JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hi. (NNS) -- Mr. Dave Pedersen, human resources director Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii, was notified on April 23 of his selection to receive the 2019 Department of the Navy Civilian Human Resources Office and Equal Employment Opportunity Community Award for Excellence in Leadership.
“Dave’s proactive leadership, unrelenting drive, and tremendous strategic vision have had a profound positive impact at every level across NAVFAC Hawaii,” said Capt. Marc Delao commanding officer NAVFAC Hawaii. “His untiring dedication and inspirational servant leadership have transformed our Human Resources Office into a well-trained, highly motivated and extraordinarily competent team of human resource professionals.”
Pedersen embraced new opportunities to change the way his Human Resources Office delivered human capital to his command. He built a team not afraid to take risks and never wavering on integrity and trust. His mission focused leadership compelled his team of human resource professionals to confidently execute an aggressive hiring strategy, critical for mission success. They executed over 575 recruitment actions resulting in 451 filled positions, reduced the end-to-end duration of recruitments from 106 days to 82 days on average. This incredible effort lowered the vacancy rate to 7 percent. His Labor and Employee Relations team completed 75 corrective actions supporting management’s supervision of employees, driving a higher caliber of service delivery coupled with accountability.
“I have the best Human Resources Director’s job in the Navy, said Dave Pedersen. “My team is incredible and we cannot beat the support received from command leadership and awesome NAVFAC human resources community. This is truly and honor.”
As a visionary leader, Pedersen developed hiring metrics to demonstrate and measure recruitment actions to overcome attrition and decrease the vacancy rate. He forged partnerships with other Human Resources Offices on Oahu to share resources with hiring and training events which paid huge dividends to NAVFAC Hawaii in 2019. In addition, Pedersen volunteered his time to co-lead the command’s Employee Development Program. This year-long program trains and mentors future leaders helping them to acquire valuable skills for promotion.
“NAVFAC Hawaii is extremely pleased Dave’s leadership, character, professionalism have been duly acknowledged by NAVFAC Headquarters and the Navy’s entire human resources community with this highly prestigious leadership award,” said Delao. “His efforts to properly train, equip, and empower his human resources team to do their jobs, produced spectacular results benefiting the entire command, not just today but well into the future.”
This was the second year for the revised Department of Navy’s Human Resources & Equal Employment Opportunity Community Awards for Excellence. Seventy-six high-caliber nominations were submitted for consideration. Due to current circumstances with COVID-19, the award statue has been delayed for actual presentation at a later time.