ANALYSIS OF THE U.S. NAVYS GOAL-BASED AWARDS SYSTEM AND ITS EFFECT ON RECRUIT QUALITY

Abstract

Commander Navy Recruiting Command (CNRC) has changed the Awards and Incentives system in recent years in an effort to increase recruiter productivity and promote recruit quality goal achievement. The latest awards and incentive system updates have placed increased emphasis on recruit quality in support of Navy Recruiting Commands strategic plan Recruit Force 2020. This thesis provides a detailed overview of the current Navy awards and incentives system. The thesis also attempts to estimate the effect of specific awards on the quality of recruit contracts. Furthermore, this thesis estimates the effect of monthly goaling targets on the quality of recruits. The objective is to determine if the current Navy awards and incentive system has an unintended consequence of reducing recruit quality. The analysis tests whether recruiters sacrifice quality as the end of the month approaches to meet their monthly goaling deadline. Also, the analysis tests the impact of Gold Wreath award on recruiter productivity and recruit quality. The results indicate that recruit quality tends to fall as the end-of-the-month approaches, specifically during the last week of the month. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that recruiters sacrifice quality to obtain their first Gold Wreath award.