The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 19 What Is to Be Done? I would offer the following sugges- tions: 1. The Director General has called for ELOs to serve one tour in cone. As an interimmeasure, have the Bureau of Human Resources adopt the stated goal that every ELO will serve at least one year in an in-cone position over the course of their first two tours or five years of service. Consider expanding the use of limited non-career appointments, qualified EFMs and rotational assignments to make up any shortage of adjudicators. 2. Move in the direction of having HR front-load consular assignments. Most ELOs already serve their first tour in a consular position, so make this a uniform policy. 3. Once the aforementioned policy is achieved, combine A-100, consular training and tradecraft courses on eco- nomic, political and public diplomacy work into a beefed-up 10-week A-100 course. This reformed A-100 orienta- tion would more closely resemble the military’s Basic Officer Leaders Course for new lieutenants, and could become the first step in the much-touted goal of formalizing Foreign Service training over the course of a career. 4. Once the new A-100 course has operated for a few years, start develop- ing mid-level cone-specific training that more closely resembles the Army’s Captains Career Course. Make attending this course a requirement within three years of promotion to FS-3, and optional for tenured FS-4s. If sufficiently substantive, such a course should lessen variations in the level of competence among officers who have different lengths of in-cone experi- ence at the entry level. That, combined with the fact that every tenured officer will have at least some in-cone experi- ence, will make it more likely that new mid-level officers are given a fair shake in the assignments process. Difficult, Yet Achievable All of this is easier said than done, but eminently achievable. There will be difficulties along the way; but successful reform in how we handle ELO assign- ments is likely to have a magnified effect at the mid-levels, since many of the perceived inequities in mid-level rating and bidding stem from frustration at not having been being able to serve in cone. In particular, increasing the number of rotational assignments will cause near- term difficulties for HR and increased levels of staff turnover for supervisors. Challenging as that may be, as long as our career development model is so heavily slanted toward on-the-job train- ing, ELO assignments should be viewed as just that—training—and not simply as encumbered positions. In the past three months significant, if incremental, reforms have been imple- mented to improve the rating and assign- ment processes. Similar reforms should now be undertaken in how we handle the assignment of ELOs. n Successful reform in how we handle ELO assignments is likely to have a magnified effect at the mid-levels.