Military Recruiting Failure Part 1

Can the problem(s) be solved? We will address in this post Awareness of opportunities in the military.

You may have heard that the military is having trouble meeting its recruiting goals; only the Marine Corps hit its target for 2023. I suspect that this is symptomatic of far larger problems, but I thought I would take it step-by-step, to see what might be going on within the processes that ensure a fully staffed military. I don’t know how the military looks at it to be honest, it’s not like they are trying to fill a particular job, rather they are recruiting en masse; I decided to use the so-called “Purchase Funnel,” aka marketing funnel, sales funnel, et cetera, to break down the process for analysis.

wiki: purchase funnel

Another aspect of the problem is retention; we will have a look at that also. It’s important to note that if the military is unable to solve the persistent staffing issues, conscription, aka the draft, remains an option.

In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War…From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the U.S. Armed Forces that could not be filled through voluntary means…conscription remains in place on a contingency basis; all male U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, residing within the United States, who are 18 through 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System.

Conscription in the United States, wiki