Human resources professionals from across the 88th Readiness Division’s 19-state region gathered here to learn about the new Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army in a train-the-trainer course from July 19 to 30, 2021.

The course is designed to prepare these HR professionals with enough knowledge and understanding of the IPPS-A system – that is set to launch in December – to teach other HR Soldiers on how to access and use the system.

IPPS-A is designed to be a one-stop shop for all pay, personnel and other HR functions. Additionally, it will help improve readiness and serve as a talent management tool.

“The intent of IPPS-A is to integrate all of these legacy systems into one system,” said Sgt. Maj. Angel OrtizGuzman, the human resources sergeant major for the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve. “(The system) is going to be one record for one Soldier into one system. It’s going to compile all those systems together so we can manage and track all the Soldiers in one system to place them in the right place, right location and right position.”

For those attending this training, it offered an in-depth look at the capabilities and the functions of the IPPS-A system from instructors who helped develop the program.

“It’s a lot easier, especially when you have two instructors who know the ins and outs of the system,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Brown, a human resources noncommissioned officer with the 1st Army Support Command out of Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. “It makes it easier to go in and actually get hands on and see what the different parts of the system are.”

88th RD Commanding General Maj. Gen. Darrell J. Guthrie spoke to the attendees and stressed the importance of ensuring Soldiers’ data is updated now, prior to the system going live in December.

“I think you all have heard at this point if you’re a human resources professional, if the data goes into IPPS-A clean then it works real well,” he said. “To the extent data goes in and it ain’t right, it takes longer to get it fixed. The importance of this is really tremendous. It is a no-fail mission for the Army Reserve.”

Many months and years of work and preparation have gone into creating is a system that will streamline pay and personnel functions to serve Soldiers better and to help enable personnel readiness.

“(This training) shows you that even though it is a new system, it’s not hard at all,” Brown said. “Going in and being able to do it, it shows you that it’s not complicated and Soldiers can actually do it themselves rather than having to have somebody standing over your shoulder all day every day working certain pieces of it.”

To best prepare for this upcoming change, Army Reserve Soldiers of all varieties must ensure their personnel data is correct and up-to-date as soon as possible.

“Data correctness is key,” OrtizGuzman said. “What we have on the systems today is what is going to transfer into the new system. What is key for everyone right now today is make sure that all the systems are correct, they’re updated, they have the correct data and they are able to transition from that system into the new system.”