Guidance

Seminar 2 notes: The mutual benefits of the Armed Forces Covenant

Updated 30 March 2017

Facilitator: Peter Germain, Assistant Head Engagement, Ministry of Defence

Speakers: James Greenrod, Armed Forces Covenant Team, Ministry of Defence; Chris Recchia, Partner, Deloitte.

0.1 Seminar outline

This seminar focused on the mutual benefits of the Armed Forces Covenant. It included a summary of the Covenant, an account of work being done to overcome commercial disadvantage and an overview of the Covenant fund – currently 10 million a year.

Chris Recchia from Deloitte spoke about Deloitte’s research report ‘Veterans Work: Recognising the potential of ex-service personnel’. He summarised the key findings which included:

*72% of organisations with active ex-military recruitment programmers would recommend employing veterans *53% of organisations that have employed veterans say they tend to be promoted more quickly *veterans hold vital and needed skills: teamwork, planning &time management, communication, specialist knowledge & problems solving and leadership *79% that have employed veterans agree they take fewer days off sick *71% of medium and large organisations say they would employ veterans but only 39% would employ someone with no industry experience.

0.2 Questions

Question 1: Atos suggested to the panel that it might be beneficial to create a regular forum for the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), companies and regimental career management officers (RCMOs) to discuss resettlement opportunities in order to ensure that resettlement opportunities for non-commissioned officers (NCOs) are maximised.

The panel agreed this kind of sharing of information could be effective.

Question 2: A member for the audience asked if any guides on skills mapping had been produced.

The panel said the Training, Education, Skills, Recruitment and Resettlement (TESRR) team look into this sort of thing but that it is a complicated space which probably won’t transpire in the form of a simple one pager. Defence Relationship Management (DRM) recognised that it is an area to explore and confirmed it would be. Deloitte suggested embedding service leavers into interview panels for those with military backgrounds.

Question 3: KPMG asked Deloitte if there would be a follow up paper to Veterans Work – to measure what’s been done.

Deloitte confirmed there would be but explained that the aim was to further socialise this paper, through the likes of Institute of Directors (IOD) and Business in the Community and conferences such as Partnering with Defence (PWD), before commencing the follow up.

Question 4: HPE asked the panel if they thought recruitment language could be modified in order to draw the interest of service leavers and spouses.

The panel agreed that it would be worth looking at and suggested that perhaps it might be something for the Gold Alumni.

Question 5: A member of the audience expressed a view that defence hadn’t got a grip of the millennial problem, referencing a recent Officer’s Association (OA) report which reported that 50 year olds are being asked to re-join the Royal Navy due to skills shortages.

The panel noted that defence needs to be flexible but argued that it is in fact a lot more flexible than people perceive. The panel referred to the example of the work they are currently doing in the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) space.

Question 6: The same member of the audience then referred to research that found that youngsters prefer to join small businesses and asked if defence was doing enough to engage with SMEs.

The panel explained that the Covenant is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach – it has a menu of options that business of any size can sign up to, tailoring pledges to suit their businesses. The panel acknowledged that regionally SMEs are being engaged with as are appropriate membership bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses but acknowledged that, in the early stages of DRM, focus initially was placed on those businesses with the largest recruitment capacity and service leaver and reservist population.

Question 7: Carillion addressed the issue of rehabilitation of offenders from the service leaver population, noting the Covenant didn’t refer to this. Carillion challenged the panel to clarify if the Covenant did in fact consider the societal impact on these people and have we done enough to maintain contact and demonstrate judicial care?

The panel responded that businesses that do support this rehabilitation are encouraged to include detail in their covenant pledges and that specific covenant funding is set aside to deal with these issues. The panel referenced 2 initiatives that seek to support this issue: 1. Veterans in Criminal Justice System; 2. Families in Stress. The panel said absolutely the duty is recognised and practical measures are being put in place to provide the necessary support.