Guidance

Seminar 2 notes: supporting the armed forces community through internal communications

Updated 22 April 2016

Facilitator: Fleur Thomas, Director Engagement, Defence Relationship Management

Speakers: Edmund King OBE, President, The AA; Tim Bridgman, HR Director, Babcock; Andy Brown, UK Resource Management Team Leader, PwC.

Seminar outline

Defence Relationship Management’s Fleur Thomas thanked the speakers, all Defence Employer Recognition Scheme gold award holders, and introduced the internal communications seminar.

The AA’s Edmund King spoke of using internal channels including email, intranet, HR website and internal magazines to help cascade their support throughout the business. He went on to explain how The AA developed awareness into understanding with the creation of a series of booklets for line managers, reservists and those wishing to join the reserves, and by celebrating Armed Forces Week and submitting teams of line managers to the Sandhurst Leadership Challenge.

Edmund also provided an overview of The AA’s external advocacy, with examples of digital, print, owned, earned and paid media. He reinforced The AA’s belief that the Armed Forces Covenant should be a ‘living’ document, regularly reviewed and refreshed and he followed this with the assurance that their relationship with Defence Relationship Management helped ensure that this was so.

Tim Bridgman summarised Babcock’s journey to Defence Employer Recognition Scheme gold award status and the role internal communications had played in getting Babcock to this level. He noted that Babcock doesn’t focus on external PR so their emphasis on internal communications was essential.

Tim talked about the significance of the reserves to Babcock, their reserves policy, their Armed Forces Covenant signing and frequent reviews of their pledges. He showcased Babcock’s reserves booklet and referred to Babcock’s 2015 Reserves Conference and their guaranteed interview scheme.

Tim also referenced Armed Forces Day, the Secretary of State reception and the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme gold award.

Andy Brown introduced PwC’s military network and their military network mission statement, > To build a firmwide group of individuals with past or present military service who can leverage their experience and personal networks to the benefit of the firm. To celebrate the diversity of having those with military experience in PwC and demonstrate externally our commitment to the armed forces with regards to doing the right thing in our community.

Andy referenced support for the Invictus Games, PwC’s Armed Forces Covenant signing and where they’d positioned their support for the armed forces community internally. Andy outlined the status of PwC’s military network, and noted that it had been positioned in line with other diversity groups to ensure fairness.

Question 1

An attendee asked Babcock how their other employees feel about Babcock’s emphasis on reservists and about the guaranteed interview scheme?

Babcock’s Tim Bridgman said there didn’t seem to be any resentment. PwC acknowledged it could be difficult to justify why the reserve commitment should merit additional paid leave where other volunteering commitments may not.

PwC acknowledged that reservists are but one diversity group within their organisation and that, while they want to show support, they have to be careful to ensure that upholding their pledge to not disadvantage reservists doesn’t appear to other employees that reservists are getting special treatment.

The AA drew attention to the discrimination that used to exist towards reservists and maintained that the purpose of their emphasis on internal communication was to ensure that reservists are not discriminated against through a lack of understanding of their commitment.

Question 2

How did you pitch the financial implication of striving for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme gold award to your executive committees?

Babcock agreed there was a cost involved but said in the grand scheme of things they just accepted it. PwC disagreed and thought there wasn’t much of a cost implication if internal and external channels were used efficiently.

The AA said they pitched the benefits of recruiting from all elements of the military: service leavers, reservists, cadet instructors, spouses and the wounded, injured and sick to their executive committee at the same time to gain full support.

Fleur Thomas, Defence Relationship Management, agreed that the offer from defence was more powerful than just the reserves piece (as focused on by the SaBRE campaign) and that defence people all bring an important and highly valuable skill set to an organisation.

Question 3

An attendee queried the security concerns associated with publically declaring an organisation pro-military or identifying employees who are reservists.

Babcock said they don’t do much external PR, they focus on internal. The AA agreed that it was a concern, and it was one that they didn’t yet have an answer for. The AA used a current situation as an example; their uncertainty as to whether or not to display the ERS logo on their entire fleet of vehicles in case it endangered their patrols. PwC said they didn’t see much of a threat to their brand as they are already linked with the MOD.