At ease, recruiters. Yes, it's important to keep a beat on the fastest growing, lowest turnover, exciting 
companies who have proven their ability to continually scale and build new and awesome teams. While it's easy to focus on companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, one of the biggest, most successful recruiting organizations often goes unmentioned. The US Army recruits thousands of men and women every year, from every class, level of education, and ethnicity. Let's take a look at some of their practices and see how they can be emulated to help your own organization.
By the Numbers
This table, from the US Army recruiting website, breaks down the number of new recruits, segmenting by gender and ethnicity. Comparing the behemoth numbers of added personnel (just over 69,000) to the total number of active personnel, the Army boasted growth of just over 5% in 2013. Also of note is the Reserves managing to make 26% of their recruits female. Similarly to engineering and other tech roles, military service is traditionally a male-centric profession. Clearly, when it comes to volume and diversity, we could all stand to learn something from the Armed Forces!
So how do Army recruiters maintain such impressive growth? By breaking down their extensive web presence, it's not hard to identify the facets of service they stress to attract talent. In fact, much of what they emphasize falls directly in line with what we at Entelo have heard over and over again are the most important issues to candidates.
Personal Development
As important as retention is, it's also impractical to believe that all of your hires are going to retire as aged, revered veterans of your organization. Most candidates aren't thinking about a job as a place to settle down for decades, but rather in terms of how it can help them grow and develop their careers. Similarly, the Army recognizes they're not recruiting for life. Just look at the following screenshot from the GoArmy.com homepage, taking notice of how often individual development is featured.
Stressing the technical careers recruits can have in the Army suggests they are not merely signing up for a tour of grunt work, but rather picking up skills they can use in their future careers. The videos at the bottom are individual testimonials about soldiers who achieved advanced degrees with the help of the Army.
Naturally, you don't want your new hires immediately thinking about life after your company. Still, if you show candidates how they will be able to spread their wings, take on new projects, and develop, they will come to see your open position as a genuine opportunity.
Goals, Not Roles
When you sit down with a Recruiter, he or she will make it easy to find out if the Army is right for you. Whether it's Active Duty or Army Reserve, or a certain length of service you're interested in — together with your Recruiter, you'll find the best way to serve, and choose the job that complements your abilities and future goals.
Here, the Army hits the nail right on the head. Candidates don't want to be thought of as a mere fulfillment of a role. They are multi-faceted, multi-talented individuals whose needs and abilties go beyond the exact specifications of your role. This is a great example of inverting the funnel: looking to find a role for a candidate, rather than finding a candidate for a role. Taking time to learn about your prospect's interests and goals may not get your req filled tomorrow, but it works towards paying huge dividends in the future.
Boots on the Ground
A mere list of necessary skills and experience is not an appropriate job description. Culture is often of crucial important to candidates, and they're going to want to know what it's like to be working in your office day in and day out. And let's face it, a picture on your Careers page of current employees playing ping pong is not going to cut it. The Army's site offers extensive descriptions of the recruitment process, training, lodging, and much, much more. The dropdown menu alone displays the breadth with which the Army wants to fill in potential recruits.
It seems as though every question a recruit could have about the process of joining and 'coming into the office every day' is answered in this extensive resource. Be sure to go the extra mile on your Careers page and in your messaging to paint a full picture of what it's like for your employees to have boots on the ground.
Fall Out
When it comes to attracting and informing new talent, the US Army is firing on all cylinders. Take a note (or three!) from our brave servicemen & women, and focus on personal development, individual goals, and company culture.
As you were, recruiters.
