Build A Strong Marketplace Resume by Linking Experiences to KSBs

By Col. Gregory Johnson, Director, Officer Personnel Management Directorate and Lt. Col. Troy Danderson, Army Talent Management Task Force

The foundation of our Army’s competitive advantage over our adversaries is built on the individual talents of our Soldiers. Understanding these talents will allow us to shift from our traditional HR management approach toward a talent management system that utilizes big data to shape tactical readiness and strategic outcomes.

The talents resident within our officers are impressive and allow us to tackle and accomplish varied mission sets and shape problems that we face operationally. Our problem today, however, is that we can’t see all of these skills or talents in our current human resource systems. We can begin to fix that now.

Another piece of this challenge is also defining a means to structure, collect and utilize additional talent data. The establishment of Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviors, or KSBs, as a framework for how our Army will define and identify talent moving forward is a big step forward.

Structurally, officers must convert their talents, skills and experiences into KSBs, in order to build resumes and create data points that provide a comprehensive description of who they are. The Army has already developed KSBs into a formalized Army Talent Attribute Framework. The framework draws from Army doctrine, the marketplace, and the best practices of the private sector to establish a common language for describing, measuring, and recording talents across Army systems. KSBs represent the specific attributes that are either innate or developed through past assignments, education, civilian experience, certifications and self-development.

The Army also incorporated KSBs into the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP) through the Assignment Interactive Module 2 (AIM2) to improve marketplace execution and introduce individual talents to the assignments process. Now, an officer’s preferences can be informed by understanding which talents will lead to success in a duty position advertised in the marketplace.

As an example, when reviewing the advertised vacancy for an infantry battalion operations officer position, officers can review the desired KSBs and consider which KSBs may be developed in that position. The officer could develop new skills like task planning and management, written communication, and multi-tasking. If that unit is preparing for a future deployment, the list could include intercultural communication to support coalition operations in a host nation environment.

For this to work effectively, officers must link their experiences to KSBs and identify them on their AIM2 resume. This also communicates the officer’s individual talents to prospective units.

The following tables provide two examples of how officers can express their experiences as AIM2 KSBs. The first is a logistics officer who just completed two years serving as a company commander for a forward support battalion in the Republic of Korea. The second is a signal officer currently serving as a brigade communications officer for an infantry battalion that recently deployed to Poland as part of a joint task force.

These officers set themselves apart in the marketplace with KSBs that describe their unique capabilities, individual talents and experiences. In addition, identifying individual talents indicates an officer’s willingness to advocate on their own professional developmental goals, while helping the Army understand its own talent.?

Utilizing KSBs is foundational to driving our Army’s human resources system to a talent management system. Identification of specific skills, experiences and talents is critical to understanding and effectively employing the talent of our force. The more that we use our officers’ inherent talents, the greater our readiness will be. The time is now to shape and expand our competitive advantage over our adversaries.

To learn more about the marketplace listen to episode 8 of the Your Personnel File podcast on DVIDS, Google Podcasts, iTunes or Spotify. Visit the Army’s Talent Management website to learn more about ATAF.

Col. Gregory Johnson is a career Army Adjutant General Corps Officer. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate of the University of San Francisco, earning a Bachelor of Arts in United States History. He also holds a master’s degree from the United States Army War College, a master’s degree of Policy Management from Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute, and a master’s degree in Education from the University of Oklahoma.

Lt. Col. Troy Danderson is a career Army Military Intelligence Officer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from William Jewell College in Kansas City, Missouri, a Masters in Public Administration degree from the American Military University,?and a Master of Military Operational Art and Science degree from Air University's Air Command and Staff College. He most recently served as the commander of the 742nd?Military Intelligence Battalion. He currently serves on the staff of the Army Talent Management Task Force.