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Civilian Military Workforce

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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
Report
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

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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
Report
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
News Release
Landmark Women's Reproductive Health Survey Shows Need for Improvements in DoD Reproductive Health Care
Improvements to reproductive health care services provided by the U.S. Department of Defense would allow DoD to better meet the needs of female service members and address the high rate of unintended pregnancies among active-duty service women.
Sep 13, 2022
Report
Improving the Department of the Army's Marketing for Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention of Civilians in Critical Occupations
This report presents the results of analyses intended to help the Army assess and strengthen its ability to attract high-quality applicants to its civilian workforce and to retain high-quality Army civilian employees.
Aug 11, 2022
Report
Civilian Cyber Workers in the U.S. Department of Defense: Demographics, Retention, and Responsiveness to Training Opportunities
Although training is necessary to ensure the continual productivity of the U.S. Department of Defense civilian cyber workforce, simulations indicate that training without consideration of external pay opportunities could adversely affect retention.
Jul 15, 2022
Report
Is the National Nuclear Enterprise Workforce Postured to Modernize the Triad? Insights and Options from a Quick-turn Assessment
This report presents the results of a quick-turn, 90-day assessment of the health of the national nuclear enterprise workforce, with a specific focus on federal personnel in the acquisition and the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
Jun 13, 2022
Commentary
China's Security Contractors Have Avoided the Fate of Russia's Military Contractors, So Far
China's approach to private security contractors is much more limited in scope and effects than Russia's use of private military contractors. But indicators suggest that Chinese planners see benefits in expanding and maturing China's use of private contractors, which creates the potential for dangerous results for China and the rest of the world.
Mar 11, 2022
Report
Attracting and Retaining Enlisted and Civilian Personnel to Build the Best Cyber Workforce
In addition to revamping the training of its offensive and defensive cyber operators, the U.S. Air Force has also sought to better understand some of the drivers of attraction to and retention in the cyber field. What could the Air Force do to attract and retain the best personnel?
Sep 29, 2021
Report
Employee Conversions to the Cyber Excepted Service: Assessing Factors and Characteristics Related to Personnel Conversion Decisions
In this report, researchers analyze the characteristics of both employees that choose to convert and employees that choose not to convert to the Cyber Excepted Service.
Aug 2, 2021

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RAND Topic:
Civilian Military Workforce

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Samantha E. DiNicola

Policy Analyst

Samantha E. DiNicola (she/her) is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. She is an industrial/organizational psychologist specializing in a variety of personnel, workforce, and talent management issues, with particular interest in assisting military organizations to determine the best…
Kirsten M. Keller

Senior Behavioral Scientist

Kirsten Keller is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on talent management and improving organizational effectiveness.

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