Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- HRXXI Contract Speeds Up Human Resources Procurement

Home | Education & Distance Learning Articles | Article

HRXXI Contract Speeds Up Human Resources Procurement - Brief Article

Program Manager - January 1, 2000

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Nov. 17, 1999) -- After more than six years of working to provide a supplement to in-house human resource capabilities, the Army recently announced a new contract.

"The Human Resource XXI Century Contract is a tool that an agency can use to meet its human resources needs," said Susan Harvey, director of the HRXXI Business Unit, within the Office of the Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs).

This contract can provide such human resource services as personnel records maintenance; transition processing; recruiting and training; employee counseling; distance learning; replacement processing; core competency HR studies and analyses; personnel services; automation support; and recruiting management analysis and support.

Harvey said that anyone who has a concept of what they need can call the HRXXI office, and one of the staff members will start the process of developing the statement of work. The office will also monitor the contract through the delivery of services. The staff can also help in any modifications that may be needed to the contract.

"One of the beauties of this contract is that it is very flexible and many avenues are open to provide the needs of an organization," Harvey said. "Even though there are only two prime contractors, each contractor has many sub-contractors under them," she said.

Harvey explained the Army's leadership developed the idea of providing help to federal managers and commanders because of the Army's changing needs in human resources. She said the Army decided "to go slow, to go fast" in developing a contract vehicle that the Army would need for the 21st century "We are at the 'go fast' stage now," Harvey said.

The initiative began in the early 1990s almost exclusively to provide congressionally mandated transition and employment assistance to separating servicemembers, their families, and federal employees. The resulting Transition Assistance Office and the Job Assistance Center worked under the direction of the U.S. Army Personnel Command.

Harvey said that the Army leadership supported an effort to ensure the new contract provided what managers needed. "The long-term procurement planning took six years and produced the one-of-a-kind highly competitive contract," she said.

"This contract is open to all government and civilian agencies and especially for the Anny -- from headquarters, to major commands, installations, and unit levels," Harvey said. "The Army has done the procurement work, and the contract is now open to [whomever] is seeking help," Harvey said.

As time passed, other agencies began to use this PERSCOM-provided service because it had a reputation for being fast, easy, and cost-effective, she said. Several of the agencies that used this earlier contract, and currently use HRXXI, include PERSCOM; U.S. Army Europe; Eighth U.S. Army in Korea; the National Guard Bureau; the U.S. Army Reserve; the Department of Defense; the Department of Agriculture; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the General Services Administration. Another attraction of the HRXXI contract is the 2 percent fee it costs, making the HRXXI Business Unit office self-sustaining. "It is considerably lower than other programs. Fees usually range somewhere between 5 and 18 percent," Harvey said. Fees include assistance with development of the statement of work, cost estimate preparation, proposal evaluation, and contractor selection.

Joan Peterson, Personnel Division director for NASA, said the contract proved to be "perfect and very effective for our agency." She said NASA began a 50-percent reduction in 1995 and looked to the Army for help. "Since the Army had considerable experience in downsizing, we went to them and they were extremely helpful in helping us set up offices in all of our 10 sites."

NASA needed job assistance and job transition help. Peterson said by using the contract, NASA was able to provide workshops, seminars on interviewing and negotiating benefits, as well as providing individual counseling.

"We needed a great deal of flexibility because each site had different needs, and with the contract we were able to tailor our needs for each site," she said.

"In 60 days or less an office can have contractor personnel fulfilling work requirements, although some are even quicker," Harvey said.

HRXXI is able to help anyone, anywhere, Harvey said. "There is no 'too small' requirement nor 'too large' requirement. And, remote sites are not at a disadvantage. We have contractors on the DMZ in Korea, we are in Europe, throughout the United States, on aircraft carriers, and we've gone to Bosnia and to Haiti.

"This is a way for managers to keep up with their ever-changing missions and another resource they can use to make their jobs easier, because they really are trying to do more with less," Harvey said.

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with hundreds of other Education & Distance Learning enthusiasts from around the world, please feel free to visit the discussion forums & post a message.

Discuss this article in the discussion forums now.

Popular Education & Distance Learning Discussions From The Past

Lab tests missing, how to proceed? (5 posts)
by *no spam* - Last post on: 08-04-03 12:56
I recently got an endoscopy and had tissue samples taken from my colon. In addition, they did an EGD. The lab results were supposed to be back within three weeks, but didn't show up. After six weeks, I contacted the doctor to find out what happened. He told me the lab lost my test results, b... (Read More)

alt.education.distance FAQ (part 3 of 4) (2 posts)
by Rita Laws - Last post on: 01-16-04 01:17
Archive-name: education/distance-ed-faq/part3 Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1999/10/25 Version: 8.0 URL: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/education/distance-ed-faq/part3 *** The alt.education.distance FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) *** Part 3 of 4 parts FAQ Maintainers: Neil H... (Read More)

Is the silence about your credentials the answer, moral compass Gus Sainz? (1 posts)
by Dan Castello - Last post on: 04-27-04 13:59
Or does Mr. Sainz has his own unique sets of double-standards on integrity? Mr. Sainz, As an active member in the degreeinfo discussion forum commenting on various issuues concerning the legitimacy of credentials and degrees, I find it odd that you have chosen not to reveal the source of yo... (Read More)

Re: ashworth college (2 posts)
by auresti - Last post on: 07-03-03 16:59
well you can do the exams online but you can also do them through the mail. they email you the grades (if you perfer). after you enroll they send you your books, etc. but the things is sometimes it seems like ashworth doesnt' exsist because it is VERY hard to get ahold of them and when you email th... (Read More)

You must register before posting in the Education & Distance Learning discussion forums. It's free & only takes a few seconds. Please also remember that no advertising is allowed...
Enter The Forums Here