled.
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