Guidance

Seminar 4 notes: Going for ERS Gold

Updated 30 March 2017

Facilitator: Jonny Ball, Assistant Director, Customer Relationship Management, Defence Relationship Management.

Speakers: Chris Jones, Client Director, Atkins Global; Stuart Tootal, Chief Security Officer, Barclays; Lyn Webb, Corporate Security, Deloitte; Susan Paternoster, Regional HR Manager, Boeing.

0.1 Seminar Outline

Jonny Ball introduced the speakers and welcomed the guests to the seminar. Jonny also informed the guests of the Gold Alumni which was recently formed to share best practice and offers a support network for Gold Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) members. Purpose of seminar is to hear from 4 organisations experience of obtaining ERS Gold status, what work and what didn’t work so well and also encourage other employers to aim for Gold.

Atkins

Chris Jones, introduced himself as a former RAF regular who now serves as a reservist. He joined Atkins 2 years ago and is very much the Armed Forces Champion within the business. Chris talked about Atkins approach to the mutual benefits gained from recruiting from the Armed Forces Community. Chris also highlighted the commitment from the top and across the company in supporting and promoting armed forces initiatives and matching the benefits the Armed Forces bring to different areas of the business. This was solidified by the strong relationship Atkins has with CTP and regularly attend events and jobs fairs to attract more talent.

Barclays

Stuart Tootal opened his piece by introducing the Barclays Armed Forces Transition Employment and Resettlement Programme (AFTER) and Veteran Employment Transition Support (VETS). In a survey in 2016 revealed that only 50% of employers recognised the Armed Forces community as a value on a CV. Barclays recognised the value and as a result launched the VETS programme in 2010 and has assisted 4,500 service leavers and veterans with their transition into civilian employment and has directly hired over 350 veterans directly into Barclays saving over £3.5 million in recruitment fees. The VETS programme has seen great success in recruitment and sustainability as a result of the 5 stage model. Stage 1 Registration and Mentor Matching, Stage 2 Ready to Work, Stage 3 Job Application, Stage 4 Employment Support and Stage 5 Support to the Reserves.

Boeing

Boeing have always been a supporter of the Armed Forces as well as a partner a manufacturer of military aircraft. Boeing recruits 2000 people in the UK, 1/3 of which are ex-military. Boeing employ service leavers and reservists in a number of different disciples including engineers, pilots and pilot instructors. This has led Boeing to provide a large support system for their military network. Sue Paternoster spoke very passionately about their forces friendly initiatives including extra days off, scholarships, family days and working on community projects one of which was providing a garden for a local nursery. Boeing encourage regular platforms for the armed forces network to come together and share stories, ideas challenges and successes. This is a very powerful to help reservists and ex-forces staff to better integrate with the company.

Deloitte

Lyn Webb began by discussing the Veterans Work report a detailed report commissioned by Deloitte. This report highlights the fact that 20 out of 25 skills highly regarded skills including strategic management and team leading are attributed to the Armed Forces Community. This research was conducted with the feedback of 300 leading organisations some of whom noticed a skills gap in the market. Deloitte also support recruitment for spouses and have aligned HR policy to ensure a fairness policy for reserves and ex-forces personnel winning 3 national awards in recognition of Deloitte’s Military transition and Talent Programme. Deloitte feel it’s very important to also celebrate success and regularly communicate achievements of staff within the armed forces community including Rob Cromey-Hawke who won gold at the Invictus Games. Also having strong relationships with 12 charity organisations and running a young people’s programme called Micro Tyco which encourages inner city kids to work together as entrepreneurs and turn £1 investment into a larger figure.

0.2 Questions

Question 1: How did you get senior board members to understand and buy into the Armed Forces initiative?

Atkins – Chris Jones Invited senior board members to a military training camp at Lyneham to experience some of the training and activities reservists carry out. This proved a very valuable exercise as it gave the board members a practical taste of some of the demands of the military and allowed a space for more conversations with a wider military network. MOD – Jonny Ball explained of his experience dealing with employers who had zero knowledge or appreciation for the armed forces community but were perhaps open to the idea of a partnership. He had to write a detailed business case for human resources as well as the senior board of that company. Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at things from a business perspective and who the employer in business terms “what’s in it for them”? How can partnering with defence bring benefit to the company? Once this was understood the company was very enthusiastic to partner with defence and is now a gold member employer.

Question 2: How do you encourage reservists or ex-forces staff to reveal themselves?

Boeing – We are continuously reaching out to all our reservists and ex-forces staff. We invited people to celebration day, lunch and learn events and other military network initiatives. The internal military networks are very active in

Question 3: SME’s going for gold, advocating through supply chain?

Atkins – Having that conversation with suppliers regarding their values and looking at how you can best evidence your experience partnering with defence is the best way I can think of effectively advocating with a member of your supply chain.

Question 4: Did signing the covenant influence gold or did achieving gold influence you to revisit your covenant pledges?

Atkins – Once we achieved gold ERS we saw that as a good opportunity to revisit out pledges and explore what else we could do. It was not a mandatory exercise but we felt as we evolved through the ERS levels it would make sense to reflect this and update our pledges.

Question 5: How do you recruit more reservists into the company?

Deloitte – We have a good relationship with CTP and regularly attend jobs fairs and other events that help us reach out to prospective candidates. We also hold military insight days, offer a military transition and talent programme which help current and military personnel find out about jobs in the private sector and also highlight the skills employers are looking for to succeed. These are just some of the initiatives we use to attract more reservists into the business.