# A Look at DLA's People and Culture Plan

/ Published Dec. 19, 2017
FORT BELVOIR, Va., 
Defense Logistics Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams believes the foundation for his agency’s success is simple: the more than 25,000 people who make up its workforce. His guiding leadership principle — If you take care of your people, the mission will happen — is at the heart of DLA’s new People and Culture Plan.Williams directed the development of a human capital plan, known in DLA as the People and Culture Plan, as a companion document to the agency’s new nine-year Strategic Plan, which was released in November. “Full commitment to our People and Culture Plan will assure we provide the right resources and environment to a highly skilled workforce fully capable of mission success as we provide global, agile, and innovative support to the Warfighter and our Nation,” he wrote in a forward to the plan. “People and Culture” was one of five lines of effort in DLA’s most recent previous strategic plan, and the new P&CP carries forward many of the objectives set forth in the earlier version. Williams said he and DLA’s other senior leaders chose to develop a separate People and Culture Plan because he sees People and Culture as much more inclusive than any other line of effort in the broader plan. “In my estimation, it’s not a line of effort, it’s at the heart of what we do. It touches everything we do,” he said. “Lines of effort don’t necessarily intersect with each other; People and Culture intersects with everything we do.”The new plan specifies DLA has adopted the Defense Department’s core values of: Leadership, professionalism and technical knowledge through dedication to duty, integrity, ethics, honor, courage and loyalty. It also dedicates two pages to explaining how human capital challenges — demographics, the economy and evolving technology — could affect DLA and its work environment. The organization’s success is “largely dependent on its ability to achieve a high-performing, results-driven culture and to sustain that culture in light of changes to demographics, economics and technology,” the plan states. DLA must also be a good steward of resources and effectively manage risks. Over several pages, the plan lays out DLA’s People and Culture goals in eight objectives. They are:

## Develop Leaders: 

Leverage and expand leadership programs that attract, develop and retain diverse talent to meet current and future mission requirements. 

## Resource the Enterprise: 

Recruit and retain a diverse, talented and skilled workforce. 

## Manage the Talent: 

Develop, promote and sustain initiatives to strengthen workforce competencies to meet emerging mission requirements. 

## Sustain Our People: 

Provide the environment, tools and resources for employees to be protected, resilient, and mission-focused in the face of professional and personal challenges. 

## Fortify the Culture: 

Foster an organizational culture where employees are engaged and motivated to achieve mission excellence. 

## Perform and Reward: 

Sustain a results-oriented performance culture that links individual performance and recognition to organizational goals and performance-based actions. 

## Build Connections: 

Create an environment where employees share a common perspective allowing them to work effectively across organizational boundaries, eliminate silos, and promote actions that are in the best interest of DLA as a whole. 

## Protect the Workforce: 

Leverage and enhance the DLA Safety and Occupational Health program to build a culture focused on reducing the risk of injury or illness in the workforce and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. 

DLA Human Resources Director Brad Bunn explained the P&CP creates an umbrella for initiatives at the enterprise level and the organizational level in the agency’s major subordinate commands and staff sections. 

## Roles and Responsibilities

*— Kathleen T. Rhem DLA Human Resources*