The All Volunteer Force and the Need for Sustained Investment in Recruiting
Abstract
Successful recruiting is essential to sustaining the All-Volunteer Force (AVF). If the Services do not attract the number and quality of recruits needed to meet endstrength, other force management activities will be of little consequence. Today, recruiters face a civilian labor market whose strength varies considerably by locality, sustained conflicts overseas, large segments of the youth population pursuing college or ineligible for military service, and fewer role models encouraging young people to join the military. To address these issues, the Department of Defense (DOD) invests in an array of recruiting resources, including recruiters, advertising, enlistment bonuses (EBs), and educational benefits, to attract young people to military service. This project updates and expands on two earlier studies of the recruiting market (Bicksler, 2006 and Bicksler and Nolan, 2009). While some fluctuation in recruiting resources is understandable, valuable response time is lost if adequate resources are not in place when recruiting challenges arise. Capacity is easily cut, but it takes time to rebuild (e.g., advertising blackouts mean potential recruits missed influential messages; it takes time to train recruiters and achieve their peak productivity). This is a lesson the Services have not learned very well, and is the underlying theme of this report.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1102738
Entities
People
- Christopher Gonzales
- Curtis Gilroy
- Elizabeth Clelan
- Josh Horvath
Organizations
- Center for Naval Analyses