Recruiter Management in the Department of the Air Force

Fiscal year 2023 was among the hardest years in recent memory for military recruiting. The Air Force Recruiting Service (AFRS) asked RAND researchers to determine how to better manage the selection and assignment of enlisted accessions recruiters in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). To conduct this analysis, the authors assembled data on U.S. Air Force enlisted accessions recruiters, recruiting offices, enlistment contracts, recruiting goals, and the economic and demographic conditions in territories in which recruiting offices operate. They analyzed this information using regression analysis and other statistical techniques. This report documents the authors' efforts to link data on recruiters, recruiter productivity, recruiting goals, and the economic conditions in different recruiting markets. The report presents the results of three analyses: (1) determining which individual characteristics of recruiters are most strongly linked to recruiter productivity, (2) identifying where the Department of the Air Force could add recruiter billets, and (3) examining how the factors affecting recruiter productivity are different in two types of markets. The report also provides recommendations for improving AFRS administrative data in ways that would support recruiter management and analyses within AFRS.