About the Personnel Force Innovation Program
The Personnel Force Innovation (PFI) Program is an Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) initiative to obtain and place National Guard and Reserve Service Members on active duty tours with Department of Defense (DoD) agencies for one to three years.
PFI fills critical manpower needs in DoD working capital fund (WCF) activities by providing highly-skilled National Guard or Reserve Service Members on a reimbursable and fee-for-service basis. When active duty personnel are not available to perform Department of Defense (DoD) agency duties, National Guard or Reserve Service Members are more cost-effective than civilian employees or contractor support personnel.
All Service Members on PFI active duty tours are volunteers who may use either civilian or military skills (or both) in their active duty tour assignments. PFI recruits the service members from a pool of almost 1.5 million volunteers from all service components. Participating National Guard or Reserve Service Members voluntarily apply for positions to serve on fee-for-service tours.
DoD agency customers determine the major aspects of active duty tours, such as job location, desired rank, duties of the National Guard or Reserve Service Member, duration of tour, and duty hours. DoD agency customers decide which PFI applicants they want to interview for selection, but also have the option of declining all PFI applicants or submitting by-name requests for certain individuals.
PFI is strictly "fee-for-service" as customers fund all active duty tour costs at fixed rates with working capital funds, including pay and allowances and temporary duty (TDY) costs. DoD agency customers fund the National Guard or Reserve Service Members' active duty costs with working capital funds on a military interdepartmental purchase request (MIPR-D Form 448).
The total PFI active duty tour cost is calculated based on the tour length and military rank of the National Guard or Reserve Service Member, plus an eight percent surcharge for administrative expenses. PCS costs are included in the published rate, and are not charged to the customer when the active duty assignment is expected to last at least 12 months and at least 139 days remain in the first fiscal year of the active duty tour.
Customer agencies fund all TDY costs using travel orders or organizational fund sites. Active duty tours frequently last six months or longer, but PFI Service Members can be used for shorter tours or for longer assignments up to three years in duration.
Customer agencies can sometimes curtail tours in as little as 90 days if anticipated workload does not materialize or if National Guard or Reserve Service Member performance does not meet expectations.
Reserve service members cannot curtail their assignments without the consent of the customer and the PFI director. However, the National Guard or Reserve members' service branch can prematurely curtail tours because of military priorities, such as contingency operations.
The PFI director mentors National Guard or Reserve Service Members in the program to maximize customer value, but DoD agency customers determine the Service Members' position assignments and write their performance appraisals.
