Fort Lee, VA— With nearly 18,000 employees worldwide, the Defense Commissary Agency offers “a match made in heaven” for military spouses and family members seeking employment.
“Since its inception, DeCA has served as a proud advocate in hiring military families throughout all levels of the agency,” said Patrick Nixon, DeCA director and CEO. “In fact, military spouses now represent nearly 30 percent of our workforce.”
DeCA maintains these employment levels by using various recruiting strategies to attract and retain military spouses, Nixon explained. Since the agency recruits on a continuous basis worldwide through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, military spouses remain a critical source of high-quality employees.
“We worked with the Department of Defense Priority Placement Program, or PPP, to establish the DeCA Family Member Placement Program,” said Nixon. “Called ‘Program M,’ this facilitates the continued employment of current employees at commissaries as their spouses transfer to new duty stations.”
A similar “Program S” for military spouse preference, along with Executive Order 12721, Eligibility of Overseas Employees for Noncompetitive Appointments, provide quick, easy methods to fill non-management positions within the continental U.S. Since many candidates have prior commissary experience, these programs enable DeCA to reduce recruitment time and training costs, retain valuable employees, and help ease transition anxieties for the whole family.
“This is a win-win-win situation for DeCA, the military spouse and the taxpayer,” Nixon said. “Military spouses generally don’t elect additional health and life insurance, and there’s no moving cost involved beyond the service member’s permanent change of station, so the taxpayer gets more bang for the buck invested in the commissary benefit.”
Nixon said spouses are hired under local merit promotion announcements as well, and they are afforded promotion, training and career-enhancing opportunities throughout the agency.
Email This Page!