Findings and Implications of the Assignment Incentive Survey
Published Date: October 1, 2002
Abstract:D6620 Because the Navy must order personnel into hard-to-fill billets, negative impacts on manning can result. Consequently, the Navy is considering ways to restructure the assignment system including the implementation of an Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP). The Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Manpower and Personnel (N1B) asked the CNA Corporation to analyze the attractiveness of alternative incentives meant to persuade Sailors to volunteer for historically hard-to-fill billets. To do so, we developed and administered the Assignment Incentive Survey. Against the backdrop of upcoming AIP implementation, the most important findings from the analysis are those that relate to the effects of special pay on Sailors' assignment preferences. At the most fundamental level, we find that pay is an effective way to sway people's assignment decisions, which indicates that AIP is likely to work. For example, a monthly special pay of between $60 and $900 would make an assignment to Japan attractive. The amount of money that will make a hard-to-fill attractive differs depending on Sailors' dependent status and current assignment location. For example, Sailors without spouses or children have less of a home-basing preference, so these Sailors will most likely be the first to fill hard-to-fill billets with AIP attached.
