The ADF's Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Services contract has been extended for three years as the Navy launches a new program to attract and retain submariners.
The extension, worth at least $300 million over three years, means ManpowerGroup will continue to manage the largest and most complex RPO program in the world until 2020.
The ADF’s relationship with ManpowerGroup began in 2003 with the formation of the Defence Force Recruiting (DFR) public-private collaboration – the first of its kind in the defence industry. DFR is an integrated organisation made up of uniformed personnel from the ADF, the Australian Public Service, ManpowerGroup, Corporate Health Group Defence and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
"The achievement of the ADF’s strategic capabilities ultimately rests on the quality of its people," Commodore Tony Partridge director general Defence Force Recruiting said.
"Within DFR, we are entrusted with our mission to ensure we deliver quality people to maximise the ADF’s capability. Essential to the critical work we do is the need for a strategic partner to work with us to continually evolve and adapt to meet contemporary needs and to assure a diverse, professional capable workforce.
Meanwhile a new program aimed at increasing the size of the submarine work-force has been launched by Navy.
The Submarine Deliberately Differentiated Package was announced on 29 January, and Assistant Director of Navy Workforce Management (Warfare), Commander Guy Blackburn, said the package was a new approach to delivering Navy’s workforce requirements.
"It addresses the financial considerations as well as the wider professional, career and social issues that submariners indicated are affecting their intention to serve in the submarine capability and wider Navy," he said.
The Royal Australian Navy remains committed to delivering a submarine capability that delivers “strategic deterrence, lethality, availability and sustainability”.
The package comprises seven components (two financial and five non financial) for eligible submarine personnel who contribute to the submarine capability.
The package is the first of its type to be used in the ADF. It will provide a model for how Navy approached work-force challenges in other areas by carefully researching what motivates people and then enhancing those things that can help people make the decision to stay.