It starts as a recruit – know where you’re going with your career. Photo by Cpl Sean Burton, Army Newspaper

Helping yourself to your career

By Col John Moug
CO SCMA

Unit obligations

Units, mainly through the CO, RSM and chief clerk are expected to provide the following:

Understand drivers

Units must have a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the policies, which drive career and personnel management.
This knowledge provides accurate advice to soldiers and ensures unambiguous communication between the unit and SCMA.

Transparency

Units must be open in dealing with SCMA. All internal processes concerned with a soldier’s career or personnel management must be available for scrutiny by SCMA to enable timely and constructive input. This ensures consistency of SCMA processes.

Frankness

Units must be frank on their endeavours. Dishonesty or pretext is of little help and will most likely result in wasted staff effort, a sub-optimal solution for the unit and soldiers being disadvantaged.

Articulate need

Units should concentrate on articulating the outcome they seek, rather than develop the personnel solution. SCMA’s staff resources, expertise and broader view is often able to generate solutions to individual or unit problems.

Early warning

Units should identify personnel issues early so SCMA can provide well-considered options.

Acceptance

Once consultation has been completed units should accept decisions made by SCMA.

 

Individual obligations

Individuals have a major role to play in their career and personnel management. They are expected to:

Know trade path

Opportunities within the Army are extensive and soldiers need to know options available and what they need to do to achieve them.
Unit superiors, especially the RSM, and career managers can provide much advice.
SCMA’s web page is another important source of information

Honesty

Soldiers should not attempt to hide information or deceive. Honesty is required so that decisions can be made which serve the interests of both the Army and the individual.

Maintain Perspective

While everyone should be encouraged to be ambitious and seek to achieve, soldiers need to be realistic in their expectations.
Posting preferences need to reflect existing opportunities for the soldier’s rank and trade. It is on merit and competition is high. Missing out on promotion is not an indication of failure or lack of talent, it merely recognises the reality that there are more contenders than vacancies.

Communicate

Soldiers need to let their superiors and career managers know what they want to achieve in their careers.
This information will allow the best possible guidance to be offered including alternatives where initial expectations cannot be met.

Early warning

Give adequate time so SCMA can meet an individual’s need. Identifying reasons for extended tenure after receiving a posting order, for example, results in disruption to units and individuals. Late notice requests are more likely to see the service need have to over-ride the individual expectation due to the limited options available to career managers.

Endeavour

Once a soldier receives a posting or promotion it is his or her endeavour that will ensure success. If the posting is not the preferred one, or promotion has not come as expected, the soldier who makes the best of the situation will gain the most satisfaction from their career.

 

I trust my remarks have provided a greater understanding of how careers and personnel management are guided and applied within Army.

We each have a role to play in this management whether as an individual, leader, clerk or personnel staff member.

The SCMA web site provides contacts for subject matter experts from whom you can seek informed advice – do not hesitate to use this resource.

http://sorweb.sor.defence.gov.au/scma/

• In the last edition of Army, we incorrectly stated that SCMA is influenced by hearsay, in fact they are uninfluenced by hearsay.

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