The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) depends on its personnel to deliver on its mandate to safeguard Canada’s national interests and serve Canadians at home and abroad. Recruitment and retention has become one of the biggest challenges the CAF faces as it struggles to adapt to demographic changes in the Canadian population, keep pace with rapid developments in the operational environment, and address emerging global threats. These challenges are compounded by unprecedented personnel shortages that affect CAF readiness. To address these shortages, the CAF has initiated a reconstitution process aimed at recruiting sufficient enough numbers of good applicants and keeping valued and experienced members in uniform.
This issue of On Track examines the causes of recruitment and retention issues in the CAF. In exploring potential solutions, it examines demographic and geographic aspects of recruitment and retention strategies and how to better target viable applicants, and surveys trends in job satisfaction, job demands, and resourcing that have implications for retention rates. It also examines strategies to better engage underrepresented groups and how to address issues within specific groups.
