The Department of Defence has re-booted its massive recruitment services outsourcing contract for the Australian Defence Force (ADF), turfing incumbent labour hire heavyweight Manpower in favour of Franco-Swiss-based multinational Adecco in a deal that appears to be worth at least $20 million.
Announced without a price tag by minister for veterans’ affairs and defence personnel Matt Keogh on Sunday, procurement records show Adecco was awarded a $20 million “contractor services” deal on September 14 by the Defence People Group for “management support services”.
The deal replaces Manpower’s two-decade-long incumbency as Defence’s recruiter that Defence said “has attracted more than one million applicants and helped enlist more than 121,600 individuals into the ADF”.
The Defence recruitment contract is a particularly challenging one because Australia’s armed forces are voluntary and have traditionally had high standards that historically worked against attracting people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Defence became an unenthusiastic conscript to the former government’s culture wars after former Defence minister and now opposition minister Peter Dutton mounted a counter-woke crackdown that banned rainbows and morning teas.
The Labor government has since reversed those bans.
Keogh said given the strategic circumstances Australia now faced “the recruitment and retention of personnel has never been more important.”
“Our people are the most important capability for the defence of Australia, and our national interests. It’s exciting to be working with a new recruitment partner to ensure we’re engaging with the very best people our nation has to offer,” said Keogh.
Keogh said Defence was “looking to increase their employment footprint by 18,500 people by 2039-40” and that prospective recruits were in need of inspiration.
“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,” Keogh said.
“People are looking for jobs with purpose, 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.”
The tightness of the Labour market has forced a rethink at Defence about how to source recruits, with the upper age limit now a target.
“We also are very keen to engage with older Australians who want to contribute to the defence of our nation,” Keogh said.
“Our new partnership with Adecco will focus on redefining how we can modernise recruitment efforts in a hyper-competitive labour market.”
The new Adecco contract officially commences on 1 July 2023, with a handover between ManpowerGroup and Adecco Australia commencing 1 November 2022.
ManpowerGroup will continue to deliver recruiting services until the end of the current financial year, Defence said.
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Thousands more Australian defence force personnel to be recruited
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