全球智库信息集成服务系统

There Is Considerable Opportunity to Identify Positions Suitable for Military-to-Civilian Conversion

• Almost half of military personnel vacate their positions every year, and there are several occupations that have been largely civilianized by one service but not by other services.
• Substitution ratios of 70 percent appear to be feasible, on average. Between fiscal years 2004 and 2012, it was common for approximately seven government civilians to move into positions that were previously held by ten military service members.

But There Are Numerous Impediments to Authorizing and Executing Military-to-Civilian Conversions

• A few statutes and policies preclude conversions, even when the conversions can be shown to be cost-effective. These include Section 701 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Section 955 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, and civilian full-time equivalent ceilings imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense.
• Funds covering military personnel are managed at the service level, while funds covering government civilians are managed at the installation level. Consequently, installation commanders regard military personnel as free from cost. Moreover, installations that propose conversions risk losing military personnel without securing the means to hire new civilians.
• Some conversions that are planned and authorized are not executed. Root causes include the two-year lag between the time when conversions are programmed and budgeted and the time when funds are appropriated, the sluggishness and rigidity of the civilian hiring process, and general confusion about the process for executing authorized conversions.

This report examines recent patterns in military-to-civilian conversion — that is, converting military positions to government civilian positions — to identify the primary impediments to such conversions. While Section 129(a) of Title 10 of the United States Code directs the Secretary of Defense to determine the "most appropriate and cost efficient mix" of personnel required to accomplish the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD's) mission, a variety of constraints make it difficult to achieve that goal. RAND's assessment drew on three lines of analysis: (1) a review of statutes and policies governing performance of work by military service members, government civilian employees, and contractors; (2) an analysis of administrative data on DoD military and civilian personnel covering the most recent wave of military-to-civilian conversions (fiscal years 2004–2012); and (3) discussions with subject matter experts across DoD. The RAND team concluded that there is considerable opportunity to identify positions suitable for military-to-civilian conversion. However, there are also numerous impediments to authorizing and executing these conversions. The report offers recommendations for changes to statutes, policies, and business practices that would facilitate military-to-civilian conversions and motivate greater use of this force management tool, should that be DoD's goal.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  An Overview of Statutes, Directives, and Instructions

• Chapter Three

  Insights from Empirically Estimated Military-to-Civilian Conversions

• Chapter Four

  Impediments to Authorizing and Executing Military-to-Civilian Conversions

• Chapter Five

  Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Best Practices for Employing Military-to-Civilian Conversions

• Appendix B

  Methodology for Expert Elicitation