Military Personnel: DOD Needs Action Plan to Address Enlisted Personnel Recruitment and Retention Challenges
Highlights
The Department of Defense (DOD) must recruit and retain hundreds of thousands of servicemembers each year to carry out its missions, including providing support in connection with events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In addition to meeting legislatively mandated aggregate personnel levels, each military component must also meet its authorized personnel requirements for each occupational specialty. DOD reports that over half of today's youth cannot meet the military's entry standards for education, aptitude, health, moral character, or other requirements, making recruiting a significant challenge. GAO, under the Comptroller General's authority (1) assessed the extent to which DOD's active, reserve, and National Guard components met their enlisted aggregate recruiting and retention goals; (2) assessed the extent to which the components met their authorized personnel levels for enlisted occupational specialties; and (3) analyzed the steps DOD has taken to address recruiting and retention challenges.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To provide greater understanding of the recruiting and retention issues and improve the department's oversight for these issues, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in concert with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, to require the 10 components to report annually on all (not just critical) over- and underfilled occupational specialties, provide an analysis of why occupational specialties are over- and underfilled, and report annually on and justify their use of enlistment and reenlistment bonuses provided to servicemembers in occupational specialties that exceed their authorized personnel levels. |
DOD indicated that the recommendation is closed. In commenting on its completed action for this recommendation, DOD provided DODI 1304.30, "Enlisted Personnel Management Plan (EPMP) Procedures," which requires the components to annually submit Personnel Plans that provide the numerical and descriptive details on how the services will meet their manning and end strength requirements. In addition, DOD uses the Balanced Score Card to review critical skills, both over- and under-manned, for recruiting and retention. DOD believes that the EPMP, coupled with the Balanced Scorecard process, allow DoD to manage the services' bonus programs and the occupational specialties receiving these bonuses. After numerous follow up attempts, the point of contact did not provide examples of the Personnel Plans and the Balanced Score Card to determine whether they identify all over- and underfilled occupational specialties, provide an analysis of why occupational specialties are over- and underfilled, or justify the use of bonuses in overfilled occupational specialties. Moreover, DODI 1304.30 does not require the reporting on the aforementioned points.
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| Department of Defense | To provide greater understanding of the recruiting and retention issues and improve the department's oversight for these issues, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in concert with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, to develop a management action plan that will help the components to identify and address the root causes of their recruiting and retention challenges. |
DOD indicated that the recommendation is closed. In commenting on its completed action for this recommendation, DOD noted DoDI 1304.30, "Enlisted Personnel Management Plan (EPMP)," calls on the Military Departments to monitor leading indicators for recruiting and retention and annually submit EPMP and Personnel Plans to USD (P&R). After numerous follow up attempts, the point of contact did not provide examples of specific Personnel Plans to determine whether annual reporting identifies and addresses the root causes of components' recruiting and retention challenges.
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