Forces to be reckoned with

As the recruitment market warms up, resulting in increased competition for the best candidates, recruiters continue to argue that it can be tricky to get hold of work-ready candidates with sufficient skills and experience.

The latest jobs market data from the REC and KPMG showed that during March, demand for staff continued to rise. But the data also highlighted a drop in availability of candidates for permanent and temporary positions.

So why aren’t recruiters looking for candidates in different places?

A growing talent pool

The recent upturn in recruitment, and the accompanying difficulty in finding candidates, is happening alongside one of the biggest ‘strategic realignments’ of our armed forces in recent memory.

For the uninitiated, this ‘realignment’ sets out to achieve a number of things. One guaranteed outcome is that a significant number of forces personnel will be made redundant. Up to 1,500 service personnel will lose their jobs in 2014, and this will be the fourth raft of cuts since 2010.

So, if large numbers of ex-forces personnel will end up looking for work on Civvy Street, surely it makes sense for employers to open their doors to them?

If they did, they could get their hands on experienced individuals with a broad range of skills and one of the most dependable work ethics you can find.

But it’s not happening. Or at least, it’s not happening to the extent it should.

This topic was the subject of a recent event at the Houses of Parliament, organised by Ex-Forces in HR (XFHR), a group dedicated to improving the prospects of ex-forces personnel who make the transition into civilian roles.

Missing out

Richard Colgan, Founder and Managing Partner of HR recruitment consultancy Oakleaf Partnership, is one of the event’s organisers.

“The strategic realignment of the armed forces means the supply of tried and tested, talented, motivated, incredible leaders is bigger than it ever has been in UK PLC,” Colgan says. “It’s a massive opportunity for employers to reap the rewards of what our soldiers, sailors and airmen have done earlier in their careers.

“Within this talent pool you’re getting a product that is well trained, motivated, and good at leadership,” Colgan continues. “And they’re not very expensive in civilian terms.”

Colgan believes XFHR could help both employers and service personnel. “I can speak from experience and say that the transition from military to civilian, not only for those who have been wounded or sick, is not an easy one,” he says.

“But there are many ex-forces people who now work in HR, resourcing, OD or talent management. That’s a very powerful group of people, and a lot of really senior decision makers who can really help with this agenda.”

Transferable skills

Lieutenant General Andrew Gregory, the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff who also spoke at the event, shares Colgan’s passion for promoting the benefits of employing ex-forces personnel.

“Service people can make great employees,” he says. “If employers can get through what might be an incomprehensible and indecipherable CV, they’ll find many transferable skills, including many that are useful in the technical trades.

“Also, our personnel have lived and worked by a set of standards and values – standards of loyalty, professionalism and appropriate behaviour, and values of courage, discipline, integrity, commitment and respect for others.

“Our people also bring experience of being told what to do, not how to do it, and taking responsibility for delivering outcomes. Most employers don’t think they’re going to get that, because they think the ethos in the armed forces is that you’re given an order, told exactly what to do, and off you go.

“We need to communicate to employers that things have changed significantly in the armed forces and the fact that people within XFHR have already made a success of their new careers is proof of that.”

Lt Gen Gregory also stresses the value of practical support that employers can offer pre-employment. “To get our people job-ready, they need to understand business and business goals, and opportunities such as work placements are among the best ways of getting service people ready for the outside.”

What about HR?

Sarah Lye can speak with considerable experience on the topic of transition from the forces to a civilian role, having successfully moved from the RAF to HR.

As Senior Director of HR (EMEA) for JDA Software, Lye reckons most HR departments could benefit from the addition of a colleague with a forces background.

“Even the very basic forces skills such as communication, work ethic, ability to work under pressure, organisational skills, decision-making, leadership – all of those things are desperately needed in the civilian world. Most forces personnel take them for granted, because they’re ingrained from day one.

“HR is attractive as a career for ex-forces personnel because a lot of us have experience of it within our forces roles,” she adds. “Even if you’re not in an actual HR role within the forces, you’re generally still in charge of people, looking after their welfare, development, behaviour and progression. Why not put this experience to use after you leave?”

About the author

John Eccleston

John is a writer and editor who has written about HR and recruitment, among other topics, for as long as he can remember. If he's not at his keyboard, you'll probably find him in the kitchen, at a pub quiz, or buying more trainers.