The Army brought in about 50,000 recruits in the fiscal year that just ended, short of its target of 65,000, AP reported. It’s a trend that started in 2014, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told AP.
Now, the service is making major changes in its approach to recruitment, Army Times reported. Some will take place this calendar year, and some will take years to implement. One change is that Recruiting Command will soon report directly to Wormuth. Its commanding general will be a three-star.
Other changes have to do with on-the-ground recruitment tools.
“We’re going to train [recruiters] to start using digital job boards…we’re going to start piloting large-scale career fairs in major population centers,” Wormuth told reporters this week. “Instead of just having a table in a high school cafeteria, we’re really going to try to do something more like private sector companies do.”
In a March op-ed in Military Times, ADC President Karen Holt outlined how DOD can partner with defense communities to address recruitment challenges.
“[W]e need to take the lessons we have learned from defense communities about engagement, awareness and bridging the military-civilian divide and make them available to every community,” Holt wrote. “We need to redirect recruitment dollars to invest in community-based outreach programs across the country that engage our local leaders and veterans, share the positive impacts of the military and build awareness of career opportunities created by service.”
Army photo by Steven Stover