Amid Struggles With Recruitment Woes, Canadian Military’s New Hiring Campaign Rated ‘Desperate’: DND Survey

The Canadian Armed Forces prepare to load a helicopter onto a C-177 Globemaster III in Quebec City as part of sending relief to the flooded areas of British Columbia, on Nov. 19, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

Potential job applicants are calling a new Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recruitment campaign “desperate” and “off-putting” as the military faces significant issues with both retaining and recruiting new members, according to a recent survey.

The survey, contracted by the Department of National Defence (DND), also found that a number of job-seekers saw the military’s recent “We’re Hiring” campaign as potentially insufficient for attracting top talent as the military is forced to compete with a “highly competitive job market,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The Canadian Armed Forces competes with other Canadian employers for top quality applicants,” said the report, titled “Awareness 2023 Recruitment Advertising Campaign.”

“A highly competitive job market has posed significant challenges for Canadian Armed Forces recruitment initiatives,” it said, while adding that CAF has aimed to be “an employer of choice” for those under 34 years of age.

A number of survey respondents also felt that promoting the Canadian military as a “first-class professional employer” is difficult and complex given that enrolling in the armed forces “requires extended personal evaluation, both emotional and rational.”

DND contracted Quorus Consulting Group Incorporated at just under $50,000 to carry out the survey. The group based its findings on responses it collected from questionnaires posed to eight focus groups comprised of young job-seekers.

Some respondents saw CAF’s simple “We’re Hiring” campaign message as effective, while others viewed it as “a bit desperate.”

“Others felt the job titles may be intimidating or off-putting to potential applicants especially as it was unclear to them whether the Armed Forces would provide training or if the applicant would be required to have specific education or experience to quality for the position,” the report said.

Recruitment and Retention

DND’s polling comes as the Canadian military struggles with low recruitment numbers and record-high attrition rates.

CAF’s defence chief, Gen. Wayne Eyre, said in a leaked briefing note prepared for the Armed Forces Council last year that the military’s attrition rate had reached its highest level in 15 years.

Eyre’s note, which was obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, also said the military is currently undergoing a “workforce crisis,” which he said calls for a “reconstitution” of the CAF over the next eight years in an effort to raise staffing numbers.

In October 2022, Eyre also called for a sudden halt to all of the military’s non-essential activities in order to focus the CAF’s resources on recruitment and retention projects.

He wrote in an order issued to senior officers in October that the military’s “personnel and staffing issues ... continue to challenge both the strength and the readiness of the CAF,” while also saying the military has seen a “significant loss of experience and expertise.”

“Adversaries and Allies are outpacing us in the evolution of technology advancement and ability to operate in a pan-domain environment, making it an imperative for National Defence to evolve and improve itself to ensure we are a relevant and trusted partner,” he said.