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So, the Army is offering cash bonuses for 2-year extensions/reenlistments. Should everyone be able to reenlist or should we make it a competitive process? Why? Why not?
Re-enlistment
Standards
Discipline
Military Career
Military Pay
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 15
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It already is competitive. The Army is not offering bonuses to everyone for a 2 year term. The Army is offering a bonus to personnel, qualified for retention (commander approval), who ETS prior to October 2017.
Recruiting and Retention have to increase the Army end strength by 8000 for this FY. Of that 8000 shortfall, less than 700 people took the 10k bonus. That's less than 1%.
If we make that a competition and only keep the best 60%, we will have successfully contributed 0.5% to fulfilling the mission Congress directed to us.
HRC already implements restrictive measures to ensure we only retain the best - RCP, QMP, QSP, Bars. Commanders have these tools at their disposal.
Recruiting and Retention have to increase the Army end strength by 8000 for this FY. Of that 8000 shortfall, less than 700 people took the 10k bonus. That's less than 1%.
If we make that a competition and only keep the best 60%, we will have successfully contributed 0.5% to fulfilling the mission Congress directed to us.
HRC already implements restrictive measures to ensure we only retain the best - RCP, QMP, QSP, Bars. Commanders have these tools at their disposal.
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SFC (Join to see)
CW2 (Join to see) - these are utilized, and very frequently. I see an average of two QMP referrals every promotion board. RCP is automatic, there's nothing to utilize. Bars are at a Commander's discretion.
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CW2 (Join to see)
You're missing my point. I'm speaking of first term Soldiers, many not knowing how to do their duties per their MOS requirements due to constant tastings, classes, and BS certifications. Work ethic, duty performance, and retainability should all play a part in reenlistment. If a unit has four slots for reenlistment but six Soldiers want to reenlist, their records go before a board for selection of those four that are most deserving. I believe the Marines have a similar program. It seems like we're throwing money at mediocrity, hence our continued issues within our ranks.
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SFC (Join to see)
CW2 (Join to see) - I believe I understand your point. First that soldiers are over tasked. Limiting the number of soldiers retained would only further these limitations. The Army frequently fails to meet its recruiting mission which is passed to retention to keep the end strength up. If you have fewer Soldiers, the tasking doesn't change only the number of Soldiers left to train.
Second, you refer to work ethic and duty performance, these are addressed in monthly counselings. The commander may bar those who don't perform. Reenlistment requires the commander approval and the Commander may return the request with a bar instead of an approval. If these counselings and bars aren't happening, then it's a leadership problem.
Third, you are correct that the Marines have a retention system that is similar to our centralized promotion system. That works for a very small population. The Army already struggles with getting raters to objectively evaluate performance in a measurable metric for the centralized Board promotions. A centralized board for retention would be massively intensive on personnel and resources. As for local boards, some unit commanders required them about 6 years ago. The problem was that every unit implemented their own standard. The Army sets the standard for retention, not local units. A Soldier is not a 10th Mountain Soldier, they are an Army Soldier assigned to 10th Mountain. I saw this frequently in the 82nd as well. There were many Soldiers who were not good paratroopers, but would be adequate in other units.
That's why you can't create individual limits per unit. That policy was proposed around 2012 but it was never implemented. It would have been incredibly burdensome to units. Imagine that you have two identical units. Each has two low density MOS personnel and one slot each. One unit has two turds. The other has two studs. It does not benefit the Army to reject one stud and keep one dud just for an arbitrary policy.
Second, you refer to work ethic and duty performance, these are addressed in monthly counselings. The commander may bar those who don't perform. Reenlistment requires the commander approval and the Commander may return the request with a bar instead of an approval. If these counselings and bars aren't happening, then it's a leadership problem.
Third, you are correct that the Marines have a retention system that is similar to our centralized promotion system. That works for a very small population. The Army already struggles with getting raters to objectively evaluate performance in a measurable metric for the centralized Board promotions. A centralized board for retention would be massively intensive on personnel and resources. As for local boards, some unit commanders required them about 6 years ago. The problem was that every unit implemented their own standard. The Army sets the standard for retention, not local units. A Soldier is not a 10th Mountain Soldier, they are an Army Soldier assigned to 10th Mountain. I saw this frequently in the 82nd as well. There were many Soldiers who were not good paratroopers, but would be adequate in other units.
That's why you can't create individual limits per unit. That policy was proposed around 2012 but it was never implemented. It would have been incredibly burdensome to units. Imagine that you have two identical units. Each has two low density MOS personnel and one slot each. One unit has two turds. The other has two studs. It does not benefit the Army to reject one stud and keep one dud just for an arbitrary policy.
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My immediate reaction was "Hunger Games competitive or American Ninja Warrior competitive?"
Bad Warrant...
Bad Warrant...
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CW2 (Join to see)
I was thinking work ethic, duty performance, and retainability type of competitive. Ha! :-)
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I have this cool image in my head of Soldiers competing for reenlistment by going through events from the original American Gladiators. Seriously though, I think that bonuses and other perks such as duty station of choice should be competitive, but I think that as long as they continue to meet the standards, anyone who wants to reenlist should be able to.
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