OFFICER SELECTION TEAM OPTIMIZATION: MAXIMIZING MARINE CORPS OFFICER RECRUITING GOALS

Abstract

Each fiscal year, the Marine Corps identifies goals to recruit highly qualified applicants for future service as officers. As part of that process, specific diversity goals are given to each Marine recruiting region, district, and recruiting station to ensure specified numbers of applicants are black, hispanic, or other, along with the requirement to recruit and select a certain number of female applicants. Achievement of this goal/requirement is delegated to the Marine Corps Officer Selection Stations (OSS). Goals are given to each region, district, and recruiting station, and ultimately the respective OSS based on the Qualified Candidate Population (QCP) in an Area of Responsibility (AOR). The QCP is derived from estimates via studies conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) to determine by sector of the country those academically eligible to be officers based on elements of race, gender, etc. This research uses data derived from Marine Corps Recruiting Command from 2009–2019 to determine distribution of diverse and female accessions for OSSs, districts, and regions, with comparison of those numbers against what is expected based on QCP, and the quality of those accessions for each district. From this analysis, it is clear that diverse/gender combinations are not spread equally throughout the nation, and that QCP does predict well where diversity resides. However, there is a significant gap by percentage of the numbers of accessions versus the expectation per QCP.