Enlisted soldiers should be promoted based on how well they know their jobs, said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer, who is driving an initiative to make that happen.

“The No. 1 thing we should be basing off whether or not you’re ready to be promoted is how good you are at your current job,” Weimer said March 26 during a fireside chat at the Association of the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. “Call me crazy, but that’s not where we're at right now.”

Weimer found consensus from members of the Senior Enlisted Council, a group of senior NCOs from across the Army who advise him on the enlisted force, that a legitimate test to validate soldiers’ current skill level in their professions should be the “base for the promotion rubric.”

As it is now, he said, soldiers are being promoted for having checked a box by completing required professional military education without having been tested on whether they know their actual job.

“It’s not the Army I grew up in,” Weimer said, noting that members of the Senior Enlisted Council “all agreed, and it wasn't that difficult, we really should reset that as one of the weighted data points for promotion.”

For close to nine months, pilots to develop such a test have been conducted at the Army’s Medical Center of Excellence at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston and the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The results “haven’t been great,” Weimer said.

However, once soldiers were told what the test was for, they improved dramatically because, Weimer said, “once you remove the ambiguity … and let soldiers know what the standard is, soldiers will rise to the occasion.”

Weimer expects to be able to present a full plan to Army senior leaders by the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, including a plan on how and where the test could be administered. He believes testing could take place at soldiers’ home stations without the need for a brick-and-mortar facility. He added that soldiers in the National Guard and Army Reserve also will be tested for promotion, but it may take longer to implement.

“What’s more important, 60 credit hours of online self-study from your online university or the data point of how good you are at your current job?” Weimer said. “I would ask the crowd without answering what's more important for a promotion consideration. I think we know the answer to that.”