"The Defence Force Recruiting Organisation is negotiating with two commercial recruiting organisations to help meet this financial year's Defence Force recruitment needs," the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Bruce Scott, said today.
"I expect that, subject to successful negotiations, two large national recruitment firms, Employment National and Manpower, will be contracted for an initial three-month period," Mr Scott said.
"The initiative is consistent with the findings of the 1997 Defence Efficiency Review that recommended use of commercial recruiting firms to make Defence recruiting more effective."
"The companies are planned to assist Defence to find suitable recruits to fill current vacancies, including the increased number of personnel required as a result of the Government's decision today to raise two additional full-time battalion groups, and increase the Air Force's strength by 555."
"Defence faces significant challenges in attracting the numbers of high quality men and women we need, partly as the economy is doing well as the moment and job availability is at a nine year high," Mr Scott said.
"We are also faced with the fact our primary demographic pool, 17 to 24 year olds, is shrinking. This means we have to be smarter in our approach and more competitive with all the other employers trying to hire young people these days," he said.
"Given this environment, using commercial agencies now will enable us to capitalise on the increased community interest in Defence careers arising from the East Timor deployment."
"These two agencies already have a relationship with the Recruiting Organisation, as they were short listed as part of the recruiting market testing project," he said.
The role of the companies will be to help find suitable quality applicants. They will be required to disseminate Defence approved career information, advise applicants of the recruiting processes and conduct initial screening.
"The companies will not be responsible for medical or psychological testing, or selection interviewing. This will continue to be done by the Defence Force," Mr Scott said
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Defence Recruiting Making Use Of Commercial Agencies
