In the latest move to scale up the Australian Defence Force (ADF), the Australian Government has selected Adecco Australia as Defence’s new recruitment partner. Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh said given the strategic circumstances we now face, the recruitment and retention of personnel has never been more important.
Why was Adecco picked for recruitment solutions?
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. “Our people are the most important capability for the defence of Australia. It’s exciting to be working with a new partner to ensure we’re engaging with the best people our nation has to offer,” said Minister Keogh.
“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.”
“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 keen to engage with older Australians who want to contribute to the defence of our nation.”
“Our partnership with Adecco will focus on redefining how we can modernise recruitment efforts in a hyper competitive labour market. I thank our service provider, ManpowerGroup, for their valued contribution to building Defence’s recruiting capability over the last 20 years.”
What does the partnership mean for Adecco?
Adecco’s Managing Director, Mr Kevin Alexander said; “This contract is an exciting opportunity for Adecco and we are proud to partner with Defence to deliver such a crucial workforce.”
“This contract will be pivotal in delivering the right workforce for Defence and we are committed to working to achieve outcomes. Adecco feels privileged for the opportunity to use our expertise 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 to modernise the Defence recruiting system. This includes a range of services like, marketing, recruiting operations, experience, medical and psychological testing and ICT services.”
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. 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 contract begins a new era of Defence recruitment and commences on 1 July 2023. A transition handover between ManpowerGroup and Adecco Australia began 1 Nov 2022. ManpowerGroup will deliver recruiting services until the end of the current financial year.
