Victoria Daly Regional Council
An estimated saving of over $3.75 million, based on an average agency cost of $15,000 per hire across 250+ hires.
Over 250+ hires
facilitated through Scout Talent over the 15- to 16-year relationship, including around 20 management-level roles in the past three years alone.
A 95% fill rate
Through Scout Talent, compared to roughly 75% when the council ran campaigns in-house.
Savings of over $3.75 million
Based on an average agency cost of $15,000 per hire across 250+ hires.
Victoria Daly Regional Council serves a vast stretch of the Northern Territory, where townships average just 200 to 300 people and the furthest communities can be a five-hour drive apart. Trudy, Director of Corporate Services, oversees HR, recruitment, ICT, and records management for the council, and has worked with Scout Talent for around 15 to 16 years, since not long after the council was formed in 2008. The council utilises Scout Talent for both recruitment software and services, relying on the platform to streamline their day-to-day recruitment workflows and calling in the services team to elevate their hiring efforts.
The Challenge
Filling roles across such a remote region, particularly management-level and above, meant finding expertise that simply didn’t exist locally and convincing candidates to relocate for it.
- A shrinking appetite for remote living: interest in the “tree change” style relocation and cultural experience that once drew candidates to remote NT communities has dropped off noticeably since COVID, with applicant numbers never quite recovering.
- Costly, slow in-house campaigns: when the council tried running recruitment itself, a role could go out for advertising two or three times before a suitable candidate turned up, with each round taking around two weeks. That’s up to six weeks lost per attempt, on top of the ongoing service impact of a vacant role.
- Limited local reach: an in-house campaign’s network was far narrower than what Scout Talent could offer, so applications were harder to come by.
- An employer branding gap: the council needed help telling its own story, the natural attractions (waterfalls, waterholes, fishing, four-wheel driving, camping) and the opportunity to learn about local indigenous culture, to stand out to candidates weighing up a big move.
- Manual, clunky recruitment admin: before adopting Scout Talent’s recruitment platform, the team ran everything through spreadsheets and paper folders.
The Solution
Victoria Daly now advertises every role through Scout Talent, from executive and management positions through to grassroots roles, and has stayed close to exclusive with Scout Talent for the full relationship.
- A simple, fast process: the council sends through the position description, jumps on a call to talk through the role, and Scout Talent builds the ad. Once approved, campaigns can go live within a couple of days.
- Full campaign support when needed: for harder roles, Scout Talent can take the reins entirely, running the advertising, shortlisting, and interviews.
- A wider talent network: Scout Talent’s broader advertising reach consistently brings in more applications than the council could generate alone.
- The recruitment platform replaced spreadsheets: adopting Scout Talent’s software gave the team one place for file management, shortlisting, interview scheduling and questions, and applicant communication, replacing the folder-by-folder system that came before it.
- Talent pooling for re-engagement: the platform lets the team revisit strong past applicants when a better-aligned role opens up later.
- Hands-on support to drive adoption: when usage of the platform dipped after rollout, the Scout Talent team proactively checked in and offered further training to help the council get more value from it.
- A genuine team relationship: alongside the software and services, Trudy points to the personal relationship with the Scout Talent team, describing the working relationship as feeling like one bigger team rather than a vendor arrangement.
The Results
- Over 250+ hires facilitated through Scout Talent over the 15 to 16 year relationship, including around 20 management-level roles in the past three years alone.
- A 95% fill rate through Scout Talent, compared to roughly 75% when the council ran campaigns in-house.
- Major admin time savings, particularly in file management, shortlisting, interview preparation, and applicant communication.
- Reduced cost and disruption from vacant roles, avoiding the repeated advertising rounds and multi-month gaps the council experienced running recruitment itself.
- Stronger candidate pipeline continuity, with the ability to reconnect with high-quality past applicants for new opportunities.
- Sustained, near-exclusive loyalty, with Trudy saying Scout Talent has made a real difference to the council’s time and cost over the long term, and that she’d recommend it to any other regional council without hesitation.
- An estimated saving of over $3.75 million, based on an average agency cost of $15,000 per hire across 250+ hires.
“The take-up we get advertising through Scout Talent, with their broader network, is far more beneficial than when we do it ourselves. The process is so easy, we send through the position description, jump on a call, and off we go. It’s not just the systems and software, it’s the personal interaction from the whole team. The working relationship is so good, it just feels like we’re one bigger team. If another regional council is on the fence, I’d say just give them a go. They won’t be disappointed.”
Trudy, Director of Corporate Services, Victoria Daly Regional Council
Better Recruitment. Stronger Organizations.
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