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September 3, 2004
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This year, the Department of Defense will spend more than $2.5 billion a year to recruit Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force personnel. As you read this, more than 14,000 recruiters, a virtual army of sales professionals, are engaged in the monumental task of sourcing the more than 180,000 new recruits required this year alone to support active, reserve, and National Guard manpower needs. Like any sophisticated sales force, these recruiters are closely measured against volume, demographic, and quality targets -- and they are doing a great job. Thanks to increased sophistication by recruiting commands, a lackluster civilian job market, and record retention rates, the services have been meeting quantity and quality goals across the board.
Unfortunately, the recruiting outlook can change in the blink of an eye, and there already are some leading indicators that may spell trouble in the near future. The significant sacrifices that come with fighting a prolonged conflict, coupled with a rapidly improving job market, will almost certainly make military service relatively less appealing -- particularly against a backdrop of attractive career and educational opportunities. “The war for talent” may just be the next front of our global war on terror.
Fortunately, there are some truly innovative ideas percolating around personnel commands. From the increased use of Internet sourcing to the implementation of sales force automation software, commands are utilizing sophisticated metrics to track, optimize, and enhance recruiter productivity. The Department of Defense is taking advantage of technology and corporate-sector best practices to drive more accountability and sophistication in sourcing talent.
There also is an emerging perspective that the recruiting force should extend well beyond the 14,000 professional recruiters -- it should include everyone in uniform. Some are even considering programs to capitalize on the considerable talent and passion of the 24 million veterans and retirees to assist with military recruiting. “There are millions of American veterans just standing by to answer the call to serve again,” said Vice Admiral John Cotton, Chief of the Naval Reserve. “They want to know how they can still contribute to the team.”
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This should not come as a surprise. Corporate America discovered some time ago that one of its best sourcing strategies for new talent was a well-executed employee referral program. Sure, there are isolated examples of referral programs in the military community. The Naval Academy’s “Blue & Gold” program, for example, leverages the nationwide reach of its alumni to help recruit and screen great candidates for Annapolis. The Navy Recruiting Command has had a program for years that gives new recruits awards and, in some cases, rank for helping to recruit other candidates. “We are actively developing programs to enlist the help of the broader Navy community to help us meet our mission while continually improving the quality of our new recruits,” said Rear Admiral Jeffrey Fowler, Commander of Navy Recruiting Command.
As leaders, servicemembers have an obligation to help recruit the best people to serve alongside them. Many already do this informally; unfortunately, this ad-hoc approach yields only small-scale, unmeasured results. It is an idea whose potential should be explored actively and methodically. Not only does this have the potential to improve significantly the volume of new candidates -- it could be one of the most cost-effective offensives in the war for quality recruits.
In addition, it is clear the definition of retention should be expanded from just active-duty reenlistment to include reserve affiliation metrics. In other words, command leadership should have responsibility to encourage separating military personnel to continue their military careers in the reserve and Guard. It is possible that a seamless transition from active to reserve service might be the nation’s best source of hard-to-find prior-service recruiting talent.
By leveraging the power and passion of millions of potential recruiters, the services have a real opportunity to transform how they recruit the next generation of military leaders.
© 2004 Christopher Michel. All opinions expressed in this article
are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
Christopher Michel is CEO of Military.com, the nation's
largest military membership organization. Military.com
connects over 3 million members to the lifelong
benefits of military service. Members trust Military.com
for career, education and financial services. Prior
to founding Military.com, Chris served as a Naval
Flight Officer in the United States Navy. While
on active duty, Chris flew as a P-3 Navigator, Tactical
Coordinator and Mission Commander in support of
maritime interdiction operations in the Red Sea,
NATO enforcement operations in the Adriatic, and
counter-narcotics missions in Central America. Following
his operational tour, Chris worked in the Pentagon
as Aide to the Chief of the Naval Reserve. He holds
degrees from the University of Illinois and Harvard
Business School.
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