New perks on offer as Defence sounds alarm on military staff recruitment and retention

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Stand by for more headhunting!

Defence bosses sound alarm on military's struggle to attract and retain staff

In a recent letter to ADF personnel and department staff, the Defence secretary and the Chief of the Defence Force acknowledge the need to do more to "remain competitive".

www.abc.net.au

 

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Now it's a "crisis"

Defence facing a ‘personnel crisis’ with thousands more uniformed members needed

Defence is short thousands of uniformed personnel, Richard Marles said as he foreshadowed tough decisions in the Defence Strategic Review.

www.smh.com.au

 

[stoker dave]

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To add: The Reddit thread on this in r/AustralianMilitary reads exactly like what CAF members would say, with different acronyms.

Top comments:

Try not moving people every two-three years because it is needed for their “career profile” if you provide stability, people just might stay.
Also try treating your people like adults and not overgrown children. Micromanagement is not the answer.

• Pay rises well below inflation
• Moving around every 2-3 years
• Abolishment / restriction of things that made defence attractive: Getting paid for PT etc
• Being used as a stopgap for the governments failures to plan, eg covid assist, grandma assist
• Lack of trips
• Rising mental health issues that seem to go completely unnoticed
• Incentives to stay longer (15-20 years) no longer provided

No wonder people are leaving.

Also, I didn't know this but apparently the Australian Defence Force has the highest officer to NCM ratio than any other "western" military.