Starting Friday, commissaries in Europe and the Pacific will change the way they hire U.S. civilians interested in working as cashiers, stockers or in any other food service-related job.
The change applies only to stores on Army and Air Force installations. Not affected are commissaries that primarily serve Navy personnel in Europe. Those stores are in Rota, Spain; Naples, Italy; and Sigonella, Sicily.
Applicants elsewhere, including those in Japan, Okinawa and Korea, will need to have an automated resume on file via the Resumix system that Army and Air Force civilian personnel offices use. The centralized database system is one used by many federal government organizations.
Currently, commissary applicants need to have an electronic resume on file before they can don a smock. But for those without a resume, the step of creating one often comes after a store manager hires them to fill a vacancy.
Under the existing system, “a store manager looks at a list of names” and selects an applicant, said Kaye Kennedy, chief of human resources for the Defense Commissary Agency-Europe. However, she added, if a person isn’t in the system, “a personnel office can’t [formally] hire them until a resume is completed.”
In essence, the outgoing system didn’t require a resume as a precondition to being hired, but it did call for one as a prerequisite to starting the job.
The requirement to have the resume on file before being hired, “lends itself to be more timely, in terms of getting people on board,” Kennedy said. The requirement takes effect Friday.
Local nationals applying for a job with a commissary won’t be affected by the policy change, said Kay Blakley, a spokeswoman for DeCA-Europe. They will continue to follow the procedures in place for local nationals, though conditions can vary from location to location.
As for U.S. civilians wishing to work for DeCA, Kennedy said the change should make the whole hiring process more efficient. Once a resume has been submitted online, a prospective applicant just needs to keep tabs on vacancies and apply, referencing their electronic resume.
Resumix “is a system a lot of people are familiar with,” Kennedy said.
For more information about Resumix and the process, go to the Army’s Civilian Human Resources Agency Web site: www.chra.eur.army.mil. The Air Force Web site is: www.ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil. Look for references to employment opportunities and view the resume builder and the job application kit links at the respective sites for further guidance.
