How Can the Military Best Support Guard and Reserve Families During Deployment?

Gauging What Employers Think: Lessons Learned from Fielding the 2022 Department of Defense National Survey of Employers

“…As part of a research project designed to shed light on the state of the relationship between members of the U.S. reserve component (RC) and their civilian employers, researchers at the RAND Corporation developed and administered the 2022 Department of Defense (DoD) National Survey of Employers (the 2022 employer survey). This survey, a modified version of the 2011 DoD National Survey of Employers (the 2011 employer survey), was sent to private-sector employers of varying sizes, DoD and non-DoD federal agencies, and state and local governments.The survey asked about employer experiences with RC employees-both rewards and challengeswith an emphasis on the implications of military duty-related absences.The process of developing and administering the survey yielded lessons learned beyond the substantive findings presented in our main research report (Werber et al, 2024). These lessons could inform future efforts to survey employers of RC personnel.…”

“…The process of developing and administering the survey yielded lessons learned beyond the substantive findings presented in our main research report (Werber et al, 2024). These lessons could inform future efforts to survey employers of RC personnel.…”

“…The overarching objective of this survey was to gather perspectives from employers of various sizes across the public and private sectors on questions related to employing RC members: the benefits and drawbacks, problems posed by duty-related absences, approaches that employers take to addressing these problems, and views on policy options or incentives. The full survey instrument is provided as an appendix to the main report (Werber et al, 2024).…”

“…Table 1 provides response rates by employer segment. In the main report, we combined several of these employer segments and reported survey results for six groups: large, medium, and small private firms and local, state, and federal governments (Werber et al, 2024). 2…”

“…RC members are employed in all types of organizations: small and large, private sector and federal, state, and local governments (OPA, 2021). RC members are disproportionately likely to work as civilians in the federal government (in addition to their RC positions) relative to members of the U.S. workforce overall (Werber et al, 2024). A goal of our survey, therefore, was to gather views from employers of all sizes in the public and private sectors.…”