Hi everyone. Thank you for inviting me to be a witness for your study of recruitment and retention in the Canadian Armed Forces.
This testimony, in addition to the provided brief and reference materials, provides my perspective on why the Canadian Armed Forces struggle with recruitment and retention, and what public perception and organizational changes the CAF should implement in order to face these challenges.
Over the past two years, the CAF's intolerance, harassment and abuse towards women, visible minorities and the LGBTQ+ community have been consistently reported in the media and have therefore become public knowledge. This has surely negatively affected the CAF's recruitment and retention. However, even prior to this wave of publicity, the CAF was having difficulty with the recruitment and retention of its members. This is not a brand new issue.
I understand that the CAF has tried to change this public perception through online advertisements that show diversity. Although it's true that these advertisements include more women and visible minorities than in the past, they still lack the message of inclusion. Most of the ads focus on a single person at a time and often do not show that person interacting positively with others, nor do they show that person's life outside of their job. These ads have failed in the past as they do not show that these diverse individuals are respected and included in the CAF, free to be themselves and able to achieve some kind of work-life balance.
Of course, these ads would only work and are only ethical if this is truly the reality of the CAF. It has been heavily suspected for many years—and it has recently been proven without a doubt—that this is untrue.
Instead of depending on these sorts of ads, the CAF and its civilian oversights, which include the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister, need to publicly admit to their failings and create a full-fledged strategy to ensure that these failings never occur again. The CAF requires an organizational culture change. The implementation of this strategy must consider that there may be resistance within the organization to these changes. Support must be provided to members, both supervisory and non-supervisory, as they move from resistance to exploration to commitment to this change.
Finally, the CAF should implement a clause in its recruitment and performance reviews that allows for the refusal of work to applicants and the removal from the armed forces of current members who are creating an unsafe working environment or who are being exclusionary. Just because the CAF is having issues recruiting and retaining members does not mean it should ever lower its expectations on this. After all, how can Canadians depend on the CAF to keep Canadians and its allies safe when the CAF cannot even keep its own members safe, even in non-conflict zones?
Furthermore, the actual recruitment process of the CAF is hugely inefficient and lacks transparency. This deters potential CAF members, even if they were not deterred by the other shortcomings of the CAF. For instance, the recruitment process can take over a year. Its average length is around 200 days. The CAF's career website and application process expect a university graduate, maybe even a doctor, to submit a job application without knowing the requirements, the salary benefits of the job or the recruitment process and timeline. These issues also partly explain why the CAF has had difficulties retaining its employees.
I would argue that the CAF's retainment challenges are because there are many better opportunities elsewhere for experienced members, such as employers that do not request employees to work in conflict zones, that do not expect their employees to move across country and that have the assets and budgets to provide their employees with competitive salaries and working equipment.
A compounding challenge for the CAF's retention and recruitment goals is that many families now depend on two incomes. However, when one partner is required to move to remote locations for their career, it becomes practically impossible for the other partner to hold a job, let alone have any career independence. Further, it's difficult for CAF members' children to be constantly switching schools and making new friends. The CAF needs to look at the possibility of CAF members being guaranteed the ability to stay in a single location for a long period of time and provide more flexible arrangements for families. These then need to be communicated to current members and potential members.
The CAF, the Government of Canada and, honestly, Canadians as well, need to realize that the CAF is competing with private corporations and even other government organizations for talent but is lacking the resources to win. To mitigate this, the CAF must be given the ability to increase its salary budget, must create a welcoming and supportive work environment and must determine new ways of working that provide more stability for its members and its members' families.
In conclusion, the CAF has multiple challenges to overcome in order to improve its recruitment and retention. At the end of the day, it is my belief that Canadians will choose to work for an organization they trust, that is transparent with career potential and possibilities, that provides a safe, diverse and welcoming environment, and that stands behind and supports its employees. Unfortunately, the CAF is not currently this type of organization, although I believe it could become one if it generally worked towards organizational change.
Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.