TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Air Force Reserve Command civilians no longer need to complete time cards as of Feb. 16, 2023.
Colleen Skaggs, process manager for the 507th Air Refueling Wing, hosted an AFRC-wide process improvement event in late 2022, in which a team from across AFRC met for three full duty days to discuss how the time and attendance process could be improved. The goal of the event was to save time and money, as well as increase civilian morale, by eliminating the amount of time per week civilians would have to spend on completing their time cards.
As a result of the event, civilians no longer need to fill out paper or electronic time cards, which involves six-part folders and printing supporting documentation. The new policy will utilize the Automated Time and Attendance Production System for members, timekeepers and supervisors.
The time and attendance event took over a year to reach a verdict, from the time Skaggs identified the time-card issue to the official approval from AFRC and finally to the release of Air Force Manual 36-104.
“It hasn’t been easy,” admitted Skaggs. “This event has been my focus since I started looking into the issue back in August of 2021. I’m so relieved and excited that it was a success.”
Skaggs also noted that the calculated monetary savings are approximately $12M and just under 400k labor hours saved per year. Additionally, she estimated that the civilian employees would be more productive in their job tasks with less time needed to focus on administrative chores.
Separately, Skaggs encourages AFRC members, civilian and military, to have the confidence to speak up and identify programs, processes and policies that are time consuming, costly and antiquated.
“The command has really begun to pay attention to continuous process improvement,” explained Skaggs. “We have found ourselves in a constrained environment where we need to be smarter with money, time and resources.”
Skaggs further urges military and civilian members to take advantage of the online Green Belt training course offered by AFRC. The course is a continuous process improvement training, in which there are a series of modules, quizzes, as well as online meetings with Green Belt trainers, aka “blackbelts”, who can clarify any information necessary for one to fully grasp the concepts.
“CPI training shows you how to find the wasted time, money, and resources in processes and programs,” stated Skaggs. “We need to challenge the status quo of policies that are no longer relevant, like time and attendance, and innovate outdated programs to not only make our work lives easier and more enjoyable, but to maintain our supremacy as the World's Greatest Air Power!”