eNavFit Active-Duty Pilot Program To Kick Off
10 August 2021
Millington, Tennessee -- MILLINGTON, Tenn. – Beginning Sept. 13, 2021, selected active-duty commands across the Fleet will participate in the second test pilot program for eNavFit, an up-to-date solution for all evaluation (eval) and fitness report (fitrep) processing.
eNavFit is the Navy’s new performance evaluation interface scheduled to replace NAVFIT98A. eNavFit gives the Navy a more modern approach streamlining the administrative functions associated with evals and fitreps.
“Change is the only constant in a continual effort of process improvement.” said Rear Adm. Holsey, Commander of Navy Personnel Command, “While NAVFIT98A has served us well, it’s time for a 21st Century solution in our performance evaluation transformation.”
The eNavFit interface will minimize the need for the hard copy routing process, reduce unit-level administrative obstacles, and automate submissions to PERS-32 for entry into a Sailor’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) record.
eNavFit will operate through an online, web-based portal, easily accessible for shore-based commands via Bupers Online (BOL). It has been specifically tailored to account for limited connectivity on surface ships, submarines, detached ground units, and other sea and operational commands through the use of offline Adobe Reader forms. When connectivity is available, the forms can be downloaded from and uploaded to BOL.
The eNavFit interface expands the capabilities of NAVFIT98A by enabling fleet users to perform all the functions that they need to create, edit, and route reports in addition to providing the ability to digitally sign, validate reports, and electronically submit. This is a significant deviation from the existing software that requires wet-signature and manual validation by Navy Personnel Command. The interface will also export performance appraisals to a transportable medium that can be emailed or passed by disk with the capability to import information back into the interface. Users of the offline application may then either access BOL to upload documents or print and mail documents to PERS-32 for processing.
“Many of us have used NAVFIT98A for quite some time and we are accustomed to the nuances of the software,” said Cmdr. Kristie Colpo, Officer in Charge, Performance Evaluation Training Task Force. “With eNavFit, we look forward to using an interface that allows us to write, route, review, rate, digitally sign, and submit performance appraisals online. With the help of built-in business rules, eNavFit identifies performance evaluation errors upfront and gives our members a chance to correct them prior to submission. Our hope is that electronic routing, digital signatures, built-in business rules, and online submission processes will reduce many of the administrative errors currently faced by the fleet. Our challenge is not only to make the interface functional, but user-friendly. We are working very hard to accomplish those tasks and anticipate a win for the fleet, but given we've used NAVFIT98A for 20 years, there will be a learning curve.”
Select Naval Reserve units were the first to test the new eNavFit interface earlier this summer and user feedback from that pilot program has already made it into the latest version of eNavFit.
“Having our Reserve shipmates test and evaluate eNavFit has significantly contributed to our development efforts because they often work from home on various types of CAC-enabled computers. There feedback is critical,” said Colpo. “With the Active Duty test phase, however, we will shift to challenge our interface with in-depth testing on various shore and afloat military systems and platforms with limited connectivity. This allows us to correct issues before eNavFit rolls out to the Active Duty at the end of this year.”
The active duty pilot program is expected to wrap up in late October. The feedback gathered will be used to make adjustments to the interface prior the Fleet-wide rollout scheduled for December 2021.