It’s fair to say that 2020 was a year no-one expected. The COVID pandemic created immense change in our personal and business lives. Recruitment was no different.
Many organisations implemented recruitment freezes when the pandemic struck the UK, which was slowly thawing over the rest of 2020. But for those who were recruiting, how we recruit had to change. There was greater use of technology, particularly video interviews and online skills assessments. But the pandemic also created opportunities to review ways of operating and ask why do we do things this way? How can we do things better?
Additionally, 2020 has demonstrated the diverse skill-set and experience of military job candidates. Their support to the national efforts to combat COVID has been well publicised. From their strategic support helping national and regional Governments and NHS boards with their planning, to their ability to pivot and switch focus on almost a moment’s notice to what is needed from delivering PPE, building hospitals or conducting COVID tests. Their agility and focus on delivering outcomes has been of immense help to the nation in 2020.
So if you want to improve your business outcomes in 2021, have you considered recruiting ex-Armed Forces? After all, not only are they highly trained in many areas Scotland suffers skill shortages in such as IT and cyber, engineering and logistics but their unique experience has provided them with an enviable list of soft skills including team leadership, resilience and an ability to cope with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
If you’re on the fence, there are another 2 factors to consider. Firstly, many ex-Forces are eligible for up to £6,000 to spend on training at Level 6 or above in the SQF or Level 3 in the NQF. So if you’re looking at an Armed Forces leaver but they haven’t got the qualifications you need, they may be able to use those funds to access training that may be cost prohibitive for you.
The second consideration is that the UK Government will provide employers of Armed Forces leavers with a Secondary Class 1 Employer NICs holiday on the wages of Veterans for the first 12 months of their civilian employment. This will come into force in April 2021. So it will cost less to employ a Service leaver for 12 months than a non-military person due to this saving.
So how could you go about recruiting this highly valuable source of talent that 70% of your competitors are missing out on?
Firstly, ensure you are a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant. This is an option for any organisation, regardless of size, industry or sector. It’s requires the organisation to make public commitments about how it will support the Forces community be that Veterans, service leavers, Reservists or military partners and families. Being an Armed Forces Covenant signatory highlights you as a Forces-friendly organisation which will help you stand out when recruiting from the military community.
www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/get-involved/sign-the-covenant/
Review your processes and documentation to ensure that nothing in your recruitment process could be prohibiting ex-Forces from finding or applying to your vacancies. You may wish to consider writing policies specific to the Forces community, such as relating to Reservists training.
In your job adverts and during your selection processes, avoid stressing industry experience and instead place a greater weighting on skills which a candidate could transfer from another sector, including ex-Forces.
Raise awareness amongst your hiring managers of the value that ex-Forces experience and skills could bring to your workforce. This might come in the form of training to support them when reviewing applications, conducting interviews and on-boarding new starts.
If you already employ someone with a Forces background, involve them in the above activities and consider if they may be appropriate to act as a specific support mentor/buddy for any new ex-Forces employees.
Like anyone doing a career transition, an ex-Forces employee will benefit from support but will also help diversify thought in your organisation.
Joint Force Alba is the only Scottish ex-military recruitment consultancy. We support organisations across Scotland to recruit ex-Forces through our recruitment agency and our consultancy programme which helps organisations to recruit ex-Forces directly. For more information see
www.jointforcealba.co.uk
