The Human Resources Office (HRO/N13) serves as a sub-function under the Total Force Manpower (N1) directorate at Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) and plays an important role in hiring qualified civilian candidates for the command. The HRO provides network and outreach opportunities at job fairs and career expos for CNRH and assists with human resources (HR) consulting and advisory functions through staffing and classification as well as employee and labor management relations. This includes management of the equal employment opportunity complaints process, strategic recruitment planning, administration of local HR programs and injury compensation.
The HRO is one of more than 30 N-Codes at CNRH.
N-Codes are the operational backbone of a Navy command. Each N-Code functions as a department with a specific set of responsibilities and dedicated staff. Many N-Codes have sub-codes that oversee specific programs. The N-Code system was developed to provide a structure of the U.S. Navy for the chief of naval operations organization, which is typically illustrated in the command’s organizational chart.
Faith Cheong is the HRO program director for CNRH.
The N13 office is located on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), in Building 150.
The HR department is comprised of 12 civilian staff members and is divided into two sections: staffing and classification, and labor and employee relations. Each is headed by a human resources specialist supervisor who reports to the HR program director. These sections perform all personnel related administrative functions for CNRH and serve as a liaison between management and employees to address or resolve any work-related issues.
Staffing focuses on filling positions through recruitment, placement, and workforce analysis, while classification involves evaluating positions to determine appropriate pay, title, and grade levels. The staffing and classification section includes an HR specialist supervisor, six HR specialists and one HR technician. Labor and employee relations manages disciplinary cases and grievances, and provides guidance, advice and counsel on matters concerning labor and employee policies. This section includes an HR specialist supervisor and two HR specialists.
The HRO provides the necessary advisory, coordination, and facilitation to enable management to hire the talent they seek to fill all their civilian positions and the necessary advisory they require in carrying out employee and labor relations, discipline, performance and awards.
Cheong said HR is a department that requires outreach with the local community to attract a talented pool of candidates to fill critical positions that support and enable CNRH to complete the mission.
HR’s primary job is to ensure that the command has employees with the right skillset to execute the Navy’s mission. One of the ways HR addresses the challenge of hiring qualified candidates is by representing CNRH at job fairs and career expos.
“Since 2018 we’ve been hiring primarily first responders such as security guards at job fairs where we provide job offers on-the-spot to selected qualified candidates,” said Cheong. “Back in 2018, if we needed to hire 60 to 90 security guards, we could do that easily at a job fair. The coronavirus changed recruiting practices in 2020, and when we were cleared to go back out to public job fairs in 2023, we could hardly hire five or 10 at a time. It took nearly over a year to establish CNRH again at job fairs to a point where we could hire at least 25 security guards at one job fair.
Cheong emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment, as hiring methods vary depending on the job.
“Hiring firefighters for Navy Region Hawaii’s Federal Fire Department, on the other hand is the opposite,” Cheong said. “We have more candidates for firefighters than positions available primarily due to the feed of candidates from the Honolulu Community College – Fire Science Program.”
Cheong noted that selecting the appropriate personnel for HR is just as crucial for the recruitment process.
“We are a continuous learning organization, and our HR specialists are resilient,” said Cheong. “It has been a chronic and growing challenge for the career field to develop and consistently employ highly trained HR specialists at all times because they take years to develop. It is our up-and-coming HR specialists that are needed to sustain and garner all available technology for efficiencies while keeping the human element in HR.”
For more information on the Human Resources Office, visit
https://cnrh.cnic.navy.mil/Operations-and-Management/Human-Resources-Office/.