Posted on Jan 1, 2014
Does the United States Military need to start offering our long-term members retention bonuses?
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Since I do a lot of admin work, not by choice I might add, I get to process a lot of reenlistment packets. It seems that anyone over 13 years are not offered any type of bonus to stay in, but a SPC with 4 years is offered some type of bonus to reenlist. It seems that many of our Service Members who have been in longer that have a vast knowledge of the Military and their respective fields are just given a pat on the back and a Charlie Mike. Does this seem right to you? Shouldn't the Military want to keep our more seasoned Service Members to in order to train our newer ones?
Re-enlistment
Retention
Military Pay
Army
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 9
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In my point of view I can say that I went INDEF without a bonus. I don't do this for the money, I do it because I enjoy the experiences and especially the job.
From career management POV, if the MOS has a balanced grade structure, there is no reason to offer bells and whistles to maintain the force. When strengths begin to fall into low 90's/80's.. That's when bonuses are needed in order to achieve and maintainn a more reasonable grade structure (pyramid).
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SFC Michael Hasbun
Same here... The way the Army is booting people now, going indefinite felt like bonus enough..
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SGT (Join to see)
When I joined I received no bonus and when I re-enlisted/re-classed I received not bonus.
I joined to serve and re-enlisted to serve.
As for long term soldiers, bonuses would be good. Such as Indef.
I personally think bonuses should be eliminated to join the military and that money used toward career progression and soldier readiness.
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SSG Robert Burns
So SPC Douglas, if when you went to reenlist the Army says, hey we need you to declass to be a cook at Ft Hood you'd be like "where do I sign?" The whole point of bonuses is to give incentives to fill positions that are difficult to fill. Not everyone wants to do those jobs but they have to be done, so to fill them they incentivize them with bonuses.
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SSgt Brycen Shumway
The issue there is the overall downsizing of forces brings those % numbers back up, because there is less overall to be looking at. (15/20 is 75%, while 15/17 is closer to 90%)
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Other than the CSRB, there are career reenlistment windows with bonuses paid out to 16 years. Then the CSRB messages kick in
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The Army does have the CSRB (Critical Skills Retention Bonus) Program. This is a retention tool used to retain senior NCOs is shortage and critical MOSs. I had a few friends who took advantage of this back in 2008/2009. The CSRB was open to 35Ms at that time and they collected a very nice retention bonus.
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