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Military Recruitment

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Attracting qualified recruits and the costs associated with essential skills training make military recruitment an ongoing challenge; low recruitment affects, among other things, enlistee counts, unit readiness, and morale. RAND has provided objective evaluations and recommendations that support decisionmakers' efforts to monitor and manage military recruiting, including examinations of demographic groups and communities where recruiting could be more successful.

Report

Predicting 36-Month Attrition in the U.S. Military

Apr 28, 2020

First-term attrition—in which a new enlisted recruit does not complete his or her first contract—is a costly and ongoing issue across all military service branches. Who accesses to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps?
Essay

Army Enlistment Waivers in the Age of Legal Marijuana

Oct 27, 2021

Army recruits with a history of marijuana use can ask for a waiver like those who have diabetes or insomnia. They are just as likely as others to complete their first term and make sergeant, and are less likely to leave the Army for health or performance reasons.

Explore Military Recruitment

Report

End-of-Pilot Assessment of the U.S. Army's Consolidated Recruiting Program

The Army conducted a pilot test of a program in which recruiters were authorized to recruit individuals into any of its three components. This analysis found that the program's effects were small and not statistically meaningful.

Jun 15, 2022
Brochure

RAND Arroyo Center Annual Report 2021

This Annual Report illustrates the depth, breadth, and responsiveness of the studies that RAND Arroyo Center conducted for the Army in 2021.

Jun 10, 2022
Report

A Snapshot of the Department of the Air Force Total Force Recruiting Integration: Survey Results and Implications

In this report, the authors discuss the results of the first Total Force Recruiting Panel-Technology and Integration Survey, which was designed to provide baseline data about the state of Total Force Recruiting in the Department of the Air Force.

May 5, 2022
Report

Identifying Opportunities to Recruit More Individuals Above the Age of 21 into the U.S. Army

Older recruits, as a group, score higher on Army qualification tests and are more likely to reenlist and to be promoted. RAND researchers examined the potential for recruiting individuals older than 21 and derived actionable recommendations.

Mar 16, 2022
Blog

U.S.-Russia Diplomacy, Citizen Science, America's Blood Supply: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on U.S.-Russia diplomacy in the context of the Ukraine crisis, the value of citizen science, strengthening the America's blood supply, and more.

Jan 21, 2022
Report

How the Pandemic Affected Military Recruitment and Retention

Military recruiting and retention activities are typically conducted in person, but with COVID-19–related stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements, the armed services had to quickly adapt their policies and procedures or risk missing their end strength objectives.

Jan 18, 2022
Report

Establishing Feeder-Designation Relationships with Colleges and Universities to Increase Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Air Force Officer Accessions

This Perspective presents conceptual design considerations for implementing a feeder system as an enhanced marketing and outreach program to assist the U.S. Air Force with increasing racial and ethnic diversity in officer accessions.

Dec 30, 2021
Report

Forecasting Religious Affiliation in the United States Army

Changes in the religious composition of the United States could affect the religious composition of recruits into the U.S. Army. This, in turn, could significantly alter the religious needs of the Army population. How has the religious composition of enlisted soldiers and of officers changed over time?

Nov 29, 2021
Commentary

Afghan Refugees Are Being Recruited to Join an Iranian Paramilitary

As Western policymakers consider how to deal with Afghan evacuees, including former members of the Afghan security forces, they might consider how to prevent adversaries such as Iran from recruiting Afghan refugees for dangerous and destabilizing operations. Greater attention to these risks may become increasingly important as refugee flows from Afghanistan continue.

Nov 23, 2021
Report

Improving the Goal-Setting Process for U.S. Department of the Air Force Recruiters

This Perspective compares and contrasts the current goal-setting process for U.S. Department of the Air Force recruiters with a more comprehensive one that accounts for factors influencing contract production.

Nov 16, 2021
Periodical

RAND Review: November-December 2021

The cover story highlights how RAND is helping to redefine high-quality care for service members with a TBI or PTSD. The Q&A with two Marines who work at RAND sheds light on how their military service informs their research and analysis.

Nov 1, 2021
Dissertation

Youth Information Networks and Propensity to Serve in the Military

Provides military recruitment planners a more comprehensive understanding of how youth build and access their career and educational information networks in high school, as part of their decision-making process.

Sep 30, 2021
Report

Tailoring Medical Standards for Air Force Personnel

To serve in the U.S. military, individuals must meet medical standards to ensure that they are fit to serve. The authors explore the implications to U.S. Air Force culture of tailoring such standards to expand or limit the pool of qualified personnel.

Apr 8, 2021
Report

An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Army's Enlistment Waiver Policies

Waiver authority provides the Army with the ability to reconsider initially disqualified applicants and make them eligible to enlist. Does the Army need to improve the screening of waivered recruits and of those with a documented history of marijuana, ADHD, depression, or anxiety? If so, how?

Mar 11, 2021
Report

Improving Strategic Resource Management in the Air Force Recruiting Enterprise: Challenges and Next Steps for Policymakers

The Air Force applies multiple recruiting resources to meet its goal of roughly 30,000 new enlistment contracts annually. The authors describe the data needed to determine how these recruiting resources affect enlistments.

Sep 17, 2020
Report

An Updated Look at Military and Civilian Pay Levels and Recruit Quality

Comparing military pay with civilian pay, the authors find that military pay in 2017 was above the 70th percentile of civilian pay. It was at the 85th percentile for enlisted personnel and the 77th percentile for officers.

Jul 30, 2020
Research Brief

Understanding skills gaps in the European defence sector

This study developed an overview of the existing and future defence-skills landscape in the EU, identifying and analysing the skills gaps and assessing the causes of these gaps.

Jan 30, 2020
Dissertation

People First: Improving Equitability of Air Force Recruiting Operations

Explores concerns at the Air Force Recruiting Service regarding an imbalance in workloads among their enlisted accessions recruiters, which could negatively influence both recruiter morale and aggregate production of high-quality recruits.

Dec 24, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Military Recruitment

Topic Synonyms:
Enlistment

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