SITREP: Army Reserve recruiting, retention and training

My apologies for the lengthy and somewhat text-heavy note that follows. Rest assured this is important summer reading for our loyal supporters.

Army Reserve recruiting, retention and training

Reserves 2000 has received briefings from the Commander Canadian Army (CCA) and Army Staff which indicate that the policy changes made last year to how units recruit, train and retain have begun to have a positive effect on Army Reserve strength.

As of the week of 18 June 2018, the strength of the Army Reserve had increased by about 800 soldiers since the policy changes became effective in April 2017. The multi-year decline in strength has finally been arrested.

As many supporters are aware, the Army is tracking 160 Army Reserve units and sub-units — presumably those units and sub-units with distinct Unit Identification Code numbers (UICs). In the 15 months since the new policies were put into effect, 97 or 61% of these units or sub-units have shown growth. Interestingly, of the 63 that did not show growth, just 15 are located in smaller communities. Six units on the ‘growth list’ are based in communities with populations of less than 35,000.

Obviously, the bookends to this good news story are improved recruiting success and increased retention. Recruiting is now much more efficient and enrollment has increased by a factor of 3x over the same period last year.

The Strategic Intake Plan (SIP) is no longer the albatross around an Army Reserve Commanding Officer’s neck that it once was. Hopefully the days of SIP quotas assigned to units that were below the predicted rate of attrition are over — forever.

Owing to the outgoing CCA’s early and well-publicized statements to forget the SIP and just recruit as many candidates as possible, the numbers being processed have risen dramatically. And since most of the recruiting process is now under the control of units, the duration of the enrollment process is shortening — though not as quickly as the CCA wants.

The greatest bottleneck in the Army Reserve enrollment process remains the approval of medicals, and other than the vital step of ensuring that files go forward with all the medical information required, medical approvals lie beyond the local unit’s control. Medical files are still approved centrally but if a file has all the information required, it will generally be processed within 17 days.

Unfortunately those are only 20% of the files received by the Surgeon General. The rest require further steps before the authority to enrol can be given — a process which, currently, may take as long as 147 days.

Evidently, today’s potential recruits may have medical issues that were less known in previous generations such as the use of drugs, either prescription or illegal; or, for example, a history of asthma. It appears that these types of files are the norm these days, not the exception.

In order to trim some of the medical processing time for units where the facility for secure file sharing exists, medical files are being created and exchanged more quickly than snail mail. In the near term some smaller or more remote units may not yet have access to the secure “net” and are not unable to benefit from this welcome initiative. Reliability (security) screening is currently running at approximately 17 days.

The unit must have a qualified individual in order to administer the Canadian Forces Aptitude Test, but this was recognized well ahead of time. Most units should now have one or more qualified staff on hand to administer the test. In some cases the individual who was qualified to administer the test has left the unit. In these situations units are despatching candidates to a nearby location or bringing in a qualified person to assist their unit. This can be problematic for units not located in or near larger urban centres.

Progress is being made. By mid-June 2018 some 600 new enrollments had occurred. During the same period in 2017, just 200 individuals were enrolled.

After recruiting, the other most critical factor necessary to grow the Army Reserve is improved retention. Attrition during the last fiscal year was 15% or 4% lower than the previous year, which brings it back into the longer term historical range. However it’s not yet known if this represents the beginning of a trend to lower attrition.

It should be noted, however, that 15% attrition for the Army Reserve does not mean a total loss for the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole. Some 25% of that figure — or 632 soldiers — actually transferred to the Regular Force. While difficult for Reserve units, this does represent a huge bonus for Canada as very few of those 632 will be training failures. Indeed, many will not require any further training to step right into full-time positions. If only the losing units could be compensated in some way!

The most important new policy impacting retention is Full Time Summer Employment (FTSE). From 1 May to 31 Aug, any soldier in their first four years of service will be offered as much employment as they wish. Wisely, administration has been streamlined to a single contract and a single route letter for the whole period of time.

Individual training, including on-the-job Training (OJT), will be the top priority. We hope that by the end of this summer the backlog of 4,500 soldiers, who (as of 31 May) who had not yet completed Development Period 1 (DP1), will have been dramatically reduced while, of course, all the new recruits subsequently enrolled will have completed DP1.

This is a huge task but the Government of Canada’s Defence Policy entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged guarantees the funding and the CCA is on record that the Army must find the instructors, classrooms, ranges and training areas.

As of 7 Jun 2018, 4,125 soldiers had either signed up for the all or part of the summer or signalled their intent to do so.

Here, then, is the beginning of the resolution of the unit leadership problem. If most of those who qualify to DP1 this summer sign up again next summer, many should be able to qualify as junior leaders over their third and fourth summers, such that units have a shot at returning to self-sufficiency at the junior NCM and junior Officer leadership levels.

After guaranteed summer employment, coupled with predictable meaningful training during the winter months, we hope to see a further reduction of attrition rates.

New initiatives in Strong, Secure, Engaged

Canada’s new defence policy statement, Strong, Secure, Engaged, set out 9 new initiatives which demonstrate the federal government’s desire to strengthen the Reserves while also enhancing Canada’s overall defence capabilities.

Given that Strong, Secure, Engaged is now official government policy, we expect that the appropriate funding will be made available to Reserve formations and units.

The 9 initiatives which will also enhance the role and capabilities of the Army and CAF include:

    1. Increase the size of the Primary Reserve Force to 30,000 (an increase of 1,500) and dramatically reduce the duration of the initial recruitment process from a number of months to a matter of weeks.

    2. Assign Reserve Force units and formations new roles that provide full-time capability to the Canadian Armed Forces through part-time service, including: Light Urban Search and Rescue; Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence; Combat capabilities such as direct fire, mortar and pioneer platoons; Cyber Operators; Intelligence Operators; Naval Security Teams; and Linguists.

    3. Enhance existing roles assigned to Reserve Force units and formations, including: Information Operations (including Influence Activities); Combat Support and Combat Service Support; and Air Operations Support Technicians.

    4. Employ the Reserve Force to deliver select expeditionary missions in a primary role such as Canadian Armed Forces capacity building.

    5. Create an agile service model that supports transition between full- and part-time service and provides the flexibility to cater to differing Reserve career paths.

    6. Align Primary Reserve Force remuneration and benefits with those of the Regular Force where the demands of service are similar.

    7. Revise annuitant employment regulations to attract and retain more former Regular Force personnel to the Reserves.

    8. Offer full-time summer employment to Reservists in their first four years with the Reserves commencing in 2018

    9. Work with partners in the federal government to align federal acts governing job protection legislation. Subsequently we will work with provinces and territories to harmonize job protection for Reserves at that level.

To address the issue of increasing capability, the CCA has assigned new mission tasks to the first tranche of Reserve units that were identified in 2017. These are new capabilities identified by the CCA as most needed within the broader Army. They include: Mortars, heavy machine guns, pioneers, light urban search and rescue, information operations and public duties. The weapons, vehicles and other equipment to support these tasks are now in place — or will be shortly.

The additional Regular Army cadre required to provide the instruction and mentoring skills for the new mission tasks are being posted to the units concerned this year. The allotment of Regular Force Cadre positions to Reserve units will be 100% filled this year by quality personnel as opposed to sick, injured or personnel slated for long duration career courses away from the posted unit.

Upcoming Army Change of Command

As I noted in our last update, the current CCA, LGen Paul Wynnyk CMM MSM CD will hand over command of the Army to LGen Jean-Marc Lanthier CMM MSC MSM CD next Monday, July 16, 2018 at a change of command parade to be held on Parliament Hill.

LGen Wynnyk has been an excellent Commander by any measure, but for the Army Reserve he has been simply outstanding. While it’s often remarked that the current Minister, CDS and CCA are personally “invested” in strengthening the Army Reserve. Surely, though, LGen Wynnyk has put more of his own professional capital into it than any other individual in recent memory. This took a certain amount of courage and Reserves 2000 is delighted to see the first indications that his vision and our collective efforts will begin to reap dividends for Canada’s Reserve soldiers. May those dividends be generous!

Reserves 2000 wishes LGen Wynnyk well in his new position as Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and we look forward to working with LGen Lanthier. We’ll hold our first meeting with the incoming CCA in due course. .

As always, please feel free to contact me anytime by telephone (416.868.1186) or email with your comments, concerns or suggestions on any developments in your locale.

John Selkirk, Lieutenant Colonel (retired)