Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 101

ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE

(Photos by Sgt. Richard Hoppe, 123rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

Applicants are sworn into service 7 October 2014 at the Military Entrance Processing Station on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Yet, it is struggling under current, less rigorous standards
to acquire both the quantity and quality it needs today.

Societal Challenges: Drying up the AllVolunteer Force Talent Pool
America wants not only capable men and women
to join the military, but also it requires highly motivated volunteers. Americans’ regard for their service
members continues to be strong relative to other
professions; they place military service at the top.1 0
However, despite such widespread and sustained public respect, the desire to serve among young people of
military age, eighteen to twenty-four years, has slowly
but steadily declined.11 Schools, as well as industrial
and commercial interests in the civilian sector, recognize the same potential as DOD does in these young
people, but they are increasingly better able to better
compete for it. As a result, today’s potential volunteers have what they might consider more attractive
options in the civilian sector than in military service,
from college enabled by school loans to a wave of
cooperative work-school options near home.
One consequence of the increasing society-wide
demand for talent is the trend among civilian recruiters to identify and recruit based on potential, not
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2015

developed competency in a given skill. In the 2014
article “21st Century Talent Spotting,” international
search consultant Claudio Fernández-Aráoz highlights the global demand for high-quality potential as
opposed to demonstrated skill development. He recommends companies focus on identifying and recruiting talent based on key aspects of potential, including
a person’s motivation, determination, and curiosity.12
Although Fernández-Aráoz focuses on executive
leadership, the military can apply two key conclusions
from his observations. First, the talent market at all
levels is tightening, with little relief in sight. Second,
DOD’s talent acquisition model should shift from
recruiting for skills to focusing on identifying and
recruiting for perceived potential. However, DOD
currently has no proven ways to assess potential and
then win in the competition for recruits. To highlight
the vital need for an improved recruitment system
adapted to present circumstances, it is useful to observe that in the talent market of 2016, the military’s
pipeline for identifying and developing senior military
enlisted leaders of 2035—in what most would agree
will be a much more complex security environment
due to technological advancements and demographic
changes—will be rife with competition.
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