Recruiting Success by Attracting Diversity for Army Special Operations Forces
Abstract
As US adversaries increasingly engage the Nation's interests under the threshold of combat, Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) grew as a competitive differentiator in 21st Century multi-domain operations. However, as ARSOF grew, the number of minority personnel in its ranks remained stagnant, and ARSOF no longer racially or ethnically represents the Army or the US population it serves. The current recruiting approach risks long-term manning needs as emerging trends, and generational attitudes present a situation where ARSOF may be less attractive as a career option to not just future minority soldiers, but to all soldiers. To maintain its required workforce in future years, the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion must recruit more minority active-duty soldiers, including women, for an ARSOF Assessment and Selection to increase ARSOF diversity. Through three case studies of recruiting diversity from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Coca-Cola Corporation, and Google, the evaluations describe how the FBI failed, Coke struggled, and Google successfully recruited diversity. This paper outlines that increasing diversity in ARSOF will be a complex and imprecise operation. Emerging trends and generational attitudes present a situation where ARSOF needs leaders to champion this long-term effort for success. Failure would be for ARSOF to acknowledge the risk, but ignore preparing for the problem today and suffer the consequences years in the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1212197
Entities
People
- Marcus T. Franzen
Organizations
- United States Army War College