Robert Collier, a self-help author popular a century ago, said that “in every adversity lies the seed of an equivalent advantage.”
I think it is fair to say that, in terms of recruitment, the U.S. military faced adversity entering its 2024 fiscal year after severely underperforming in this area for several fiscal years prior (the military’s fiscal year is October-September).
In the face of this adversity, the military reported a stunning turnaround in FY24 recruitment – all service branches said they met or exceeded their goals.
Therefore, I think it is equally fair to say the military learned lessons from the adversity it faced and used those lessons to germinate, in Collier’s concept, the seed of equivalent advantage.
The turnaround was exemplified by the U.S. Army.
The army had two severely disappointing recruiting years in FY22 and FY23 when it missed recruiting goals by 20,000 each year.
But during these two disappointing years, the army sowed seeds for future success in the form of new thinking and unprecedented recruiting programs that bore fruit in FY24.
The good news for the army – it exceeded its FY24 goals by signing slightly more than its target of 55,000.
The better news for the army – its recruitment performance for the first quarter of FY25 strongly suggests it is well on its way to meeting and exceeding the increased target of 61,000 recruits for FY25.
The army secured 30,000 new recruits in December alone.
Plus, in FY24, the army inked 11,000 into its delayed entry program. These recruits will sign up in FY25.
So, what did the Army do differently?
One of the first things it did was convey the importance and priority of recruitment.
This was done by raising the rank of Johnny Davis, Commanding General of the Army Recruitment Command from Major General (2-stars) to Lieutenant General (3-stars) and to revamp the reporting structure so Davis reported directly to the Secretary of the Army, Christine Wermuth.
Then the Army came up with the lynchpin of its new recruiting approach – the Future Soldier Preparatory Course.
In years past, if potential recruits did not meet the specified academic and physical fitness requirements, they were rejected. Now, the Army invites underperforming recruits to attend this prep course which mentors them and helps them meet recruitment standards.
Davis reported that the course has seen 14,000 graduates with 95 percent of them going on to successfully complete basic training and become soldiers.
Other new things the Army did:
- Revamped training by adding two weeks to the recruiting course to focus on people and quality of life.
- Expanded its recruiting efforts by focusing on the labor and higher education markets;
- Used digital job boards, the Go Recruit mobile app, and “Recruit 360,” an AI app.
- Returned to its classic “Be All You Can Be” campaign after lackluster results followed the “The Army of One” campaign of recent years.
What makes the wall-to-wall recruiting success in the service branches even more impressive is the challenging environment in which they must work.
“We recruit in a market today that has a low youth propensity to serve,” said
Katie Helland, director of military accession policy at the Pentagon. “Today’s youth has limited familiarity with military opportunities, there is a very competitive labor market and there is declining eligibility of young adults.”
The declining eligibility to which Helland refers is this – a stunning 77 percent of young adults would need a waiver of one kind or another due to a physical or other condition before they would be eligible to serve.
FY25 is off to a very impressive start for military recruiting.
Kudos to the military leadership in the Army and the other branches that encouraged and cultivated the new thinking that led to new programs.
Some have said these new programs are progressive while others say they were an overdue reaction to the realities of today’s job market.
I suppose the point is debatable but what is inarguable right now is the numbers say these programs are working.
