36th Wing Public Affairs
9/3/2014 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Cody met with Team Andersen Airmen during an Airman's call at the Coral Reef Fitness Center Aug. 26 to discuss the upcoming changes in the Air Force.
He addressed the concerns Airmen had with changes to the Enlisted Evaluation and Weighted Airman Promotion Systems. Cody assured Airmen if they are doing what is expected of them, there is no need to worry.
"We're still going to promote the same number of people," Cody said. "This year there were 9,600 Airmen selected for staff sergeant. If we had this new system in place, and we were getting ready to promote, guess how many Airmen would be promoted - about 9,600. It would be the same amount of people, just a different group."
The changes are intended to ensure the Air Force makes job performance the driving factor for promotions and will be implemented incrementally beginning in August 2014 and continuing through early 2016.
"This is the most significant change to the EES and WAPS in nearly 45 years," Cody said. "We have researched everything to include how we got to this point, and how we are going to rebuild the system so it's where we need it to be in the future to sustain our force."
Chief Cody stressed that the feedback sessions are the heart of our EES.
"The most significant part of this EES is the Airman Comprehensive Assessment," he said. "It is important the Airmen and their supervisors have open, honest and purposeful conversations where clear expectations are established."
Air Force officials also plan to make several modifications to the WAPS. The current system will be replaced by a model using a maximum of the last three EPRs, placing increased emphasis on an Airman's most recent duty performance.
"I'm really happy to hear the new changes to the evaluation system in regards to WAPS testing," said Staff Sgt. Kristian Atkinson, 36th Medical Operations Squadron bioenvironmental engineering technician. "I'm excited to see the importance of time-in-grade and time-in-service decreasing because it shifts the importance to your job knowledge and now people can't rely on however many years they've been in to push them through to the next rank."
During the all call, Chief Cody also touched on how the Air Force is making it a priority to create well-rounded Airmen.
"We are currently working on the deliberate development of our Airmen in significant ways, whether it's the development of special duties or moving forward with the enlisted professional military education," he said. "We are also trying to figure out what is important to our Airmen and families and create a good balance of work and personal time with loved ones so it's sustainable and reasonable in the future."
Chief Cody ended his visit by expressing his gratitude toward the Airmen.
"I would like to thank the Airmen and their families for what they do every day," he said. "We are currently facing a lot of challenges, but the task at hand still remains and Guam plays a major role in that by projecting airpower globally."
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