Commander explains civilian workforce restructuring at Town Hall Published Nov. 16, 2011 By Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev., -- Col. Steve Garland, 99th Air Base Wing commander, held the second of two town hall meetings to discuss the Air Force-wide civilian workforce restructuring plan, Nov. 15, 2011, in the base theater on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The Air Force announced Nov. 2, 2011, that approximately 9,000 civilian manpower positions must be eliminated in the 2012 fiscal year. 4,500 have been identified and the remaining 4,500 will be identified in the coming months. Of the 4,500 identified, Nellis lost approximately 165 authorizations and 105 are already vacant. Efforts include normalizing or standardizing the level of service for specific functions across Air Force installations, which involves minimizing the duplication of services that are already available in the surrounding local community, reducing management overhead at all levels, and consolidating staff and overhead to reduce duplication of staff functions without impacting mission accomplishment. "Right now, we are working to meet the 165 position reduction requirement [at Nellis] by re-assigning the 60 civilians who have been cut," said Garland. "Most of our savings will be gained by re-assigning people to similar positions. We'll target some civilians for voluntary early retirements and voluntary separation incentive pay to free-up positions, then move people from targeted cut positions to the open slots. The Air Force reduction process began May 2011 by implementing a series of hiring controls and voluntary separation programs designed to reduce overall manpower costs. But those efforts were not enough, resulting in the additional need for 4,500 civilian positions to be eliminated in 2012. While announcing the 4,500 additional reductions, the Air Force also announced the addition of 5,900 positions in higher-priority areas like weapons-buying, nuclear weapons management and the expanding field of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "The bottom line is: we know we can't do this job without you," Garland said. "I've never walked into an office and seen people overmanned with too much time on their hands. And we are working to get through this with as little interruption to your jobs as possible." For more information regarding the civilian workforce restructuring at Nellis, Creech, and the Nevada Test and Training Range, please contact a servicing civilian personnel specialist at 702-652-9255 or 702-652-9266.
