The Navy hasn’t fundamentally changed its personnel system since the draft ended in 1973, Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Robert Burke said Tuesday.
But it’s trying to now — with mixed reviews from sailors.
In 2014 the Navy embarked on 43 initiatives known as “Sailor 2025,” a plan that calls for an overhaul of the Navy’s entire personnel system, including modernizing policies and operating systems and improving training at a time when advances in technology are rapidly changing the way the sea service does business.
As an example, the futuristic-looking destroyer USS Zumwalt has a crew of 130 and an aviation detachment of 28, compared with more than 300 on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
Burke, who became the Navy’s top personnel officer in May, talked with sailors Monday at Pearl Harbor and visited Kaneohe Bay on Tuesday on his first trip to Hawaii in the job.
“A lot of the initiatives that we’ve been rolling out our sailors are seeing sort of point to point, and not in context, so they’ve seen maternity leave changes, they’ve seen the meritorious advancement program, they’ve seen the rate and modernization discussion,” Burke told reporters Tuesday. “But we’re trying to put it all in context, talk about why we’re doing Sailor 2025.”
One of the initiatives sailors didn’t react overwhelmingly positively to was the controversial decision made in September to ditch the long-held tradition of using an enlisted sailor’s rate as part of a job description, such as “machinist’s mate,” and replace it with more generic job titles.
The modernization was intended to provide greater choice for sailors and the Navy in assignments, but many sailors, sticking with the pride and tradition of job titles that sometimes extend back to the founding of the Navy, voiced their displeasure.
The Navy last month restored the job ratings titles.
“The feedback from current and former sailors has been consistent that there is wide support for the flexibility that the plan offers, but the removal of rating titles detracted from accomplishing our major goals,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said at the time.
Burke said Tuesday that “the only thing that’s changed is that we set aside the rating-name issue” while the job modernization effort continues.
In the Navy there are 87 ratings and 349 different career tracks, Burke said. His desire is to manage jobs by career tracks rather than by the requirements of the rating.
“So what if we advance based on the skill sets that an individual holds, (versus) the whole larger set (required by a rating). Sailors really like that idea,” Burke said. “We’ve got a lot of challenges to surmount in order to make that a reality.”
As an example, under modernization a dental technician might be able to go to school to become an X-ray technician, Burke said.
Burke said he wants to update a host of outdated Navy personnel issues under Sailor 2025. “I have 55 disparate data systems that don’t talk to each other right now that make it very difficult for sailors to interact and do the things that they want to do or need to do to influence their career paths,” Burke said.
He said he plans to bring those elements under one integrated pay and personnel system that is accessible even through a mobile phone.
