Use case Defence: Data-driven recruitment of military personnel, civilians and reservists

27 June 2025
Case studies

The Ministry of Defence faces one of the biggest workforce transformations in the public sector in the coming years: growth, with a more diverse workforce while retaining valuable existing knowledge. To address this challenge with a solid foundation, Intelligence Group developed a custom dashboard for Defence, based on labour market supply and demand data and education data. It is tailored to more than two hundred specific job profiles, additional data sources, and their own internal role profiles. This enables Defence to take a targeted approach to audiences, feasibility, and recruitment strategy – from civilians to military personnel, from students to reservists.

The challenge: from a tight labour market to a growing armed forces

It’s no small task: achieving more than 40% workforce growth by 2030, against the backdrop of a structurally tight labour market with shortages in technical, IT, medical, and logistics roles.

In research by Intelligence Group, Defence ranked third among the most attractive employers in the Netherlands in 2023, just after the central government and the police. At the same time, recruiting for diverse target groups – such as military personnel, civilians, students, and reservists – brings specific challenges. Many of these roles are so unique that they don’t appear in standard labour market data.

The approach: data for strategic and operational insight

Given the unique nature of Defence as an employer and its specific labour market challenges, a combination of research and a custom dashboard turned out to be the best solution.

Giant Dashboard as a labour market foundation

The Giant Dashboard provides insight into:

Availability and scarcity of target groups (e.g. technicians or nurses)
Regional differences in supply and mobility
Media preferences and motivation (what drives a candidate?)
Competition for talent from other sectors

These insights support:

Identifying where campaigns are most effective
Justifying decisions to leadership
Creating realistic recruitment forecasts

Stefan Nommensen, Ministry of Defence

“With Giant, we not only know how large a target group is, but also what triggers them to choose Defence – or not. That knowledge determines how and where we run our campaigns.”

Custom dashboard: role-specific insights

Many roles within Defence (such as ) are unique and not represented in standard labour market data. That’s why Intelligence Group, together with Defence, developed a custom dashboard that:

Directly aligns with the internal job classification framework
Provides insight into scarcity, availability, and behaviour of the target group for unique roles
Offers an overview of the competitive landscape: how is demand evolving in the market for similar profiles, and which specific organisations are hiring?
Shows feasibility per role and region
Includes specific data on studies, students, and graduates through the integration of education data from DUO

Stefan Nommensen, Ministry of Defence

“By combining the Defence job framework, Giant data, and additional external sources such as DUO, we now have insights we’ve never had before.”

The results: more targeted, broader, and future-proof recruitment

The use of Giant and the custom dashboard has had a visible impact on Defence’s recruitment practice:

Strategically better-informed decisions

Leadership and HR can make data-driven decisions about where and how Defence focuses on growth
Scenarios are supported by labour market scarcity and competitive pressure

Targeted campaigning

Defence knows which types of students are the right fit for the armed forces. With the data, it can target specific groups and regions based on availability
Campaigns are tailored to motivation (e.g. focus on social impact vs. job security)

Operational efficiency

With realistic insights into regional availability, recruitment efforts can be deployed much more effectively
It also supports internal decisions: where should alternative recruitment strategies or training capacity be deployed?

Stefan Nommensen, Ministry of Defence

“The dashboards give us both clarity and focus to make decisions. We don’t have time for blind campaigns. Data helps us grow with precision.”

Conclusion: precision recruitment for a future-proof armed forces

Defence combines a broad labour market perspective with specific role insights to meet its unique recruitment challenge. By combining Giant with custom data, a strong foundation is created for both strategic talent management and operational recruitment decisions. This approach supports not only growth, but also quality, diversity, and long-term sustainability.