Learning About Quality How the Quality of Military Personnel is Revealed Over Time
Learning About Quality How the Quality of Military Personnel is Revealed Over Time

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Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 127

ISBN-13:

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This report explores the quality of U.S. enlisted personnel in the first term of service. The measure of quality in the report extends the customary definition of quality-i.e., high school diploma graduate and scoring in the upper half on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)-to include performance as indicated by speed of promotion during the first term. We find that a large amount of information about a service member's quality is revealed during the first term. Our research suggests that future assessment of personnel quality and of policies that affect quality should employ measures of quality that reflect both entry-level measures and performance in service. According to the measure of quality developed in the report, the services retain higher-quality members although they tend to lose members with higher AFQT scores. The report was prepared under the sponsorship of the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. The research was conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies.

Learning about Quality
Learning about Quality

Author: James R. Hosek

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9780833032638

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The measure of quality described in this report extends the military services' customary definition of quality--high school diploma graduate and scoring in the upper half on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)--to include performance as indicated by speed of promotion during the first term. The authors detail an empirical model for learning about quality on the job during the first term, a period which reveals a large amount of information about a service member's quality. In the military, quality depends on the member's ability, effort, and taste for the military. The promotion process reveals this quality by establishing criteria that apply to all members and by promoting faster those members who are soonest to meet and surpass the criteria. Thus, the member's speed of promotion relative to that of peers is a yardstick of a member's quality. The research suggests that future assessment of personnel quality and of policies that affect quality should employ measures of quality that reflect both entry-level measures and performance in service. The analysis indicates that, according to the authors' extended definition of quality, the services retain higher-quality members, although they tend to lose high-AFQT members.

The Quality of Personnel in the Enlisted Ranks
The Quality of Personnel in the Enlisted Ranks

Author: Beth J. Asch

Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9780833038371

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The armed services must attract, retain, and promote high-quality personnel. This monograph examines their ability to meet these goals in the past. Using the quality index, we find that those who complete their first terms, who stay until year of service (YOS) 8 or YOS12, and those who are promoted to higher grades are significantly higher quality. Our conclusions differ from those drawn from traditional measures because our measure includes information that cannot be predicted at entry but is instead revealed on the job.

The Retention of High Quality Personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces
The Retention of High Quality Personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces

Author: Michael Paul Ward

Publisher: Rand Corporation

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13: 9780833005915

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This study addresses the question, Does the military retain the best of its first-term recruits? Using data from the 1974 Entry Cohort File developed by the Defense Manpower Data Center, the authors generate an index of job performance that combines entry-level attributes of recruits--Armed Forces Qualification Test scores and level of education--with first-term promotion histories. This "quality index" is used to assess the relative importance of these characteristics and other unobserved "ability factors" for evaluating the military's success in retaining high-quality enlisted personnel. The authors find that the military is, in general, successful in retaining high-quality enlisted personnel. Those lost through attrition have the lowest quality. Those who separate at the end of their commitment have about the same quality as those entering the military. The study is a first step toward answering the important policy question of how the military can attract and retain high-quality recruits, and how reenlistment standards should be designed.