How can the military increase the number of conscripts? Focus on higher educated people.
The US military is launching a major overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are looking for a job early in their careers, as it works to close years of workforce shortages area of labor participation.
A key part of this is the formation of a new professional group of recruiters rather than relying on soldiers randomly assigned to the task.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in an interview with The Associated Press that some of the changes will begin in the next 90 days, but a large-scale transformation will take years.
“We have not been recruiting very well for many more years than you would think just by looking at the headlines over the past 18 months,” Ms Wormuth said, adding that the Army has since failed to meet its annual target for new recruitment contracts fetched. 2014.
Last year, the military fell 15,000 troops short of its 60,000 recruitment target as it competed with higher-paying companies in a tight labor market and tried to overcome the two-year coronavirus pandemic that has shut down access to schools and public events made. In the fiscal year that ended Saturday, the Army brought in just over 50,000 recruits, falling short of its publicly stated “stretch goal” of 65,000.
However, Army officials said this number still allows the service to meet the required total strength of 452,000 troops. They said the military had also signed up an additional 4,600 recruits for future contracts in an effort to rebuild the delayed-entry recruit pool that had been depleted. These recruits will undergo basic training in the coming year.
In testimony to Congress during his confirmation hearing, Gen. Randy George, who is now Army chief of staff, called recruitment “the greatest challenge we face and the one thing we need to focus on.” And he said the agency needs to better tailor its messaging and marketing.
The Navy and Air Force also fell short of their recruiting goals for the fiscal year that ended Saturday, but leaders said both did better than forecast earlier this year. The Marine Corps and the small Space Force have said they would meet their recruitment goals.
Navy leaders, including Brig. Gen. Walker Field, chief of the Corps’ Eastern Recruiting Region, has said one of the keys to their success is choosing the right recruiters and encouraging successful recruiters to stay on. The Marines are also moving recruiting stations to areas where the population has grown.
The Army’s recruiting surge this year is considered a short-term win, made possible by a number of new and improved programs and benefits. But Ms. Wormuth said systemic changes in the way the military approaches the job market and sells service as a career are needed to turn things around.
At the same time, she said the military should focus on the things it can change because there are many things it cannot change, such as a lack of fitness among youth and an unwillingness to serve.
While recruiters have long relied heavily on high school students or college graduates to fill the ranks, Ms. Wormuth said they need to reach beyond that group and find applicants on job boards like ZipRecruiter, Indeed or Glassdoor.
“The vast majority of people making employment decisions are people who have more than just a high school education,” Ms. Wormuth said. “We have to figure out how to talk to that much broader labor market.”
She said as more students go to college, high school graduates now make up only 15 to 20% of the job market. And the military draws about half of its recruits from that shrinking population.
“We are not abandoning the high school market in any way,” Ms. Wormuth said, but she wants the Army to have a third of its recruits with more than a high school diploma by 2028, instead of the current one-fifth. .
Part of that is highlighting the military’s higher-tech jobs involving computers, satellites and artificial intelligence to lure those who might still view the service as infantry troops.
The other big change that will take shape in the coming months is the transition to a professional recruiting workforce. Instead of using soldiers who “volunteer” to take on special assignments as recruiters, the Army is creating a new permanent and specialized workforce.
There are currently approximately 8,000 Army recruiters, and only a little more than a third have recruitment as their actual job classification.
The change will reflect the way private companies operate and will take several years to complete. But Ms Wormuth said the army would soon launch a pilot program to identify and train the new force. As part of the process, the Army will use a new aptitude test designed to identify soldiers who have greater potential to be successful recruiters.
Other changes include planning larger Army career fairs and restructuring command leadership, elevating the chief of recruiting to a three-star job with four-year terms for greater continuity.
And while the military will still look to increase bonuses and boost funding for healthcare and education in the military, money likely won’t be a major motivator for recruits. And recruiters will have to sell the less tangible benefits of service.
“Ultimately, I think what we don’t provide in terms of compensation, we compensate by being part of something bigger,” Ms. Wormuth said. “Ask anyone who wears a uniform in my office. They’ll tell you it’s the people doing something that really matters.”
This story was reported by The Associated Press.