Research for compensation

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Eighth Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference: Leading the Change: The Research Community in Navy's Strategic Vanguard
January 1, 2009

The Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training, & Education (N1)) for the eighth year, asked CNA to organize a conference for the Navy manpower and training community leadership and the research organizations that support that community. The goal of the conference was to help researchers better leverage their resources, provide more useful products, and improve the overall research program. The theme for the Eighth Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference held in May 2008, was “Leading the Change: The Research Community in the Navy’s Strategic Vanguard.” Ms. Anita Blair, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (M&RA), Acting, RADM William E. Landay III, Chief of Naval Research, and VADM Mark E. Ferguson III, Chief of Naval Personnel began with plenary sessions. Ms. Blair presented the DoN Human Capital Strategy’s vision and strategic objective. RADM Landay delivered the keynote presentation, which focused on the Office of Naval Research (ONR) science and technology work. VADM Ferguson presented “The Role of Research and Analysis in Achieving FIT”, a total force concept for delivering the right Sailor to the right job. Researchers presented briefings in breakout sessions on manpower, personnel, training, education, diversity, quality of life and related topics.

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Thinking About Military Retirement: An Analysis for the 10th QRMC
March 1, 2008
The current military retirement system dates back to 1947, when Congress implemented a common 20-year system for all services and for officers and enlisted personnel alike. Over the years, critics have charged that the system is (1) excessively costly and unfair to taxpayers, (2) inefficient, (3) unfair to the vast majority of entrants who do not serve long enough to receive any benefits, and (4) inflexible and hampers force management. The purpose of this paper is to provide the 10th QRMC with a discussion of the issues relating to the military retirement system. To set the stage for the discussion that follows, the first main section outlines what a personnel system should do. Here, the purposes of compensation and personnel policy are reviewed and certain institutional constraints that influence the structure of the military compensation system are identified. The next section highlights the structure of the current compensation system and the outcomes that result from this structure. The third main section evaluates the past criticisms of the retirement system. The fourth section discusses the retirement reform recommendations of several past commissions and identifies the broad features of a revised system.
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The Seventh Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference: The Road to a 2025 Total Force
November 1, 2007
The Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training & Education (N1)) has for the seventh year, asked CNA to organize a conference for the Navy manpower and training community leadership and the research organizations that support that community. The conference was held in May of 2007 and like previous conferences it was a success. Once again, the goal of the conference was to help researchers better leverage their resources, provide more useful products, and improve the overall research program. The theme of the Seventh Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference was “The Road to a 2025 Total Force.” The title of the keynote address by ADM Patrick M. Walsh, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, was “Navy 2025—Our Role in Joint Ops and Around the World.” Researchers presented briefings in breakout sessions on manpower, personnel, training, education and related topics such as: Thinking about the Navy’s Future, Civilian Workforce Issues, Officer Education Issues, Reserve Issues, Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), Recruit, Attrition, Retention, Compensation, Diversity, and the Supply Chain. This conference report summarizes each of the breakout sessions.
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Final Report for the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission: Compensation, Survey Results, and Selected Topics
August 1, 2007

The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission (the Commission) asked The CNA Corporation (CNAC) to help assess the appropriateness of the benefits that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides to veterans and their survivors for disabilities and deaths attributable to military service.1 Specifically, the Commission is examining the standards for determining whether a disability or death of a veteran should be compensated and the appropriateness of benefit levels. The overall focus of this project is to provide analyses to the Commission regarding the appropriateness of the current benefits program for compensating for loss of average earnings and degradation of quality of life resulting from service-connected disabilities for veterans. We also evaluated the impact of VA compensation for the economic well-being of survivors and assessed the quality of life of both service-disabled veterans and survivors.

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Improving Reenlistment Incentives and Processes: Analysis of the Perform-To-Serve Program
January 1, 2007
The Navy would like to control its reenlistments using a timely and responsive process that allows it to meet endstrength, encourage qualified Sailors to lateral into undermanned skills and retain the highest quality Sailors. In March 2003, the Navy implemented its Perform-To-Serve (PTS) program as one step toward achieving this goal. PTS is a centrally controlled, application-driven reenlistment system for Zone A Sailors. In this study, done at the request of Director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division (N13), we analyze how the PTS program contributes to the Navy’s overall system of reenlistment policies and processes.
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Improving Reenlistment Incentives and Processes
January 1, 2007
The Navy is intent on maintaining and improving retention of its most qualified Sailors. As part of this effort, the Director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division (N13) requested an analytical review of the reenlistment program. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the current program and to identify changes that would result in a more responsive and cost-effective system. We begin our evaluation by specifying goals and criteria that a good reenlistment system should meet. We then analyze the extent to which current reenlistment policies and processes meet these goals. Finally, where deficits are found we recommend policy changes that may improve the reenlistment system.
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The Sixth Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference: Building on the DON Total Force Strategy
November 1, 2006
The Sixth Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference, sponsored by OPNAV (N1), continued to build on the goal of the Chief of Naval Operations to develop a new human capital strategy for the Navy. The theme for this year’s conference was “Enhancing the Navy Workplace: A Competency-Focused and Performance-Based Culture.” This report organizes the presentations from the conference under the Department of the Navy Total Force Strategy through ten enablers required for total force integration: Compensation and Incentivization Strategy, Strategically Focused Education and Training, Active-Reserve Integration, Workforce Diversity, Sea Warrior, Human Systems Integration, National Security Personnel System, Policy and Legislative Initiatives, Workforce Planning, and Information Systems.
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Lump Sum Alternatives to Current Veterans' Disability Compensation
November 1, 2006

The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission (the Commission) has asked The CNA Corporation (CNAC) to provide a study of the issues involved in offering a one time lump sum payment instead of the current lifetime monthly compensation payments to selected disabled veterans. This topic is of great interest because of the potential benefits both to veterans and to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

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The Effect of Compensation on Aviator Retention
November 1, 2006

The Navy has two pays designed to help attract and retain aviation officers: Aviation Career Incentive Pay (ACIP) and Aviation Career Continuation Pay (ACCP). In principle, these tools provide the Navy with the capability to offer compensation to aviators in order to meet its requirements. This study examines the empirical relationship between financial incentives and retention of aviation officers, as well as the relationship between civilian labor market conditions and aviator retention. Our analysis suggests that increases in relative military pay do lead to increases in pilot retention. Responsiveness to compensation is highest for propeller pilots and lowest for helicopter pilots. In contrast, we do not find any statistical evidence of a relationship between pay and Naval Flight Officer retention. We suspect that this is due to the lack of variation in retention over the time period on which we focus, rather than to the absence of a behavioral response. We also observe a negative relationship between civilian labor market conditions and pilot retention. In principle, increases in ACCP can offset the deleterious effect of a healthy civilian airline industry on pilot retention. For Naval Flight Officers, we do not find any statistical evidence of this relationship.

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Analysis of CIVMAR Attrition and the Role of Shore Leave
May 1, 2006
In the past few years, Military Sealift Command (MSC) leadership has discussed with its civilian mariners (CIVMARs) the idea of increasing shore leave. CNA was asked first to analyze the existence and extent of an MSC attrition problem, and second to analyze the relationship between shore leave and attrition. In the first portion of the study, our analysis did not yield convincing evidence of a significant attrition problem. There has been no upward trend in the attrition rate, and there has been no drop in the experience level of CIVMARs. Accordingly, MSC decided not to pursue an increase in shore leave at this time. In the second portion of the study, we found a negative correlation between shore leave balances and attrition. We found that those mariners who attrite typically have lower shore leave balances, and those that stay typically have higher shore leave balances. Based on CNA’s previous analysis of CIVMAR attrition we conclude that increasing shore leave would reduce attrition, given that shore leave is a form of compensation and the relationship between compensation and attrition is negative. However, the magnitude of the effect appears to be quite small.
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