JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas -- The Air Force chief of staff’s direction of "accelerate change or lose" and the accompanying action orders, outline why and how the service must rapidly change in order to remain the most dominant and respected Air Force in the world.
While technology and modernization are important, the Department of the Air Force must educate, train, trust, and empower a diverse group of Airmen at all levels to adapt, decide, and act at the speed necessary for current competition and future combat.
Air Force Civilian Service competes with the public and private sectors for diverse, highly qualified and skilled talent to fill mission critical occupations and hard-to-fill positions and locations, said Jesse Martinez, chief, Talent Acquisition Consulting Branch. “We actively work hiring managers’ issues to rebalance talent to enable better, faster decisions at all levels.”
As the only centralized civilian recruiting arm in the DAF, the Air Force Personnel Center Talent Acquisition team recruits civilian Airmen for a future high-end fight. Combining workforce planning, marketing, recruiting tools and sourcing strategies, and hiring to address short, urgent, and long-term hiring needs is the team’s charge.
The TA team is comprised of three operational consulting elements: workforce planning, marketing, and recruiting and hiring.
The workforce planning element is focused on providing Air Force customers with a proactive assessment of the present occupational climate and future human capital requirements, said Michael Brosnan, chief, Talent Acquisition Division.
“Collaboration between TA, career field teams and hiring managers accelerates the transition from the force we have to the force required for the future,” he said. “By having each installation work their civilian employment plan identifying vacancy projections for the next year gives us the insight we need to market and recruit for those jobs.”
Marketing is used to increase awareness of AFCS’s global impact, while attracting and retaining the best employees.
“TA’s strategies and related communication tactics reach and attract a diverse applicant pool with the competencies and motivation to be successful within AFCS. Diversity and inclusion are essential to our future success because we compete with corporate America for the best and brightest talents that come from all walks of life,” Brosnan said.
Recruiters work employment opportunities for hard-to-fill positions in the acquisition-coded and cyber occupational series, in addition to all AFCS occupations including Air Reserve Technicians. They use special hiring authorities, such as expedited hiring and tentative job offers at hiring events, to ensure force renewal efforts and career field team needs are met.
“TA recruiters have the capability to provide qualified candidates with TJOs for job vacancies with direct hire authority during and/or immediately following recruiting events,” Brosnan said “In fiscal year 2020, we hired more than 3,200 civilian Airmen to serve alongside the Air Force’s 179,000-plus civilian workforce.”
Job seekers can register at the AFCS website at www.afciviliancareers.com, and enter their email to “opt in” and start receiving automated emails on job and internship opportunities based on the registrant’s profile. As of September 2020, the website, which has more than 95,000 visitors monthly, had more than 165,000 candidates registered as primary leads.
For more information on the Air Force Civilian Careers, visit www.afciviliancareers.com or email AFCS@us.af.mil.