Case Study: Demonstrated Experience in the Defence Sector 

Background and Challenge

SENSE Corporation (SENSE) is specialised provider of Professional and Technical Services for the Defence sector in Australia. In 2017, SENSE was successful in winning a large, 4+ year piece of work with Defence to assist in delivering the deployable systems capability to JC4ISPO in CASG. This team had supported all of the DLANs products, programs, and projects, including the largest of the projects, the Enhanced DLANs (eDLAN) and Middle East Region Refresh (MER).

The considerable increase in the program of work required SENSE to quickly upscale and provide a team of 20+ security cleared professionals with experience in the Defence sector. SENSE enlisted Clicks to support them with the urgent recruitment of this large and specialised team.

Our Approach

• Facilitating a discovery exercise with the hiring manager around reasons why individuals would be attracted to the roles, upcoming projects, the culture of the team and organisation, along with benefits offered by the organisation. 
• Requested the hiring members highlight the specific attitudinal and behavioural traits required for these defence-specialised roles. From our experience in recruiting permanent vacancies for Defence professionals, we knew the importance of thorough consultation. Being armed with the right information would aid our delivery of a successful and prompt recruitment outcome.
• Leveraging our understanding of the ICT candidate market, through over 30 years specialising in IT recruitment across Australia and experience recruiting for the Defence and Aviation industry, to focus this recruitment strategy.
• Planning a sourcing campaign based on previous experience recruiting similar roles, targeting both active and passive candidates in the Australian market.
• Embarking on a dedicated advertising campaign incorporating SEEK, LinkedIn, and the Clicks website.
• Carefully composing detailed, descriptive advertisements using gender neutral language to attract the right behavioural fit and not just the skills. In conjunction with this approach, Clicks used Boolean search tactics to find passive candidates using LinkedIn Recruiter, SEEK Talent Search, and Clicks’ specialist semantic search tools.
• Preparation for candidate interviews conducted prior to recommending to the client by composing a bespoke series of job-specific behavioural, technical and general questions. These ensured candidates had the required breadth and depth of information skills, experience and the right personal attributes. A focal point for Clicks was ascertaining the candidates’ motivations for job seeking and understanding their interest, and subsequent commitment, to the opportunities.

Outcome and Benefits

Clicks successfully supported SENSE with the recruitment of their large project team for Defence and continued to support their ongoing recruitment requirements throughout the life of the 4+ year program.

Clicks continues to maintain a strong relationship with the client, and to date has successfully sourced and placed 27 security cleared Defence Specialists within SENSE. Clicks candidates have been instrumental in assisting SENSE to deliver the agreed outcomes to their Defence clients for many years now.

The list of roles Clicks has successfully placed:

• Program Management Support Specialist
• Technical Design & Documentation Specialist  
• Engineering Support Specialist x 2
• ILS Management Specialist
• Systems Engineer x 2
• Senior Systems Engineer
• Software Engineer
• Engineering Specialist
• Network Engineer x 2
• Program Scheduler
• Senior Change Manger
• Training Manager x 2
• ILS Specialist x 2
• Senior Network Engineer x 2
• Project Management Support Specialist x 3
• Senior Systems Engineer
• ICT Consultant x 2
• Transition Project Manager