Discussion Response

I chose to highlight how it helps to have HR activities that focus on organization design, its development, change management, employee growth, and metrics.  Being a senior non-commissioned officer in the military is almost like being in a human resources position.  In my unit, I am in charge of roughly 12 junior enlisted members.  My main job is to monitor the output of the three teams they are broken down into.  They all support different customers within their teams, but can cross-pollinate with the other teams when they need assistance.  Not only does this design help manage workload and maintain continuity, but each team lead can focus on training and developing their administrators.  Lawler states in his blog that: “being a strategic contributor demands that high levels of business knowledge and skill be present in HR. It also requires information systems that have the right metrics and analytics, and organization designs and practices that link HR managers to business units…”

My day-to-day duties are those attributes that HR managers must have to be successful.  As the section chief, I must be the technical expert and guide my team leads with sound business advice to pass on to their subordinates.  The information systems we use not only are the forefront of our acquisition strategies, but they also count the metrics we use to predict budgets for each fiscal year to better posture our teams for obligations.  Our job relies heavily on metrics.  If we cannot produce numbers, our installation cannot justify the need for Air Force spending.  It is a balance game when making sure my people have what they need to accomplish their jobs, but to also make sure they are getting the development they need to one day sit in my chair when I move on.