Record volume is the real bulk recruitment problem
200 candidates means 200 sets of records. Can you produce them in 30 days?
A bulk round of one hundred candidates produces one hundred sets of interview records. Each set must be stored securely, retained for the relevant period, and produced in response to any access request or merit review.
The FOI Act gives Agencies 30 calendar days to respond to requests. Managing one hundred sets of handwritten notes scattered across multiple panel members’ email accounts is often not achievable within that window, not because Agencies do not try, but because the scale exceeds manual retrieval capacity.
Privacy Act obligations apply per candidate, not per round. Notification, access, and retention obligations apply to all one hundred, every time.
Test your record retrieval with a simulated FOI request across a past bulk round. If retrieval takes more than a week, invest in centralised record management.