Military Recruiting: More Innovative Approaches Needed.
Abstract
Department of Defense (DoD) and the Services are concerned with recent decreases in the size of the recruiting market. They also believe that soon, their ability to attract quality personnel may be limited by a reduction in the propensity of young people to join the military. In fact, the Army and Navy recruiting commanders believe that they may need to lower their current targets for the quality of their enlistees if the Services are to meet their requirements for numbers of personnel. When placed in historical perspective and viewed in the context of predicted trends, the Services concerns appear to be overstated. First, though the size of the youth population has shrunk over the period of 1980 to 1989, it is now expected to grow steadily until about 2000. Second, though the propensity of youth to enlist in the military has dropped in recent years, about half of the enlistees come from the groups who express negative intentions to join the military. Finally, even as propensity to join the military has dropped in past years, the Services have been able to exceed DoD established benchmarks for recruit quality. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretaries of the military services to (1) use the results of current studies, and undertake additional efforts if necessary, to develop a more cost effective mix of available recruiting resources; (2) aggressively test ideas to reduce first term attrition; (3) continue efforts to streamline the current recruiting bureaucracy, (4) revalidate the recruiting quota systems, which currently deter recruiters from maximizing the numbers of enlistments; (5) encourage the development and expansion of new concepts in the management of military recruiting facilities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA291002
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office