Matthew Weiss's Blog, page 2

Chapter 11: Reskilling The Labor Force Through Military Jobs

Future Zers at later ages in life are a recruiting pool that will need skills to remain relevant.

 

Solution: The military can be the great reskilling program older Zers will be looking for.

 

 There's the often-repeated expression that 40 is the new 30. For Z, a better trope would be that 30 is the new 20, since you can become a better version of your past self. With further research and investment in anti-aging lifestyles, [1] [2] science is delivering the first generation to live forever (or, more realistically, the first generation in modern times to achieve a massive 5-10 year jump in life expectancy). While the military has traditionally recruited from a young age pool, the most significant opportunity to attract Z may still be years away. As the oldest Zers turn 26, it's reasonable to prepare to continue to make the military appeal to them for at least a decade and a half more. As Zoomers continue to age, there are positive reasons to believe that their grit and ability to get challenging jobs done will increase over time. [3] Counteracting this positive trajectory will be that the skills needed to stay current in a dynamic world economy will be ever-changing. Future Zers at later ages in life are a recruiting pool that will need skills to remain relevant. The military can offer the reskilling program that Zers are looking for…

[1] Delbert, Caroline. “Jeff Bezos Is Paying for a Way to Make Humans Immortal.” Popular Mechanics. January 26, 2022. https://www.popularmechanics.com/tech....

[2] Oliver Zolman, M.D. https://www.oliverzolman.com/

[3] Duckworth, Angela L., Christopher Peterson, Michael D. Matthews, and Dennis R. Kelly. “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92, no. 6 (2007): 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.....

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

Chapter 10: Allowing Changing Work Patterns In The Military

Z wants to have the flexibility of being remote combined with the experience of occasionally being mobile when crafting work in the 21st century.

 

Solution: Increasing remote work, encouraging more lax leave policies, and recruiting foreigner Zers are ways to support the next generation of recruits.

 

 

Some of the greatest military conquests of all time have been accomplished by nomadic warriors. Genghis Khan led the Mongols on horseback throughout Asia, and Alexander the Great streamed down from Greece to present-day India. Occasionally moving from one's home is deeply rooted in our hunter-gatherer genetics. As the world industrialized, travel receded, and everything humans needed to survive was closely located with them. While the urge to travel and explore is nothing new, Gen Z has more flexibility in both where they geographically want to work and when they choose to do so. The movement to remote work saw Z become the first generation to do the better portion of a year of online schooling. Zooming became the method of collaborating as purely digital meetings flourished. While the jury is out on whether permanent remote work is here to stay or not, the experience forged a generation that will continue to want to use innovation to increase optionality around location and distance. Z wants to have the flexibility of being remote combined with the experience of occasionally being mobile when crafting work for themselves in the 21st century…

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” i s available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

Chapter 9: Smoothing Out Economic Cycles

The economic impact of recessions and boom cycles on joining the military make recruitment too cyclical.

 

Solution: The military recruitment needs to be detached from economic cycles by promoting side hustles and explaining pay in ways that are similar to other jobs.

 

 

The larger macroeconomic cycle is going to have an impact on every industry. The military, being a government organization that must always be on call, is actually countercyclical to prevailing hiring trends. For one, it's reasonable to say that the world gets more unstable during economic crashes as the potential for conflict rises, thus encouraging increased spending on the military. More than that, when other companies freeze hiring and shut their doors to new graduates, the military becomes a much more attractive option with its pay guarantee and stable job. For years, recruiters have battled the federal reserve while trying to maintain balanced numbers throughout the whole cycle. Current estimates have that a 10% decrease in civilian unemployment reduces the number of qualified recruits by upwards of 4%. [1]

While joining the military isn't often done to make money, relative economic progress and social standing matter. Contrary to popular perception, the military is firmly made up of the middle class of Americans. Among enlisted recruits, the middle three income quintiles are overrepresented, and the top and bottom quintiles are underrepresented [2] . Putting this together, the military's recruiting focus logically attracts the middle class and should ideally be able to maintain that middle-class lifestyle during and post-service. In the end, the economic impact of recessions and boom cycles on joining the military makes recruitment too cyclical. Military recruitment needs to be detached from economic cycles by promoting side hustles and explaining pay in ways that are similar to other jobs…

 

[1] John T. Warner, “The Effect of the Civilian Economy on Recruiting and Retention,” in U.S. Department of Defense, Report of the Eleventh Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, supporting research papers, Part 1, Chapter 2, June 2012

[2] Council on Foreign Relations. “Demographics of the U.S. Military.”. Accessed April 9, 2023. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demo.... 

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

Chapter 8: Improving Service To Fit Modern Timelines

Gen Z wants to move faster and there is a huge premium placed on time.

 

Solution: The option of shorter service contracts should exist.

 

Career patterns are changing. The typical trajectory of staying at one company for decades has declined since the turn of the century. Young Zers no longer talk about four to five years on the job, they're switching as much as every two years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that "the median tenure of workers ages 55 to 64 (9.8 years) was more than three times that of workers ages 25 to 34 years (2.8 years). [1] From a consistency standpoint, the four years as a high school student may be the longest-tenured position that Zers ever hold. Karin Kimbrough, the chief economist at LinkedIn, said in a statement that "it's normal for career starters to be in an experimental phase where they're still figuring out what they want out of a job, and aren't always ready and willing to settle [2] ". This sets the generation up with major commitment issues that are directly at odds with the nature of current military contracts. Generally speaking, the standard military contract requires four years of active duty and some portion in the reserves. Although nuances exist, nearly all contracts have an eight-year "total commitment" to the force. Just the concept of eight years to the average 18-year-old Zoomer is frightening. Overall, Z places a massive emphasis on optionality. They want to keep up with the fast-moving information age and progress at a much quicker rate than their ancestors. There is a huge premium placed on speed and time. The military must keep up with this and satisfy the dilemma of the clock…

 

[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Tenure Summary §. USDL-22-1894 (2022).

[2] Hoff, Madison. “How Gen Z Is Winning the Great Resignation, from Pay Increases to Better Work-Life Balance.” Business Insider. Business Insider. Accessed April 10, 2023. https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z....

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

 

Chapter 7: Paying For Performance

Everyone gets paid the same with no true reward structure. Pay in the military is incongruous in a generation that watches their peers gain followers through Youtube and Instagram. Better content, and better performance = more money.

 

Solution: The DoD should begin performance pay as bonuses for success, and money for food with a college style meal plan to encourage healthiness and choice.

 

 

Money is often the most controversial topic in military affairs. While crafting the world's largest defense budget, America's politicians are planning to spend $857.9 billion in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. [1] With such a large number, it's daunting to imagine the thousands of accounting lines these dollars eventually funnel into. Hundreds of books and speakers have opined on defense spending, and many of the recruitment problems facing the military could easily be hand-waved with more money. However, the nation must stay fiscally responsible and we’re running out of money to spend. Instead of just "throwing more money" at these recruitment issues, the premise the Armed Forces must operate under is that they will have to make do with less. They must assume they won’t be able to spend a single dollar more on recruitment, but instead have to work harder and smarter with what they've been allocated. The military way of dealing with large war campaigns is to break things down to the strategic, operational, and tactical (SOT) levels. This strong framework is perfect for planning to tackle defense budgeting.

The strategic level concerns Generals and Congress, the topline numbers that go into major line items like how much each service branch is budgeted annually. The operational level is where each service branch invests in key weapons programs, training initiatives, and their yearly goals for manning and equipping troops. The rubber meets the road at the tactical level, and financial decisions here can most directly impact current and prospective military individuals. The financial item most significantly tied to recruitment is naturally base pay. Military base pay is an extremely complex bureaucratic system that doesn't lend itself well to serving modern-day recruiting. This chapter focuses on understanding how pay in the military is incongruous with Generation Z, and proposes that shaping a better performance-based rewards system will incentivize more recruits…

[1] James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

Chapter 6: Modernizing The Health Accession System

Gen Z has similar if not better physical health profiles than past generations yet ridiculous medical standards prevent many from joining.

 

Solution: The entire health waiver process needs to be re-done, focusing only on if servicemembers are physically able to do their future job or not.

 

The military stands out from other sectors of society in that its work often has some physical component. While increasingly more jobs require little to no daily physical activity, each service branch still mandates a baseline level of health standards to complete its mission. One of the "big four" disqualifiers for potential Gen Z recruits is due to health considerations. Certain officials can use this as a cover when putting the blame back on the youth for not being up to recruitable standards. What is actually going on when people give these inflated numbers of "Americans unfit for service" is a classic example from the famous 1954 book by Darell Huff titled “How to Lie with Statistics.” [1] Generation Z is no more unhealthy than Boomers, Millennials, or the Greatest Generation that won WWII. Instead, our healthcare and digital record tracking improvements have wholly detached the military performance goals we aim for from the statistical ground truth that the data represents. Overall, Gen Z has similar, if not better, physical health profiles than past generations, yet ridiculous medical standards prevent many from joining. From the nonsensical disqualifiers like eczema and flat feet to the more severe like spinal curvature, these outdated rules need to be analyzed by new healthcare professionals. The entire health waiver process needs to be redone, focusing only on if service members are physically able to do their future job or not…

[1] Huff, Darrel, and Irving Geis. How to Lie with Statistics. New York: Norton, 1993.

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

Chapter 5: Assisting Frontline Recruiters In the Struggle

Z has a tough balancing act between listening to elder’s wisdom and having more knowledge than them. The recruiting job needs to work to with this trend.

 

Solution: Recruiters should adopt a “keeping it real” approach in concert with improving recruiter training and treatment though centralization, and applying a business-minded approach.

 

 

Throughout American history, there has always been some healthy tension between the young and the old. The debate about experience vs. fresh new perspectives rings more true now than in the past, because today's youth may be the first generation that is better informed than their elders. An idle young person can absorb more about the world through endless streams of podcasts, videos, and audiobooks, creating the effect of them quite literally knowing 10x more than adults at a very young age. Z, in particular, has a tougher balancing act between respect for authority and knowing simply more skills/information than Millennials or Gen X. Deciding when to listen to older people's wisdom and when to choose their own paths is a current sticking point. This paradigm hits hardest at the recruiter-recruit level.

The recruiter is the individual at the tip of the spear in the effort to bring new citizens into the military. Many describe this role as one of the hardest in the entire armed forces. To speak here as a naïve Gen-Zer who has never sat in the recruiter chair, and make direct recommendations to them specifically about the nitty gritty of their challenging job would be disingenuous. However, the fresh perspective of tying these Z trends together to reform the recruiting structure may successfully spark the proper debate. With some Zers knowing more than their older recruiters, the job has to carefully balance this trend by "keeping it real," improving recruiter training and treatment through centralization, and applying a business-minded approach…

Matthew Weiss is currently an Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. His book, “We Don’t Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z” is available on amazon in paperback, e-book, and audiobook format.

 

Chapter 4: Enabling Veterans To Continue To Serve

In order to help convince parents to support their children in joining the military, Veterans need to be inspired to transparently tell their past experiences.  

 

Solution: All service members should be put in a college degree program to build toward their future so they desire more to help the institution once they are out of it.

 

Zoomers are moving in with Boomers. In a trend that mirrors what has occurred over the past decades with our European counterparts, many young adults are moving back home with their parents. Perhaps due to the rising cost of rent or the practice being made more socially acceptable by the pandemic, parents have a more significant impact on Z than the rebellious Millennials, who would look down upon living at home. Along with this reconnection to home living comes the natural desire in any young person to please one's parents. It's human nature to want to make Mom and Dad proud, and parents often are major driving influences on young Zers' decisions. It logically tracks that to recruit more Zoomers into the military, part of the strategy must involve persuading their parents. This monumental and life-changing decision often comes after deep, and sometimes painful, conversations with elders. A significant concern for 21st-century parents is the outcomes their children will have when joining the service. Besides safety, which is usually paramount, education and future job prospects when assimilating back into society are at the top of their mind. Only one group knows about the transformation and reintegration that encompasses an entire cycle of 21st-century service: modern Veterans. To help convince parents to support their children in joining the military, Veterans need to be inspired to transparently tell how their experiences impacted their future…

 

Chapter 3: Reaching A Changing Congregation

Generation Z has a different relationship with religion than in the past. They often get their sense of morals and beliefs from a myriad of sources.

 

Solution: The military must tap into new, non-traditional outlets like influencers to reach Zoomers.

Regardless of the various views on religion, one undeniable fact is that Generation Z is poised to be the least religious generation in the history of America. As a practicing Jew who had a Bar Mitzvah and attempts to observe the Sabbath every week, I’ve watched my faith leaders decry the “great secularization” of today’s youth. Many of my Christian, Hindu, and Muslim peers have witnessed a similar trend. Without exploring the causes of this, the military should recognize and adapt accordingly.

 Religion and the United States military have long been linked together. Our citizens were religious, so naturally, the military was, too. The close connection between beliefs in God and the afterlife to the permanent and often deadly nature of warfare may also explain the intense relationship. War is the most horrible and dangerous act humans engage in. With our strong survival instincts and terror of dying, [1] religion often helps bring meaning to the actions armies are forced to commit. The military has long fought to bring the religious freedoms experienced here in the United States to nations we've fought for and against. It has also gone to great lengths to support servicemembers' religious practices, sometimes even in dangerous combat situations. The military officially recognizes over 220 religions [2] (including atheism) and has a large and diverse chaplain corps of ~2,800 faith leaders. Sadly, even the Chaplain corps is now facing recruitment issues…

[1] Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973.

[2] Winston, Kimberly. “Defense Department Expands Its List of Recognized Religions.” Religion News Service, April 23, 2017. https://religionnews.com/2017/04/21/d....

Chapter 2: Differentiating Through Competition

Competitive Zers want to signal that what they are doing is differentiated so they can rank themselves. The military should better display niche MOS communities, credentials, and clear billeting pipelines to attract competitive candidates.

 

Solution: The military must display niche MOS communities, credentials, and clear billeting pipelines to attract competitive candidates in small formalized group-chats (GTG = Good To Go Group).

 

 

 The ~70 million kids who have grown up hunting for likes, retweets, and shares are now becoming young adults who want to compete in the working world. Z has nurtured a mindset that allows them to do activities and make proclamations that rank them in society. David and Jonah Stillman, [1] the authors of "Gen Z at work," explain that Gen Z believes there are winners and losers in the world. In high school, the likes one receives on a Facebook picture or the following-follower ratio one has on Instagram signifies social status. Z now realizes that these metaphysical bits and bytes, which confer "points" in youth, can also be obtained in adulthood. This social competition leads to a strong desire for signaling amongst Zoomers. Tons of research literature [2] is focused on analyzing social hierarchies. For all their lamentable aspects, they fulfill innate human needs for resource allocation and understanding in a way that motivates.

History has long recognized social capital and status. However, today's modern digital teenager has a more transparent, more instant, and more public accounting system to do so. Three converging trends are heavily influencing today's hierarchies. Firstly, niche communities are making social rankings more focused. Second, this ranking system is often tabulated by the visual progress one can project and display. Third, Zers want to know the clearly defined paths to climbing in these hierarchies; the so-called rules for winning.

 

[1] Stillman, Jonah. Gen Z @ Work - How The Next Generation Is Transforming the Workplace. HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2017.

[2] Halevy, Nir, Eileen Y. Chou, and Adam D. Galinsky. “A Functional Model of Hierarchy.” Organizational Psychology Review 1, no. 1 (2011): 32–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386610380991.