Attracting top talent has proven a challenge for both the public and private sector in recent years, and the U.S. military is not immune. In what is described as a recruitment crisis, the Army, Air Force and Navy all failed to meet recruitment targets for last year. While the armed forces struggle with recruitment and retention, one thing is certain, their approaches to attracting the service member of the future must change.

Army leaders have started reconsidering their recruitment strategies. The plan of action hinges on attracting new talent, providing a personalized experience, simplifying the soldier’s journey and creating a positive space for the soldier’s support system. The evolution of the Army requires a transformation of the way they recruit the modern soldier and leveraging innovation to recreate the soldier experience.

Col. Kris Saling, director of innovation for Army Recruiting Command, is at the forefront of rethinking the Army experience.

“We’re designed to be an experimental entity. We’re going to go out and try and test different things, different technologies, different techniques and policies. And we have the opportunity to really see what works,” Saling said on Federal Insights – Customer Experience in the Department of Defense.

Army Recruiting Command joined other groups in the creation of the new training course for talent acquisition warrant officers. Once participants complete the program, they are poised to use data, technology, social media and other tools, including artificial intelligence to help the Army best approach the potential talent pool and foster critical relationships with recruits.

Personalizing the recruitment experience

The Army is joining industry by incorporating customer service techniques.

“You’re used to going on to any website and having that personalized experience. Amazon knows what you want to buy. Netflix knows what you want to watch,”  Saling said. “That’s the beauty of bringing back ‘Be all you can be.’ A lot of people think it’s the nostalgia aspect, but really, it lets you look at the individual and personalize that experience. How can we help you be all you can be in this Army? And how can we create from the experience standpoint, a vision of who that person can be?”

To that end,  Saling’s team has taken a digital approach and adapted tools like the interactive talent map, born out of Army Talent Management.

“One of the things we want to do is create interactive career maps where we can show people, here’s how you can grow; here’s how you can develop; here’s where you can apply your benefits and make some of these things concrete, that are really kind of amorphous,” Saling said on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Gen Z recruit

The Army Recruiting Command is in the midst of a modernization project to make it easier for potential recruits to apply and track their documents. They’re also catering to the recruit that is looking for less interaction before joining the force.

“We’ve jokingly called it Carvana recruiting, where you want to go in and select your experience, see what different types of bonuses and opportunities are available to you,” Saling said.

The recruit would be able to go into the system, set appointments, submit paperwork digitally, manage all aspects of pre-bootcamp requirements and request assistance when they want it. With the advent of cyber warfare comes the need for a different kind of soldier, and what Saling calls the psychology of defense.

“We prioritize physical endurance for some of our old kind of typical career fields, but you have these new emerging digital fields, like how do we get after emotional and mental resilience?” Saling said. “We have our set of criteria for determining service eligibility, but we’re not a one-size-fits-all Army. We have a very wide breath and we have over 196 different specialties.”

Focus on retention

Saling also said that there are multiple tools that her division is trying to pilot, aimed at retention and making the soldier’s life more integrated. From the IT skills bootcamp project for spouses who want to work, to better coordination for military families when it comes to permanent change of station (PCS) moves. These efforts are a direct result of the Department of the Army career engagement survey. New technology would prepare advanced services like childcare, transferring hospital records and school registration. Right now, those services are not integrated.

“The hard part has been that each of those different processes are owned by different entities, not just within the Army, but across DoD. So, finding somebody who is the belly button for the family experience is nearly impossible. But it’s something that we want to continually include in the total soldier experience,” Saling said. “We know from both recruiting and retention that you recruit the individual, but you retain the family. The number one indicator, if somebody is going to separate from service is a loss of family support.”

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