As the Space Force creates a hybrid workforce model that integrates part-time Guardians into its ranks, the service is focused on building a human resources ecosystem that will support a fundamentally different approach to managing talent than any other military branch.

The effort stems from the Space Force Personnel Management Act signed into law as part of the 2024 defense policy bills, which allows active-duty Guardians and Air Force reservists to serve either full- or part-time.

“The Space Force is, in my opinion — and shared by many — a really different model of military service to the nation, irrespective of the legislation because we don’t have as much of the traditional pickup-and-go physical deployment mobility requirements that many of the other services do. There’s a large percentage of the Space Force that is doing its mission 24/7 today, much of it CONUS-based, and that is all going to continue to be in place whether or not we’re in conflict or in a peacetime environment,” Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Human Capital Katharine Kelley said Wednesday.

“For the Space Force, it’s important to leverage the fact that we have a different type of employed in-place model. That becomes an interesting distinction because you are trying to build a talent base and a structure of talent management that is to support an ecosystem in that type of environment.”

The service currently relies on the Air Force’s HR systems, which are outdated and not suited for the service’s needs. And while the Air Force is trying to get rid of those antiquated systems and modernize its architectures, the service kicked off those efforts before Congress enacted the Space Force Personnel Management Act.

“A lot of what our limiting factors are to the execution side of our new legislation has to do with how we can manage and influence the system architectures to support these new talent models,” said Kelley.

Recognizing the challenge, Congress gave the Space Force five years to implement the new model. For the past year, the service has been working on moving Air Force reservists performing space-related missions to the Space Force — they are now serving as full-time Guardians.

Over the next four years, however, the focus will shift to building a modern IT ecosystem to support this fundamentally different approach to talent management.

Space officials have long talked about the technical and administrative challenges of creating a hybrid workforce model, including how to manage pay, benefits, retirement and VA eligibility for part-time Guardians.

“We think there are easily over 300 systems in play today that somehow touch on the ecosystem of managing talent in the DoD. That’s not even discussing really where we go with external touchpoints that really matter for the military. How your data flows to the [Department of Veterans Affairs] matters — all the external touch points as well, as we go through this,” said Kelley.

Another topic space officials are thinking through is creating a promotion system that accommodates part-time Guardians; Kelley said the service “envisions one promotion ecosystem” regardless of whether they serve in a full- or part-time capacity.

“The idea is that we’re going to highly value credentialing, certifications, qualifications and training, and those can be garnered whether you’re in full or part-time work roles. The idea that the team is fleshing out for us right now is how do we build a promotion ecosystem that values both types of work roles simultaneously,” said Kelley.

“The difference with the Personnel Management Act is really about the type of work role you’re performing. It’s not about you being a part-timer or you being a full-timer. Everybody is just a Guardian. The decision is how you deliver work for the service, whether it is in a full-time capacity or a part-time capacity.”

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