Civilian Workforce Competencies

U.S Marine Corps, Manpower and Reserve Affairs (M&RA)

---

Solution

The Bowen Group recognized that assessing and maturing the civilian workforce is of paramount importance due to the increased demands that have resulted in an expanding and changing role of civilians supporting war fighters and the supporting establishments. Civilian Workforce Development is an integral part of the Marine Corps total force management concept. Approved by the Civilian Career Advisory Board (CCAB), the Civilian Workforce Campaign Plan articulates the goals and objectives of the civilian workforce to include the ability for Civilian Marines to access and utilize career management tools designed to effectively guide them through their Marine Corps careers. In partnership with Civilian Workforce Development Section, The Bowen Group leveraged deep knowledge of the Marine Corps and broad expertise in workforce development to create an integrated approach to competency validation and community maturation. The approach incorporates the critical elements of competency development and validation in a three-phased methodology followed by community-specific strategic planning to establish real, actionable goals and objectives to move the Marine Corps forward.

Competency Development and Validation

The Bowen Group worked in concert with each Community of Interest manager to assess existing competencies and then develop, refine and validate new competencies at each defined skill level aligned with the specific series in the community. To begin The Bowen Group conducted extensive research and job task analyses to build baseline competencies for each career series. Once complete, Bowen professionals worked with the community manager and select subject matter experts from each series to refine the draft competencies ensuring each competency addressed a specific work requirement with a defined and measureable outcome. Moving to the next step in the process, The Bowen Group facilitated working groups of subject matter experts within each community to validate and further refine the competencies, again ensuring each competency represented a real work requirement with a definable outcome. Finally, as the last step in the competency validation process, The Bowen Group fielded an electronic survey that was pushed to the entire community population. Using statistical measures for determining face and content validity, The Bowen Group was able to determine the validity of each competency at each skill level for each of the Marine Corps’ 365 career series.

Community Strategic Planning

The Bowen Group worked with community managers to conduct strategic planning conferences and workshops for select communities. These workshops were intended for communities that had completed the competency development and validation process. Working closely with each community manager, Bowen professionals helped these communities lay the foundation for such employee development efforts as internship programs, rotational assignments, coordinated and integrated internal communication plans for sharing information and best practices, employee award programs, and community-specific professional development continuums.

Result

The Marine Corps now has a solid baseline of competencies through which to assess individual developmental needs against real work requirements. While resources are always an issue within DoD, community managers are now able to articulate the real need for civilian employee learning and development related to competency gaps in the workforce. Community managers are invigorated and eager to develop and further mature their respective communities as they see the momentum created through the strategic planning process.

---

Human Capital Management Case Studies

• Education and Training, Community of Interest, ED&T
• Civilian Workforce Competencies (M&RA)
• Career Road Maps for Industrial Trades Community of Interest, LOGCOM