How would you solve the military recruiting challenges currently facing DOD?

Allow beards...

Raise pay, to be competitive with place like McDonalds

Get rid of the MAGA Republicans and Cooperate political system!

Since the Zillennial generation is hyper focused on cost of School, I would probably have AD campaigns that focus on GI Bill and what it could do to cover cost of education.

Or Maybe they should focus on getting back veterans that have served? Zillennials really aren't the creme de la creme.

bring back the draft!

Mandatory draft. Each should contribute as they can.

Once and when the collective consciousness of the USA shifts into a consensual perception of wielding promise and hope in terms of having access to provision, only then will such trends as the recruitment rate will climb.

The USA is way out of balance in terms of where and how, for example, (1) the US Senate administers the federal budget -- it's terribly mishandled: money proves ill-distributed and wasted; (2) military recruitment ploys as were administered and marketed 40, 30, and 20 years ago cannot presume to yield the same successful result today... indeed, a prospective recruit of today wants style, panache, swag, and insight on his or her future; (3) such manifestations as the 2008 Wall Street financial debacle truly affected America's assumptions on daily living and its sense of recourse; (4) the ill, mistaken planning to undertake war and unrest in the middle east was a grave error, and (5) the COVID pandemic woke everyone up --- all of these and more affect military recruitment.

Congress and the Market need to listen to the very phalanx of people to whom It makes the appeal for enlisting -- ay find out what 'they' need and want in terms of futurity... Congress, the Market, the Institute needs to obtain suggestions and a consensus from the very men and women whom the military asks to serve. People are sharper, ay more cynical, than the people were during the earlier wars, and they have rocketed past even the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans are not the naive lot that they were just 20 years ago, oh, no. The USA needs to be a lot more inventive, less restrictive.

That $886,000,000,000 billion DOD budget had better be used to dedicate a substantial portion to military members' salaries, housing, and family support, -- ay offer better pension structures.

I hate to say it but the idea of "serving" is outdated, we've become a country of "everyone for themselves".

That said, The military has to answer "What do you have to offer?" with something competitive.
* "Fight the war on terror" is over... "Defend Europe from Russia." isn't going to fly.
* The Federal government doesn't have the best reputation for taking care of Veterans.
* "Pay for college" isn't going to cut it as long as there's talk of forgiving student loan debt.
* An E4 makes $2,400 a month, that figures out to be $13 an hour IF it's a 40 hour work week (which is unlikely) McDonald's is paying $17/hr here locally. No McDonald's doesn't pay for a room in the barracks, but sleeping in a tent has always been a possibility in the military.

You asked for how I would fix it... it's time for a reduction in force. Probably down to pre 9/11 levels. It would be nice to convert a lot of the force to reserves in case Putin decides to take a stab at conquering Europe like Kahn, Napoleon, or Hitler, but I don't think leadership is smart enough to "scale back"... they'll go "all or nothing".

Because of the current recruiting dilemma and the multiple date rapes in the military we have a problem with sexual behavior. If sexual relations are occurring between workers it can create a hostile relationship within the ranks.
Especially between senior ranking members and vet junior. There are predatory homosexuals that can openly express their sexuality. This has always been the case with females and is the case with vulnerable males. This can only be addressed by seperation and military law. If ignored the problem will persist.

1. Reevaluate enlistment minimum standards and what needs waivers (and how difficult GETTING those waivers are). Some 'issues' that were/are automatic DQ or require a waiver are becoming more common and should not be something that creates a mountain to overcome in order to join. Some of those issues probably should not have been a mountain even 25 years ago.
2. Stop dicking around with benefits. People are seeing our Veterans fighting for V.A. benefits and don't want that for themselves, and how many times have they changed our retirement plans in the last 20 years in general, and for people that joined expecting one plan, then being told they are not going to be grandfathered in for the retirement plan they enlisted for, they must change it to something else?
3. Look at who we've been turning away and consider if we can turn them into a recruit with some investment - one of my classmates couldn't make tape back in 98, so our recruiter worked with her to lose weight/body fat until she could pass, and she was able to ship for basic just a few weeks after me.
4. Check on what recruiters might be doing that is costing us recruits. My daughter was trying to enlist in the Air Force a few years ago, and every time she would do what the recruiter told her she needed to do (take this test, fill out this form, get this documentation), there was another thing she had to do. She gave up after a YEAR of trying to enlist because she kept getting jerked around by her recruiter.
5. STOP THE MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA!!!! Normalize seeing a psychologist/counselor/therapist, even when someone isn't suffering from severe PTSD. Make it EASY to get the help so that people know that they can get it without justifying themselves to 20 people with no qualifications to determine if it is justified (yes, I've seen Soldiers get told they needed to cancel their appointment at mental health because it was interfering with their unit schedule to prep for a 3-day field exercise, and they didn't really need that mental health appointment. I've also seen a Soldier given a command referral for a Psych eval so that his CoC couldn't make him cancel it, but then every appointment for anger management counseling was canceled because he was sent TDY on back-to-back missions.)