A Critical Look At Military Recruitment And Retention Policies

"This paper provides a framework for analyzing military enlistment and reenlistment policies and incentives, looking beyond simple enlistee counts to measures which include the effects of differential retention, productivity, and costs. The methodologies used provide a common basis by which disparate measures--increases in enlistments under a set of incentives, bonus elasticities for reenlistments, etc.--can be compared. The statistical nature of these techniques, which are based on the retention function, recognizes the randomness in the attrition and reenlistment behavior of individual enlistees. The methodology is applicable to other fields, such as teaching and occupations requiring lengthy training and/or apprenticeship, where entry is usually only at the most junior level."--Rand abstracts

Includes Reports (R-series), Rand Memorandums (RM-series), papers (P-series), and Books.

Comment and abstracts & citations of important articles from international military and defence periodicals.

Recruiting an all-volunteer military is a formidable task. To successfully enlist one eligible recruit, the Army must contact approximately 120 young people. The National Research Council explores the various factors that will determine whether the military can realistically expect to recruit an adequate fighting force-one that will meet its upcoming needs. It also assesses the military's expected manpower needs and projects the numbers of youth who are likely to be available over the next 20 years to meet these needs. With clearly written text and useful graphics, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth offers an overview of important issues for military recruiters, touching on a number of important topics including: sex and race, education and aptitude, physical and moral attributes, and military life and working conditions. In addition, the book looks at how a potential recruit would approach the decision to enlist, considering personal, family, and social values, and the options for other employment or college. Building on the need to increase young Americans' "propensity to enlist," this book offers useful recommendations for increasing educational opportunities while in the service and for developing advertising strategies that include concepts of patriotism and duty to country. Of primary value to military policymakers, recruitment officers, and analysts, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth will also interest social scientists and policy makers interested in youth trends.