Australian Army Discussions and Updates

[old faithful]

I don't care what demographic someone is recruited from, as long as they are the best person for the job.
When recruiters are told to recruit only from one demographic, to even out numbers or for what ever reason, then the recruitment process is flawed.
We have a population of 27 million, and we can't recruit @ 10,000 to fill vacant positions?
I don't believe that we CANT. I do believe that either the will is not there to employ people, or the process is useless and needs to be fixed asap, not some "review", but fixed here and now.

 

[swerve]

While I think the recruiting process is broken, largely because of an incredibly stupid decision some years ago to outsource much of it, Navy at least isn’t recruiting to gender targets as its principal determinant. I’m not sure that it would be Army policy to; but on the other hand policy gets interpreted on the ground; and because of the aforementioned incredibly stupid decision it is not necessarily interpreted by people who actually understand what is wanted.

British army recruitment was outsourced to Capita. I used to work for Capita, & if they'd asked me, I'd have told them that could be considered treason. It's not turned out well. The processing of applications is a mess.
The Army’s ‘Recruitment Crisis’ is Not Just an IT Failure

It's not all Capita's fault, but choosing Capita to implement it was a large part of the mess.

Capita has many good people working for it, but in my experience they're held back by the organisation. I remember our customers acting to protect us from our senior management, for example. Everyone in our office knew that one of our directors tried to blame the people doing a particular job for things going wrong, & the customers told him that was untrue, & it was because they were overworked & under-resourced, & they knew this because they had staff working alongside them. That was typical.

When I resigned, my boss rather anxiously asked me if I had a job to go to, & when I said yes, he was relieved. He was worried that I was so pissed-off that I'd quit without finding anything else. Nobody liked the company. I've never worked anywhere else where the staff were so demoralised.

Oh, & when I amalgamated my collection of old company pensions into one, three were sorted out very quickly - & the Capita one (run by Capita, not an outside provider) took forever. Also typical . . .

 

[Bob53]

Oh please, if you're going to use that BS talking point then at least provide some data to prove why you think "DEI" (not an Australian term) is somehow causing the recruitment crisis in the ADF. I'll wait.

Only comments here that young abled bodied people are being left waiting and waiting and other comments here stating that the quality if recruits being accepted at times to meet certain quotas. Read the comment #11549 I was responding to. Not accepting female recruits quite clearly stated … the original objective of diversity has been heavily compromised. It was to reverse a position that females can’t do this or than and give them a fair go. That then evolved into targets and that evolved into exclusion unless you were that particular target audience…. just to meet a target..which is stupid and highway to the bottom.

and it’s not an Australian term…who told you that? Diversity, Equality and inclusion was being pumped in gov HR departments including Aussie Post from the late 90s.

 

[ADMk2]

I don't care what demographic someone is recruited from, as long as they are the best person for the job.
When recruiters are told to recruit only from one demographic, to even out numbers or for what ever reason, then the recruitment process is flawed.
We have a population of 27 million, and we can't recruit @ 10,000 to fill vacant positions?
I don't believe that we CANT. I do believe that either the will is not there to employ people, or the process is useless and needs to be fixed asap, not some "review", but fixed here and now.

ADF had over 80,000 applicants for the year 2023/2024.

Apparently less than 1 in ten met ADF’s “standards” because only some 6-7k were actually recruited, falling short of our targets.

The demographics aren’t the problem. ADF’s recruiting processes / policies, training pipelines / processes and postings are the entire problem.

On top of which, we have a generation of service people leaving because all the gigs are over. Going back to train against “Kamarians” doesn’t seem to be so appealing to those who have substantial operational experience.

Accordingly we have an attrition problem.

 

[protoplasm]

ADF had over 80,000 applicants for the year 2023/2024.

Apparently less than 1 in ten met ADF’s “standards” because only some 6-7k were actually recruited, falling short of our targets.

The demographics aren’t the problem. ADF’s recruiting processes / policies, training pipelines / processes and postings are the entire problem.

Personal experience, as someone who is guiding young people towards ADF entry. Multiple 18 and 19 year olds over the last 3 years were willing, fit, met the standards and were accepted. BUT, the process took over 12 months for most. The vast majority had already moved on to other things and had accepted other placements.

The ADF is losing higher calibre recruits to other companies or universities because it takes too long to get in. If this isn’t fixed recruitment will never meet the needs of the ADF. What is most frustrating is that this is not hard to fix, just adjust the system so that it’ll work for those exiting schooling/apprenticeships/degrees, rather than actively working against it.

Why it takes over 12 months to bring in an infantry recruit is unfathomable.

 

[Sandson41]

How many induction courses does the ADF hold each year? What's the max number per course? What do they do with the excess applicants?

I can't find the answers with a quick Google.

I imagine the year long wait is for a slot to become available, but I'm speculating...

 

[Volkodav]

Personal experience, as someone who is guiding young people towards ADF entry. Multiple 18 and 19 year olds over the last 3 years were willing, fit, met the standards and were accepted. BUT, the process took over 12 months for most. The vast majority had already moved on to other things and had accepted other placements.

The ADF is losing higher calibre recruits to other companies or universities because it takes too long to get in. If this isn’t fixed recruitment will never meet the needs of the ADF. What is most frustrating is that this is not hard to fix, just adjust the system so that it’ll work for those exiting schooling/apprenticeships/degrees, rather than actively working against it.

Why it takes over 12 months to bring in an infantry recruit is unfathomable.

This is what it was like in the early 90s.

I was selected then had intakes delayed or cancelled and eventually had to commit to other things just to keep my life ticking along.

I (and many others) investigated multiple pathways delayed and even turned down very good, non ADF options aiming for the career we wanted.

I made decisions in my career and education aimed at a military career that I'm still paying the price for today.

The thing is, it was the ADF running recruiting back then.

These days I've seen people fast tracked in because they are coached and mentored by people in the know. It's not what you know, or how good you are, it's who you know.

 

[ADMk2]

Personal experience, as someone who is guiding young people towards ADF entry. Multiple 18 and 19 year olds over the last 3 years were willing, fit, met the standards and were accepted. BUT, the process took over 12 months for most. The vast majority had already moved on to other things and had accepted other placements.

The ADF is losing higher calibre recruits to other companies or universities because it takes too long to get in. If this isn’t fixed recruitment will never meet the needs of the ADF. What is most frustrating is that this is not hard to fix, just adjust the system so that it’ll work for those exiting schooling/apprenticeships/degrees, rather than actively working against it.

Why it takes over 12 months to bring in an infantry recruit is unfathomable.

100%. 16 weeks to train them as an infantry soldier but 12 months to recruit? It’s an absolute joke. The fact that the brass or the Minister won’t quickly address this, shows how seriously they are really taking this issue, whatever their words might be.

 

[Bob53]

ADF had over 80,000 applicants for the year 2023/2024.

Apparently less than 1 in ten met ADF’s “standards” because only some 6-7k were actually recruited, falling short of our targets.

The demographics aren’t the problem. ADF’s recruiting processes / policies, training pipelines / processes and postings are the entire problem.

On top of which, we have a generation of service people leaving because all the gigs are over. Going back to train against “Kamarians” doesn’t seem to be so appealing to those who have substantial operational experience.

Accordingly we have an attrition problem.

Wasn’t the post above saying they were only taking females for certain roles? 80 thousand applicants? that’s a lot. 1 in ten meeting the standards seems low ( you would think they might know the required standards before applying) but that would be 8000 recruits a year?

 

[protoplasm]

Wasn’t the post above saying they were only taking females for certain roles? 80 thousand applicants? that’s a lot. 1 in ten meeting the standards seems low ( you would think they might know the required standards before applying) but that would be 8000 recruits a year?

Many more than that meet the standards, but don't go in that year because they have been screwed around by the recruiting process, wait waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long and then accept something else and move forward with life. They then get an email advising that they have been successful, but have already commenced something else, and are lost to the ADF.

In any given year the ADF doesn't take all the applicants who meet the standards, they only get those who meet the standards and who are willing to wait around whilst ADF recruiting moves at a snail's pace. The best ones won't wait around for an organisation that is demonstrating that it doesn't care about them or their future.