Nowadays get soldiers to improve (5)
I believe the answer is:
amend
'improve' is the definition.
('amend' can be a synonym of 'improve')
'nowadays get soldiers' is the wordplay.
'nowadays' becomes 'ad'.
'get' indicates putting letters inside.
'soldiers' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before).
'ad' enclosing 'men' is 'AMEND'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for amend that I've seen before include "make an improvement" , "Correct error, make minor alteration as to writing" , "Make minor improvements to (a document)" , "Change for the better" , "Make corrections to (eg, document)" .)