Mission Critical: An Operative Analysis of the U.S. Army’s Recruitment and Retention Strategies

The strategic research project focuses on the U.S. Army and potential gaps and areas for improvement. It begins by extensively analyzing the organization, its mission statement, vision statement, value statement, and organizational reputation and sustainability. The SRP conducts a SWOT analysis with the major challenge facing the organization being the recruitment and retention challenges it is currently facing. The SRP focuses on the recruitment and retention challenges in the organization with particular emphasis on solutions for effective strategies to improve the rapidly declining rates of enlistment and retention. Major reasons for focusing on this challenge include its impact on national security, with the organization facing the most difficult recruitment environment in the last 50 years. There are various possible solutions for countering this challenge such as improving pay incentives, embracing and increasing diversity and inclusion, flexible deployment options and leveraging social media. Of the presented feasible solutions, the strategic plans designate the increase and embrace of diversity and inclusion as the most viable solution for the organization’s recruitment and retention challenges. Establishing diversity recruitment initiatives is the most viable strategy for countering the strategic issue faced by the organization. The strategy is intended to solve the current recruitment and retention challenges by attracting a broader and more varied pool of candidates. Diversity recruitment ensures everyone gets an equal chance in the workplace for applications without discrimination. The action plan towards diversity recruitment includes collaboration with educational institutional and community organizations, implementing targeted marketing and outreach campaigns, training recruitment personnel on diversity and inclusion and monitoring the effectiveness of these recruitment activities in the organization.