Army Corps to release final reorganization plan next week

The Army Corps of Engineers next week will unveil its final agency reorganization plan, which is designed to increase efficiency and foster teamwork among employees, the head of the agency said Thursday.

The overhaul, known as USACE 2012, will allow the Corps to eliminate about 20 percent of authorized jobs at the agency's headquarters and eight division offices, said Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers. There are currently around 2,100 jobs authorized in headquarters and the division offices, and 35,000 jobs overall.

But the reductions will likely amount to less than a 20 percent reduction in the actual Corps headquarters and division office staff, since some of the agency's roughly authorized jobs are currently empty. For instance, the agency's Washington, D.C. headquarters is operating at 85 percent of the staff allowed.

Staff reductions can be achieved using early retirements and other "workforce shaping" tools, Flowers said. Once the final reorganization plan is released, the Corps' eight regional divisions will have 30 days to draft an implementation schedule. Headquarters will then review and approve the regional plans.

The USACE 2012 plan will eliminate the Corps' hierarchical structure and will regroup agency workers into "communities of practice." In addition, the plan aims to consolidate the Corps' technological resources and establish uniform administrative procedures.

When the Corps first released a draft overhaul proposal in April, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, an AFL-CIO affiliate representing 75,000 technical and administrative workers, called the plan "hastily conceived."

But Flowers said Thursday that he began gathering input on the reorganization as soon as he took over as agency chief in October 2000. Along the way, he has collected comments from within the agency and from the public. Corps leaders will remain open to feedback as the overhaul progresses, Flowers added, and will "communicate early and often with everyone who has a stake in what happens."

The Corps has gone through a number of restructurings since 1988. In 1997, leaders consolidated 12 divisions into eight. Agency employees are likely to embrace the upcoming overhaul, Flowers predicted.

"When you start thinking about [USACE] 2012 and change, you can either look upon this as an ordeal, or you can look on it as an adventure," Flowers said. "And the difference is the attitude with which you approach it. I have a lot of faith in our people, and when I go out and talk to people in the field, they see the great goodness in this."

USACE 2012 revolves around the "team of teams" concept, Flowers said. The plan calls for headquarters staff, currently organized in four layers beneath the chief, to regroup into eight "integration teams" acting as liaisons to the agency's regional offices. These teams will include employees with diverse skills. For instance, a team might include a lawyer, regulator, biologist, engineer, contracting officer and resource manager.

Corps staff will also group into "communities of practice" based on areas of expertise. This approach helps workers develop professionally and keep up-to-date on advancements in their field. Some Corps employees have already done this informally, Flowers said. For example, natural resources experts developed a Web page listing research results, useful government sites and contacts outside the agency.

Flowers said he hopes to see Corps employees grouped into new teams by May 2004.

USACE 2012 also contains plans for consolidating 54 Corps databases into eight regional databases, Flowers said. Currently regional employees need to pull information from all 54 databases, a process that "eats up an enormous amount of people's time that could be used more productively in another way," he said.