The determination of optimal time-in-grade for promotion at each rank in the Turkish Army

The increasing pace of development in Human Resource Management makes an objective promotion system more valid than a system on subjective criteria in the Turkish Army. Therefore, the Army Headquarters tries to adapt an appropriate promotion system and criteria to The Turkish Army’s big hierarchical structure. Thus, the gap between the current and required officer inventory in the promotion system is thought to be minimized.In this study, the validity of a new promotion system, which is still under consideration in Human Resource Department of The Turkish Army, is evaluated against the current promotion system in The Turkish Army to establish a base for further quantitative research. The core of the study focuses on a non-linear optimization problem. The optimization is to obtain optimal values for time to wait at a rank until promotion. Optimal values of the selected promotion criteria, time – in-grade, are thought to make great contribution to further personnel decisions in The Turkish Army’s promotion system. The constructed model also supports the manpower planning requirements of the Army in determining the impact of existing policies on given promotion criteria over the long term.