Skilling: Catch and keep: Defence looks at ADF manpower to 2030 | ADM Sep 08
Despite the mining boom, ADF recruitment and retention figures are improving, though some key technical trades are still causing concern. Overall, Defence is making progress towards its goal of a bigger defence force.
Gregor Ferguson
One of the so-called Companion Reviews to the new Defence White Paper is the Defence Workforce Review, co-chaired by Major General Mick Slater, Head Personnel Executive.
This will contribute to the White Paper by addressing the ‘people’ dimension of capability, including the workforce requirements and strategies required to meet the workforce challenges out to 2030.?
The ‘people’ dimension is challenging: ADF recruitment and retention are affected by a wide range of issues, including demographics (the expectations of Gen Y-ers, the ageing of the workforce) and the state of the economy (a booming economy can offer better prospects to skilled people than ADF service).
And the demands that military service will make on ADF personnel are changing also.
While some military roles still demand the sheer strength, resilience and aggression of the old-fashioned male warrior, increasingly war fighting effects are packaged and delivered in a remote, cooler way by operators plugged into networks of sensor, processors displays and effectors.
So the long-term challenges facing Defence’s People Strategies and Policy Group need to be identified and tackled as early as possible. This is the job of the Review Manager, Brigadier Craig Orme.
Meanwhile, there are shorter-term issues to be dealt with.
The goal of fielding a Hardened and Networked Army (HNA) has largely driven the requirement for a significantly expanded defence force: the ADF’s target manning level by 2016 is 57,000 regular personnel.
The current strength is 53,150, an increase of 1,950 over last year and, according to Defence, in line with budgetary guidance.
But the general perception is that recruiting targets aren’t being met, while skilled personnel are leaving the service in droves, chasing the mining industry’s dollars up in the Kimberley and the Pilbarra.
The real picture is a bit different.
Good shape
The ADF’s ‘good overall growth’ in 2007-08 results from improved recruiting results, a lower separation rate, more Reservists undertaking full-time service and the Gap Year intakes, Defence sources told ADM.
In all, 7,039 full time members enlisted in FY 2007-08, made up of 5,694 ‘ab initio’ enlistees and 1,345 people with prior service rejoining the ADF; this represented an increase of 1,009 over the previous year, with a lower separation rate (falling by 632 personnel) compared to 2006-07.
The ab intio enlistments represented an increase of 740 over 2006-07, but was still only 78 per cent of the target figure for the year.
However, prior service enlistments were up 269, while 2,540 part-timers, or about 93 per cent of the target figure, joined up along with 702 Gap Year participants.
Overall, says Defence, the trends are positive: in July the full-time ADF separation rate remained at 9.9 per cent for a third consecutive month, an improvement of 1.4 per cent on the previous year’s rate.
Meanwhile, ADF enlistments have shown a steady improvement over the past 5 financial years, with a welcome spike in 2007-08.
Permanent Force Recruiting (all sources):
Financial Year Enlistments
07/08 (subject to validation & excludes lateral transfers) 7,039
06/07 6,031
05/06 5,367
04/05 4,934
03/04 5,592
02/03 5,338
01/02 6,583
Source: Defence Annual Reports
Against this background, in July Defence Force Recruiting (DFR) announced a $405 million, five year ADF Recruiting Services Contract contract with recruiting firm Chandler Macleod to recruit up to 11,000 regular and reserve personnel each year.
The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Warren Snowdon, said, “The ADF continues to face a highly competitive labour market, with other Australian employers seeking the same sort of people with similar professional, technical and trade skills.
"DFR meets this challenge by drawing on the expertise of commercial providers for marketing and recruitment services to complement the important work performed by ADF recruiters.”
DFR’s existing contract with Manpower Services (Australia) provides for a seamless transition to the new contract, which will commence on 1 February 2009.
“One of the best results for ADF recruitment is expected this financial year, building on the strong achievement of last year, and I look forward to the greater ADF recruitment achievement that the new contract should bring,” Snowdon said in the contract announcement.
EDS Australia has signed a $25 million deal to provide back-end support for Chandler Macleod’s consortium earlier this month.
Twelve months ago the ADF separation rate was 11.3 per cent. The five-year average is 10.8 per cent, so this year’s figures represent a welcome improvement.
Permanent Force Separation
Financial Year ADF permanent force separation rate
06/07 11.2%
05/06 11.0%
04/05 11.0%
03/04 10.0%
Source: Defence Annual Reports
Interestingly, the RAAF has the lowest current separation rate, at about 7.2 per cent, compared with 9 per cent 12 months ago; Army is recording 10.6 per cent compared with last year’s 11.9, and Navy is suffering most with a separation rate of 11.3 per cent, though this is still better than last year’s 12.7 per cent.
“Separation pressures remain in several trade, technical and professional employment streams, such as: marine and weapons engineers, doctors, dentists, electronics and communications technicians, and aviation and avionics technicians,” ADM was told.
“Rank and experience pressures are at the captain/major level and non-commissioned officer ranks in some Army corps.”
Incentives
Short-term remediation is in place in the form of financial and non-financial and career management incentives while Defence addresses the long-term systemic employment issues, says Defence – hence the Companion Review.
Regardless of long term trends, analysts have tried to spot cyclical effects such as airline recruiting cycles and the present minerals and resources boom which affect both recruiting and retention.
So what thing seem to have the greatest effect on separation rates?
And are these common across the ADF or are these specific to a service or trade/specialisation?
“Members choose to finally leave the ADF for a range of personal reasons that are quite variable,” ADM was told.
"Other research indicates that there is no ‘one answer’.”
The reasons given for resigning from the ADF vary according to age, length of ADF service, and marital and family status.
Unsurprisingly, many are lifestyle-related and include the desire for a more stable lifestyle, the appeal of a civilian career and the need to make a career change while still young enough.
Issues such as pay and housing are, not unexpectedly, also a determinant of ADF personnel satisfaction and separation rates, according to Defence.
Factors influencing ADF personnel to remain in uniform vary according to age groups, however: for example, significant influences for those under 24 include medical and dental benefits, travel opportunities, job security and job enjoyment.
For the 30-34 age group key factors include job enjoyment, job security, base pay, medical benefits and support from spouse/partner.
For the 40-44 demographic it’s still about job enjoyment and security, but also now superannuation, support from spouse/partner and challenging work.
For the 50+ age group the key factors are job enjoyment, challenging work, team environment, job security and ability to balance work and personal time.
Satisfaction with pay reached a low in 2006, ADM was told, but the situation is believed to be improving after Defence put in place a range of financial retention measures in late 2006 and in 2007.
Also recent ADF remuneration reforms have introduced a simpler and more flexible military pay structure designed to respond quickly to significant changes in work value and better recognise skills and qualifications.
“Salary is only one component of the total ADF employment package that embraces a range of financial and non-financial benefits (some of which are tax-free),” Defence says.
These include: employer subsidised superannuation, free medical and dental care, 50 per cent subsidy on the rent bill for Defence housing and a range of family support programs.
Importantly, the subsidised housing and free medical and dental care have emerged as an important condition of service for ADF members.
So the new Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme is also a retention initiative to encourage ADF personnel to serve for longer periods by providing progressively higher home loan subsidies to permanent members who serve beyond the critical departure points of 4, 8 and 12 years.
Movement within the ADF
With the ADF’s specialist and skilled trades most vulnerable to greener pastures out of uniform, how much career mobility is there within the ADF?
If a soldier joins up as a rifleman, how easy is it for him to become a signaler or RAEME artificer, or for a seaman to become a helicopter maintainer or combat system operator?
In principle, the door is wide open: the three services will always consider requests to undertake re-training and pursue other employment streams, subject to their suitability: their education and aptitude.
A challenge for the services is maintaining the balance within workforce groups between raw numbers and experience: this is something Army Aviation has been dealing with, for example, in training and expanding its pool maintainers and experienced supervisors to sustain the Tiger and MRH90 helicopters.
Army has a retention program that offers financial incentives to encourage soldiers with non-trade employment backgrounds to train and transfer to technical trades which are becoming critical or transfer to non-technical critical employment categories.
This is part of the wider career management issue, says Defence: how ADF members are career-managed has a strong influence on their decision to stay or go.
Defence is working to improve its HR management systems and career advisory capabilities in order to better reconcile career trajectories, postings, geographical stability, spouse employment and children’s education needs.
The female touch
At the start of this year defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon stated baldly that he wants to see more opportunities for women in the ADF, and more women pursuing those opportunities.
Women currently make up 7,200 of the regular ADF, about 13.5 per cent of the total and some 16 per cent of the workforce within the employment categories in which they are able to serve.
Most of the structural barriers to women being employed across the ADF – including issues such as accommodation aboard ships and submarines – have been removed over the past 15 years or so.
But the ADF still isn’t visible as a career option to many women.
Defence’s ‘Recruitment of Women Strategy’ aims to increase female enlistments into the ADF over the next three years from about 14 per cent to about 20 per cent.
It has tailored a range of recruitment initiatives specifically for women, including web sites, a public affairs program and an alumni program putting forward female ADF members as potential role models.
The retention issue is also getting attention: particularly to overcome the high separation rate of women who serve for less than 10 years, Defence is working on more flexible career management and an enhanced work/life balance, including entitlements such as maternity leave.
As part of taking a fresh approach to retention issues, an external Reference Group on Women, chaired by Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick has recently been established to advise the Chief of the Defence Force on the recruitment and retention of servicewomen.
Members of the Reference Group are senior women who have a track record of success in male-dominated professions or who have been responsible for innovative strategies for increasing the participation of women in their workforces.
The Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, told ADM, “I have been impressed at the commitment of the Chief of the Defence Force and the senior leadership team to address what is a fundamental business issue, namely the difficulty in attracting and retaining women.
"We live in a time of skills shortages where good people (both men and women) are hard to attract.
"Women currently represent only 13 per cent of the ADF.
"We know that women represent one of the largest untapped talent pools in this country.
"We need to think laterally and innovatively about finding solutions to attract, retain and progress women in the armed forces.
"The Chief of the Defence Force has made it clear that all options are open for discussion.”
Closer to home
Similarly, Defence has recently launched a new Indigenous Recruitment Strategy designed to attract and recruit more Indigenous people from remote, rural and urban communities throughout Australia.
This is a long-term strategy and it may be some time before it delivers concrete results but in the short term seeks to double the current enlistment rate for Indigenous Australians by 2010.
There are estimated to be1,225 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people serving within the ADF and as Defence civilians (reporting of ethnic groupings within Defence’s personnel database is voluntary, so the figure is necessarily approximate).?
This represents about 1.4 per cent of the ADF workforce – roughly the same proportion of Indigenous Australians in the Australian workforce.
Regional Force Surveillance Units such as NORFORCE have been successful at recruiting and retaining Aboriginal troops, according to defence personnel minister Warren Snowdon.
“NORFORCE is now comprised of approximately 48 Indigenous personnel.
"The Far North Queensland Regiment is close behind with 47 per cent personnel.
"It’s well known that the Full Time ADF has many strict entry requirements that everyone must meet before joining.
"However, it’s clear that if we can put in place tailored pathways and alternative entry points to Defence we can improve the success rate of Indigenous ADF candidates in the recruiting process.
"Such an avenue provides for those who would otherwise have little to do with the ADF, or be exposed to its benefits,” said Snowden.
To broaden its recruiting pool still further, the ADF is relaxing medical and fitness standards where employment categories require - for example, visual acuity and colour perception are essential for aircrew and some technical trades, while high levels of physical fitness are essential for clearance divers and infantry.
Entry standard changes were made in 2006 in relation to past drug use, tattoos, body mass index and eyesight (myopia) for certain employment groups.
Defence realises it needs to sell itself as an employer to both recruits and serving personnel.
But the rising, and very public, ADF death toll in the Middle East reminds us that the inherent risks make military service more than just a job – it’s a service, and therefore the rising recruitment figures are a tribute to both the ADF and the men and women who apply to join it