An Integrated Model of Recruiting: Resources Optimal Resource Allocation for Regular Army and Army Reserve Recruiting : RAND Corporation , May 28 , 2025
An Integrated Model of Recruiting: Resources Optimal Resource Allocation for Regular Army and Army Reserve Recruiting : RAND Corporation , May 28 , 2025
From the report: “The Recruiting Resource Model (RRM) is a multipart statistical and optimization model of the relationship between recruiting resources and active and reserve component recruiting production in the U.S. Army. The goal of the RRM is to help the Army determine the most productive allocation of resources and use of policy levers under the Army’s control, such as the number of recruiters, spending on advertising, spending on bonuses, and the accession mission, in response to changes in factors outside the Army’s control, such as the unemployment rate, the minimum wage, consumer sentiment, and attrition from the delayed entry program (DEP).
This report documents the third version of the RRM, which we refer to as the Integrated Recruiting Resource Model (iRRM). Prior versions of the RRM exist for both the Regular Army (RA) and the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). All iterations of the RRM have three parts: (1) a contract production model (CPM) that estimates how Army inputs and economic conditions affect the generation of recruiting contracts; (2) a model of the DEP for only the active component, in which a pool of potential enlistees waits until a training seat is available; and (3) an optimization tool that searches for different combinations of recruiting resources that could maximize the Army’s recruiting production for a given budget, subject to economic conditions and constraints, such as quality requirements. The optimizer tool allows us to examine how the Army should allocate its recruiting resources under the actual recruiting environment and to conduct excursions examining how the Army should reallocate resources in the face of changes in either economic conditions or other constraints. In addition to documenting our updated version of the model, this report might be useful for Army leaders who are hoping to better understand what resources are most effective for recruiting and how to efficiently set the Army’s recruiting budget.
This iteration of the RRM, the iRRM, has been updated in numerous ways and resulted in new information about the relationship between Army recruiting resources and contract production. Prior versions have consistently found that the Army spends too much on bonuses and too little on advertising.”
Authors - Calkins, Avery, Wenger, Jeffrey B., Eckhause, Jeremy M., Bond, Craig A., Berglund, Tiffany, Kroger, Jack, Schwam, DanielSubjects
Authors
Publishers
Format
Related Resources
