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The Australian government has selected Adecco Australia as Defence’s new recruitment partner in its aim to scale up the Australian Defence Force.
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To increase the Australian Defence Force (ADF) employment footprint by 18,500 people by 2039-40, given the strategic circumstances we now face, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh noted recruitment and retention of personnel has never been more important.
“Our people are the most important capability for the defence of Australia, and our national interests.
“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.
“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.
The current service provider, 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.
The ManpowerGroup will continue to deliver recruiting services until the end of the current financial year.
According to Minister Keogh, the new partnership with Adecco will focus on redefining how recruitment efforts can be modernised in a hyper competitive labour market.
“People are looking for jobs with purpose, we need to take action to ensure students, their teachers and parents have a solid understanding of the excellent opportunities that a career in the ADF can provide.
“We also are very keen to engage with older Australians who want to contribute to the defence of our nation.
“I thank our current service provider, ManpowerGroup, for their valued contribution to building Defence’s recruiting capability over the last 20 years,” Minister Keogh said.
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.
According to Adecco’s managing director, Kevin Alexander, it is a privilege for the opportunity to use their expertise in recruitment to ensure Defence has the capability to defend national interests.
“This contract will be pivotal in delivering the right workforce for Defence and we are committed to working collaboratively to achieve outcomes.
“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.
“This new contract is an exciting opportunity for Adecco, and they are proud to be partnered with Defence to deliver such an important workforce for Australia,” Alexander said.
The new contract begins a new era of Defence recruitment and officially commences on 1 July 2023. A transition handover between ManpowerGroup and Adecco Australia begins on 1 November 2022.
[Related: Endeavour Foundation to support Defence as new DAAP service provider]
