How Hays Recruitment Achieved DISP Membership with Cyber Wyze

The Client: Hays Recruitment Australia (Hays)

Hays Recruitment Australia is part of Hays, a global recruitment and workforce solutions provider supporting enterprise, government and Defence industry clients. Through its delivery of specialist recruitment and workforce services within the Australian Defence supply chain, Hays required a secure operating environment capable of meeting DISP requirements and supporting its ongoing Defence-related activities.

Proven DISP Outcome: Hays Recruitment granted DISP membership by Defence

Hays Recruitment has been granted Defence Industry Security Program membership by the Australian Government Department of Defence. Cyber Wyze delivered the cyber assessment, solution design, security uplift, secure operating environment and supporting evidence for the information and cyber security component of Hays successful DISP application.

Cyber Wyze continues to support Hays’ ongoing DISP requirements through our DISP cyber security services, operating and sustaining its secure environment, maintaining the cyber security controls and evidence required for ongoing assurance, and supporting its Annual Security Report (ASR) obligations.

The Challenge: DISP Membership, Cyber Security & Compliance

Through its work in the Defence industry, Hays identified the need for a secure and sustainable operating model to support Defence supply-chain activities. This required deliberate planning and implementation to meet DISP requirements, align its cyber security posture with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2, and enable secure collaboration without disrupting normal business operations.

Key challenges included:

Translating DISP requirements into practical, actionable measures
Aligning security expectations across two related but distinct environments
Reducing the burden on internal teams while maintaining strong evidence and compliance
Establishing secure operating environments capable of supporting Defence-related work

Hays selected Cyber Wyze to translate these requirements into a practical implementation plan and sustainable operating model.

The Solution

Cyber Wyze undertook an assessment, developed a strategic roadmap and plan, deployed a phased Microsoft 365 security uplift, and provided clear evidence documentation to support DISP and Essential Eight compliance.

The Outcome

Hays now operates a secure and DISP-aligned security posture and Essential Eight compliance, secure collaboration with Microsoft 365, improved resilience, and established an ongoing cyber maturity framework.

From: Hays Recruitment

Why Cyber Wyze?

“Cyber Wyze demonstrated a strong understanding not only of the Defence Industry Security Program requirements themselves, but also of the operational realities and constraints within our organisations.

Their ability to translate complex DISP obligations into structured, actionable insights was invaluable and significantly reduced the burden on our internal teams.

The assessment they produced was thorough, well‑evidenced, and delivered in a format that made it easy for stakeholders to understand both the requirements and the path forward. Which also included the organisation hosting and setting up our new critical operating environments.”

Kelly Hopkins, National Defence Director – Hays Recruitment

What Was Delivered?

The engagement covered the full lifecycle from assessment through to steady state operations.

This included:

A structured gap assessment aligned to DISP expectations
A clear, executable uplift plan tailored to the environment
Direct communication of that plan to Defence and internal stakeholders
Implementation of required controls and deployment of a secure operating environment
Full operationalisation for day to day use
Ongoing sustainment and compliance support

The result was not just a report, but an embedded capability aligned to Defence requirements.

Why it Worked?

The engagement worked because it stayed grounded in how the business actually operates.

Rather than treating DISP as a compliance exercise, the focus was on translating requirements into practical decisions, actions and environments that could be sustained.

What stood out:

Clear alignment between regulatory requirements and real-world operations
Outputs that were structured, usable and easy to communicate internally
Strong engagement and responsiveness throughout
Practical guidance in areas that are typically ambiguous within DISP

The Outcome

Hays now have:

A fully endorsed deployment by Defence
A clear understanding of their DISP position
An endorsed uplift plan accepted by leadership and Defence
A secure operating environment aligned to DISP requirements
Ongoing support to maintain compliance and meet Defence expectations

The internal burden was reduced, while confidence in their posture and pathway forward increased.