The Army will soon have senior warrant officers bid against each other in an eBay-style auction for retention bonuses and six-year service commitments. Soldiers who agree to take a “minimum” bonus can cash in, while those who ask for larger ones will lose out, Army officials announced in a recent press release.
Dubbed the “Warrant Officer Retention Bonus Auction,” the system will debut in March, an Army official said Friday. In the news release, Army officials said the new system represents a “shift from traditional, fixed‑rate bonuses to a more flexible, market-driven system and that the auction encourages warrant officers to bid their “true value.”
Here’s how the Army says it will work: Senior warrant officers hoping to receive a bonus for extending their active duty service commitment will submit confidential bids of the minimum monthly paycheck bump they “would be satisfied receiving” in order to sign a contract for six more years.
Once warrant officers submit their bids, Army officials will set a final bonus rate for the auction. Those who agreed to bonuses at or below that level will be extended, and will be paid the final rate will all receive the same bonus, even if their bid was lower.
“The goal is simple. Reward as many qualified Warrant Officers as possible with the most competitive bonus the budget allows,” Lt. Col. Tim Justicz, an Army economist who helped design the program, said in the release.
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The auction is open to warrant officers in the CWO-3 and CWO-4 paygrades in “critical” military occupational specialties, or MOSs, according to the release. An Army official said the auction process would be for warrant officers in “technical” fields, which could apply to a variety of careers like cyber warfare, human intelligence collection, software operations and drones. It does not apply to Army aviators.
“Army leadership believes the system rewards transparency and encourages officers to carefully consider the compensation that would make them comfortable with continued service,” officials said in the release.
The redesign of warrant officer bonuses comes as the Army is embarking on a slew of new human resources reforms. The Army also recently announced the Quality Tiered Incentive Program, which ties higher reenlistment bonuses to on-the-job performance, including “physical, technical, and tactical proficiency” in day-to-day tasks and fitness tests scores.
An Army official said additional information on the auction process will be released soon.
