Skip to page content

Civilian Military Workforce

Featured

Civilian personnel frequently support military troops in their national security missions and participate in stabilization and reconstruction efforts around the world. RAND research has provided policymakers with assessments and recommendations on how to utilize the civilian workforce effectively in areas of planning, development, performance, talent management, accountability, and personnel benefits.

Report
Improving U.S. Air Force Training and Development in the Cyber Field
The U.S. Air Force has been looking for ways to revamp the training of its offensive and defensive cyberwarfare workforce to develop the best fighting force possible. Is the training and development process that exists now working well for the cyber workforce? Is there a need for improvement?
Sep 29, 2021
Commentary
How the Dobbs v. Jackson Ruling Could Affect U.S. National Security
Women are an integral part of the U.S. military and DoD civilian workforce. Limiting their access to legal abortion services will affect their health and could decrease force readiness. It could also raise health care, child care, and education costs, and affect recruitment and retention.
Sep 13, 2022

Explore Civilian Military Workforce

Multimedia
Keeping Up with the Joneses: How Can DoD Address Its Technical Talent Shortage?
The U.S. Department of Defense recognizes that it is struggling to recruit and retain the technical talent it needs. An October 2023 panel discussion examined the factors behind the department’s current shortage of technical talent.
Oct 30, 2023
Report
Creating Readiness Metrics for the Army Civilian Workforce: A Way Ahead for Integrating Readiness into Civilian Workforce Planning
The authors develop a definition of and model for measuring civilian workforce readiness to inform Army policies and practices using qualitative methods, with which they identify potential data sources for readiness metrics.
Aug 21, 2023
Blog
Private Military Contractors, China's Efforts to Imprison Tibetans, Truth Decay: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on undermining Russia's private military contractors, what nighttime lighting reveals about the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to imprison Tibetans, how Truth Decay damages national security, and more.
Aug 11, 2023
Commentary
The Russo-Ukrainian War Has Bolstered Ukraine's Nonstate Alliance Network
Since 2014, militant groups from Russia, Belarus, Chechnya, and elsewhere have established themselves as allies of Ukraine in its fight against Russia and its aligned forces. Though alignment with these groups presents clear benefits in the near term, Kyiv should be cautious since these groups could turn on Ukraine at any time should their interests no longer align.
Aug 7, 2023
Report
Will to Fight of Russia's Private Military Actors
In Ukraine, Syria, and other parts of the world, private military contractors are operating on behalf of, yet are ostensibly separate from, the Russian state. How can the United States and its allies counter these adversary-employed private military actors?
Jul 31, 2023
Report
An Assessment of Two-Year Probationary Period Usage Within the Defense Civilian Workforce: A Report Prepared for the U.S. Department of Defense in Compliance with Section 1102 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act
This report summarizes the results of a congressionally mandated independent review of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)'s use of the two-year probationary period for new appointments to the Senior Executive Service and competitive service.
Jul 19, 2023
Commentary
Where Will All the Wagner Group Mercenaries Go Now That Russia Has Exiled Their Leader?
Russian oligarch turned warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin is in exile in Belarus, but what will become of the tens of thousands of fighters who signed up to risk their lives for a paycheck or a ticket out of jail? It seems likely they will continue fighting, mostly because they have few better options.
Jul 3, 2023
Commentary
The Wagner Group Will Live to Fight Another Day
Yevgeny Prigozhin led Wagner Group fighters in what appeared to be a direct challenge to the Russian military establishment. But it's unlikely that the Kremlin will dissolve Wagner's paramilitary enterprise. It is too significant to Russia's greater geostrategic aims and economic strength.
Jun 28, 2023
Report
Attracting and Employing Top-Tier Civilian Technical Talent in the Department of the Air Force: A Comparison of Six Occupations with Other Federal Agencies and the Private Sector
This report identifies barriers related to the Department of the Air Force's (DAF's) ability to attract and employ top civilian talent in six occupational series and explores strategies the DAF may be able to use to better compete for that talent.
Jun 27, 2023
Commentary
Ukraine Is a Breeding Ground for Russian PMCs
Moscow's desire for additional fighters in Ukraine has created a breeding ground for Russian private military company (PMC) development. This explosion of what are essentially private armies is not only shaping the battlefield in Ukraine; it could have devastating impacts long after this conflict ends.
Jun 14, 2023
Report
Demographic Diversity of the DoD STEM Workforce
Within the Department of Defense's STEM workforce, which demographic groups are subject to the greatest compensation disparity when compared with white men? What measures can the Pentagon take to address these discrepancies?
Apr 27, 2023
Report
Assessing Security Risk in a New Normal: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Personal and Work Behaviors
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on a variety of behaviors considered during personnel investigations. The authors suggest ways to adjust the baseline of risk considerations for better identification of risky behavior.
Apr 26, 2023
Commentary
Army Full-Time Support Processes: Considerations for Enhancing Common Understanding, Transparency, and Unity of Purpose
The Full-Time Support program's purpose is often misunderstood or mischaracterized in terms of how it relates to strategic guidance. The Army should work on developing a more productive and useful way of thinking about and assessing this program.
Apr 26, 2023
Report
Neurodiversity and National Security: How to Tackle National Security Challenges with a Wider Range of Cognitive Talents
This report provides research and analysis for national security managers and employees who seek to better understand neurodivergence and neurodiversity and desire simple steps to achieve neurodiverse inclusivity for national security workplaces.
Mar 27, 2023
Research Brief
Why National Security Needs Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity, like other forms of diversity, can strengthen an organization. Members of the neurodivergent population have skills that can be beneficial in many fields of interest to national security. These include pattern recognition, problem-solving, visualization, and memory.
Mar 27, 2023
Report
Comparison of Public and Private Sector Cybersecurity and IT Workforces
The authors develop a common taxonomy based on work roles, key tasks, and responsibilities to examine the proportion of cybersecurity and information technology work roles, workers' salaries, and demand across private and public sectors.
Feb 7, 2023
Report
Assessing the Implications of Policy Options for the Military Personnel Budget: An Analytic Framework for Evaluating Costs and Trade-Offs
A new tool simulates how various Department of the Air Force personnel policy changes could affect military spending. The tool lets users view cost variances and trade-offs when adjusting such factors as personnel count, rank, and experience levels.
Jan 17, 2023
Report
Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Analyses: Update Through Fiscal Year 2021
RAND researchers present a descriptive overview of the state of the defense acquisition workforce (AW), describe changes to the AW over time, and identify opportunities for the collection of new data that could support decisionmaking.
Nov 28, 2022
Report
Improving the Technical Requirements Development Process for Weapon Systems: A Systems-Based Approach for Managers
Oversights during development of technical requirements for new weapon systems can result in cost or schedule overruns or unsuitable operational performance. This report describes a systems-based approach to help improve this process.
Nov 3, 2022
Report
Support to the DoD Cyber Workforce Zero-Based Review: Developing a Repeatable Process for Conducting ZBRs Within DoD
The zero-based review (ZBR) process described in this report constitutes a transparent, repeatable process with which the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) can conduct future ZBRs across the DoD cyber enterprise.
Sep 19, 2022

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Next

RAND Topic:
Civilian Military Workforce

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Laura Werber

Senior Management Scientist

Laura Werber is a senior management scientist at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She applies organizational theories and methods to a wide array of policy issues, including talent management, performance management, organizational design, veteran reintegration, and…
Diana Gehlhaus

Adjunct Policy Researcher

Diana Gehlhaus is an adjunct policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on the intersection of tech and talent, including the U.S. artificial intelligence workforce; education and workforce development policy; youth career and educational decisionmaking; youth workforce…

Explore Our People »