Cassidy, Laureen (SEN)
From:	Kim Smith [kimandmichelle@iprimus.com.au]
Sent:	Monday, 14 May 2001 10:00 PM
To:	fadt.sen@aph.gov.au
Subject:	Inquiry into Recruitment and Retention of Defence Personnel
SUBMISSION to the Inquiry into Recruitment and Retention of Defence Personnel, by WO2 K.E. Smith.
 
Ladies and Gents,
 
I am a 36 yr old Army Warrant Officer Class Two.  I have been in the regular Army since January 1985, after a stint in the Army reserve in 1983.  I have worked at a number of jobs in the ADF, including a two year stint as a Recruit Instructor.  It is with this background, plus my own very recent experiences with Defence Force Recruiting that I have an opinion the Inquiry into the Recruitment and Retention of Defence Personnel may find useful.  
 
My opinion is that while the flash and expensive recruiting campaign is all well and good, staff at recruiting centres are not able to, or not allowed to, recruit (the verb) people.  This opinion is based as follows:
 
On 27 April this year, I took my 16 1/2 year old son into the Canberra DFRC.  He had been at me for a while to take him, and he had been expressing a strong desire for the last few years to become a cook in the Navy.  As I am in the Army, I had been buoyed by the fact that I knew the ADF were looking for people to join, due to the fact that our numbers are down.  My son was aware of the fact that the ADF were looking for people because of the massive advertising campaign that has been running for the past year or so.  
 
When he went up to the counter in the recruiting office to ask about a job, he was told  (very politely) to "go home and ring 13 19 01"  Now, as most people in the ADF (or interested in joining) know, this is the number that is advertised on TV and in the paper as the number for "your local DFRC".  My son pointed this out to the Sergeant behind the counter and asked why he had to ring, when he was already there and wanted to talk to someone about a career, only to be told that he had to ring the number in order for defence to establish a database, send out some information and then get some contact details in order to contact him "within 10 days".  None of the 5 or 6 staff that I could see in the DFRC even bothered to try to RECRUIT; that is, they didn't come up and say "Want a career, join the ADF, join the Navy etc etc"  They didn't even bother to take his name or any details down.  There was a TV and VCR (with a whole heap of flash defence PR videos) in a room.  No one suggested that he sit down and "watch a video on the latest exciting careers in the ADF" or anything like that.  He was told to go home, and ring the number (which I must add is painted on rather large letters on the front windows of the DFRC).  My son was in the office.  He was keen.  He wanted to join.  They let him walk out without any attempt to recruit him.  Instead, it was "go home and ring the number".  While I guess that I am probably waffling on with this a bit, my point is simple.  The current ways of business at the DFRC are seriously flawed.  Staff need to recruit people.  They need to be able to talk someone into joining.  The fact that they turned away a young and keen volunteer is rather disturbing.
 
Anyway, I explained to my very disappointed son on the way home in the car that this must be some sort of new, more improved way of recruitment than it was when I was recruited.  I told him that when I was not much older than him, I walked into a recruiting office in Perth and was sat down and talked to at great length by a bunch of soldiers over a coffee.  By the time I left that initial appointment, they knew as much about me as they needed, and I couldn't wait to join them. In short, they RECRUITED me.
 
Flash forward to 2001 and my son went into a recruiting office only to be told to go home to ring a phone number.  He rang, gave some rudimentary details and was promised that he would be sent some information.  He was sent some information, information that did nothing to entice him into a service that is screaming for numbers.  He still hasn't been sent an application form.  I rang the 13 19 01 number, just to make sure that they were not treating my son differently.  I got the same explanation from the nice civilian (why don't they have soldiers/sailors and airmen answering questions
 
I would be more than willing to discuss this and or any other ideas with you.  My contact details are:
 
5100713 Warrant Officer Class Two Kim E. Smith
R6-G-04
Russell Offices
CANBERRA 2612
wk 02-6265 0639
hm 02-6247 3673
mob 0402 446 266