2006 May Status Report of the Auditor General of Canada

Attracting, processing, and selecting recruits

2.38 National Defence should review its processes to attract applicants to ensure that it has a sufficient number of applicants from which to draw suitable candidates.
(2.29–2.37)

National Defence agrees with this recommendation.

National Defence has reviewed its processes to attract applicants. A comprehensive National Recruiting Campaign, supported by a National Recruiting Attraction Plan, new advertisements, and appropriate advertising funding will increase the number of applicants from which to select suitable candidates. Performance measures are being developed, and results against these measures are expected by 2007.

2.39 National Defence should take immediate action to correct problems that cause applicants to unnecessarily withdraw from the application process.
(2.29–2.37)

National Defence agrees with this recommendation.

National Defence will increase the number of personnel assigned to recruiting centres and will put in place a monitoring system that allows us to determine accurate numbers of applicants, their dispositions, and the time for processing. With this information, we will act to reduce unnecessary withdrawals and delays. We will aim to have this in place in 2007.

Applicant assessment

2.46 National Defence should continue its work to ensure that its personnel assessment instruments and selection decisions are based on recognized technical and professional standards and are valid predictors of candidate suitability.
(2.40–2.45)

National Defence agrees with this recommendation.

National Defence will continue to collect information on the criteria and procedures introduced in our assessment directive of February 2005 in order to validate that our selection tools are predicting candidate suitability. We have set the end of 2008 as a target date for completion of this validation. The issue is iterative and continuous. Contingent on results of this validation, it will be essential to fine-tune criteria and their scoring on a regular basis.

2.47 National Defence should ensure that its recruiters have the necessary knowledge and skills needed to recruit and select suitable candidates.
(2.40–2.45)

National Defence agrees with this recommendation.

National Defence will continue to improve the quality of recruiting staff through enhanced selection and training measures, including the establishment of a permanent Recruiting Training Centre in 2007.

Managing military attrition

2.63 National Defence should continue to develop and implement specific corrective measures that better focus on the attrition issues it identified in its 2001 Retention Strategy and monitor the results.
(2.50–2.62)

National Defence agrees with this recommendation.

National Defence will continue to identify conditions of military service that affect attrition and focus interventions on those that are amenable to policy/program solutions. A retention strategy will incorporate continuous improvements and therefore will remain flexible.