More deserving soldiers will be promoted sooner and fewer school seats should go vacant under the Army's new Enlisted Centralized Promotion Board process, said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey.

Dailey took part in a Facebook Live session last week with Sgt. Maj. Mark Clark of the G-1 Directorate of Military Personnel Management. They discussed changes to the Army's noncommissioned officer boards scheduled to be implemented over the next three years.

"It used to be called a promotion board; in the future it will be called an evaluation board," Dailey said. Future boards will evaluate Soldiers for schooling and assignments as well as promotion.

Under the new process, if an NCO cannot go to school for any reason, then the next in line will immediately be offered the seat, he said.

TALENT-BASED SEQUENCE

The fundamentals of how NCO records are evaluated by the boards will not change, he said. The big change will come on how those deemed fully-qualified are sequenced.

"Previously the board members would vote; they would rack and stack individuals based on DA Pam 600-25 and then they would be re-sequenced based on time in service, time in grade. That process will not happen anymore," Dailey said. "It will be a true talent-based list."

When the board decides a soldier is the most talented and all prerequisites have been met, that soldier will be No. 1 on the list.

"That number, for the first time in the history of our centralized promotion board system, will show you how you rated against your peers," Dailey said. It won't be based simply on seniority.

"We want to change our system from largely a time-based system to a talent-based system," he said, where the most talented is promoted first.

"I can assure you that it is the right direction to take our NCO Corps," he said.

PROMOTION LISTS

Following future boards, a sequenced promotion list will not be published, Clark said.

A list of all fully-qualified NCOs will instead be published in alphabetical order.

"So there won't be a committed list where you have to wait 12 to 18 months to be promoted," he said.

NCOs will first be evaluated 18 months out from when eligible, Dailey said.

"The perception is going to be that we will promote Soldiers too fast," Dailey said. "That's not true."

An NCO must still meet all the qualifications before being promoted, he stressed.

MORE FLEXIBILITY

Under the old process, boards drew a line across the sequenced list based on an estimate of how many NCOs in that MOS would be needed at that rank. Only those on top of the line would be promoted.

"Sometimes we got it right. Sometimes we didn't," Dailey said.

The new process will allow more NCOs to be promoted mid-year if more are needed, he explained.

"This is an evolving, adapting and changing Army," he said.

"Most importantly, this process will improve Army readiness," Clark said. "We will now be able to promote soldiers, assign them and train them based on being the best-qualified to man our forces so that we could be the most lethal Army in the world."

IMPLEMENTATION

Education about the new board process will begin this year with sergeants major and be followed by training for the trainers. Comprehensive education in the new system will be provided over the next three years to all soldiers, Dailey said.

Current sequence numbers from recent boards will remain in effect for now, Dailey said. The new process will be adopted over time to keep from hurting any NCOs, he said.

The process will be implemented first for the most senior ranks. Beginning this, year the nominative sergeant major board and command selection boards were cancelled. They will be replaced with an evaluation board that will take place in August, Clark said.

This month, the master sergeant board that was conducted will not sequence those qualified by time, but instead by merit. In November of 2020, a new sergeant first class evaluation board will be held, he said, later explaining this was formally known as the master sergeant promotion board.