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STATEMENT
OF
VICE
ADMIRAL N. R. RYAN, JR., U.S. NAVY
CHIEF
OF NAVAL PERSONNEL
AND
DEPUTY
CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
(MANPOWER
& PERSONNEL)
18
JULY 2001
Introduction
Chairman McHugh and distinguished
members of the subcommittee, I appreciate this
opportunity to appear before you to discuss
Navy manpower and personnel issues in the
Fiscal Year 2002 Defense Budget Request.
Navy's
posture, programs and character are shaped by
the fact that we are a forward-deployed force,
an integral part of the National Military
Strategy, providing immediately employable
combat power for a broad range of missions in
support of national objectives.
This on-scene, combat-credible power
promotes regional stability, deters
aggression, dissuades potential adversaries,
and -- if crisis turns into conflict --
provides joint force commanders with
available, sustainable, capable forces for
combat operations. Every
day, naval forces represent sovereign American
power in the far reaches of the world's
oceans. On
any given day, 1/3 of the force -- 1 out of 6
Sailors, 1 out of 3 ships -- is forward
deployed in support of the national military
strategy.
Their value is reflected through
command of the seas, ensuring the free flow of
trade and resources; sustained combat-ready
presence in regions of interest; and assured
access to theaters of operation for joint
forces when needed.
To meet the Nation's and the CINCs'
requirements for forward naval forces, while
balancing other requirements such as upkeep,
some ships and squadrons are homeported
overseas, but most are deployed rotationally
for periods of about six months.
Navy has an inherently expeditionary
service culture -- we’re either deployed,
getting ready to go, or recently home from
deployment.
The requirements for forward,
rotational naval forces drive the Navy's force
structure to a greater extent than any
particular warfighting scenario.
While those warfighting requirements
have remained relatively unchanged, the assets
available to meet them have decreased
markedly.
Our force structure has declined 41
percent over the past decade, from 538 ships
in 1991 to 316 today, even while our
operational tempo has remained essentially the
same. Today, over 30 percent of our ships are forward deployed,
compared with only 20 percent in 1992.
These forces are fully ready to respond
to all taskings and in many respects are more
capable than their predecessors. The real impact of reduced force structure is that we no
longer have "excess capacity" to
commit to important but not urgent
commitments, or to provide flexibility and
surge capacity.
Upon
assuming the helm as Chief of Naval
Operations, Admiral Vern Clark committed to
keeping our Navy the finest in the world.
He made people his top priority because
our ability to recruit and retain high caliber
Sailors, while providing a high Quality of
Service, is paramount to military readiness
and combat capability. Admiral
Clark places such a high premium on our Navy
men and women in recognition of the
significant sacrifices they make every day, in
service to their country, making our Navy what
it is today.
End
Strength
The
most important objective in our efforts to
establish optimum personnel readiness is
providing the fleet with the right Sailor,
with the right training, at the right place
and time.
This has become increasingly
challenging as end strength and manning
requirements have grown from our FY01National
Defense Authorization Act authorization of
372,642 to our request for a 376,000 FY02 end
strength authorization.
Navy’s
commitment to 3,358 additional end strength in
FY02 will allow us to meet expanding
Anti-terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP)
requirements, as well as additional readiness
and operational demands for ships and
squadrons (49 percent of increased strength
will be placed in ships and aviation
squadrons, 26 percent in AT/FP, and the
remaining 25 percent in support of Fleet
Readiness and in the Individuals Account for
robust training pipelines).
Recruiting and retention successes have
allowed us to execute strength approaching the
one percent statutory flexibility above our
FY01 authorized strength.
As a result, we will begin FY02 close
to 376,000 end strength. This will contribute
to continued readiness and manning
improvements, including further narrowing of
the at-sea enlisted manning gap, which
declined from almost 12,000 in 1999, to just
over 5,000 in May 2001; nearly a 60 percent
reduction in the just two years.
This dramatic reduction has led to
improved retention (+7 percent) and
battlegroup readiness by permitting us to move
more Sailors possessing the right training to
ships earlier in their pre-deployment cycles.
In fact, manning for our FY01 battlegroup deployers has been as much as
3-4 percent greater than our FY00 deployers
across the entire deployment cycle.
This has fostered improved Quality of
Service and allowed for more advanced
exercises before heading to forward areas.
We
still face long-term personnel challenges
stemming from an aggressive ‘90s drawdown
strategy that created imbalances in our force
profile.
As Navy drew down, we achieved
mandatory strength reductions by consciously
under-accessing so that we could keep faith
with an All-Volunteer Force that had earned
our loyalty by committing to Navy careers
during the Reagan-era expansion.
Those cohorts are now reaching
retirement eligibility resulting in a
significant exodus of our corporate knowledge
base. As
we replace these senior, experienced Sailors
with new accessions, our aggregate force is
getting younger and less experienced.
Our FY02 recruiting and retention
efforts have focused on slowing down the loss
of our experience base and restoring balance
to our force profile.
To achieve the desired balance, Navy
must sustain enhanced retention to shore up
our mid-career experience base while
continuing to access a steady flow of quality
recruits and officers to provide a solid base
of future Navy leaders.
We
have been largely successful so far this year
in retaining Sailors across the pay grade
spectrum, which has allowed us to reduce the
FY01 accession requirement by almost 10
percent, from a preliminary estimate of 60,000
at this time last year, to 54,020. This has helped restore that experience base of Sailors who
might have otherwise left to pursue
opportunities in a robust economy.
With the help of Congress, we
reinvigorated efforts to retain every eligible
Sailor by offering new or enhanced officer
continuation pays and enlistment/reenlistment
bonuses, increases in base pay, and improved
advancement opportunities by beginning to
gradually increase the number of Sailors in
the top six pay grades.
We also expanded E4 and E6 High Year
Tenure gates and concentrated efforts on
reducing attrition.
These targeted efforts are producing
desirable results allowing us to establish an
FY02 accession mission of 53,000.
Maintaining
the end strength and manning gains carries a
cost and Navy has committed to financing the
retention benefit to keep this momentum going
into FY02.
We request your support for the FY01
supplemental appropriation and reprogramming
and the FY02 President’s Budget request for
increased end strength and workyears, and
continued targeted investment in people
programs. Our improved retention is real, yet fragile, and must
be sustained to realize long-term success.
The experience level of Navy’s force
profile will continue declining as drawdown
cohorts retire, unless we continue prudent
steps to mitigate the de-aging process as we
transition to a more balanced and manageable
future force.
Compensation
Improvements
in our recruiting and retention efforts are
largely a result of strong leadership,
mentoring of Sailors through our Center for
Career Development and significant pay raises
and bold compensation initiatives enacted by
the Congress in the last two years.
It would, however, be premature to
declare victory.
Navy remains concerned that much more
must be done to enhance the effectiveness of
the Total Military Compensation (TMC) package,
such as further
reducing the pay gap and improving the
competitiveness of military compensation with
that of the private sector.
Basic
Pay
Recommendations
of the Ninth Quadrennial Review of Military
Compensation (QRMC) formed the basis for the
Department of Defense proposal to adjust basic
pay for calendar year 2002.
The proposal, which Navy fully
supports, simultaneously raises the level of
pay across-the-board, by a minimum of five
percent, while altering the structure of the
pay table, targeting pay raises to mid-grade
enlisted members.
This will serve to better match their
earnings profiles, over a career, with those
of comparably-educated civilian counterparts,
providing incentive for these members to
complete a military career.
Navy believes this plan will contribute
to ongoing efforts to leverage recent
recruiting and retention successes and sustain
the momentum gained through earlier
initiatives.
The Navy budget submission includes
$822.4 million for pay raises.
Special
and Incentive Pays
Selective
Reenlistment Bonus (SRB). SRB continues to be our most cost- effective and successful
retention and force-shaping tool.
At this point in the fiscal year, we
have experienced about seven percent more
reenlistments than at this same point last
year. These gains are primarily attributed to SRB reenlistments;
therefore, we are committed to maintaining a
robust SRB program.
We must continue working to increase
the number of non-SRB reenlistments.
We are meeting this challenge head-on
by enhancing fleet retention efforts,
providing valuable career information training
to counselors and leaders in the fleet, and by
responding to specific needs expressed in
fleet feedback.
The Navy budget submission includes
$298.9 million for SRB.
Career
Sea Pay (CSP). Changes to the fundamental structure of CSP, enacted in
the Floyd D. Spence National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001,
represent one of those bold compensation
initiatives undertaken by Congress last year.
Changes in the Act provide the
Secretary of the Navy with the flexibility
needed to restore the pay’s incentive value
for duty at sea.
Further, they provide the means of
ensuring CSP is an effective distribution tool
to incentivize Sailors to go to sea, stay at
sea, and return to sea.
Recruiting
Enlisted
Recruiting
Thanks
to the continued hard work of our recruiters,
the application of congressional resources,
and initiation of new programs, we achieved
our FY00 accession mission.
Ninety percent of accessions were High
School Diploma Graduates (HSDG) and more than
64 percent scored in the upper half of the
Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) (Test
Score Category I-IIIA).
Additionally, we substantially improved
our occupational mix, achieved a healthy
Nuclear Field posture and made significant
gains in recruiting into critical ratings.
On the Reserve side, we have added 90
recruiters and tripled the advertising budget
to $8 million annually in order to compete in
this challenging recruiting environment.
Despite
last year’s accomplishments, we are not yet
positioned for long-term success.
FY01 finds us continuing to face record
low unemployment, formidable competition with
the private sector in attempting to hire
talented young Americans and low propensity to
enlist. Our
most serious challenge is that we have not
restored the health of our Delayed Entry
Program (DEP) despite our continuing efforts
to do so.
This has forced recruiters to work on a
sub-optimal month-to-month basis, struggling
to meet each month’s accession goal.
This negatively impacts overall
productivity and detracts from efforts to
improve the long-term health of recruiting.
Innovative
Approaches to Recruiting
Given the requirements and conditions
we expect to face over the next several years,
we are working to improve our recruiting force
and strategies.
With strong congressional support, FY00
saw the continuation and establishment of many
improvements in the recruiter force, in
professional selling skills training, in
advertising, enhanced incentives,
market-penetration and attrition reduction.
Several additional initiatives are
currently being considered to help capitalize
our recent successes.
Bolstering
the Recruiting Force.
Our recruiting force is the most
important factor in the recruiting formula.
We are striving to sustain a recruiting
force of 5,000 by bringing in volunteers from
the fleet.
We are also shifting to a more junior
recruiting force.
Our analysis indicates a more junior,
largely volunteer, force will be most
productive.
We are improving recruiter selection
with our Recruiter Selection Team (RST) and
optimizing geographic distribution of
recruiters using analytical methods and market
data. This year we expanded Smart Recruiter initiatives by
providing vehicles, cellular telephones and
laptop computers to virtually all recruiters.
Professional
Selling Skills Program.
Starting
in FY00, Navy Recruiting partnered with a
commercial firm with a proven track record to
create customized training courses for our
entire recruiting force.
The new selling methodology is based on
the understanding that today’s recruit is
better informed and has more available
options.
We anticipate this training will
improve productivity, increase the number of
DEP referrals and decrease DEP attrition
rates. All
field recruiters receive initial training
during recruiter orientation.
Bluejacket
Hometown Area Recruiting Program (HARP).
We
initiated efforts in January 2000 to augment
the existing recruiter force with a Bluejacket
HARP. The
aim is to significantly increase the quality
and quantity of fleet Sailors who return home
to assist local recruiters.
The entire fleet is helping identify
motivated young Sailors, generally on their
first tour of duty, to participate in this
worthwhile program.
With the program in place just over 18
months, we have scheduled over 13,000
participants and are averaging nearly four new
referrals per Sailor.
Along with specific referrals and
contracts attributable to Bluejacket HARP, we
are experiencing residual benefits of
increasing local Navy presence, introducing
recruiters to new sources of recruits, and
exposing fleet Sailors to the excitement and
satisfaction of recruiting duty.
Motivating
the Recruiting Force. Along with augmenting and equipping the recruiting force,
we are exploring a variety of industry
practices to better motivate recruiters and
direct their efforts toward Navy priorities.
We are benchmarking civilian sales and
recruiting forces for examples of effective
incentives.
Enhancing
the Appeal
Throughout
this fiscal year, we have offered varying
levels and combinations of Enlistment Bonus (EB)
and Navy College Fund (NCF), as well as a Loan
Repayment Program (LRP).
We recently initiated an EB kicker
available to applicants based on pre-accession
college credit.
Initially available only to Nuclear
Field recruits, eligibility has been expanded
to all EB-eligible recruits.
This will assist us in better
penetrating the college market and will
encourage candidates to continue pursuing
education while awaiting entry into the Navy.
We are evaluating awarding scholastic
loans to individuals who enlist in the Navy
and attend up to two semesters of college
while in the DEP.
Loans would be converted to grants upon
successful completion of initial service
obligation.
This program would be consistent with
national aspirations to make college education
attainable for all while simultaneously
providing Navy with the 21st
Century talent pool we require.
Our
goal is to provide programs that facilitate
the pre-service educational aspirations of all
qualified candidates and, in combination with
in-service training, to provide new recruits
with their most efficient path to a college
degree. Navy
benefits from this approach by improving
relations with colleges and high schools,
enhancing Navy's appeal among college-oriented
youth, increasing entry level education of new
recruits and positioning the United States
Navy as an employer of choice.
Over time, if enough recruits complete
basic education and skills training prior to
accession, due to Navy sponsoring and
subsidizing such accomplishments, we realize
cost savings by shortening training pipelines.
The FY02 Navy budget submission includes
$126.4 million for EB and NCF.
Technical
Preparation (TechPREP) partnerships and Navy
College Assistance Student Headstart (NavyCASH)
are designed to accomplish the goal described
above and increase our appeal to the
college-bound market. With increasing numbers of students choosing to attend
college, it is essential to portray Navy as a
viable source of higher education, in
partnership with colleges and universities.
TechPREP.
Navy began forming TechPREP
partnerships with community colleges in FY99.
Participants earn college credit toward
an associate’s degree, from a partnering
community college, while attending high
school, after graduation while in DEP and
during Navy's basic and select advanced
technical training.
We currently have standing agreements
with 75 community colleges, four of which are
statewide agreements, with many more pending.
Several high school students are
already participating in these programs.
NavyCASH.
Currently limited to Nuclear Field and
critical technical ratings, NavyCASH offers
selected applicants the opportunity to attend
college for up to one year, in a paid status
comparable to that of junior enlisted members,
prior to entering active service.
This exciting program improves the
entry-level training of applicants and allows
Navy to level-load shipping dates of recruits
during the most challenging accession months
of February through May.
Expanding
Opportunities to Serve
In today’s competitive environment,
we must explore all avenues to increase our
existing market without sacrificing quality
standards for new recruits.
We have begun accessing limited numbers
of home-schooled applicants as High School
Diploma Graduates (HSDGs), increased our
accession mission for Prior Service personnel
and stepped up our efforts, through
re-establishment of a Diversity Programs
Office, to improve our penetration of diverse
markets.
DEP Enrichment Program.
The DEP Enrichment Program, begun in
Spring 2000, is designed to enhance the basic
skill-level of otherwise qualified candidates
before accessing them into the Navy. We identify individuals with high school diplomas and clean
police records, but whose test scores fall
slightly below those required to qualify for
enlistment.
DEP Enrichment provides participants
with basic skills training and an opportunity
to increase their AFQT score to facilitate
enlisting in the Navy. These candidates are typically good retention risks based on
education credentials and low disciplinary
risks. Basic skills training, provided by Education Specialists
(federal employees) at Navy Recruiting
Districts, affords participants a second
chance to prove themselves and go on to serve
with distinction.
Since Spring FY00, 54 recruits accessed
through DEP Enrichment in the five remaining
months of the year, 121 accessed through the
first eight months of FY01and 161 additional
applicants are in DEP for the rest of FY01 and
FY02.
Diversity Outreach.
Navy currently recruits the largest
percentage of minority accessions but, given
the increasing diversity of the American
people, there is room for improvement. Our Diversity Programs Branch is working several exciting
initiatives to improve penetration of diverse
markets.
VIP tours of Navy commands are a
popular means of exposing applicants and their
influencers to Navy life in order to generate
excitement about Navy opportunities.
Trips conducted this year have been
very well received.
The Diversity Programs Branch has also
begun college campus blitzes to spread the
word of Navy scholarship and job opportunities
on traditionally diverse campuses. Navy has established corporate board membership in the
National Society of Black Engineers, Society
of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the
Society of Mexican American Engineers &
Scientists to ensure that minorities
possessing technical backgrounds are aware of
the many exciting opportunities available in
today’s Navy.
CNRC
Advertising Campaign
CNRC
began fiscal year 2001 with a new advertising
agency and a new advertising campaign,
“Accelerate Your Life”. The core objective is to raise awareness and familiarity of
the Navy brand among young adults, age 17 to
24, and drive these prospects to
1-800-USA-NAVY and the NAVY.COM website,
thereby, generating the maximum number of
qualified leads for field recruiters.
The campaign positions Navy as the
hands-on adventure that will accelerate
recruits to their highest levels of
achievement.
The centerpiece of the campaign is the
“Life Accelerator,” an interactive website
that matches visitor interests with Navy
opportunities.
The site debuted in mid-March and has
already exceeded FY00 website performance by
as much as five times in some areas.
The “Life Accelerator” is the first
step toward a completely online recruiting
process.
Plans
for FY02 are to capitalize on the success of
the” Accelerate Your Life” campaign with a
$22.8 million media plan that includes, $12.4
million for television advertising, $3.6
million for radio advertising, $3 million for
magazine advertising, and $3 million for
Internet advertising.
Additionally, NAVY.COM will be
frequently refreshed to provide prospective
recruits with the most current information
available about the Navy Experience.
Officer
Recruiting
Fiscal Year 2001 has been challenging
for officer recruiting.
We continue to experience significant
shortfalls among Civil Engineers, Chaplains,
Naval Flight Officers, Orthopedic and General
Surgeons, Optometrists, Pharmacists and Health
Care Administrators.
Specialized skill requirements,
civilian market competition for these
specialties, and the potential for emergent
goal increases, put goal attainment at high
risk. Emergent
goal requirements are especially challenging
because we have no in-year incentives, such as
signing bonuses, to offer college graduates or
seniors, most of whom are receiving lucrative
offers from the private sector and who are
carrying significant college debtload.
We have continued to develop long-term
recruiting strategies for critical program
success, and recruiting performance in the
programs of concern is far exceeding FY00
performance.
However, without an accession bonus to
facilitate short-term recruiting importance,
the nominal time for recovery of a recruiting
program remains about two years.
Given
the challenges described above, FY01 has still
enjoyed several bright spots.
The Nuclear Power Officer Candidate (NUPOC)
program filled over 100 percent of its
submarine and surface officer goals the second
consecutive year, having previously failed to
achieve goal since FY96.
Improved incentives for new accessions
and strong resource sponsor support of the
recruiting effort have generated a level of
momentum projected to sustain a successful
NUPOC program in the foreseeable future.
Along
with improving marketing materials, we are
pressing for individuals in critical specialty
fields to participate in our Officer Hometown
Area Recruiting Assistance Program (OHARP).
Senior leadership of several officer
communities is taking an active role in
recruiting the talented individuals needed for
their respective designators.
We are exploring the need for
additional accession bonuses and/or loan
repayment programs to assist with critical
in-year officer accession requirements. We are also reviewing steps to streamline the officer
application process by contracting commercial
physical examinations and establishing
web-based applications, blueprinting and
electronic application routing.
Retention
Enlisted
Retention
We
have been faced with reversing a downward
trend in enlisted retention that was
exacerbated by a nearly decade-long drawdown.
Through a strategy of improving the
balance between recruiting and retention to
correct personnel profile imbalances and
manning shortages, our retention gains in FY00
have carried over into this fiscal year.
With efforts primarily focused on
tasking Navy leaders and managers at all
levels to reengage in the retention battle,
the compensation and Quality of Service
initiatives you have supported are critical.
Your commitment to improving the lives
of Sailors Navy-wide has helped increase
aggregate reenlistment rates in FY01 by seven
percent over the same time period last year.
While short of our long-range steady
state goals required to meet anticipated
manpower needs, it is a confident step in the
right direction.
Sustaining
this level of improvement is vital to
correcting force profile imbalances, reducing
gaps at sea and increasing readiness.
Center
for Career Development (CCD).
The centerpiece of our focus on
retention is our Center for Career
Development, established just one year ago.
CCD funnels energy and resources toward
meeting retention challenges and is dedicated
to providing the fleet with the necessary
tools for enhancing their retention efforts.
These tools include enhanced
professional training for Navy Career
Counselors and Command Retention Teams, Career
Decision Fairs for Sailors and their families,
and comprehensive, easy-to-use, interactive
products using the latest information
technology.
Since its inception, CCD has visited 33
commands, hosted Career Decision Fairs for
more than 5,000 Sailors and their families,
and convinced more than 300 Sailors who were
planning to separate upon completion of their
obligation to reenlist. Had these Sailors left the Navy as originally planned, we
would have spent nearly $10 million in
recruiting and training costs to replace them.
Reenlistments.
The Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB)
program continues to be our most
cost-effective and successful retention and
force-shaping tool.
This year’s improved reenlistment
performance is primarily the result of a 37
percent gain in SRB reenlistments for first
term Sailors and 16 percent gain for career
Sailors.
We are committed to maintaining a
robust SRB program and anticipate comparable
gains in FY02. We must also work harder on increasing reenlistment behavior
in the non-high tech or critically manned
skill groups that are not SRB-eligible.
Increased Basic Allowance for Housing
(BAH) in FY02, targeted specifically at
Sailors in pay grade E4 assigned to sea duty
will have a favorable impact on our critical
first term population.
Increasing
Top Six Pay-grade Authorizations. As a fiscal savings measure during the drawdown, Navy
constrained enlisted advancements, limiting
the top six enlisted pay-grades (E4 to E9) to
not more than 69.9 percent of the force.
During this same period, as more
labor-intensive legacy ships and aircraft were
decommissioned, validated fleet requirements
for petty officers in the top six grew to over
75 percent of the force. Widening of the top six inventory-to-requirements gap has
resulted in billet mismatches throughout the
force, as we task Sailors to perform at levels
above their pay grade and compensation.
In FY01, Navy leadership began
reversing this trend by gradually targeting
increases in the top six to meet fleet
requirements and maintain healthy advancement
opportunity.
In FY01, we are growing our top six to
70.6 percent of the force, permitting us to
advance 2,000 more Sailors than we otherwise
would. We
will increase it further, to 71.5 percent, in
FY02. Consistent
with force requirements and a realistically
balanced advancement policy, continued
increases to the top six remain integral to
Navy’s long-term personnel strategy.
Enlisted
Attrition
One
out of three Sailors who enter the Navy does
not complete the initial four-year service
obligation.
This is an unacceptable level of return
on our recruiting investment and the CNO has
set a goal to reduce first term attrition by
25 percent.
This means, at the unit level, if last
year there were four attrition losses, this
year’s goal should be three or less.
We
are beginning to focus more analytical efforts
at the root causes of attrition, and have
found that primary contributing factors
include recruit quality and poor selection and
classification.
So, we are continuing to focus on
recruiting higher quality young men and women
to the extent practical.
We are also completely reengineering
our recruit selection and classification
processes and systems to find better job
matches for new recruits.
Finally, seeing a recent
increase in the number of positive
first-day drug screenings at boot camp, we
have begun administering non-instrumented drug
tests within 24 hours of new recruits
departing for Recruit Training.
Beyond entry level and training
attrition, we are working aggressively to
overcome a pattern of excessive attrition
through fleet initiatives targeted primarily
at first term Sailors.
BEARINGS is a remedial training
curriculum targeted at young Sailors who
require additional emphasis on life skills
that will see them through their Navy careers,
and beyond.
SECOND CHANCE is aimed at giving young
Sailors struggling in their first assignments
a fresh start at a new command.
Through both programs, we are offering
at-risk fleet Sailors every opportunity to
successfully complete their initial service
obligations.
Officer Retention
Improving
officer retention is critical to meeting
manpower requirements and achieving
steady-state force structure.
Under-accession and over-attrition of
junior officer year groups throughout the
drawdown, coupled with significant changes in
the post-drawdown force structure, mandate
officer retention levels significantly above
the historical norm.
We must continue improving retention to
meet officer manning requirements,
particularly among the Unrestricted Line
communities; i.e., aviation, submarine,
surface and special warfare. We are
beginning to see positive indicators, largely
attributable to Quality of Service
improvements and effective special and
incentive pays that target specific officer
retention problem areas.
However,
the thriving civilian job market
continues to compete directly with retention
efforts.
Aviation Career Continuation Pay (ACCP)
provides incentives for aviators at all levels
to make positive career choices.
After
four years of decline, naval aviation
experienced a 10-percentage point increase in
aggregate retention, from 31percent in FY99 to
41percent in FY00.
However, increased resignations in FY01
are beginning to reflect in lower aggregate
retention rates.
At the end of the second quarter of
FY01, overall aggregate retention has
decreased to 38 percent.
Despite the increase in resignations,
the aviation bonus program has still had a
significant impact on retention and is the
leading factor for maintaining aggregate
retention rates well above FY99’s all time
low of 31 percent.
Surface Warfare Officer retention
through the ninth year of service, at which
time the officer serves as a department head
at-sea, has reached its long-term historical
level of 26 percent, up from its post-drawdown
low of 17 percent for some year groups.
This is largely attributable to Quality
of Service improvements and FY00
implementation of Surface Warfare Officer
Continuation Pay targeted toward department
heads serving at sea.
While FY00 submarine officer retention
dropped from 30 to 28 percent, and
nuclear-trained surface warfare officer
retention showed a marginal increase from 18
to 20 percent, there has been a 30 percent
increase among officers in the target year
groups (1994-96) who have signed multi-year
continuation pay contracts since the FY01
Nuclear Officer Incentive Pay rate increase
was implemented.
Current legislative limits will provide
Navy the necessary flexibility to address
short-term nuclear officer retention
requirements, but the possibility of increased
retention challenges resulting from renewed
interest in civilian nuclear power generation
may necessitate increases to these limits in
the out years.
Special Warfare Officer Continuation
Pay commenced in Fiscal Year 2000 and
contributed to improvements in Special Warfare
Officer Retention, which rebounded to 69 and
68 percent, respectively, in FY99 and FY00,
from an all time low of 63 percent in FY98.
While Special Warfare has the highest
URL officer retention requirements (74
percent), SPECWAR retention outlook continues
to be positive as a result of Quality of
Service improvements and SPECWAR Officer
Continuation Pay, which provides higher rates
for 3-5 year contracts.
We still have more to do in the current
challenging retention climate.
Navy must continue to approach
the officer retention challenge from a number
of different directions, including
implementation of initiatives focused on
improving Quality of Service, particularly at
sea. We must sustain the push to increase aggregate and individual
officer community retention to steady-state
levels to meet control grade requirements and
improve military personnel readiness, thereby
providing the experienced warfare officers
Navy needs to meet a variety of pressing
operational requirements.
Individual
Personnel Tempo (ITEMPO)
The National Defense Authorization Acts
for Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001 enacted
provisions requiring the military services to
begin tracking deployment of members on an
individual basis, and to provide payments to
members who deploy for 401 or more days out of
the preceding 730.
We are well underway in our effort to
collect individual deployment data with more
than half a million ITEMPO events posting to
our database as of mid-June.
We are also diligently engaged in
analyzing the overarching implications of
ITEMPO on Navy’s global operations.
We are in the process of reviewing
operational scheduling, ship maintenance
schedules, employment of communities that
experience historically high OPTEMPO, e.g.,
Seabees, personnel assignment policies, etc.
However, ITEMPO’s full ramifications
are only now becoming clear.
The
program is relatively new (we have about eight
months of data). Because
of its complex properties, the fundamental
changes to Navy operations necessary to comply
with the legislation, have ramifications for
Global Navy Force Presence Policy (GNFPP),
training and readiness, and personnel
assignments.
For example, GNFPP dictates the global
rotation of aircraft carrier battlegroups and
Tomahawk missile coverage in Theaters and
requires National Command Authority and
Unified CINC approval.
This means that the Navy cannot
unilaterally change operating schedules and
that any changes would have National Security
implications.
This
legislation, in its current form, presents
Navy with a formidable dilemma.
About 8,000 Sailors at sea today, for a
variety of reasons, have volunteered for
back-to-back sea tours.
Many prefer to stay on sea duty because
remaining in a specific homeport provides
stability for their families.
Others do so because it enhances
advancement opportunity.
Still others remain at sea to reap the
financial rewards such as entitlement to
Career Sea Pay.
The personal desires of these members
are inconsistent with the intent of ITEMPO
legislation, which discourages prolonged
at-sea assignments.
But, personnel readiness may be
adversely impacted and PCS costs might
increase dramatically if we lose our ability
to permit Sailors to volunteer for
back-to-back sea duty assignments.
We look forward to continuing the
current dialogue to find the balance between
reducing time away from home while carrying
out the rotational nature of naval operations
that require Sailors to deploy for extended
periods.
We are committed to ensuring an outcome
that enhances Quality of Service, while
permitting Navy to meet operational
requirements.
Personnel
Distribution
Sailor
21
Three
Sailor 21 initiatives are funded beginning in
FY02 through Navy’s Future Naval Capability
(FNC) science and technology program:
selection and classification, distribution and
assignment, and personnel planning and policy
analysis.
The
selection and classification initiative
focuses on building technologies to improve
the manner and extent to which the skills,
abilities, and personality traits of incoming
personnel are assessed in order to better
match them to job classifications.
Objectives are to increase success
rates in job performance, service members job
satisfaction and, as a result, retention and
readiness.
FY02 efforts will concentrate on
demonstrating innovative job-skill matching
technologies.
In
FY02, the distribution and assignment
initiative will begin development of a
marketplace approach for service members to
become aware of, and apply for, available
assignments.
Intelligent technologies will ensure
the service member’s knowledge and skill
profile match the job requirements and, to the
extent possible, the location and work
environment meet the member’s needs and
desires and provide career enhancement.
The
personnel planning and policy analysis
initiative builds an integrated monitoring
system so that personnel managers are alerted
to changes (e.g., decreased personnel supply,
new skill requirements), can observe a family
of available response options and their
predicted outcomes, and choose the action with
the greatest likelihood of success. FY02 efforts concentrate on establishing foundations in
predictive measures and effective methods of
data integration and simulation.
We are continuing to examine another
potential Sailor 21 initiative concerning
improvement of recruiter selection and
productivity.
This would include developing more
effective recruiter screening techniques and
instruments and tools recruiters could provide
to clients with more realistic job previews.
Detailer Communication Program
The
primary objective of the Detailer
Communication Program (DCP) is to improve
retention by increasing Sailor satisfaction
with the detailing process.
Detailer/Sailor communication is
considered key to reaching this objective.
Since initiation of this program in
FY00, we have made significant strides towards
improving the vital communication link between
command retention teams, Sailors and
detailers. Our initiative has now transitioned
into a full-time program as we continue to
institutionalize our gains into permanent and
enduring improvements.
In
October 1999, we began a contractor-assisted
initiative focused on improving customer
service in the detailing and assignment
process.
Survey results indicated improvements
could be made to distribution procedures,
which in turn would exert a positive impact on
retention.
In August 2000, four process action
teams began executing a three-phased
implementation plan for improvements.
DCP is accomplishing our strategic
communication goals under the following broad
themes:
Detailer
training pipeline.
Formal communication training has been
put in place to provide all detailers with the
skills to more effectively discuss career
decisions and implicati | 
