Summary: A pressing problem facing the military services at the present time is determining the best way to use monetary incentives to attract and keep quality people within the force. The total compensation package is seen as a set of management tools to be used to achieve specific mission-related goals and requirements rather than a set of individual components. Fundamental changes are needed in the way military members are managed and paid, and manpower problems need to be handled in the most cost-effective way. Since switching to the All-Volunteer Force (AVF), the supply of military manpower has become entirely dependent upon conditions of the labor market. Serious manning level shortfalls have been experienced in the reserves. In the Active Force, the problems are in recruiting and retaining quality people with the right mix of skills and experience. To overcome staffing problems in the most efficient manner, managers should have adequate resources, authority to apply the resources in a timely manner, authority to make adjustments, authority to target the resources to the problem areas, and good feedback to know if the targeting is working. Some of the alternative monetary incentives for achieving recruitment and retention goals are: regular military compensation, special and incentive pays, educational benefits programs, and enlistment and reenlistment bonus programs. Comments focused on the use of monetary incentives to attract and retain the quantity and quality of people the services need. It was emphasized that there are many nonmonetary management actions which the services can and should pursue before reaching a conclusion that additional money is the only way to solve the problem.
