The High Cost of Lowering Standards for Retention in the Military, and More

Movies are sometimes introduced with the line “Based on a true story”, code for most of this story is true but we’ve spiced it up with sex or an intriguing fictional character. The following story, though, is the real deal.

The U.S. Marines and Stay Interviews for Retention

Back in 2016, I was speaking at a national conference and was approached by Master Sargeant Ryan White of the U.S. Marines, then stationed at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. The Master Sargeant had been sent by his commanding officer to meet me to learn if Stay Interviews could fix the U.S. Marines’ problem with retention. Or said another way, could Stay Interviews motivate more soldiers to sign up for a second stay.

My first thoughts were that nothing is negotiable here…not pay, not benefits, not anything. There are no variables. Every “employee” gets the identical, same thing for working as a U.S. Marine.

But not so according to Master Sergeant Ryan White. His own informal research had shown that the re-enlistment rate correlated with how much each soldier trusted her commanding officer. And his job was to see that a full 25% of Camp LeJeune Marines re-upped.

The end of this story is Ryan’s commanding officer and I developed a proposal to implement Stay Interviews with the U.S. Marines…which ultimately a Pentagon executive pushed to the side of his desk. End of that story. However it highlights that the correlation between “supervisor trust” and “retention” just never goes away. Even with the marines.

The U.S. Air Force Did What to Improve Recruitment and Retention Rates???

Have you ever noticed a local police officer who looks a bit too chubby to chase down a criminal? Had maybe an extra donut or two? I have, and here’s a clue as to how this happens.

Our U.S. Air Force recently announced that they have modified their fitness requirements because they cannot recruit or retain enough soldiers. Check out this April 2023 article from Air ForceTimes that starts with this you-gotta-be-kidding title:

Fatter recruits now welcome as Air Force revises its rules[i]

Here are the highlights:

• In the past, men and women’s bodies needed to be 20% or 28% fat, respectively, to be eligible for service. That benchmark is now 26% for men and 36% for women.

• Officials changed the body fat standard based on the recommendation of a team, led by Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, that was formed to look at recruiting challenges. They anticipate that 50 to 100 more people could join the Air Force each month as a result.

• The change reflects an attempt to adapt to the national obesity crisis that has stymied military recruiting compared to earlier, svelter decades.

Retention Really is a National Epidemic

A few months ago I wrote about how three national pharmacy retailers had cut back on hours for serving their customers because they couldn’t recruit and retain enough staff. These companies call themselves “pharmacies”, CVS being one, and they have much higher profit margins for those pharmaceuticals than they do for mouthwash. Yet they have apparently told their boards of directors they will take a major revenue hit because they can’t solve turnover. Back then I wrote this:

1. Do your lead pharmacists want to manage their teams or would they rather just focus on pharmaceutical work?
2. If they want to be leaders, have you trained them on leadership skills?
3. Do you track turnover by pharmacy, and especially by length of service?
4. And most importantly, do you hold your lead pharmacists to employee retention goals?
5. And if they fail to achieve those goals, do you coach them or move them out of their leadership roles and replace them with someone who wants to lead a team?

No Getting Around that Retention is Directly Tied to Trust

So now we have pharmacies cutting back on customer service hours as well as profits. Our military ignoring proven methods of retention on one hand but implementing lower standards on the other, which is equivalent to raising pay to fix retention problems – not proven to work long term – as I have covered before.

Here’s an idea. Maybe instead of chasing their tail in an endless cycle of wishful quick fixes, our air force can take to the skies pulling old fashioned banners around the United States that say, “The #1 reason employees stay or leave is how much they trust their immediate supervisor and those leaders become your best retention solution” to get the word out to the truly smart businesses and organizations ready to make real long-term change.

You Can Cut Turnover by 20% or More, No Matter Your Industry

There is an established solution for employee turnover…start here to learn our comprehensive turnover solution, and watch the 2-minute video to open your eyes to fresh thinking for cutting turnover 20% and more. Then schedule a conversation with me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com.

[i] https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2023/04/03/fatter-recruits-now-welcome-as-air-force-revises-its-rules/