Retention and Recruitment Crisis

Devildoc said:
I did.

My point was, and perhaps it was poorly articulated, if people are walking to the office next door because the name-your-branch-other-than-Marines are offering a bonus or sign-on money and the Corps isn't, then that is something that may come back to bite them. Duke ain't the Marines, but people are going to people. I do agree that retention is a significant issue that needs to be addressed, and retention bonuses and special incentives (i.e., extending time at a duty station) would go a long way with that. When that money is all in the same pot, it's often a damn if you do/damn if you don't when you try to prioritize where to put that money with regards to recruitment and retention.

Again with personal experience where I work, they put their big bucks on recruitment and lost a lot of good staff when they weren't doing anything to make us want to stay. That has since changed and we aren't hemorrhaging experienced nurses like we did. Retention is important.
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We are actually doing ok with recruiting right now. It's easier to meet your numbers when you are a smaller service after all. Retention is the fight we need to win though. I agree with applying more money to keeping Marines than to making them. We can't compete with the other services when it comes to financial recruitment incentives. We have to motivate young people to join us for other reasons, which I think is what the ACMC is saying.
 
Marauder06 said:
Everyone wants to join the Marine Corps, no one wants to stay.

Putting resources towards retention seems like a good call to me.
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The Marines are unique, culturally. I have been around or have served with the Corps for 54 years. It's the only service that recruits based on joining to be a Marine, for the challenge, for the test, rather than joining for jobs, travel, or adventure. And it's worked.

My favorite Marine recruiting story: in high school they had all the recruiters come to give their pitch in our auditorium. There were about 100 kids in the auditorium. The army guy goes up, gives his spiel about all the jobs and cool things you can do. The air force talked about all the technical fields and flying. The navy recruiter talked about travel and exotic ports of call. The Marine recruiter walked to the stage with a pair of well-worn combat boots, put them on the stage, and said "if you think you're man or woman enough to fill those (pointing to the boots), come see me," and walked off. Guess who had the longest line?

Part of my theory--and it's definitely not Marine-centric--is that life doesn't frequently match expectations, which is why retention is often problematic. Or as that famous soldier John Wiener said in the movie Stripes when the Sgt Hulka was talking about honor, service, and sacrifice, "those words mean so much to a man scrubbing garbage cans."

Retention is so important for so many reasons, and right now, today, the Marines are fortunate that they don't have to panic about recruiting. I hope that remains the case, but I am not optimistic.
 
Retention can be a complicate thing for each branch. But at the same time common sense needs to be used. I have a grandson that enlisted in the Army as an X-Ray tech. He was sent to Ft. Bliss for his first assignment. When his ETS came up he wanted another assignment and the Army said no. He was even willing to enlist for another 3 or 4 years to get out of Bliss and they still said no because he was needed there. You know what happened, he got out. I went into the Marines at the start of my career and my first billet was 2d Recon Bn. Later went to 3rd Recon Bn and 2d Force. Marines told us we had been in Recon to long and needed to go to the grunts. Guess what, when ETS came up, we left the Corps and went to the Army. Of course I lost my rank but the Army was nice and I went from E-2 to E-6 in 3 years so lost nothing, in fact gained. If an individual is happy where they are then leave them alone. If they want a change then let them transfer. If not you are going to lose a good man.
 
So, we (Ones Ready) have been doing our lil project for nearly 4 years now. For years, we have no kidding been pounding on the table to get folks to come on, letting them know we (active duty service members) need to get out in front of the "Scout" portion of the process- meaning, tell people who you are, what you do, and why that's awesome.

Lo and behold, the CSAF put out his directive to engage in the WEAR (We Are All Recruiters) Program... this week. All services are working something similar.

IF ONLY THE AF HAD SOME SORT OF PROJECT!
 
amlove21 said:
So, we (Ones Ready) have been doing our lil project for nearly 4 years now. For years, we have no kidding been pounding on the table to get folks to come on, letting them know we (active duty service members) need to get out in front of the "Scout" portion of the process- meaning, tell people who you are, what you do, and why that's awesome.

Lo and behold, the CSAF put out his directive to engage in the WEAR (We Are All Recruiters) Program... this week. All services are working something similar.

IF ONLY THE AF HAD SOME SORT OF PROJECT!
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You trying to say you don't have a single contact at the Pentagon??
 
Teufel said:
We are actually doing ok with recruiting right now. It's easier to meet your numbers when you are a smaller service after all. Retention is the fight we need to win though. I agree with applying more money to keeping Marines than to making them. We can't compete with the other services when it comes to financial recruitment incentives. We have to motivate young people to join us for other reasons, which I think is what the ACMC is saying.
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You will lose the retention battle if you don't recognize why Marines choose the Marine Corps in the first place. My father and uncle were Marines (62); I was a Marine (87); my son is a Marine now (17). We all chose the Marine Corps to become warriors and serve with warriors. My son is a few months from getting out and I fully support his decision to leave. It is not the same Marine Corps. You mentioned recently that one of your Marines is "transitioning" and this generation of Marines is more or less supportive. I no longer work with Marines, but I do work with Special Operators every day. We also have one who is transitioning. The CO and SEA came out to help him with his announcement and made it very clear that everyone must live in his delusion or risk probable career-ending retribution. So, everyone pretends to be supportive. That is all bullshit and many of the guys I work with have decided to get out because this is the last straw for them. The "woke" leftist insanity we continue to subject our warriors to is driving them out. Respectfully, if you think Marines today are more or less supportive of the shift toward focusing on subjective feelings, and away from objectively training to annihilate the enemy, I think you've risen to the level where those around you are afraid to tell you the truth. I have respected the Marine Corps since I was old enough to overhear my Dad and Uncle reminiscing about their service. Sadly, that respect is waning. Semper Fi nevertheless.
 
LimaPanther said:
Retention can be a complicate thing for each branch. But at the same time common sense needs to be used. I have a grandson that enlisted in the Army as an X-Ray tech. He was sent to Ft. Bliss for his first assignment. When his ETS came up he wanted another assignment and the Army said no. He was even willing to enlist for another 3 or 4 years to get out of Bliss and they still said no because he was needed there. You know what happened, he got out. I went into the Marines at the start of my career and my first billet was 2d Recon Bn. Later went to 3rd Recon Bn and 2d Force. Marines told us we had been in Recon to long and needed to go to the grunts. Guess what, when ETS came up, we left the Corps and went to the Army. Of course I lost my rank but the Army was nice and I went from E-2 to E-6 in 3 years so lost nothing, in fact gained. If an individual is happy where they are then leave them alone. If they want a change then let them transfer. If not you are going to lose a good man.
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I disagree with the leave them alone if they're happy. The way ToS used to work it would restart if you transferred brigades. So specifically at Bragg and Drum you have dudes who've done 12-15 years who have only been at those places. That isn't good for knowledge transfer. But I like their 6 years on station idea instead of 3...
 
CryptoLingUSMC said:
You will lose the retention battle if you don't recognize why Marines choose the Marine Corps in the first place
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I think this is such an important point, not just for Marines. It has to be more than about money or benefits. Those things are great enablers, but its not enough to draw warriors to the military. A big problem I see is that our youth are being indoctrinated to believe our country is bad, so why would they want to risk their lives for it?
 
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Marauder06 said:
All the Marines need to do is put @Teufel on the recruiting circuit. Have you all met that guy? He made **me** want to enlist in the Marines when I first met him, and I'd been in the Army for 20+ years at that point. ;)
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MCRC got their hooks in me at one point. I did the college STEM conference circuit for a few years episodically, as well as the high school all star football game we sponsor. It's not something you are allowed to turn down.
 
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CryptoLingUSMC said:
You will lose the retention battle if you don't recognize why Marines choose the Marine Corps in the first place. My father and uncle were Marines (62); I was a Marine (87); my son is a Marine now (17). We all chose the Marine Corps to become warriors and serve with warriors. My son is a few months from getting out and I fully support his decision to leave. It is not the same Marine Corps. You mentioned recently that one of your Marines is "transitioning" and this generation of Marines is more or less supportive. I no longer work with Marines, but I do work with Special Operators every day. We also have one who is transitioning. The CO and SEA came out to help him with his announcement and made it very clear that everyone must live in his delusion or risk probable career-ending retribution. So, everyone pretends to be supportive. That is all bullshit and many of the guys I work with have decided to get out because this is the last straw for them. The "woke" leftist insanity we continue to subject our warriors to is driving them out. Respectfully, if you think Marines today are more or less supportive of the shift toward focusing on subjective feelings, and away from objectively training to annihilate the enemy, I think you've risen to the level where those around you are afraid to tell you the truth. I have respected the Marine Corps since I was old enough to overhear my Dad and Uncle reminiscing about their service. Sadly, that respect is waning. Semper Fi nevertheless.
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I get it. Ultimately, I have to follow orders and obey policies just like everyone else in uniform. No one has to like those policies or even agree with them. I am fully aware that many people disagree with some of the policies we live under, especially the one you mentioned. No one has to like these policies, they just have to abide by them as long as they remain in our nation's service. We demonstrate our support to this Marine by providing him with a positive work environment that is free of discriminatory or derogatory language and behavior. This is the same thing that we do for all our brothers and sisters in our unit. Respecting his legal and authorized life decision is very different than agreeing with the policy that makes it possible. The former is required, the latter is not. It's a tough time to be a military leader for many reasons. COVID, and the many inconsistent DOD policies associated with COVID mitigation procedures, was another challenge. At some point we will go back to war and all this stuff will buff out.
 
Teufel said:
MCRC got their hooks in me at one point. I did the college STEM conference circuit for a few years episodically, as well as the high school all star football game we sponsor. It's not something you are allowed to turn down.
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Did you cook for them too? Because that would have been the deal-closer.
 
Teufel said:
I get it. Ultimately, I have to follow orders and obey policies just like everyone else in uniform. No one has to like those policies or even agree with them. I am fully aware that many people disagree with some of the policies we live under, especially the one you mentioned. No one has to like these policies, they just have to abide by them as long as they remain in our nation's service. We demonstrate our support to this Marine by providing him with a positive work environment that is free of discriminatory or derogatory language and behavior. This is the same thing that we do for all our brothers and sisters in our unit. Respecting his legal and authorized life decision is very different than agreeing with the policy that makes it possible. The former is required, the latter is not. It's a tough time to be a military leader for many reasons. COVID, and the many inconsistent DOD policies associated with COVID mitigation procedures, was another challenge. At some point we will go back to war and all this stuff will buff out.
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As much as I am enjoying the now retired @Marauder06 ’s more forthcoming posts, while I am in no hurry, I am absolutely looking forward to @Teufel post-retirement thoughts and perspectives.
 

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