Recruiting Crisis? Not at Space Force
The youngest and smallest service says it pays to be both choosy and inclusive.
LAUREN C. WILLIAMS | DECEMBER 1, 2022 04:18 PM ET
SPACE FORCE PERSONNEL ARMY
Unlike its sister services, the U.S. Space Force has little trouble recruiting, according to the branch’s former chief. Being small helps, as does giving opportunities to some who might get rejected by another branch. The main challenge turns out to be spotting the best talent among pools of hundreds of applicants.
“There's been news that there's a recruiting challenge. We haven't seen that in the Space Force,” John “Jay” Raymond, who recently retired as Space Force’s first chief of staff, said Thursday during a Henry L. Stimson Center event. “We only recruit several hundred a year. Rather than thousands and thousands and thousands. So it's an easier challenge. But I will tell you, we have more people knocking on our door than we can take.”
Raymond said Space Force recruiters spend more time assessing potential recruits than persuading them to join up.
“What we've done is, we use the recruiters now to get the pool of people. We bring them in and we do assessments on them. And then we have a board and we pick which ones are coming in and the quality of our folks—and not that we were bad before—but the quality of our folks both on the enlisted side and the officer side is through the roof.”
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/12/recruiting-crisis-not-space-force/380369/
