Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, , 8:03:04 to 8:08:22
Examination of recruitment targets, the performance of contractor Adeco, and the 269-day average timeframe from application to offer, with a goal to reduce this to 100 days.
Topics: ADF, Public service staffing
Speakers: Natasha Fox, Jacqui Lambie, Raff Ciccone, Unknown Speaker, Mark Hammond
>> Um, yeah. So, I just want to talk about recruitment if I can.
>> Just ask Lieutenant General Fox to come to the table in please.
>> Sorry, I didn't quite get that microphone. Uh, but uh I think you left General Fox to come up to the table.
>> thank you. Um, in the past, a Deco Australia has failed to meet its rec um, ADO Australia Australia has failed to meet its uh, recruitment targets for go 30%. Can you tell me how does defense measure the performance of um a deco and its delivery under the recruiting contract and what key performance indicators or or performance measures are in recruit are in the recruitment contract currently held by ADO?
uh Senator uh Adeco Australia achieved 80% inflow of targets uh for the last financial year uh and the performance indicators in the contract we measure um and pay by headcount achieved but it's not just volume it's about uh the nature of the target that we set for a deco to uh recruit to. So we know some trades are actually more difficult to recruit to as they are across Australia. So we actually would put um different weighted value on recruiting for those particular trades vice trades that we know we can recruit to more generally. Uh so we also look foolsomely at the candidate experience and the velocity of the speed to which ao can recruit.
>> Mhm. And how long is it taking them to um how long is it on average taking them how long's it taking them to recruit from the day uh they get yes I want to join? What does that look like in today's world? Is that now a lot less in months than what it has done previously? I'm still hearing people are waiting for months and they're losing interest and I do we have any stats on who's put in for these vision and it's taken a deco so long to uh get this moving that these people have now left.
>> Uh yes senator. application to letter of offer is what we measure and it is currently taking on average um and it does shift monthly and it does shift by role. >> Uh on average it is taking 269 days.
>> Okay. And that's before they've even gone to recruit school.
>> Yes sir.
>> Okay. Is there any way of getting that down to where it used to be like six or eight weeks? >> I'm just wondering how many are actually losing because I am hearing a lot of people out there over the years saying just taking too long, I'm not doing it anymore. And I think it's really have a ne negative impact on the numbers that could be recruited.
>> Yeah. So that that time frame actually also includes when some of our candidates choose to go on a holiday and not are not able to answer questions or come in for appointments. So that's that velocity piece on average. We do have a number of roles that move faster and we have um we have a program to uplift performance in recruiting to go faster to get to 100 days and that's based on technology requirements. Okay. And we were coming off a very low technology base. And we've spent the first part uh of the last 12 months building a target compendium where our military recruiters can have conversations with candidates who often walk into recruiting and don't know the role. They they have an idea but sometimes they want to join the ADF faster so that we can then provide them advice. Well, these roles have targets available and are moving fast. or some people actually choose to wait um because they would like to become a pilot and that takes longer. Okay. >> So, we give the candidate quite a bit of choice when we're engaging with them about what roles. But we now have tech tech solutions where we can have the conversations. >> That's the first step. We have also brought in we're bringing in uh new future service delivery model that will be able for candidates to move faster through the pipeline and I'm waiting for that secondary technological uplift to occur. They're coming in in blocks um not in a waterfall approach.
>> Okay.
>> So that is absolutely a focus and we are focusing on getting to 100 days.
>> Yeah, that would be great. I understand those um those um significant skills um out there take longer, but just be a normal transport driver, military police, whatever else. Uh your regiments, it'd be nice if we can get hold of them and do that in 100 days and keep them and get them in. Um can who's in charge of the recruitment? Who's got the con how's it working with the Pacific Islanders? Is New Zealand just still come over here and we just do what we've always done with New Zealand?