Login
iscover
Defence Connect’s inaugural Australian Defence Industry Report has listed the most influential corporate attributes for attracting potential employees.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Defence Connect has begun releasing findings from its inaugural Defence Connect Australian Defence Industry Report, capturing insights from defence industry professionals into the experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of professionals working with the industry’s largest companies.
Now, Defence Connect can reveal the top drivers for attracting prospective employees to large contractors.
In the inaugural survey, participants were asked to indicate which companies they would consider employment with, and subsequently presented with the open-ended question, “Why would you consider working for these primes over others?”
A “strong commercial reputation” was the most commonly submitted response, with 26 per cent of respondents indicating this to be their primary driver for employment.
Meanwhile, 21 per cent of respondents indicated that a “strong culture and values including DEI” was their primary motivation for seeking employment with a company.
Just 4 per cent — or fewer than one in 20 responses — indicated that “locality or sovereign-owned” was a primary driver in their decision to work for a company.
The primary drivers for employment are listed as follows:
- Strong commercial reputation – 26 per cent
- Strong culture and values including DEI – 21 per cent
- Based on personal experiences with employees or management – 15 per cent
- The challenge of large-scale or advanced/interesting projects – 13 per cent
- Opportunities for pay, career development or global travel – 11 per cent
- Alignment with skills, interests, work, and domain – 10 per cent
- Locality or sovereign-owned – 4 per cent
“Understanding what motivates jobseekers and potential employees is essential for building a workforce that is capable of tackling tomorrow’s challenges,” Liam Garman, editor of Defence Connect said.
“With more and more companies competing for the same pool of skilled workers, businesses must address these core attributes to attract the sector’s best and brightest.”
Just last week, Defence Connect revealed the top 20 large defence companies ranked by employment attractiveness among industry professionals.
Survey results found that BAE Systems Australia and Boeing Defence Australia were ranked as the most attractive employers in the industry, with 28 per cent and 26 per cent of survey respondents, respectively, indicating their willingness to find work with the two prime contractors.
- BAE Systems Australia – 28 per cent
- Boeing Defence Australia – 26 per cent
- Lockheed Martin Australia – 23 per cent
- Thales Australia Limited – 20 per cent
- Raytheon Technologies – 17 per cent
- Northrop Grumman Australia – 14 per cent
- SAAB Australia – 13 per cent
- Rheinmetall Defence Australia – 12 per cent
- Airbus Australia Pacific – 11 per cent
- Nova Systems – 10 per cent
- Hanwha Defense Australia – 9 per cent
- L3Harris Technologies – 8 per cent
- Babcock Australasia – 8 per cent
- QinetiQ Australia – 8 per cent
- NIOA Australia – 7 per cent
- ASC – 7 per cent
- EOS Australia – 5 per cent
- Leidos Australia – 5 per cent
- Austal Limited – 5 per cent
- KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root) – 4 per cent
“Workforce challenges within the defence industry are not new, but innovative and disruptive technologies are driving competition to attract skilled workers at increasingly higher rates,” Garman said.
“These statistics provide a glimpse into those companies that have stood out in the minds of jobseekers for their next role.”
Conducted between the 21st of September and the 11th of November 2022, the report measured core attributes across invoice settlement, collaboration, communication and project management, global supply chain opportunities, knowledge transfer and transparency.
The survey used a sample of 870 active defence industry participants to deliver a margin of error of +/–3.32 per cent.
Of those, 57 per cent of responses came from small-to-medium sized businesses operating within the defence industry, with 19 per cent of respondents from businesses with 1 to 10 employees.
To learn more about the report, please contact director at Momentum Intelligence Michael Johnson on
