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Should officers receive bonuses like many enlisted for reenlistment? Of course officers do not reenlist, but rather when they finish serving their mandatory obligation should they receive a bonus to stay in?
Would this help retain some good officers? Or with a shrinking force should we try to keep costs down?
Would this help retain some good officers? Or with a shrinking force should we try to keep costs down?
Posted in these groups: 
Officers
Military Pay
Officers Military Pay
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 20
Many active duty Captains in my peer group received retention bonuses of $30,000 for committing to 3 years back in 2007/2008. I did not take it.
The military uses bonuses to meet its numbers, not to really shape the quality of the force, since bonuses are given across the board and not based on performance.
Scenario 1: Top performing officers are offered a retention bonus based on performance. If this is done, the military will retain more of its best.
Scenario 2: All officers, regardless of performance are offered the same bonus (as was previously done). If this is done, then a lot of people who are not as well qualified to excel in the private sector will stay in the military, and those that want to work in a more merit based organization will get out. In this scenario, I believe that people who were going to stay in are just going to stay in anyway, and those that planned to get out would just get out anyway. The end result is that the military probably didn't spend its money wisely. Another concern I have with scenario 2 is... what kind of officer do you want leading troops if they would not have stayed in without a bonus? I guess I'm just apprehensive about any officer who wouldn't have otherwise served unless he gets paid a little more. Officers are already paid well.
Turn the bonus into a merit based award, and you will see more of the best retained... but that is not how the military really works of course... it's a numbers game unfortunately.
The military uses bonuses to meet its numbers, not to really shape the quality of the force, since bonuses are given across the board and not based on performance.
Scenario 1: Top performing officers are offered a retention bonus based on performance. If this is done, the military will retain more of its best.
Scenario 2: All officers, regardless of performance are offered the same bonus (as was previously done). If this is done, then a lot of people who are not as well qualified to excel in the private sector will stay in the military, and those that want to work in a more merit based organization will get out. In this scenario, I believe that people who were going to stay in are just going to stay in anyway, and those that planned to get out would just get out anyway. The end result is that the military probably didn't spend its money wisely. Another concern I have with scenario 2 is... what kind of officer do you want leading troops if they would not have stayed in without a bonus? I guess I'm just apprehensive about any officer who wouldn't have otherwise served unless he gets paid a little more. Officers are already paid well.
Turn the bonus into a merit based award, and you will see more of the best retained... but that is not how the military really works of course... it's a numbers game unfortunately.
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MAJ (Join to see)
LTC Yinon Weiss As has been well documented (for example, http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-officer-critical-skills-retention-bonus), the CSRB and menu of choices captain retention program circa 2007 was by any metric an abject failure, and very much represented what you outline in your Scenario 2.
I did take the CSRB, a nice $35,000. But only after the Army selected me to be a FAO (which meant I essentially got every other option on the menu of options already), so I figured I'd take the money, too, as I was already planning on staying in. In other words, the CSRB played no role in my decision to stay in the Army.
I do like your Scenario 1, where top performers could earn performance bonuses. But I don't think there's a good way to implement this. How would we determine top performers? Maybe an extra 10% of base pay for a month for getting an ACOM? Or link money to awards? Say, $10,000 for a Bronze Star and $40,000 for a DSSM? I think such a linkage to performance might be (highly) criticized for being rather mercenary.
Money is a way to shape the force--this might suggest money has more of an impact on our profession's desire to serve than is often acknowledged.
I did take the CSRB, a nice $35,000. But only after the Army selected me to be a FAO (which meant I essentially got every other option on the menu of options already), so I figured I'd take the money, too, as I was already planning on staying in. In other words, the CSRB played no role in my decision to stay in the Army.
I do like your Scenario 1, where top performers could earn performance bonuses. But I don't think there's a good way to implement this. How would we determine top performers? Maybe an extra 10% of base pay for a month for getting an ACOM? Or link money to awards? Say, $10,000 for a Bronze Star and $40,000 for a DSSM? I think such a linkage to performance might be (highly) criticized for being rather mercenary.
Money is a way to shape the force--this might suggest money has more of an impact on our profession's desire to serve than is often acknowledged.
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A bonus across the board? No; it simply isn't needed, and in the AF anyways we have slashed quite a few of bonuses on the enlisted side based on retention. Now selective bonuses of course makes sense; take for example personnel with a military intelligence background...private sector contracts often pay quite a bit more for the experience that the military provided. Retaining talent often gets difficult, thus paying a bonus to retain ends up cheaper than ramping up the recruiting and training pipeline. I strongly agree with MAJ Weiss, and would add that any bonus type of program be based on merit. The lack of this is exactly why I went reserve and private sector ;)
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