“How much would I have to pay you if I told you tomorrow you were going to die?” asks U.S. Army Col. Donald Bartholomew, director for marketing and strategic outreach for recruiting command.
With a question like that, it really puts the “typical” recruiting challenges in perspective. That’s the takeaway message after listening to how recruiters in the U.S. Army are working to recruit soldiers.
Col. Bartholomew spoke at the ERE Expo 2007 in San Diego, noting that Army recruiting has plenty of its own special challenges. For starters, about 70% of people are ineligible because of medical, “moral,” weight, or other issues such as asthma, flat feet, eye or hearing loss, and color-blindness.
Candidates for the Army accept risk to themselves, a long commitment, lost opportunities in a good economy, and separation from family.
Col. Bartholomew says their benefits, however, include training, values, education, experience, pride, and an opportunity to make a difference. Not to mention the Army’s little-publicized benefits, such as 30 days’ paid vacation.
Of the rank-and-file recruiters, he says 69% of are selected and 31% volunteer for the job. It’s a three-year job, and about 47% have recent combat experience.
The Army trains people in six weeks and four days to be a recruiter.
Some of its recent solutions include an increased incentive pay for recruiters, as well as a brand-new referral bonus program.
The Army also increased local marketing dollars. The Army had been spending on national advertising, but it increased its local budget from $22 million to $79 million to spend more locally.
It is also pre-screening people through numerous technology applications. Sergeant STAR, an artificial intelligence on the Go Army site, makes it easy to chat with recruiters online.
And even more exciting…the “Virtual Army Experience” brings tents around the country to provide simulations.
The Army is also finding new ways to reach out to different generations.
On one end of the spectrum, the age limit was raised, allowing recruits a “second chance” to join if it is something they had wanted to do when younger but hadn’t.
And to get to the targeted 17-24 generation, the Army created a MySpace.com page to direct traffic to the Army website.
“We’re getting tons of hits on the Army MySpace page every single day,” he says.
Despite earlier concerns that others could post negative comments on the public site that are against Army values, he has seen only a positive effect.
“Sometimes if you take some risks, especially within the bureaucracy of the Army, it pays off,” he adds.
