With the armed forces facing the most challenging recruiting environment in a generation, the United States Army announced a transformation of its recruiting enterprise.
During a Pentagon news conference, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and Chief of Staff of the Army Randy George detailed sweeping changes in how the Army will identify and recruit talent – from expanding its focus to a larger share of the youth labor market and creating a specialized talent acquisition workforce to initiating an experimentation and learning capability. The changes follow a detailed study of Army recruiting over the past 25 years that provided recommendations to regain competitiveness in the modern labor market.
The two leaders also announced that the Army expects to have ended FY2023 with nearly 55,000 recruiting contracts, including roughly 4,600 for the Army’s Delayed Entry Program – recruits who will ship in FY2024. As a result, the Army will meet its end-strength goal of 452,000 for active-duty Soldiers.
- Transform how the Army prospects
This means that in addition to the high school market, we need to attract and hire Americans in the college market or those already out in the job market.
- Transform the Army’s recruiting workforce
The change will result in two new military occupational specialties for an enlisted talent acquisition specialist and a warrant officer to ensure the best recruiting subject matter expertise and leadership.
- Create an experimentation capability within USAREC
The Army will create an experimentation capability within USAREC that has the authorities and resources to drive innovation and, importantly, scale successful innovations across the command.
- Enhance the evidence base for recruiting policy decisions
The Army will establish an evidence-based learning capability in the Army headquarters that will incorporate data collection and program evaluation design into accessions policy planning and implementation.
- Aligning Army recruiting leadership and structure
The two leaders also said that marketing functions and the entire recruiting enterprise will be consolidated and re-aligned as a proposed three-star command that reports directly to them and that they will expand the commander’s time in position from two- to four years.
“The fact is that even though recruiting remains a challenge to attract new recruits, we are exceeding our retention goals every year,” they said. “That means that people who are in the Army by-and-large love their jobs. And that’s a message we want all young Americans to hear – that the United States Army is truly a place where you can be all that you can be.”
Read the entire Army Article HERE.