Prioritizing Quality of Life Issues

Quality of life has become more than simply taking care of people. Throughout the DoD, retention of trained personnel has become a top concern and is compounded by the inability to recruit sufficient numbers to refill the ranks. The heart of the issue is increased missions, decreased personnel, insufficient equipment, too much time away from family, too little leisure time, and not enough money to balance out these negatives. Today's active duty military force is 33% smaller and three times more deployed than it was just ten years ago: meaning more are gone for longer periods and do it more often. The strong economy only compounds the problem because alternatives to staying in the military are abundant. Despite increased emphasis from the Department of Defense's (DoD) leadership to stave the degradation of benefits and pay, quality of life within the ranks continues to suffer. This paper looks at the various quality of life (QoL) surveys utilized within the DoD and the information they provide leadership. Drawing from the best of the current surveys and filling in the gaps, four cross-DoD surveys are recommended to better ascertain which QoL areas most impact troop retention. The goal is to better understand the attitudes and opinions of the men and women in the "field" so that leadership can hone in on those issues that will most impact QoL and ultimately retention.