11 December 2020
Getting thousands of ADF members on the ground in support of the Victorian Government’s COVID-19 response was made easier with some innovative online personnel administration.
The Personnel Cell was responsible for the mounting and demounting of ADF members who deployed to the Melbourne-based Joint Task Group 629.2 (JTG629.2).
By mid-November, nearly 3000 ADF members from more than 340 units across Australia had been deployed to Victoria.
The Personnel Cell developed an online package for reception, staging, onward movement and integration (RSO&I) of ADF members, automated some internal process through Excel coding, and placed documents on the sharing platform, VERA.
JTG629.2 principal staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Laureen Grimes said the Personnel Cell had made an extraordinary effort.
“The team also was able to make use of the Microsoft Teams software within VERA to stage meetings with members located across the forward operating bases, in headquarters and the joint operations room,” she said.
“This allowed deployed staff to undertake much of the mounting and demounting process online.
“Once mounted, all ADF personnel had access to the Sharepoint intranet site where key reference documents were stored for easy access.”
Commander JTG629.2 Brigadier Robert Marsh commended all staff involved in developing and rolling out the administration systems.
“I want to place on record how impressed I am with the forward-thinking approach that was taken to make the personnel processes as efficient as possible,” he said.
“It is a credit to all staff involved. A new standard has been set.”
