Defence changes horses in new recruitment race

In the latest move to scale up the Australian Defence Force, the Australian government has selected Adecco Australia as Defence’s new recruitment partner.

FILE PHOTO: Australian Army recruits in training at 1st Training Battalion, Kapooka, NSW. 1RTB photo.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh said given the strategic circumstances we now face, the recruitment and retention of personnel had never been more important.

“Our people are the most important capability for the defence of Australia, and our national interests,” Minister Keogh said.

“It’s exciting to be working with a new recruitment partner to ensure we’re engaging with the very best people our nation has to offer.

“With Defence looking to increase their employment footprint by 18,500 people by 2039-40, the time to inspire the workforce of the future is now.

“There’s no doubt that right now we’re seeing an incredibly tight recruitment market with really low unemployment – that’s why we need to step up our recruitment efforts.”

Minister Keogh said people were looking for jobs with purpose, so Defence needed to take action to ensure students, their teachers and parents had a solid understanding of the excellent opportunities that a career in the ADF could provide.

“We also are very keen to engage with older Australians who want to contribute to the defence of our nation,” he said.

“Our new partnership with Adecco will focus on redefining how we can modernise recruitment efforts in a hyper-competitive labour market.”

Adecco Managing Director Kevin Alexander said the new contract was an exciting opportunity for Adecco and they were proud to be partnered with Defence to deliver such an important workforce for Australia.

“This contract will be pivotal in delivering the right workforce for Defence and we are committed to working collaboratively to achieve outcomes,” Mr Alexander said.

“Adecco feels privileged for the opportunity to use our expertise in recruitment to ensure Defence has the capability to defend our national interests.

“Understanding how fundamental the right ADF workforce is to our national security, Adecco has developed a solution that is candidate-centric, data-driven and focused on efficiencies that will modernise the Defence recruiting system.

“This includes a broad range of services including, marketing, recruiting operations, candidate experience, medical and psychological testing, and ICT services.”

Minister Keogh thanked Defence’s current service provider, ManpowerGroup, for their valued contribution to building Defence’s recruiting capability over the past 20 years.

“ManpowerGroup has attracted more than one-million applicants and helped enlist more than 121,600 individuals into the ADF over its 20-year contract with Defence.”

He said that in 2020, Defence started the tender process, seeking to engage with an industry capability partner to develop and deliver a scalable, adaptable, modern, transparent, collaborative and competitive recruiting system, to draw on a broad range of candidates.

The new contract will officially start on 1 July next year, after a transition handover between ManpowerGroup and Adecco Australia beginning on 1 November 2022.

ManpowerGroup will continue to deliver recruiting services until the end of the current financial year.

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