Solution to DOD’s military recruiting shortage

Federal attrition and the solution to DOD's military recruiting shortage

The military recruiting of today is not the military recruiting of 50, 20, or even 10 years ago. Not only has a digital landscape forced recruiters to implement different tactics, but 50% of youth admit they know little to nothing about military service.

As a result, the Department of Defense (DOD) is struggling to meet its recruiting numbers across every branch. This year, as attrition rates soar, the Army has met less than half of its enlisted recruiting goals for FY22. And disqualification of recruits hit  unprecedented highs for reasons ranging from obesity to drug use to criminal records. According to one report, “Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.”

And when 79% of recruits have a relative who served, the outlook for the DOD is worrisome. Today’s young recruits are no longer walking into recruitment offices. Rather they want to meet recruiters digitally on their phones—which should force recruiters to amp up their digital efforts throughout the entire process.

Read how HireVue text-powered, mobile-friendly solutions can help boost recruitment and close communication gaps throughout the military recruiting process.

Reach candidates on their phone screens.

The key to effective engagement with recruits is to eliminate manual recruiting. Today’s teen and young adult recruits are part of a digitally native generation. A report from Snapchat found Gen Z spends an average of 4 hours and 15 minutes a day on their phone–and almost all of them have a smartphone (95%). Start reaching your candidates via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the countless Google searches browsed—and begin engaging with them immediately. HireVue text-powered, mobile-friendly solutions meet young recruits on their phones offering a positive candidate experience while recruiters capitalize on interest while it’s high.

Lean into on-demand interviews and assessments.

The bottom line? Manual phone screens take too long to perform and too long to schedule—frequently taking 24-48 hours to set up. With HireVue, as soon as a potential recruit engages with an ad, they are offered a branch-specific OnDemand virtual interview. And with a 5-minute completion goal, the interview screens with custom-built qualifiers for each branch including:

• US citizenship status
• Commitment to service
• High school graduation status
• Criminal record
• Tattoos

HireVue also offers the potential for game-based or custom Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) assessments that evaluate skill and potential in a quick and engaging experience. 

At this point in a manual process, Recruiting Command is manually scheduling in-person interviews without any relevant skill assessment completed—immensely slowing down the process. With HireVue, our AI quickly provides a stack ranking of candidates delivered to the appropriate recruiters in a relative location—with rankings showing the top recruits, those easiest to enlist, and contact information.

Direct message recruits.

Delayed Entry Process (DEP) is the stage after recruits commit but before they leave for basic training. While it’s common to have over one hundred future soldiers in DEP, only 30-40% of them actually report for basic training—resulting in wasted recruiter effort and poor ROI. With HireVue, direct messaging alerts are delivered via text to include homework reminders, workout notifications, and DEP event information. As a result, recruiters can easily keep consistent engagement and contact with future soldiers—ideally resulting in higher DEP retention and improvement in recruiter effectiveness.

HireVue is FedRAMP-certified, integrates with USA Staffing, and is used by 8 of the 10 largest US federal departments. Are you ready to boost DOD retention? Request a demo now.