As with civilian employers, the military tries to find the best person for each job and encourages each individual to realize his or her full potential. Personnel managers direct programs to attract and select new personnel for the services, assign them to jobs, provide career counseling, and maintain personnel records.
What They Do
Personnel managers in the military perform some or all of the following duties:
- Plan recruiting activities to interest qualified young people in the military
- Direct testing and career counseling for military personnel
- Classify personnel according to job aptitude, interest, and service need
- Direct the assignment of personnel to jobs and training
- Direct personnel recordkeeping operations
- Establish standards to determine the number of people to assign to activities
- Study military jobs to see how they can be improved and kept up-to-date with technology
- Plan for hiring, training, and assigning personnel for the future
- Develop programs to prevent and resolve equal opportunity problems
Helpful Attributes
Helpful fields of study include personnel management, organizational development, industrial psychology, and labor relations. Helpful attributes include:
- Interest in planning and directing the work of others
- Interest in working closely with people
- Interest in working with computers
Training Provided
Job training consists of classroom instruction. Further training occurs in advanced courses. Course content typically includes:
- Military personnel policies and objectives
- Automated personnel systems
- Career development programs
- Equal opportunity problems
- Management and organizational concepts
Work Environment
Personnel managers work in offices.
Civilian Counterparts
Civilian personnel managers work for all types of businesses and industries, as well as for government agencies. They perform duties similar to those performed by military personnel managers. Depending on their specialty, they may also be called employment relations directors, employment managers, occupational analysts, industrial relations directors, equal employment opportunity representatives, or affirmative action coordinators.
