Argus Officer Retention

1
Argus Officer Retention
Briefing for Defense Advisory Committee on Women
in The Services February 5, 2004

• Jacqueline A. Mottern, Ph.D.
• Director, Selection and Classification
• 901-874-4656 DSN 882-4656

2
Argus Career Milestone Tracking System

• Argus was a creature from Greek mythology with
  100 eyes, only 2 closed at a time when sleeping
  so Argus was always vigilant, watchful and
  monitoring
• The name reflects our concept
• Argus is a continuous survey of transitioning
  Sailors
• Reasons Sailors are leaving and staying in Navy
• Attitudes about Navy work, life, careers, and
  leadership
• Intentions to leave or stay at the next decision
  point
• Web-based with access from shore commands and
  ships at port with internet connectivity

3
Argus Design
Branching tailors survey to each respondent and
reduces survey time

• Promotion/Advancement Opportunities
• Career Assignments
• Command Climate
• Time Away From Home
• Recognition (FITREPS/Evaluations, Awards)
• Maintenance and Logistics

• Impact on Family
• Pay and Retirement
• Medical/Dental Benefits
• Other Benefits (Leave, Education, Commissary,
  Exchange)
• Navy Culture (Regulations, Discipline, Standards)
• Leadership

4
Argus Database

• Data query on all data from 1 Jul 01 thru 17 Jul
  03
• 45,877 usable responses
• Sample not representative of entire Navy
• deployed ships
• full range of transition points
• Officer Rank Groups
• Rank Group N
• O1-O3 2,340
• O4-O7 2,048

Argus data 7/17/03. Data not representative of
Navy
5
Important Influences to Stay by Rank
Argus data 7/17/03 Data not representative of
Navy
6
Important Influences to Leave by Rank
Argus data 7/17/03 Data not representative of
Navy
7
Important Influences to Stay for O1-O3
Argus data 7/17/03. Data not representative of
Navy
8
Important Influences to Stay O4-O7
Argus data 7/17/03 Data not representative of
Navy
9
Important Influences to Leave O1-O3
Argus data 7/17/03 Data not representative of
Navy
10
Important Influences to Leave O4-O7
Argus data 7/17/03 Data not representative of
Navy
11
Influences on Career Decisions by Gender and Rank
Group

• Influences to Stay
• Junior officers more likely to focus on aspects
  of job
• Satisfaction, assignments, challenge
• Senior officers more likely to focus on benefits
• Females report educational benefits more
  frequently than males
• Senior males report facets of unit more
  frequently than any other group
• Influences to Leave
• Females, regardless of rank, report command
  climate as influence to leave
• Impact of Navy career, time away from home, and
  red tape required to do the job most frequently
  mentioned by all

12
Marital Status, Rank Group and Career Decisions

• Influences to Stay are consistent for married and
  single within rank group
• Influences to leave vary by marital status
• Married officers more importance to family
• Effects of PCS moves on spouse career and
  children
• Single officers rate command climate more
  important influence than married officers
• Influences to Stay and to Leave consistent across
  race within rank group and gender

13
Status of Argus

• Argus revised and operational 2 October 2003
• Currently mapping current data with new version
• Plans for future
• Merge data bases
• Test intent as measured with Argus with behavior
• Develop model to examine influences for high/low
  performers
• Use data for predicting retention
• Query system operational for commands