Free taxpayer beer is not attracting recruits. "The shortage also extends to essentials such as medical staff; the defence forces have only 40 per cent of the doctors they need."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/recruitment-on-the-ropes/story-e6f... Quote:Defence force recruitment on the ropes
GREG CALLAGHAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 11, 2009 12:00AM
YOU don't have to find 2030 in the crystal ball - this being the date earmarked for strategic forward planning in the recent white paper - to appreciate the magnitude of challenges facing Australia's defence forces. You just have to take one look at the world today. A world in which the scale of the nation's military commitments has never been broader - Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor, as peacekeepers in the Solomon Islands - nor the range of potential conflicts greater. A world in which the centre of gravity of economic and political power is shifting from Europe and North America to Asia. A world in which China is building the strongest military in Asia, recently giving the green light to a fleet of aircraft carriers.
The 140-page white paper, the first in eight years, outlines plans for a host of hi-tech equipment, including 12 new submarines and 100 joint strike fighters, but devotes only one five-page chapter to arguably the biggest battle of all: the one for boots on the ground. And by any measure, the latest figures on recruitment from the Defence Department make for depressing reading. So far this year, the navy has only managed to achieve 71 per cent of its desired recruitment total, a shortfall of 412 new sailors from its target of 1434. While the air force is faring better, achieving 87 per cent of its target, or 136 personnel shy of its goal of 1081, the recruitment figure is down by 6 per cent on this time last year. The army is in better shape, achieving 91 per cent of its recruitment target, but this means it's still missing more than 300 soldiers it needs.
The ADF's peak recruitment period is in the early months of the calendar year, when school leavers and others join the workforce. If all three defence services are still thin on recruitment during these critical months, at the height of the worst recession since the 1930s, how on earth, defence analysts ask, are they expected to reach their targets when the economy starts to boom again?
The latest figures from the ADF stand in stark contrast to those just released from the British Army, which has enjoyed a 14 per cent rise in recruitment in the six months to March 31, and is now in the enviable position of reaching its full targets for the first time in a generation. Americans, too, are signing up in rapidly increasing numbers, lured by attractions such as a steady wage, cheap health benefits and training. Just since December last year, 21,443 new soldiers have joined active duty or the reserves, reports The New York Times.
There is evidence that the Australian staffing shortages are already putting a brake on some defence activities: most glaring is the inability of the Royal Australian Navy to man more than three of its six Collins class submarines at any one time. The navy needs 662 submariners, and only has 429, which means that even on a good day it's running at two-thirds' strength. A lack of engineers to fix malfunctioning equipment - most recently, an escape vehicle on one of the subs - has proved to be an additional problem.
"This is an absolute disgrace," declares Hugh White, head of the strategic and defence studies centre at the Australian National University, where he is a professor, as well as being a visiting fellow at Sydney's Lowy Institute. "The navy is now paying the price for spending years not putting a high priority on maintaining its crews."
White blames a defence force whose employment culture dates back to the 19th-century English model, whose management structure is too diffuse, too cumbersome, and too costly. "How difficult is it to get 200 new mariners from the pool of two million Australians aged between 18 and 25?" asks White. "Diffusion of power and responsibility has become a real problem in the navy. Why not employ one expert whose sole job it is to make certain that all the submarines are fully crewed. If he succeeds, he gets a bonus; if not, he gets the sack."
While the economic downturn appears to have resulted in higher retention rates in some areas of the ADF - personnel are less likely to bale out if they don't see jobs in the civilian marketplace - they're nowhere close to those in the US army. The ADF, however, has applied manpower tourniquets to keep bodies in uniform over the past few years, says Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon. "Our retention rates are improving, and we now have record rates in the air force. We're getting much better at managing and opening up career paths."
To sweeten the prospect of signing up to a long-term contract, the ADF has been dangling higher salaries, more flexible work schedules and technical scholarships. But Snowdon emphasises that the ADF should never be seen as an employer of last resort, which is why an economic downturn doesn't necessarily mean a sudden surge in enlistments. The ADF will never compromise on health and fitness, he says, or commitment to the standards of service.
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