Page 46 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

46 DEFENCE BUSINESS
PEOPLE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LEFT: Justine Greig, Deputy Secretary, Defence People Group, addresses the Defence People Symposium
presentations, noting the tight labour market Australia is already facing.
DEPSEC Greig noted in her address that Defence has experienced an increasing separation rate over the last 12 months, which currently stands at 10.9 per cent for ADF personnel – a rate she noted represents a significant in- crease from the past year. She also told delegates that the separation rate in Defence’s public Service workforce was 14.6 per cent over the same period.
“That is well out of what we know as our normal band or our normal experience,” she said. “We work on those trends, many of you are working on those critical occupations and categories, where we do put in remediation and look to en- sure that we’re still able to grow those critical skillsets.”
DEPSEC Greig said these critical categories include en- gineering, some warfare occupations, intelligence, commu- nications and cyber. “We are currently working on a range of retention initiatives,” she said, noting the total defence workforce currently stands at over 100,000 people. “As we look forward, we will be growing that workforce to 2040, a growth of 18,500 – which is a combination of ADF and APS personnel.”
To achieve that desired workforce, DEPSEC Greig said the organisation needs to recruit on average over 9,000 people to the ADF each year between now and 2040.
“In terms of the APS workforce, what we need to col- lectively do is get that separation rate down by at least five per cent and ensure that we’re onboarding at least 215 APS staff a month, so we’re stabilising that workforce ready for the growth,” DEPSEC Greig added. “For that planned
“DEFENCE HAS EXPERIENCED AN INCREASING SEPARATION RATE OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS, WHICH CURRENTLY STANDS AT 10.9 PER CENT FOR ADF PERSONNEL”
growth, what we actually need is a significant step-change in our people system.”
DEPSEC Greig also explained some of the larger initia- tives being undertaken, which includes work to optimise the labour pool and modernise the ADF employment offer. “We are really renewing the way we recruit to the ADF, we are working to put in place some new arrangements, so that we really modernise ADF recruitment,” she said. “And that means reducing some of the barriers that are there; it means reducing timeframes – it’s about velocity.”
DEVELOPING A NUCLEAR MINDSET
In his presentation, Head of the Nuclear Submarine Task Force Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead noted the half-way point of the 18-month consultation process with Austra- lia’s AUKUS partners to identify a pathway to a nuclear- powered submarine capability process was reached in mid- June. VADM Mead however noted the steepest part of the climb was still ahead.
“The work we are doing is much more than just identify- ing the boat we’ll acquire, clearly we’re also focussed on en- suring Australia has a workforce with the necessary skills to build, operate, sustain conventionally-armed, nuclear- powered submarines,” he said. “The task force has been working closely with a number of universities across Aus- tralia, including the University of NSW and ANU. Right now, we have Defence personnel – both APS and ADF – who are studying a Masters of Nuclear Science course at ANU, and a Masters of Nuclear Engineering course at UNSW.”
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