A soldier looks at a computer screen in Virginia Beach, Va., on June 5, 2025. A new Army exit survey launched in October has revealed that quality of life considerations are top of mind for soldiers who choose to separate. (Jasmine McCarthy/U.S. Army)
The Army is hoping that a new exit survey asking soldiers why they are leaving the service will help steer quality of life improvements down to the installation or battalion level and boost future retention.
The Army launched the exit survey in October as part of a new initiative called the Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, or DACES, program manager Lt. Col. Kaylee Bandy told Stars and Stripes.
The six-question exit survey has received about 4,000 responses so far, and the data is now migrating to the Army’s Vantage enterprise-scale data and analytics platform.
While the current report is not yet available, Bandy said the top reason soldiers are leaving, across both active and reserve components, is because of a “lack of enjoyment or fulfillment” in their job. The second leading response is family impacts.
The survey’s return rate is currently 11%.
“This is the first time that we can provide command teams out in the field with a look inside their soldier sentiment,” Bandy said. “The goal from that would be to help inform some of these policies, to help set bonus amounts, maybe to look at other monetary incentives that we haven’t explored in the past.”
While the Army has made progress in recruiting in recent years, nearly one-quarter of soldiers recruited since 2022 have failed to complete their initial contracts, Military.com reported last year, citing Army data.
Retaining quality soldiers in whom the Army has made a significant investment remains a priority, Bandy said.
The current DACES engagement survey, which measures soldiers’ feelings about service, was launched in 2020 and is administered every third year of a soldier’s career, Bandy said. A pilot exit survey was launched in 2024 and the current version went live in October.
The exit survey is designed to elicit a detailed response about why a soldier is separating. If, for example, the response indicates a lack of childcare access, the soldier will see specific follow-up questions, Bandy said.
They are also asked about quality of life, quality of work and monetary and non-monetary incentives, such as their choice of duty station or assignment, which might prevent them from leaving.
The responses are uploaded to Vantage and included in an annual report in a way that does not identify individual soldiers, Bandy said. Leadership can then isolate a population, such as enlisted personnel or those in various pay grades or locations, and use the data to inform policy decisions and help set bonus amounts, including additional pay for leadership positions.
“This mirrors the talent management systems used by major corporations to understand why people stay or go,” Col. Angela Chipman, Military Personnel Accessions & Retention Division Chief, said in an Army statement issued June 2.
The survey is posted as a QR code at service transition sites so it can be accessed easily on mobile devices. The Army’s personnel and pay system also automatically prompts soldiers to take the survey when they submit a separation action or enter their reenlistment window.
“Together, these dashboards and Vantage allow the Army to shift from reactive personnel management to proactive readiness shaping,” Col. Frank Pena, chief of the Total Army Readiness Division, said in an Army statement in December. “They support data-informed decisions about personnel across all levels of leadership to ensure those formations have what they need to accomplish their missions.”
