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Coast Guard Personnel Service Center

Officer Personnel Management Division

Officer Evaluations Branch (CG PSC-opm-3)

OSMS is NOT YET approved for field use.  All Officers should standby for the ALCGPSC message launching the program.  Please suspend all applications or actions relating to OSMS until the message is released

OPM has “grandfathered” O-4s-O-6s and those officers whom had received commissions specifically for a specialty.  Those that were grandfathered, whom qualify for additional OSC(s), or those who seek to correct their records should submit the applicable form to add or delete OSC(s).  Appropriate guidance and associated OSMS forms have been approved and made available for field use. Please take time to explore the published material, and the OSMS manual, paying particular attention to chapter 4.

Submit all Addition/Deletion applications to: ARL-PF-CGPSC-OPMOSMS@uscg.mil.  Be sure a completed application with favorable command endorsement, and all required supporting documentation (i.e. ESS, certificates) is included with your submission.

OSMS Purpose:

A.  Purpose of the Officer Specialty Management System

1.      The OSMS serves two primary officer workforce management functions: quantifying demands and measuring supplies.  Before OSMS, officer workforce decisions were hindered by the lack of clear data – do we have a sufficient supply of specialists to meet billet demands.  With the means in our human resource database system to accurately capture demand and supply, the service will optimize personnel management decisions in our officer corps.

a.  Billet Need (demand side):  OSMS quantifies the demands for the officer workforce.  Through this, Program Managers (PM) can identify specialty or subspecialty knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required to best fulfill the needs of each position.  Those billets with like KSAs are combined into specialties.  Once labeled and quantified, workforce planners and managers have a tangible mission and slate to fill.

b.  Personnel Identification (supply side):  OSMS provides a means for workforce planners and managers to identify and track the supply of qualified officers by specialty.  The goal is to maintain a sufficient supply of qualified officers in certain excesses to ensure each demand is met at all times.  Workforce modelers can measure attrition rates and time-in-service profiles for the various specialties and adjust accession plans to accommodate individual differences amongst specialties.

2.      A foundation of specialties is the inclusion of competencies.  Competencies along with formal training, higher education, and professional certifications/licenses are a building block for specialties.  Obtainment of a specialty designation is accomplished by completion of certain tasks associated with the specialty.

3.      Each specialty must have an appropriate opportunity for positions of the next higher paygrade.  A billet structure which affords upward mobility via the promotion system is paramount.  The pyramid for an individual specialty should, as close as possible, mirror the overall officer pyramid for paygrades O-3 to O-6.  Subspecialties do not necessarily mirror the overall officer structure, however when combined into a single specialty, should provide a sustainable pyramid and career path for the member to follow. 

4.      Another benefit with OSMS is as a career planning tool for junior officers.  With OSMS, officers are able to view sanctioned documents which describe various officer career fields and their nature of work, as well as the pathway to enter such career fields.  In essence, managers of specialties can advertise their career field and increase their likelihood of obtaining motivated officers pursuing professional, career enhancing goals.

5.      Besides career planning, OSMS benefits professional development with the ability to formally set forth criteria for obtaining higher skill levels.  Managers of specialties can establish milestones of achievement to reach the pinnacle of professionalism within their specialty.   This optional tool ‘Honors Our Profession’ and supports the Commandant’s vision statement. 

6.      In addition to the above, the Commandant may employ the Enhanced Status Quo (ESQ) promotion tool, authorized in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010.  This tool was designed to meet Service needs with regards to specialty management while preserving the tenets of the best-qualified promotion system.  Before ESQ can be employed, the service must fully establish OSMS and gain a high degree of confidence in its fidelity. 

7.OSMS applies to both the Active Duty Promotion List (ADPL) and the Inactive Duty Promotion List (IDPL).  OSMS has limited applicability to officers in the Reserve Program Administrator (RPA) corps or Permanent Commission Teaching Staff (PCTS). The Band Officer is not included in OSMS.

OSMS FAQs

OSMS Training PowerPoint

OSMS A Quick Guide

Manual (COMDTINST M5300.3)

Forms

Officer Specialty Code (OSC, CG-5319A) Addition form:

Opm3docs/OSMS/CG_5319A.pdf

Officer Specialty Code (OSC, CG-5319) Deletion Form:

http://www.uscg.mil/forms/cg/CG_5319.pdf

Employee Summary Sheet

 http://cgbi.osc.uscg.mil/2.0/contentpanes/personal_files/summary_sheet.cfm

Sample Memo to Appeal OSC decision

Sample Memo to Appeal OSC determination

Sample Memo for Requesting Changes to Specialty/Sub-specialty

 Memo for Requesting Changes to Specialty

Link for competency dictionary 

Competency Dictionary

Approved Specialties/Sub-specialties (Prior to calling any Specialty Manager please call OSMS POC, listed below)

Note 1: No Specialty Manager is assigned.  Intention is to delete this sub-specialty and consider managing it through creation of a competency.  DCMS-81 & CG-44 are studying creation of “Logistics” and we anticipate a proposal within the next year. This proposal requires CG-1 approval if deemed to be a subspecialty within Management, or CCG approval if a specialty.

Note 2: Intention is to move “Planning” to become “Contingency Planning and Operational Planning – CG-OAR17” w/CG-533 as SM.  This proposal requires CG-1 approval and is being prepared by CG-533.

Note 3: Intention is to rename it to: “Incident Management”.  This proposal requires CG-1 approval and is being prepared by CG-533.

Note 4: These specialties are tracked for billets and are not part of OSMS.  No Specialty Managers are designated for these programs.

***For additional information concerning OSMS, contact***

Brandon Chittum, USCG

OSMS Program Manager

CG Personnel Service Center, Officer Evaluations Branch, (OPM-3)

(703) 872-6467

Brandon.F.Chittum@uscg.mil

OSMS Email inbox ARL-PF-CGPSC-OPMOSMS@uscg.mil