{"id":36538,"date":"2023-10-09T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/09\/data-powers-armys-return-to-the-lost-arts-of-wartime-personnel-work\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:00:57","slug":"data-powers-armys-return-to-the-lost-arts-of-wartime-personnel-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/digital-show-dailies\/ausa-digital-show-dailies\/2023\/10\/09\/data-powers-armys-return-to-the-lost-arts-of-wartime-personnel-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Data powers Army\u2019s return to the \u2018lost arts\u2019 of wartime personnel work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Fiscal 2023 proved busy for the Army\u2019s top personnel officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recruiting crisis made it harder<\/a> to fill the ranks \u2014 and project what future forces the service needs and how it can fill those units. A new Army-wide human resources system debuted after multiple delays<\/a>. And Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Lt. Gen. Douglas Stitt, the Army\u2019s top personnel officer and leader of its G-1 directorate, these events combine to create a \u201cgrowth industry\u201d where the service\u2019s personnel pros can apply new technology and tricks to the \u201clost arts.\u201d Stitt and his senior enlisted adviser, Sgt. Maj. Christopher \u201cSmoke\u201d Stevens, spoke with Army Times at the Pentagon on Sept. 25 ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s annual conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war in Europe has resulted in massive casualties on both sides, and the pair of U.S. officials took note of lessons learned from the fight that can be applied to human resources professionals. Rebuilding a shattered unit is a daunting task, as can the process of sending a large number of troops overseas for battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSgt. Maj. Stevens and I, when we first came in as HR professionals, we … spent a lot of time in division Warfighters and [training rotations] talking about casualties, replacements [and unit] reconstitution,\u201d Stitt said. But those ideas fell out of vogue in recent decades \u2014 out of necessity \u2014 amid America\u2019s focus on counterterrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s bring in the next generation and make sure they\u2019re trained and prepared to take on these tasks,\u201d Stitt added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The career field\u2019s schoolhouse at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, has integrated Ukraine\u2019s \u201creal-world examples\u201d of large-scale combat personnel doctrine concepts that the U.S. Army hasn\u2019t employed en masse since the Korean or Vietnam wars, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Stitt\u2019s eyes, those new HR soldiers are also entering the field \u201con the ground floor of some emerging technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service\u2019s leaders hyped the potential of its new personnel platform \u2014 the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, or IPPS-A \u2014 for years before its release in December 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many emphasized IPPS-A\u2019s potential to improve HR customer service<\/a>, the Army\u2019s personnel pros were quietly excited for its business analytics tools that allow for powerful custom manpower reports<\/a>. Now in a mater of minutes, personnel troops can create detailed reports that once required pulls from multiple databases and complex compilation techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\t