Review into the treatment of women at the Australian Defence Force ...

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Chapter 7: ADFA’s Structure and Staffing – Recommendations 11-15Variability of staffOne of the key intentions of the Review’s Recommendation was to address the wide variability of staffand to move towards an environment where the staff that were posted to ADFA wanted to be there andhad the right skills and attributes. There is still some way to go in achieving this outcome. The revisedduty statement for Divisional Officers, noted above, will assist in recruiting those who are the best fit forADFA from 2014. However, interviews and focus groups at ADFA indicated that in 2012 there was stillwide variability in the staff at ADFA.Many staff at ADFA are excellent and are clearly having a positive impact, as noted by staff andundergraduates:The staff here this year are definitely better, whether it’s by chance or whether it’s by goodplanning I’m not sure. Most of them seem to want to be here. 8I think our Division is very lucky. We have very active staff, they are really good. In that aspect itmakes our lives easier. If you ask a question, you get a quick reply. They’re on top of it. They’reactive. They’re just really good. 9However, such high regard is not unanimous. Both undergraduates and staff have also suggested thatvariability is still present:The staff haven’t changed…There are some that are still happy to be here, but there are ones thatwould still admit, yes, I’m here for the next 18 months and two days and then I’m going back. 10Our DO last year didn’t want to be here and he made it plainly obvious. He didn’t help people; hedid nothing. The difference between him and the DO we have this year who actually requestedthis posting has been amazing. 11Staff selectionSelecting the right staff is critical. Notably, and for the first time, most of the incoming staff for 2013came to meet the COMDT, Director ADFA Undergraduates, XO Undergraduates and Chief Instructoras part of a staff selection process. 12 This enables senior ADFA staff to inform incoming staff of theirresponsibilities because:they need to understand where our concentration is in improving, particularly in regards to equityand diversity, inclusiveness, sexual ethics, and other ethics, those behavioural things which arereally the essence of the Report. 13The Career Management Agencies noted that some changes that had taken place in the approach toselecting staff for 2012:The Audit was informed that in Army:[The COMDT] came back as I understand it and said look I’m held to account for mine andother’s performance here and staff are critically important to that. I’d like to be engaged more onthis in the future and I’d like to interview them…So we provided the names of those selected andthey were going to be flown down for him to interview. I’m not sure whether that’s occurred yet. 14In Navy, DO positions are now advertised and nominations are sought. Career Managers provide aninitial order of merit based on selection criteria and the nominations of suitable applicants are thenforwarded to respective training establishments for their endorsement prior to taking a posting action. 15We’ve brought in a process of panelling and rating people and actually calling for volunteers…that’s probably the biggest step to get people that want to be there. 1650
However, in Air Force:[ADFA] wanted to look at the possibility of the Commandant taking a more active role in theselection process. We didn’t actually get to deal with that issue [but]…there is an intention tomove for a more structured methodology for selection and we would need a definition statementof requirement from ADFA as to exactly what would be the nature of the skill set. 17Interviews with the COMDT or ADFA leadership before posting are still not the norm. The cost ofconducting the interviews and any associated travel funding must currently be met by ADFA. The Auditcannot comment on the extent to which this may be a factor in the decision making as to whetherto hold such interviews or not, but would urge Defence and the COMDT to prioritise this activity andensure that funding is available.The COMDT has noted that the timing of ADFA’s action in 2012 has meant that not as much progresshas been made in this area as he would have liked:Now unfortunately we’d sat on our hands to a degree with respect to that particularrecommendation. I would’ve liked earlier in the year to have gone out and done the same thing,to enable ADFA to inject into that selection process before the Services actually post theirpeople...They post their people in about June/July, so that people have adequate notice of theirremovals and everything else. So this year [2012] we’re behind the curve because people havealready been posted. But what I did say to all the Directors-General and they agreed, when wetalk to somebody if we just have this really uncomfortable feeling that this person isn’t right thenwe’ll go back. We can’t veto, but we can say look, we’re not really happy with this, can you lookat an alternative person? Whereas where we’d like to get to is the interview occurs before they’vephysically posted. 18The Audit agrees that this would be a desirable outcome.The Audit acknowledges that there are competing pressures across all training institutions and thatCareer Management Agencies need to balance supply and demand in a very dynamic environment. TheCareer Management perspective is that:we’re not in a position to say the best guys fill up all those posts…it’s not a case of ADFA firstand everybody else second…we have similar meetings with all these different organisations, whosay ‘we’re really important, we need the first eleven’. 19We have a centralised career management model system which means that many parts of theDefence Force and particularly the Army get what they’re given…We’ve recognised that our levelof consultation with ADFA needs to be earlier and more comprehensive than probably any otherpart of Army. So we’re now building into our cycle how we do that and how we do it best. 20All of the Services indicated that they have a close relationship with the COMDT and if there is aproblem with particular individuals they would respond and try to manage the issue, however, with thepossible exception of Navy in some cases, 21 ADFA is put in a position where it needs to be reactive,rather than proactive, in these instances:If the Commandant interviews a person we select and he’s not comfortable and he rings me,we’ll do something about it. 22If they believe we’ve missed something and they want to deselect then we’ll deselect. 23Audit Report: Review into the Treatment of Women at the Australian Defence Force Academy • 2013 • 51
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Page 8 and 9: A Message from the CommissionerADFA
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Further InformationAustralian Human
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