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Military Personnel Retention

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The retention of qualified military personnel—enlisted forces as well as officers—is essential to preserving morale and unit readiness and to avoiding the costs associated with training replacement personnel in essential skills. By examining issues from PERSTEMPO and the effects of multiple deployments to family readiness and child care, RAND research supports military leaders' efforts to monitor and successfully maintain an optimal force structure.

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
How Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Affect Separation from the U.S. Military
Exposure to sexual assault doubles the odds that a service member will separate from the military within 28 months. Those who are sexually harassed also have a higher risk of separation. In addition to the psychological and physical effects on the service member, this is costly for the services and harms military readiness.
Feb 8, 2021

Explore Military Personnel Retention

Report
Managing Military Personnel Costs: Operation Retrenchment Specter, A Workforce Futures Game
To weigh options in managing military personnel costs, the U.S. Air Force explores trade-offs in a workforce futures policy game that simulates the monetary and nonmonetary effects of workforce and personnel policies in real time.
Jun 13, 2023
Blog
Extremist Beliefs Among Veterans, Space Traffic, Teacher Well-Being: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on whether extremist beliefs are more prevalent among veterans, why it's time to manage traffic in outer space, crises facing the Russian military, and more.
Jun 9, 2023
Commentary
The Russian Military's Looming Personnel Crises of Retention and Veteran Mental Heath
Russia's looming troop-retention and veteran-treatment problems are already visible on the horizon, even though they have been delayed by policy. By invading Ukraine, Russia has created a wave of severe trauma that will soon crash over its own country.
Jun 1, 2023
Multimedia
Addressing the Recruiting Crisis in the Armed Services
Testimony presented before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on May 11, 2023.
May 11, 2023
Testimony
Addressing the Recruiting Crisis in the Armed Services
The U.S. military services struggled to meet their recruiting goals in fiscal year 2022, and the Army, Air Force, and Navy are on track for another tough year. If this problem persists, it could hurt operational effectiveness. What might be done to address this recruiting crisis?
May 11, 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
Imagining the Future of Professional Military Education in the United States: Results from a Virtual Workshop
Professional military education (PME) institutions prepare leaders for complex future conflicts. RAND researchers led a workshop to discuss PME program evolution. Participants generally agreed on goals but not on the means for attaining them.
Apr 18, 2023
Report
Quantifying Potential Cost Avoidance Implications of Outcomes Reported in Behavioral and Social Science Research
This report summarizes and develops utility functions for a series of behavioral and social science studies to help senior leaders translate the research results into estimates of cost avoidance or other desired benefits.
Feb 22, 2023
Commentary
The Precarious Transition of Unvaccinated Service Members
U.S. service members separated from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine were largely separated with a general discharge under honorable conditions. While they may be eligible for health care and disability compensation from the VA, they are not eligible for G.I. Bill benefits. How have they fared as they entered civilian society unvaccinated and with limited benefits?
Dec 19, 2022
Report
Assessment and Selection for U.S. Air Force Special Warfare: Vol. 1, Defining Attributes and Designing Rater Training
Air Force Special Warfare warrants specialized assessment and selection of future operators. The authors examine the nontechnical attributes needed to conduct challenging missions and the process for selecting candidates who can succeed.
Sep 27, 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
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
Forecasting End Strength in the U.S. Army Reserve: An Integrated Modeling Concept
Personnel and career management are critical to a well-trained U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). The authors examined existing modeling tools and developed a detailed plan for combining outputs from the tools to enable USAR to forecast 24-month end strength.
Jul 18, 2022
Report
Impacts of Marine Corps Body Composition and Military Appearance Program (BCMAP) Standards on Individual Outcomes and Talent Management
Researchers examine how the U.S. Marine Corps' Body Composition and Military Appearance Program and its associated policies drive individual behavior -- namely those related to disordered eating -- of marines and specifically of women and people of color.
Mar 28, 2022
News Release
More Evidence Needed to Support Performance Goals of Current Army Combat Fitness Test; Women, Other Groups Pass the ...
As the U.S. Army rolls out its Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), more evidence is needed to prove that all six test events adequately predict performance on combat tasks or reduce injury risks and that combat task performance is a necessary metric for all Army jobs.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
Evidence to Support New Army Combat Fitness Test Is Incomplete
The U.S. Army has a new fitness test for the first time in 40 years. A review finds that more evidence is needed to prove that all six test events adequately predict performance on combat tasks and that combat standards are a necessary metric for all Army jobs. Women, National Guard troops, and others are passing the test at lower rates.
Mar 23, 2022
Report
U.S. Air Force Enlisted Classification and Reclassification: Potential Improvements Using Machine Learning and Optimization Models
The authors review options for improving processes for classifying and reclassifying enlisted active-duty, non–prior service airmen for initial skills training in the United States Air Force.
Mar 14, 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

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Leslie Adrienne Payne

Political Scientist

Leslie Adrienne Payne (she/her) is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation with a combined background in social and political science and qualitative research methods. Since 2012, much of her research has focused on terrorism and counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and civilian-military…
John B. Halstead

Senior Operations Researcher

John Halstead is a senior operations researcher at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Halstead graduated from the United States Military Academy and earned his doctorate of philosophy in systems and information engineering from the University of Virginia. He holds a masters…

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