Mobilising hundreds of contractors when Queensland communities needed support most

Following major flooding across regional Queensland, a state government authority faced an urgent workforce challenge.

Thousands of residents had been affected. Recovery and support services needed additional people across multiple locations and role types.

The authority needed more than a high-volume recruitment campaign. Workers had to be sourced, assessed, onboarded and deployed within tight timeframes while meeting government and legislative requirements.

Demand could also change quickly as recovery priorities evolved.

The organisation needed a recruitment model capable of responding at the pace of an emergency without bypassing the controls required for government workforce deployment.

Davidson Executive & Talent partnered with the authority to establish that capability.

The urgency of the requirement called for a centralised recruitment model.

Davidson established a dedicated point of contact available around the clock to manage workforce requests and support operational decision-making.

Urgent staffing requests could be assessed and responded to within one hour.

Behind that response was a dedicated recruitment team working evenings, overnight periods and weekends to build and maintain a pipeline of available candidates.

The recruitment process combined volume sourcing, structured interviews and candidate pooling with workforce deployment coordination.

Candidates also completed the required compliance, reference checking, payroll and onboarding processes in line with legislative requirements and client standards.

Davidson’s ISO 9001-accredited recruitment process provided a consistent framework for managing quality throughout the engagement.

This structure allowed workforce requirements to move quickly through recruitment and deployment while maintaining the necessary controls.

Emergency workforce requirements are rarely static.

Different locations and stages of recovery can require different role profiles at short notice. A large available talent pipeline gave the authority a way to respond as those requirements changed.

Candidate pooling helped Davidson manage this variability without restarting recruitment for every new request.

The centralised model also created a clear pathway between an emerging workforce requirement and the recruitment team responsible for responding to it.

For the authority, this meant workforce mobilisation could operate as a structured part of the recovery response rather than a series of disconnected recruitment exercises.

The initial engagement developed into an ongoing workforce relationship across subsequent natural disaster responses.

During major flood recovery operations in 2022, Davidson supported the deployment of approximately 220 contractors.

When cyclone response activities created further workforce demand in 2023, approximately 200 contractors were deployed.

Following further flooding in 2024, Davidson supported the deployment of approximately 150 contractors for recovery activities.

Across these events, the recruitment model was repeatedly used to mobilise temporary workforce capacity during periods of critical demand.

That repeat engagement is significant. It demonstrates that the approach was not limited to one emergency or one workforce requirement. The authority continued to use the model across different disaster events and over multiple years.

Specialist recruitment becomes more complex when organisations are trying to change the shape of their workforce at the same time.

For this utility provider, the requirement went beyond filling technical positions. The organisation wanted to broaden its talent pool, assess candidates consistently and manage recruitment costs within a constrained internal environment.

A project-based RPO model brought those requirements together.

The commercial outcome was clear: more than 50% savings against standard preferred supplier recruitment rates, with more than 70% of successful appointments sourced through direct search and Davidson’s industry networks.

For organisations facing concentrated specialist hiring demand, a structured RPO approach can provide an alternative to managing each vacancy separately while creating a consistent framework for sourcing and assessment.

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