Retention problems are often framed as compensation, workload or labor-market issues. But for highly specialized workers, there can be a simpler failure: the organization does not give people enough opportunities to use the skills it spent years developing. A U.S. Army intelligence unit says it has found a way to address that problem among Human Intelligence, or HUMINT, specialists by combining hands-on leadership, meaningful assignments and structured professional development.

The U.S. Army is using a small-unit retention success story to confront a much larger workforce challenge: how do organizations keep highly trained employees when their day-to-day work does not match the capabilities they were hired or trained to provide?

Alpha Company, 2nd Military Intelligence Battalion, part of the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade – Theater, exceeded 200% of its fiscal 2025 retention goal for 35M Human Intelligence Collectors, according to the unit. The result stands out against a first-term retention rate of about 12.7% cited for the Army’s 35M population.

The case is particularly relevant to HR and workforce technology leaders because the underlying problem resembles one faced by enterprises across industries: expensive specialist talent becomes difficult to retain when employees cannot see a clear connection between their skills, their assignments and their career progression.

The Army’s 35M role requires extensive specialist training, potentially including language instruction and advanced HUMINT education. An Army professional publication has estimated that training a HUMINT Collector who attends the Defense Language Institute can cost more than $150,000, while historical retention for the specialty has generally remained below 30%. The same Army analysis identifies a lack of opportunities to perform the job as a primary reason collectors leave.

That makes Alpha Company’s approach less about a single retention initiative and more about talent utilization.

Retention starts with the manager

Alpha Company’s first major intervention was leadership.

When Sergeant First Class Joshua Rose assumed responsibility for the company, retention was slightly above 15%, according to the unit. Rose and Capt. Brad Lenkeit subsequently used direct conversations with Soldiers to identify problems involving workload, professional development and work-life balance.

The response included giving Soldiers time back after weekend missions or additional duties, increasing leadership engagement and creating more opportunities for junior leaders to make decisions.

The approach reflects a broader shift in HR thinking: retention is increasingly tied to the quality of the employee experience rather than simply the availability of compensation or benefits.

McKinsey’s 2025 HR Monitor found that job security, work-life balance and relationships with colleagues were among the leading factors employees cited for staying with employers. The research also found significant gaps in employee development, with 26% of surveyed employees saying they had received no feedback during the previous year.

For HR technology teams, the lesson is important. Workforce analytics can identify attrition patterns, but data alone does not repair the management practices producing those patterns.

Turning training into an operating system

Alpha Company also created a professional-development program called Axe Academy, focused on leadership fundamentals and HUMINT skills.

It established an On-The-Job-Training platoon for newer collectors, allowing them to receive structured instruction while helping fill operational gaps when experienced personnel were unavailable.

The unit also introduced a Job Qualification Standard designed to give Soldiers a transparent development path toward more advanced assignments and training.

That is closely aligned with the direction of modern talent-management platforms. Systems from companies such as Workday, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft increasingly connect skills, learning, workforce planning and employee development rather than treating them as isolated HR processes.

But Alpha Company’s example highlights an important limitation of technology: a skills database cannot create meaningful career opportunities by itself.

The technology can show that an employee has a particular capability. Managers still have to decide whether that capability is being used, whether the employee needs additional development and where the person could create more value.

Purpose may be the strongest retention tool

The company’s most significant advantage appears to be the nature of the work itself.

Alpha Company says its 35M personnel regularly participate in operational missions directly connected to current events. Rose argues that the opportunity to perform the job Soldiers trained for is a major reason they choose to remain in the unit.

That distinction matters for enterprise employers trying to retain specialized talent.

A cybersecurity analyst who spends most of the week performing administrative work, a data scientist who cannot access meaningful data or a software engineer assigned primarily to manual processes may experience the same disconnect: their organization possesses scarce skills but is not effectively deploying them.

In Alpha Company’s case, leadership also worked with Army Human Resources Command and 35M talent managers to align individual career goals with available opportunities.

One married pair of 35Ms who had planned to leave the Army ultimately reenlisted after leadership coordinated new career paths. One became a military language instructor, while the other went to Drill Sergeant Academy and became a drill sergeant.

Another Soldier who had repeatedly indicated an intention to leave eventually reenlisted for six years and began preparing for Special Mission Unit selection.

These examples point toward a more individualized model of workforce planning—one in which retention conversations are connected to actual career mobility.

Building mastery instead of simply filling positions

The final component is professional mastery.

Alpha Company says 72% of its 35M population has graduated from the Defense Strategic Debriefer Course. The unit attributes that increase to a redesigned training pipeline connecting qualification requirements, on-the-job training and advanced coursework.

Rather than rotating personnel through platforms according to a standardized schedule, leaders say they evaluate individuals and attempt to place them where they can strengthen their capabilities.

This is essentially skills-based workforce management at a small-unit level.

Enterprise HR platforms are increasingly moving toward similar concepts. Skills intelligence, internal mobility, personalized learning and workforce planning are becoming core elements of modern HR SaaS. IDC says HR organizations are also under pressure to provide real-time workforce insight, support skills development and integrate AI into people processes.

Yet the Army example suggests that the technology layer is only part of the equation.

A retention lesson larger than the Army

Alpha Company’s experience does not prove that every retention problem can be solved through management practices. Military organizations also operate under unique constraints, including mission requirements, personnel policies and centralized assignment systems.

Still, the case illustrates a broader principle for HR leaders: retention becomes harder when organizations separate recruiting, skills development, workforce allocation and employee experience.

The most sophisticated workforce analytics platform cannot compensate for an employee who spends years training for a specialized role and then rarely gets to perform it.

For enterprise HR teams, the takeaway is straightforward. Measure attrition, but also measure skill utilization. Track learning completion, but connect it to actual career opportunities. Give managers workforce data, but give them enough autonomy to act on it.

As organizations invest in AI, skills intelligence and increasingly automated HR systems, the risk is that workforce management becomes more data-driven without becoming more human.

Alpha Company’s experiment offers a different model. Technology can help identify talent, map skills and predict retention risk. Leadership still has to create the conditions that make people want to stay.

Market Landscape

The broader HR technology market is moving toward connected talent management, with employee experience, skills intelligence, learning, performance management and workforce planning increasingly treated as parts of the same system.

That shift is particularly important as organizations compete for specialized talent. Gartner reported in 2026 that highly skilled employees were significantly more likely than less-skilled workers to remain in their current roles amid economic uncertainty, underscoring the strategic value of retaining scarce expertise.

Major HR technology ecosystems—including Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, Microsoft and Salesforce—are increasingly incorporating AI, analytics and skills-oriented capabilities into enterprise workforce processes. The competitive question is moving beyond whether HR teams have employee data to whether that data can be translated into better decisions about deployment, development and mobility.

Alpha Company’s approach is notable precisely because it relies relatively little on sophisticated technology. Its operating model resembles what workforce platforms increasingly attempt to enable: understanding individual capabilities, matching people to opportunities, providing continuous development and giving managers enough visibility to intervene before employees disengage.

For enterprises, that suggests a practical adoption strategy. HR technology should be evaluated not only on dashboards and AI features, but on whether it helps managers answer three operational questions: What can this employee do? What does this employee want to do next? And are we actually giving them opportunities to do it?

Top Insights

• Alpha Company exceeded 200% of its fiscal 2025 retention goal, highlighting how leadership, skills utilization and meaningful work can influence specialist workforce retention.
• The Army’s 35M challenge illustrates the cost of underutilized expertise, particularly when organizations invest heavily in training but fail to deploy specialized skills.
• Axe Academy and the company’s OJT model connect professional development with operational readiness, offering a practical example of skills-based workforce management.
• Individualized career planning helped persuade several Soldiers to reenlist, demonstrating how internal mobility and personalized talent management can address attrition risk.
• HR technology can surface workforce data and skills gaps, but managers remain responsible for creating meaningful assignments, development opportunities and employee experiences.

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