The Navy will offer $14 million more in fiscal year 20165 re-up bonuses to nearly to 1,000 more sailors in the service’s most critical skills in an effort keep those skills in the ranks.
In addition, a temporary change in the rules this year will allows all those taking bonuses more flexibility in reserving that bonus further in advance — allowing them to plan their new service obligation in conjunction with deployments to tax-free zones. Previously this flexibility was reserved for only the most critical skills.
Download: Reenlistment bonus ceilings
That’s the good news according to the new bonus policy and award levels announced Thursday. in a NavAdmin message scheduled for release Feb. 18 announcing the changes in policy and award levels.
The bad is that this year, due to high retention, there’s an aggregate loss 17 fewer skill combinations, with 54 skill sets seeing decreases and 32 going away altogether. as 54 awards levels will see decreases and 32 will go away altogether, all increased over last year.
"I think it's a natural ebb and flow of the program as we look at the health of teach of these communities," said Rear Adm. Robert Burke, head of military personnel plans and policy for the chief of naval personnel. "The end result was a reduction in award level for 54 different categories and last year it was 25. So yes, it is about twice as many, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of these are half a point on the multiple, it's minor, minor adjustments."
Retention is good right now and the service isn’t seeing any signs of sailors moving towards the doors to civilian life as officials have been expecting. they expected to with an improving economy.
"We haven't seen it but we continue to watch it closely," Burke said.
In all, bonus 15 new skills — rating, paygrade and sometimes Navy Enlisted Classification combinations — were added to the list and another 16 saw increases. These go into effect immediately.
On the down side, 54 skills will see a decrease and another 32 will be eliminated altogether. These changes will go into effect on March 19 — 30 days from the announcement. so sailors — March while another 32 are slated to be removed increases for 14 skills, 54 skills decreased, 15 skills added, 32 skills removed and
That leaves 67 skills that will see no change this year.
The Navy has budgeted a total of $154.4 Mmillion for initial SRB contract payments in fiscal 2016, up from the $140 million spent last year.
Officials hope the money will coax just over half of the roughly 18,000 SRB eligible sailors — 9,300 to to be exact — to re-enlist. That’s an increase of about 900 new contracts over last year’s total of just over 8,400 takers.
The Navy pays out bonuses at five monetary maximum levels — $30,000, $45,000, $60,000, $75,000 and $100,000. The level depends on the Navy's need for a given skill. Those max payouts are Half is paid upfront in an initial lump sum and the remainder is paid annually on the re-up anniversary, with spread in equal amounts for each remaining year.
Award levels can change depending on a sailor's years of service, which determines which re-enlistment zone they are in. In addition, the service further divides skill into "tiers" one through three, based on how critical the skill is. Also, Each skill is assigned a numeric "multiple" which is used along with paygrade and months they’re obligating for to calculate how close they get to their maximum allowed payout level, along with paygrade and months of the new contract.
But Sailors might want to think fast and make the move to stay in, as officials and get the bucks sooner rather than later as officials do close down qualifying skills as they reach their targets for each, sometimes on a monthly basis.
"Of the 32 skills that were removed [this year], 24 of those had their quotas close throughout the year, starting in July of last year," Burke said. He said These changes are updated sometimes monthly on the Navy Personnel Command website.
Who's in, who's out
Among the 15 new additions to the list are skill combinations in skills from 13 different ratings. Most of them — 10 in all — require sailors to also have a Navy Enlisted Classification. In many ratings this, along with years of service, can be the difference between getting bonus or not.
For example, hull maintenance technicians, with the 4955 advanced welder skill can now net a bonus up to 14 years of service at the $30,000 max level. Meanwhile, those HT’s with no special skills were eliminated from the list this year.
But Three of the new additions to the Tier 3, $30,000, have only years of service restrictions as interior communication electricians, regardless of NEC with less than six years of service now qualify as do aviation ordnance men with between six and 10 years and cryptologic technicians (technical) with between 10 and 14 years. ISN'T CLEAR WHAT THIS IS SAYING/SF
Some long-standing SRB-eligible skills have seen a reduction or elimination from the list. Such is the case for Landing Craft, Air Cushioned operators with the 0304 NEC, whose $45,000 maximum bonus was eliminated this year.
At the same time, Navy Ddivers holding the first class diver NEC of 4342 as well as SEALs and explosive ordnance disposal techs, have seen their multiples drop, making it difficult for them to qualify for their maximum bonus amounts.
New rules
Since the Navy started prioritizing SRB-eligible skills into tiers in 2009, those in Tier 1 skills could re-enlist any time within the same fiscal year of their end of active obligated service.
Those in Tiers 2 and 3, could only re-up for bonuses within 90 days of their end of service date, but until Oct. 1, that’s been doubled to up to 180 days until Oct. 1. And now they can ship over across fiscal year lines.
In addition, they’ve allowed Sailors with Tier 2 or 3 skills serving in or projected to deploy to who are going to or are projected to serving in combat tax exclusion zones can now reenlist anytime within the same fiscal year as their end of service date, to take full advantage so they can get take advantage of the benefit.
The fiscal year rule will also apply now to sailors with "early promote" promotion recommendations on their evaluations.
"This will give sailors with Tier 2 and 3 skills more flexibility to plan re-enlistments around future deployments, "Burke said. "Right now this is only in effect for this year, but we'll try it and then make the decision whether or not to continue it."
More re-up perks
Last year, Navy officials have said they’d like to update bonus levels more frequently, such as twice-yearly instead of the annual update the service has had for the last half decade.
And Burke says that’s the plan, but that will have to wait for another year or two as the service works to update it’s antiquated personnel databases.
In addition, Burke said the service is also still planning to rework the bonus system in the next few years to include other incentives besides cash citing that the service has in the works multiple new initiative.
"We're working through things that would allow us to pay an individual a lower [monetary] retention incentive if we could offer them geographic location preference or stability for a period of time," he said.
In addition, he says the service is also developing a change to how they calculate SRB multiples that would personalize it to the individual sailor.
"We're also still looking at the idea of tailored compensation and working towards that so that maybe in the future sailors have their own multiple tailored to their specific skills and performance levels," he said.
The multiple calculation could also take into to account the Navy’s needs, he said, rewarding sailors' willingness to go to a tough duty location, too all effect the multiple.
"We're going to need better data and better forecasting systems that will support these initiatives," Burke said. "Those are all in the works, but we're still probably a couple years out on being able to offer those things."
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
