# Land and Maritime Town Hall promotes audit readiness, performance review updates

/ Published Feb. 24, 2017
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 
In her first Town Hall as commander of DLA Land and Maritime, Navy Rear Admiral Michelle Skubic outlined her priorities while reaffirming the agency’s current strategic plan. 

The first portion of the Feb. 15 event recognized associates for outstanding contributions during the period since the previous Town Hall, including associates of the month awards, a distinguished service award, and a military deployment award.

Following the employee recognitions, Skubic described her professional progression prior to taking command of DLA in Columbus. She explained her goals for the organization, including fostering an environment of teamwork while promoting an inclusive culture. 

Skubic also discussed DLA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch’s strategic goals, including his five pillars of mission success.

“These strategic pillars provide a roadmap for the work that we do as a team – delivering mission support and readiness through sea power, land power, and air power.

“Going forward, we’ve got some exciting things planned to support our people and culture initiatives. We’ve put some Culture Action Plan teams together and they’re working on specific focus areas to improve our organizational consistency, involvement, and resiliency,” Skubic said.

A performance review program goes into place later this year, and administrative staffers expect the new initiative to have positive effects across the Department of Defense. The DoD Performance Management and Appraisal Program (DPMAP) will streamline employee evaluations and expand professional development said Lisa Holley, a supervisor at the DLA Human Resources Services Center.

“We’re currently working vigorously to get everything in place prior to the April 1 rollout date for DPMAP,” she said. “One of the many qualities of this new program is its automation and the simplicity of managing performance plans. We have almost everyone trained on the new procedures, and we’ve received very positive feedback.”

Under the new procedures, employees will be ranked on a retention register based on periods of assessed performance, followed by the retention factors of:performance rating of record, tenure group, performance average score, veterans’ preference, and DoD Service Computation Date.

Holley explained the implementation process, including an online resource called MyPerformance that allows users to view tutorials and other training materials.

She also provided an update on the temporary federal government-wide hiring freeze currently in place. Holley outlined the supplemental DoD guidance which provides additional clarification on issues that are relevant to DLA associates. 

Audit Readiness Supervisor Mike Jones gave details on the ongoing audit review underway at Defense Supply Center Columbus. He said Ernst and Young, a professional services company, has already performed walkthroughs at the Land and Maritime Operations Center and at the Defense Finance and Accounting Services building on the installation. 

Jones says so far the results have been positive, and installation tenants have already fulfilled more than 800 information and IT requests from the outside agency. 

“These process reviews are very comprehensive,” he said. “They (Ernst and Young) are speaking to our subject matter experts, they’re watching our business processes from beginning to end, and they’re making sure all of the information we present is accurate.” 

The Town Hall concluded with a winter safety briefing from Skubic, who reminded the audience to remain vigilant during periods of extreme cold or inclement weather.