Research for Job Proficiency

This research memorandum examines one of the major constraints on skill utilization for Navy enlisted personnel: the requirements for sea/shore rotation. It presents a simple model of the relationship between the rotation policy for a skill community and the utilization rate for that skill. The model can be used to calculate the number of people needed to keep requirements filled while maintaining the prescribed rotation patterns. The model is applied both to ratings and to Navy Enlisted Classification codes (NECs).

This research memorandum examines the relationship between recruit characteristics and recruit success. The analysis uses three related measures of recruit performance and several recruit characteristics obtained from enlistment applications to determine the characteristics of recruits who are more likely to be successful. Indexes of recruit-success propensity for recruits with different characteristics are calculated for each of the three performance measures.

This research contribution uses data on the productivity of Naval Reserve recruiters to estimate the effects of on-the-job learning, experience, and individual characteristics on job performance. The econometric approach begins with the Poisson distribution, whose mean is assumed to be a function of explanatory variables. Generalizations are specified to control for individual heterogeneity as well as over-dispersion.

To make informed decisions concerning the allocation and management of military personnel, policymakers must have information that reflects the competence of their personnel -- the extent to which individuals can perform their job requirements. The Marine Corps Job Performance Measurement Project is a significant research effort to produce measures of job proficiency that will allow for such an absolute interpretation of test scores. This research contribution describes a test construction technique that results in the estimation of competency scores. Although the distribution of competency scores has implicit meaning with respect to a domain of job requirements, policymakers often have little knowledge of whether a particular score is acceptable or not. The interpretation of competency scores can be enhanced by establishing interpretative anchors for various performance levels of the competency score distribution. These interpretative anchors assist policymakers by providing a concrete reference against which to base their decisions and are essential in establishing the linkage of aptitude and job performance in determining enlistment standards.