Marine Corps says development of AI-enabled talent management portal is a ‘must-pay bill’
The Marine Corps has identified its in-the-works Talent Management Engagement Portal (TMEP) — enabled by artificial intelligence — as a critical resourcing priority as it pursues new digital tools for selecting personnel to fill key billets.
Development of the TMEP capability is a “must-pay bill,” according to the service’s Talent Management 2030 update released on Monday.
“The current assignment process has redundancies, inefficiencies, and information gaps. We will overcome them by using TMEP – a transparent talent management tool – to integrate all relevant information to optimize assignments decisions,” the document said.
The capability will include a “customer relationship management platform” that leverages data analytics “with artificial intelligence and machine learning elements, as well as complementary portals for individual Marines, monitors, commands, and designated mentors to support a market-style assignment system.”
In testimony to the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee last year, Lt. Gen. David Ottignon, then-deputy commandant for manpower and Reserve affairs, said the portal will enable Marines to make more informed career decisions by providing information about things like billet availability, popularity and comparative assessments.
“Currently, this information is stored in several separate legacy systems, which limit transparency and ease of use. TMEP will solve these data management challenges. Through an agile development approach backed by necessary resourcing, we will have a fully operational talent marketplace fielded to the fleet,” he told lawmakers.
The Talent Management 2030 update did not provide a rundown of the costs or other resources associated with developing and maintaining the portal.
Acquiring digital tools is one of four major lines of effort in the Marine Corps’ strategy for improving the way it manages personnel. The other lines of effort include rebalancing recruitment and retention, optimizing the employment of talent, and offering multiple pathways to career success.
“Our digital talent management systems are antiquated, siloed, and unfit for their task. To realize the objectives of TM2030, we must be able to synthesize personnel information and requirements across the force. We need a transparent, commander-focused, collaborative system to align the individual abilities, skills, and aspirations of our Marines to our warfighting needs,” officials wrote.
The TMEP is part of a broader IT overhaul for the Corps, which plans to publish a comprehensive acquisition strategy for manpower information technology systems modernization by the end of March.
The Marines are also looking to tap into the Defense Innovation Unit’s GigEagle initiative, an AI-enabled, on-demand talent matching platform that is intended to help the Defense Department find Guard and Reserve members with special skill sets to fill critical roles on a short-term basis.
Last year, DIU awarded an Other Transaction prototype contract to Eightfold AI in partnership with Carahsoft Technology Corp., for the new app.
“By breaking down barriers between branches and components, this program will allow Marine commands to unlock the talent within the [Reserve component] and tactically apply their skills to support the mission at hand,” Marine Corps officials wrote in the Talent Management 2030 update.
Service officials have been tasked to deliver an assessment of the feasibility of leveraging GigEagle personnel “in support of Marine Corps requirements” by the end of this month, as well as an assessment of the feasibility of incorporating the Army’s Talent Attribute Framework to support the Marine Corps’ enterprise-wide HR decisions.
