Can money improve the retention of personnel in the military? Will this attract better recruits?

Sir, money for what though? Higher pay? More ESRB's? Higher ESRB's? More special duty pays?
At the end of the day, I don't really believe that money is the answer. An unmotivated SM will not magically be more motivated when there is more money on the table. It may also keep more subpar SM in (that aren't being sorted out normally).

For officers in the medical corps and medical services corps it would have to be a lot of money. We serve due to patriotism or ADSO's and many will continue to serve beyond their ADSO as at that point they are already so invested. For the others though it would have to be a tremendous amount of cash as the military cannot even come close to matching the private sector compensation. All the money would do is retain people who were already staying or average to below average talent. The money has to be really targeted and in order to properly target you have to improve a terrible talent management system.

This is really an economic issue: trends show retention/recruitment is easy during bad economic times and harder during good economic times.

Throwing money at a problem can help when the economy is good, because when the economy is doing well, those in the military can leave the military and find good jobs. When the economy is bad, throwing money at the problem probably doesn't help----folks aren't getting out of the military when the economy is bad for reasons related to pay.

I think most of us in the military would be ok with making more money. I doubt that most who think they are under compensated really understand the value of their total compensation package.

Retention? Thought the Govt. was drawing down. Did I miss a meeting?

MAJ David Vermillion Sir, It may attract more potential recruits to choose from. It may also encourage current service members to stay in. I would hope that folks still join in order to serve their country, and not because of money.

I would say review the information regarding the Captain Career Retention Bonus information to find out how many people took the money versus all the other options available.

MAJ David Vermillion Yes, it seems true for most professions, why would it be any different for the military. However there is this pesky fear of getting killed in a war-zone thing that deters a great many folk from military service.

I believe that reinstating standards, and an in-house problem-solving policy is the only way to bring soldiers back to the military. Not one of the "career soldiers" I was in with made it to 10 years, the ones who stayed in were the game playing, politicking, shit bags that should have never made it out of Basic.

Id like to think the military is listening to TOP PERFORMERS when they exit to understand why and solving for that. Ive been out since '94 and remeber very few people getting out simply to make more money though I do think there needs to be a higher minimum for junior enlisted with families.

Hi, Major Vermillion.

In the short time table and broad scheme, maybe. Recruits could flock to recruiters if there were high enlistment offers, and people might stay for high reenlistment bonuses.

But people are going to get out, for a wide variety of reasons. More money would only be an unsustainable stopgap. Minimizing that crack in the military’s knowledge base and retaining that expertise when they leave requires refilling it from the bottom with new recruits, in levels that facilitate a continuation of that expertise. According to the Pentagon, more than two-thirds of America’s youth would fail to qualify for service due to physical, behavioral, or educational shortcomings. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/recruits-ineligibility-tests-the-military [login to see] ).

We have an outflow of highly trained experts, and an inadequate pool from which draw for their replacement.