By Margaret Ziffer, Fort Riley Public Affairs

The Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA) Southwest Region, headquartered at Fort Riley, Kansas, has received appropriation for additional positions. CHRA Southwest, along with the other seven Army regions worldwide, provides  civilian human resources services to the Department of Defense.

The new positions, which CHRA hopes to have mostly filled by the end of
April, have been designated to provide civilian human resources products.

Carol Burton, CHRA Southwest Region director, said the new positions vary
from technical work to transactional work, and clerical positions.  Some job
openings have been filled through internal personnel; however, a significant
number of positions (approximately 40), are being recruited from the general
public.  Specifically, the entry level positions.

“There are a variety of different positions.  Some require a high school
graduation or general experience, some of them require previous work in the
field,” Burton said.  “The vast majority of the ones that we are recruiting
for right now require a bachelor’s degree or some type of related
experience.”

The new CHRA job vacancies will be posted on www.usajobs.gov., Job seekers
should visit this site on a regular basis for updated postings.

“We do have some attrition, so we are almost always recruiting for some
types of vacancies.  I encourage people to look all throughout the year-we
have people that get promoted and go to other parts of our campus, so that
leaves a vacancy behind.  In the human resources world, there is always some
turnover and there will always be vacancies,” said Jackie Frederick, CHRA
Southwest deputy director.

Burton and Frederick encourage civilians, Army dependents, veterans and all
job-seekers from the area to take advantage of this opportunity to work for
CHRA.

“Neither Jackie nor I are from this area, but we love it.  It’s home for us.
Not only do we like what we do, but we like the sense of community and that
we are able to provide some employment opportunities for the folks who live
and work here, and for the (Army) family members,” Burton said.  “This is a
great place to live and work and we are really fortunate that we have a
great applicant pool, too.”

The CHRA Southwest footprint here at Fort Riley includes one of two Civilian
Personnel Records Centers, and the only existing Army Benefits Center –
Civilian, which has a worldwide mission to process retirement and
benefits-related documents for all Army Civilian employees.  Additionally,
18 Civilian Personnel Advisory Centers (CPACs) at other installations fall
under the Southwest Region.