A Newsletter from PAF's WDH Program

Results You Can Use

November 2023

From the Director

I am pleased to share the latest issue of Results You Can Use, a quarterly newsletter featuring research that enables the Department of the Air Force (DAF) to manage its most important asset: its workforce.

This quarter, I would like to highlight a new report that speaks to a concern that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has aired repeatedly: military readiness for a conflict with China. "It has become clear to the entire senior leadership team that we are not optimized for great power competition," Kendall has said. RAND's new report can help the Air Force assess not only gaps in its own readiness but also whether the integrated force is prepared for a great power conflict. Researchers explored new investments in training infrastructure and recommended new metrics that may be of interest to the Air Force and beyond.

I look forward to your feedback: WDHNewsletter@rand.org

Nelson Lim Director, Workforce, Development, and Health (WDH) Program, RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF)

What our columnists are reading this month

HARMFUL INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIORS

Army findings could benefit DAF suicide prevention efforts

Miriam Matthews
Associate director of the Workforce, Development, and Health program

The DAF is committed to preventing self-harm and suicide among airmen and guardians. Recent RAND research on the ability of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in the U.S. Army to identify suicide risk factors may help to inform the DAF's efforts. This research found that a large majority of Army NCOs reported receiving suicide prevention training that addressed hard skills, such as identifying suicide warning signs. Substantially fewer received training on soft skills, such as how to respond to concerns voiced by a soldier's peers or family. Research has shown that interactive training that enhances soft skills is critical for suicide prevention—something the DAF may want to incorporate into current suicide prevention training.

Read the Report

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Five steps that can help DAF dodge AI risks for talent management

Sean Robson
Senior Behavioral and Policy Scientist

Many organizations are exploring the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for talent management. However, these new approaches can pose risks to diversity, equity, and inclusion goals if not regularly monitored and evaluated. In fact, in commercial sectors, AI has been criticized for perpetuating historical patterns of discrimination. To mitigate these risks, a 2023 RAND report offers a 5-step procedure and tool to help policymakers balance equity goals against other organizational priorities. The DAF can use these resources to inform the risks and benefits of implementing AI into decisions about whom to recruit, select, promote, and retain.

Read the Report

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WORKFORCE

One risk to using commercial space services: a potentially unreliable workforce

Lisa Harrington
Senior Operations Researcher

The U.S. Space Force is planning to use more commercial space services in areas like Earth observation, communications, and transportation, but will this private workforce be reliable in national emergencies? A recent PAF report that explores the pros and cons of using commercial space services lists that workforce among the risks. It is unclear how companies will meet the increased demand for skilled workers in engineering, manufacturing, operations, and even foreign languages and cultures without significantly increasing costs. It's also unclear how reliable these workers will be during wartime or other national security events, and whether U.S. regulatory frameworks are up to the challenge of vetting them.

Read the Report

CIVILIAN WORKFORCE

Shining a light on civilian workforce readiness

Kirsten M. Keller
Senior Behavioral Scientist

The DAF pays a lot of attention to the "readiness" of military members, but the readiness of the civilian workforce receives much less consideration despite being a critical component of the total force. Recent RAND work on civilian readiness in the Army may help to inform DAF's civilian workforce planning efforts. The report provides a readiness framework and associated metrics for assessing whether the workforce is sufficiently staffed, trained, and equipped, and whether institutional memory and experience are preserved.

Read the Report

PERSONNEL SELECTION AND STANDARDS

A new framework can help assess climate risks to readiness

Maria Lytell
Senior Behavioral Scientist

Extreme weather events like the July storms that damaged 20 T-6 Texan II trainers at Oklahoma's Vance Air Force Base threaten the DAF's training and operational readiness. The DAF's 2022 Climate Action Plan aims to address the readiness impacts of extreme weather and climate change, but the Department of Defense (DoD) is falling behind. A recent RAND report finds that the DoD has yet to incorporate climate risks into readiness measurement and reporting, and it proposes a framework for doing so. While the DAF may be better prepared than DoD, DAF can also benefit by applying this framework for understanding the risks climate poses to readiness to its own Climate Action Plan.

Read the Report

In the news

DAF Climate Action Plan

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Tools to deliver personalized training

Mark Toukan
Political Scientist

Personalized training capabilities could potentially transform the DAF training enterprise by enhancing learning gains and reducing training time. A new RAND report focuses on computational cognitive models, a training technology that emulates psychological processes like knowledge acquisition and retention, to deliver personalized training. The report explains how to apply these models across multiple training domains and explores using them for developing second-language skills. The authors present potential courses of action for integrating these models with training curricula and identifying technical and logistical challenges to integration.

Read the Report