MORE BOOTS ON GROUND
Targeted recruitment to source soldiers in jus t 100 days
THE Australian Defence Force will cut at least 200 days from its recruitment program to urgently boost the ranks to fill new national security capabilities being set out by the Defence Strategic Review.
The current recruitment process incredibly averages 300 days for each potential new member processing, up to a year for specialist technical staff.
But those timings will now be cut by two thirds to no more than 100 days and possibly less with more recruiters, tighter security vetting deadlines and targeted programs to streamline the process.
The proposed change comes as the federal government will next month receive the highly anticipated Defence Strategic Review (DSR) blueprint for the future of Australia’s national security, with recruiting among the priorities. The national skills shortage and tight labour market is already posing a challenge for Defence but now it needs specialists notably for electronic warfare, nuclear propulsion and remote sensing, alongside the continued requirements for general military enlistments.
The ADF’S biggest peacetime push is hoping to recruit more than 80,000 personnel, or an increase of 30 per cent by 2040.
Defence forecasts it is currently able to reach 72 per cent of its 2022-23 enlistment target.
Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh confirmed ADF recruitment was under “pressure” and needed to grow now to meet the demands to come.
He confirmed plans were already under way to reduce the time it takes to join and the
DSR would likely recommend more in both recruitment and retention.
“At the moment that recruitment process averages about 300 days, we are looking to bring that down to about 100 and if we can get it shorter then we will do that as well because we do not want to be losing people who find other opportunities while we are taking them through that recruitment process,” Mr Keogh said.
“It is a strategic review, obviously an element of that is
going to be our
… we do not want to b e losing people who find other opp ortunities DEFENCE PERSONNEL MINIS TER MATT KEOGH
most important capability which is our people and so those sorts of things will be relevant I’m sure.”
Mr Keogh would not go into detail but said that recruitment and retention would “evolve” to incorporate other incentives in education and health. It would also address one of the biggest enlistment imposts of family separation, where personnel are deployed to the other side of the country or the world.
“No doubt elements that will come from (the DSR) will have us looking further at what we
can do to increase that recruitment but also that retention,” he added.
One element understood to be under consideration by the DSR, due to be handed to the government in the first week of February, is greater partnering between civilian industry and military and part-time reservist expertise in a broader timeshare arrangement.
This includes the principle of “just-in-time” training, a targeted needs-related basis to skills training with shorter structured enlistment.