JUNE 13, 2022 – U.S. Army Human Resources Command hosted more than 75 Reserve Component Transition career counselors gathered at Palma Hall here, June 6-9 for a professional development and leader engagement workshop.
In support of the Army’s Retention Program, HRC’s Reserve Component Transition Branch (RCT) enables the transition of qualified Regular Army Soldiers into the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. In all, the HRC team supports over 200 Career Counselors at 42 installations worldwide.
The gathering offered the opportunity for HRC leadership to present individual and team-level recognition to representatives from installations across the continental United States, Korea, Hawaii, Alaska and Germany for retention success in calendar years 2020 and 2021.
“This is your workshop, you’ll get out of it what you put into it,” said Brig. Gen. Stacy Babcock, U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Deputy Commanding General during welcoming remarks.
“This is an opportunity for you to break away from your organization for a few days, collaborate with each other, learn from each other and put those skills back to work retaining the best Soldiers for our Army formations,” she added.
The three-day workshop included an agenda of relevant discussion topics, team-building activities and informational briefs. The group touched on topics as diverse as a branch update from HRC’s Reserve Component Transition leadership; a review of career counselor roles and responsibilities; capabilities of the Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A); as well as a series of round-robin practical exercises for counselors to hone their skills.
The career counselors also learned about the Public Private Partnership Office, Transition Assistance Program, Career Skills Program, and Education Services.
“Just looking at the planned training schedule, we had a lot of content for our participants. Each speaker and presenter was the subject matter expert of their craft.
Our intent for the workshop was to send career counselors back out to the field energized, motivated and equipped to retain and transition the best Soldiers the active component has for our reserve component formations,” said Sgt. Maj. Meredith M. Kunkel, HRC’s RCT sergeant major.
“It was good for everyone to see our top performers get the recognition they deserve,” she added.
Story by Bill Costello
U.S. Army Human Resources Command