Capt. Peter Van Howe, Austin Company Commander
Prospecting Evaluation Progress Report Establishes Accountability
By Capt. Peter Van Howe, USAREC, Austin Recruiting Company
Oct. 16, 2015
The viability of the individual mission is one of U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s biggest internal debates.
Command policy assigns the mission down to center level. Recruiters are held accountable for their prospecting efforts.
Austin Recruiting Company is not the only unit in USAREC that struggles with prospecting-based accountability. We made mission only two months during my first seven months as commander.
Confronted with a failing organization, the first sergeant and I discussed how we could salvage the rest of the year. After a week of discussion on troop leading procedures, we created the Prospecting Evaluation Progress Report (PEPR). It provides recruiters with a collaborative setting to present their individual prospecting efforts, receive feedback, and generate a plan of action for going forward.
The company’s monthly Recruiter Operations Plan prescribes the general prospecting guidance for each recruiter. While center leaders can adjust the baseline 3/2/1 work ethic to fit the center’s needs, recruiters are held to a test line guidance of providing four qualified tested applicants per month. Statistically, recruiters with four tested applicants per month will almost certainly generate an enlistment.
By utilizing the test line as a method of accountability, the PEPR takes the dynamic of a human marketplace into account, which works to the recruiter’s benefit. If the recruiter meets test line guidance and is still unable to demonstrate a contract, he or she still accomplished due diligence in prospecting. As a result, the recruiter is exempted from PEPR.
PEPR eliminates the possibility of dubious makes and conducts. Getting an applicant to agree to take the ASVAB requires the engendering of a commitment to join the Army after a successful Army interview.
This helps to preserve accurate conversion data for center and company leaders to use to generate their prospecting plans.
In order to further protect the center’s conversion data, several limitations are placed on the test line guidance. MAVNI, OCS, and applicants who EST below a 30 do not count as qualified testers. Applicants who EST below a 30 can test but it does not count as a tester for the Phase Line if he or she fails.
Recruiters with at least one enlistment per month are exempt from the PEPR. This exemption will prompt many outsiders to claim that the PEPR is identical to the Low Producer or Zero Roller training of years past. This is not true. Production is an incentive, not the method by which the recruiter is held accountable. The accountability remains at the test line. Meeting the test line guidance demonstrates the recruiter is actively working to achieve the mission. This would not occur under Zero Roller training.
Implementation of the PEPR also separates it from production-based accountability. At the end of the Phase Line, those who have met the test line guidance, or who can demonstrate one enlistment, are exempt from the PEPR. All other recruiters are required to attend the forum, which is usually held the first Friday of the following Phase Line.
Recruiters are given two PowerPoint slides to fill out the night before the PEPR. The first covers the number of hours of planned prospecting versus the actual amount of conducted prospecting and addresses telephone prospecting, face-to-face, and an “other” category. The second slide focuses on the last 90 days of conversion data. It demonstrates for the recruiter how many makes, conducts, testers, and tests passed are needed per week and month to consistently produce enlistments.
The PEPR’s implementation further separates it from Low Producer training by making it far more collaborative. This takes advantage of one of USAREC’s unique characteristics – that all of its Soldiers are experienced NCOs. As a result, we have a formation filled with proven Army leaders and professionals.
The PEPR leverages that experience to make it a true professional development forum. The first sergeant chairs the event and all center leaders are present to provide additional subject matter expertise. Each recruiter briefs his or her prospecting and conversion data. Other recruiters are present to learn from their peers, and are encouraged to provide advice, input, and analysis.
Peer-based learning is one of the most effective teaching practices, and the PEPR incorporates that. During the course of the briefing, issues are identified as either being training-related or compliance-related.
After all of the discussions are concluded, each recruiter generates a 30-day plan. For issues related to a lack of compliance, recruiters are referred to the company commander and placed on a 60-day Letter of Concern.
If a recruiter attends the PEPR for two consecutive months due to a lack of compliance, the commander can recommend removal from USAREC and a relief for cause NCOER to be generated.
For training-based issues, recruiters generate a prospecting plan for the next 30 days. This is validated by the center leader, who assigns the recruiter a mentor whose strength is the recruiter’s identified weakness. The re-training is documented over the next 30 days on a UF 350-1.2 by the mentor, and is validated three weeks later by the center leader. At the end of 30 days, the training record is closed and placed in the recruiter’s local counseling file.
Only compliance-related issues identified at the PEPR are grounds for relief. Training deficiencies are the responsibility of the center and company leadership to correct..
Since the implementation of the PEPR almost five months ago at Austin Company, there has been a dramatic turnaround. Nearly every key metric has increased. We have exceeded our RA mission every month since the PEPR went into effect and have made our volume mission every month except one.
Furthermore, recruiters appreciate the simple, structured nature of the guidance under which they work and have bought into the PEPR as a non-toxic, professional development forum. At our second PEPR, a recruiter who was exempt from attending briefed his data for professional development.
We have further refined the PEPR as the company’s performance has changed, but the core method of holding recruiters accountable for their individual prospecting has remained.
By Capt. Peter Van Howe, USAREC, Austin Recruiting Company
Oct. 16, 2015
The viability of the individual mission is one of U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s biggest internal debates.
Command policy assigns the mission down to center level. Recruiters are held accountable for their prospecting efforts.
Austin Recruiting Company is not the only unit in USAREC that struggles with prospecting-based accountability. We made mission only two months during my first seven months as commander.
Confronted with a failing organization, the first sergeant and I discussed how we could salvage the rest of the year. After a week of discussion on troop leading procedures, we created the Prospecting Evaluation Progress Report (PEPR). It provides recruiters with a collaborative setting to present their individual prospecting efforts, receive feedback, and generate a plan of action for going forward.
The company’s monthly Recruiter Operations Plan prescribes the general prospecting guidance for each recruiter. While center leaders can adjust the baseline 3/2/1 work ethic to fit the center’s needs, recruiters are held to a test line guidance of providing four qualified tested applicants per month. Statistically, recruiters with four tested applicants per month will almost certainly generate an enlistment.
By utilizing the test line as a method of accountability, the PEPR takes the dynamic of a human marketplace into account, which works to the recruiter’s benefit. If the recruiter meets test line guidance and is still unable to demonstrate a contract, he or she still accomplished due diligence in prospecting. As a result, the recruiter is exempted from PEPR.
PEPR eliminates the possibility of dubious makes and conducts. Getting an applicant to agree to take the ASVAB requires the engendering of a commitment to join the Army after a successful Army interview.
This helps to preserve accurate conversion data for center and company leaders to use to generate their prospecting plans.
In order to further protect the center’s conversion data, several limitations are placed on the test line guidance. MAVNI, OCS, and applicants who EST below a 30 do not count as qualified testers. Applicants who EST below a 30 can test but it does not count as a tester for the Phase Line if he or she fails.
Recruiters with at least one enlistment per month are exempt from the PEPR. This exemption will prompt many outsiders to claim that the PEPR is identical to the Low Producer or Zero Roller training of years past. This is not true. Production is an incentive, not the method by which the recruiter is held accountable. The accountability remains at the test line. Meeting the test line guidance demonstrates the recruiter is actively working to achieve the mission. This would not occur under Zero Roller training.
Implementation of the PEPR also separates it from production-based accountability. At the end of the Phase Line, those who have met the test line guidance, or who can demonstrate one enlistment, are exempt from the PEPR. All other recruiters are required to attend the forum, which is usually held the first Friday of the following Phase Line.
Recruiters are given two PowerPoint slides to fill out the night before the PEPR. The first covers the number of hours of planned prospecting versus the actual amount of conducted prospecting and addresses telephone prospecting, face-to-face, and an “other” category. The second slide focuses on the last 90 days of conversion data. It demonstrates for the recruiter how many makes, conducts, testers, and tests passed are needed per week and month to consistently produce enlistments.
The PEPR’s implementation further separates it from Low Producer training by making it far more collaborative. This takes advantage of one of USAREC’s unique characteristics – that all of its Soldiers are experienced NCOs. As a result, we have a formation filled with proven Army leaders and professionals.
The PEPR leverages that experience to make it a true professional development forum. The first sergeant chairs the event and all center leaders are present to provide additional subject matter expertise. Each recruiter briefs his or her prospecting and conversion data. Other recruiters are present to learn from their peers, and are encouraged to provide advice, input, and analysis.
Peer-based learning is one of the most effective teaching practices, and the PEPR incorporates that. During the course of the briefing, issues are identified as either being training-related or compliance-related.
After all of the discussions are concluded, each recruiter generates a 30-day plan. For issues related to a lack of compliance, recruiters are referred to the company commander and placed on a 60-day Letter of Concern.
If a recruiter attends the PEPR for two consecutive months due to a lack of compliance, the commander can recommend removal from USAREC and a relief for cause NCOER to be generated.
For training-based issues, recruiters generate a prospecting plan for the next 30 days. This is validated by the center leader, who assigns the recruiter a mentor whose strength is the recruiter’s identified weakness. The re-training is documented over the next 30 days on a UF 350-1.2 by the mentor, and is validated three weeks later by the center leader. At the end of 30 days, the training record is closed and placed in the recruiter’s local counseling file.
Only compliance-related issues identified at the PEPR are grounds for relief. Training deficiencies are the responsibility of the center and company leadership to correct..
Since the implementation of the PEPR almost five months ago at Austin Company, there has been a dramatic turnaround. Nearly every key metric has increased. We have exceeded our RA mission every month since the PEPR went into effect and have made our volume mission every month except one.
Furthermore, recruiters appreciate the simple, structured nature of the guidance under which they work and have bought into the PEPR as a non-toxic, professional development forum. At our second PEPR, a recruiter who was exempt from attending briefed his data for professional development.
We have further refined the PEPR as the company’s performance has changed, but the core method of holding recruiters accountable for their individual prospecting has remained.