Personnel experts will begin visiting major commands today to train specialists on the changes that will affect the way Air Force does personnel business.

This new initiative called Personnel Services Delivery Transformation will use technology so all Airmen can conduct personnel transactions through Web-based services and contact centers.

"We have historically provided personnel services primarily through face-to-face contact, and we do it well," said Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, deputy chief of staff, personnel. "In the future, PSD will provide a new way of doing business ... one that will become more efficient by moving transactional work to the Web or contact centers."

While the technology transforms personnel services, the visiting teams will train specialists on changes scheduled to take effect March 31 that affect active-duty Airmen.

Several processes like retraining and retirements, currently worked through base level military personnel flights, will be self-initiated via the Web, and centrally managed at the Air Force Contact Center, San Antonio.

"This training is the first step in changing the way we all think, even as personnelists, about the way we accomplish personnel transactions," said Col. Michael Maloney, director of personnel services at the Air Force Personnel Center. "We're training our personnel specialists first and giving them the opportunity to inform their customers."

The training will cover how Airmen will use Web-based applications via the virtual MPF to apply for retraining and retirement and how the contact center will process these and other transactions.

"PSD will provide our Airmen the same convenient 24/7 on-demand access to information much like they have come to expect from online banking and internet commerce," Colonel Maloney said.

(Courtesy of Air Force Personnel Center News Service)