Research for Enlisted Personnel

The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for evaluating minimum qualifiying standards that incorporate policy guidance and directives together with data from the Job Performance Measurement (JPM) project. First, policy guidance and directives are discussed and defined more precisely for use in quantitative analyses. The policy statements are then applied to results from the JPM project to compute a minimum qualifying aptitude score for the infantry occupational field.

A surrogate measure is an expedient indicator of job proficiency that is reliable and valid and that yields results similar to a Hands On Performance Test (HOPT). HOPTs are the benchmark by which surrogates should be compared but HOPTs are too expensive, dangerous, or time intensive to use for most purposes. This paper uses Job Performance Measurement (JPM) data to analyze the usefulness of six surrogates (proficiency marks, training grade point average, conduct marks, job knowledge tests, video firing tasks, and supervisor ratings) for infantry tests. The paper addresses how useful each proxy would be for setting infantry enlistment standards and assessing Marine Corps training needs.

This research memorandum briefly reviews trends in Marine Corps first-term attrition and then analyzes recruit background characteristics and Marine Corps environment variables associated with successful adaptation to Marine Corps life. Three measures of success are examined: completion of the first term of service, completion of the first term of service at the rank of corporal, and retention beyond the initial service obligation.

This research memorandum investigates whether enlisted endstrength cuts can be implemented to meet the following objectives: The personnel structure of the Navy after the strength cuts should be stable, advancement opportunity should change as little as possible, and endstrength cuts should be taken without having to extend involuntary separations beyond current policy. The analysis shows that these goals can be met by phasing cuts over a number of years if the percentage of petty officers in the inventory is simultaneously increased by a small amount.