The Air Force is shutting down the personnel services website myPers as part of an ongoing effort to modernize the branch’s digital human resources platforms. The website will no longer be accessible to Airmen and Guardians starting April 30, and the old features used in myPers are being migrated to the websites my Force Support Squadron (myFSS) and MyVector.
“The A1 community is committed to building and enhancing the myFSS capabilities,” stated an April 19 notice to myPers users which was posted to the unofficial Air Force subreddit. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the notice was authentic.
“Customers should expect improvements and expanded capabilities in myFSS throughout 2023,” the notice added.
The change marks the end of an era; the Air Force personnel services website was renamed myPers back in 2006, according to press release. The website was billed to be “a single entry point into Air Forcer personnel services,” Debra Warner, the Air Force’s Personnel Service Delivery Transformation chief at the time, said in the release.
MyPers’ replacement with myFSS was announced more than a year ago. The new platform was described as “a technical refresh” for both myPers and the virtual Personnel Center (vPC) which will enable better self-service, transparency, and access as well as reduced IT cost and vulnerabilities, according to one fact sheet.
The replacement of myPers with myFSS and MyVector is part of an ongoing digital transformation meant to use “the best platforms and digital innovations that the world has to offer aimed to increase productivity and performance while streamlining processes in the future,” the Air Reserve Personnel Center wrote in an explanation of the change.
According to the Air Reserve Personnel Center, MyVector enables a web-based mentoring network where mentees can receive input and guidance and build career plans based on their goals and experience.
As might be expected with large technology shifts, the transition to myFSS has not been perfect. One Air Force release even described five interface and communications issues and how to work around them. The department has struggled with other personnel websites too; in November, the Air Force paused the much-aligned performance evaluation system myEval, which Airmen said was confusing, buggy, and frequently failed.
“I think everyone would say it’s not as well executed as it could be,” Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said at the time. “We own that.”
The April 19 notice about the end of myPers advised all Airmen and Guardians to retrieve important documents or records from myPers before April 30.
