Provision of Project Management Services for Army Military Employee Expenses Optimisation Project

⁠⁠⁠The Deputy Chief of Army's Flexible Establishment Trial (FET) is an Army establishment reform initiative aimed at optimising the relationship between Military Employee Expenses (MEE) and Army's force structures to achieve a more integrated and affordable Army Objective Force (AOF). The trial is a project within Army's Future Ready Workforce Program.

Army’s force structure and establishment is defined, modified and shaped by emergent priorities, evolving capabilities and demand for different skills. In recent years the cumulative rate of change and exchange of these modifiers has outpaced formal force structure and establishment cyclic reviews. This situation is resulting in periods of lessened compatibility between force position availability and actual need.

The Flexible Establishment Trial demonstrated that ‘realignment’ could be effectively and efficiently achieved by tethering funding to positions, empowering commanders to plan and manage their workforce requirements more readily whilst meeting AHQ financial transparency and budget oversight requirements. A key enabler of this realignment was in exploring and testing the potential use of ‘labour-hire’ as a mechanism to address extant vacancies with flexibility and agility. The MEE Optimisation project was initiated to further develop and establish the use of Labour-hire by Army

The Army is seeking expressions of interest from Project Management Providers (PMP) with demonstratable and current access to Australian Labour-hire Provider networks/expertise to manage the MEE Optimisation Project. Due to the nature and extent of project activity and tasking requirements it is anticipated that more than one PMP may be selected for delivery of specific project outputs in support of the project. The Army may also choose to add specific recruitment agencies or organisations to the MEE project and assign them to work with the PMP at its sole discretion.

The aim of the Army MEE Optimisation Project (Project) is to build upon and expand the FET project success by developing and supporting implementation of an Army Labour-Hire Operations Framework (Process, People and Systems) with the intent to achieve an ‘in-service’ establishment labour-hire solution (Deliverable). The framework will provide Commanders with access to the tools, services and support structures (Outputs) to plan and manage vacancies with funding certainty while concurrently generating capacity and increasing internal capability (Outcome).

It is envisaged that the Project will be delivered in phases against concurrent streams of work activity as part of iterative effort and reporting cycles (Sprints)

Phase 1 Activity
* Scope review, establish team requirements and set Project Roadmap
* Advanced mapping of current state process and protocols for Recruitment to vacancies within Army with specific reference to Military Employee Expense optionality and applicability
* Test, review analyse and report on the effort and activity requirements necessary to recruit and place 10-20 candidates with specified skills in identified vacancies within Army using existing and potential recruitment practices (including labour-hire and/or APS temp register options).

Conditions of Participation (Mandatory Requirements)

a) Providers must be able to demonstrate their capacity to access and manage the delivery of labour-hire services, including labour hire, workforce planning and administration functions.
b) Providers will need to demonstrate that they have access to existing labour supply arrangements.
c) Providers will need to demonstrate that they have access to a suitable labour supply model with relevant labour market experience, human resource management expertise, safety programs and necessary insurance and administration, including payroll, in place.
d) Providers will need to have access to a labour supply model that includes the ability to recruit, select, train and manage labour hire workers.
e) Providers should develop labour supply options using both traditional and innovative labour recruitment methods including: career advertising; social media; job boards; and/or careers expos.
f) The provision of labour from overseas may also be considered (subject to relevant legislative and security requirements). However, any labour sourced from overseas should not replace or displace Australian workers or impact upon employment opportunity in Australia.
g) Providers must declare pass-through rate (as a fixed %) and advise the buyer of any additional costings (fixed or otherwise) as part of the response.

Elements of this capability include labour hire, labour supply solutions, innovative labour market engagement strategies and service delivery models to bring the necessary labour capacity online.

The effort under this project will result in improved labour force planning, coordination and transparency across Army.