Episode 30: Embracing Military Talent to Help Build your Team w/Richard Llewellyn-Bell

Get the most from this episode in the form that works best for you: watch the episode, read the transcript or access further resources below.

Watch the episode

Want to listen later? Head to Spotify, the episode if also available to listen on Apple Podcast, and click here for all other available platforms.

Download one of our free ebooks

We’ve helped hundreds of businesses grow and have put some of our top insights into our FREE business growth ebook.

Download the ebook

Want to know more about how to drive leads using inbound marketing? Get our FREE “Intro to Inbound” guide today.

Get the guide

REad the transcript

Please note: Whilst all transcripts are double checked for accuracy, they are transcribed via Otter.AI so may contain errors.

David Parry 01:20

Hello, and welcome again to The SME Growth Podcast. I'm Dave Parry from Wellmeadow Limited. And today we've got an interesting subject with a guest that we're going to talk about. And it's all aimed at addressing the challenges that businesses are facing at the moment in trying to recruit high quality, high calibre people into into their companies at a time when we've got a lot of vacancies in the country. So I'm very delighted to welcome with us Richard Llewellyn-Bell. Hello Richard. Thank you. Good morning. Another Richard from Normal. Richard is taking a day off because it's his birthday soon. So we've got a chance to mix things up a bit and, and get you in instead. So today's subject a bit different, but all definitely in the theme of trying to help small businesses to grow, is trying to address the challenge of recruitment everybody's facing at the moment. And we're going to talk specifically today about recruiting ex military personnel, military vets. And that's something that you know, a little bit about.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 02:23

I do. It's been a few years since I left the RAF 22 years ago. So I think things have evolved quite a lot in terms of transitioning, I would say. So I think we'll probably touch on some of those. 

David Parry 02:37

So what did you do in RAF when you were in the service, 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 02:39

I was in the RAF police. Dave, I was a RAF police dog handler for seven out of the 12 years. So wide and varied travel. And, yeah, fairly exciting stuff and fairly dull stuff from time to time, 

David Parry 02:56

I bet there's loads of people listening to that thinking that sounds like an amazing job, you get to be with dogs, and you're travelling everywhere.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell03:02

It's funny, I look back now and think it was amazing. And it was it was a great time in my 20s. And, and and half of my 30s or a couple of my 30s. And then I talked to people who I know now who flew f3 fighter jets and they like to talk to me about the RAF police dogs, which I think is amazing.

David Parry 03:24

And you said earlier, putting us on notice a bit that we've got to make this professional that you did actually have a bit of a stint on the radio down in the Falklands

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 03:33

No, and I'm not sure I should have actually disclosed that before this podcast. I feel very much under pressure. But I dabbled in BFBS radio in the Falkland Islands.

David Parry 03:34

Which is the British forces Broadcasting Service for those who don't know

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 03:48

British forces broadcasting and it's it's often seen as a sort of gateway into people. John Peel, for example, I think started out really Richard Allinson. Some big names there. And I think at the time I was thinking, when I get back to the UK, I might do that. But I didn't I mean I became a lawyer instead. But

David Parry 04:10

Yeah, I was gonna come on to that it does rather put into into some context, the fact that I used to do a bit of hospital radio. I'm now feeling well and truly trumped with your BFBS. 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 04:19

We are so pro.

David Parry 04:21

So tell us a little bit then about what happened after you left the service. And you just mentioned that you became a lawyer. What was that journey like was that transition like? 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 04:29

It was a long journey. But spent five years before I left after 12 years studying law in the RAF so talking about the Falklands Islands taking my law books down to the South Atlantic. With a view to what you would do afterwards? Yeah, I'd made my decision. It took a long time. I literally bought a book that said that was an A to Z of Careers. And I can remember now sitting with my now wife

David Parry 04:54

And you opened it a random page

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 04:55

Literally flicking through a book. Yeah, because I didn't I didn't know and I think the It was certainly support out there. But I remember everybody left to be become a Microsoft engineer is that that was a big thing. That's all the resettlement magazines. I remember lying around was all about my becoming a techie engineer, just not my cup of tea, I'm not very technical. And so I was literally flicking through a book. But then my friend took an A level law. I then did,

David Parry 05:28

all while you're still in the services?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 05:29

when I'm in the RAF. Yeah. I really enjoyed it. Like most students do enjoy studying law, especially the criminal bits. Quite juicy, still interesting. And I really enjoyed it. And I wanted a career. I didn't want to join another uniform service if you'd like. And that was another obvious one for military. Yeah. So I wasn't doing the obvious. And I wanted a career because I was leaving at the age of 30, say 31. And so long time working after the forces,

David Parry 06:01

and did you go straight into an employment position?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 06:05

I spent a year in full time education after I left. I then I did various vocational schemes. Wragge and Co in Birmingham was one that I was particularly proud of, because I was a very unusual case, RAF police dog handler in a medium size, regional law firm. That was massive, real good, it's something for the CV. And then I ended up in a law firm in Oswestry, in the civil litigation department as basically like a paralegal. Until I had spent another four or five years in qualifying employment. So it took 2007. I studied a started in 2000/1999, qualified in 2007. So it's a long, it's a long journey. But for many of those years, I was supervised but practising

David Parry 07:00

So now you're not working for someone else. You're working for yourself.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 07:04

I work for myself. And we employ two employment lawyers. So there's a team of three of us looking after businesses up and down the country. With with retained employment law services amongst other things.

David Parry 07:19

Rather than being general practice law firm. Focus on employment law, and from the position of the employer rather than employee. 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 07:26

That's it, yes 

David Parry 07:28

Very good. Okay. Great intro. Thanks very much for that. Richard, let me back up a little bit, then and sort of give a bit of context for our listeners as to why this general recruitment problem is an issue for us all. There's 1.1 million vacancies still check the stats last night actually went up a little bit over the last few months. But now it's just come down a little bit still 1.1 million vacancies in the UK, which is the highest it's been as a result of a number of things. And as regular listeners of the podcast, we'll note, there's two or three major components to what's caused that problem. We will mention Brexit, and everybody's got their own version of whether that's good or bad, and ups and downs. But one of the impacts of it is that a number of people, maybe they left for other reasons, such as the pandemic, but haven't come back in again, because the rules that the UK Government has on bringing nation, national citizens from other countries into the UK to work are now harder, the whole points pay system. So that's caused a bit of a problem. We have another problem of early retirees and people of working age, but with alternative health, we've got a lot more people retiring in their 50s Now or just becoming economically inactive, partly because the pandemic seems to have changed people's views about their attitude to work. And maybe reevaluated whether they need to work anymore, could they just have a more modest lifestyle and maybe just going to take a part time job somewhere and do the same but half a millon/600,000 workers because of that. And the other one, which surprises people who've not heard of it is that the demographic dip 20 Some years ago, is now coming into the workforce. So the birth rate between the late 90s and the early 2000s, dropped significantly. And we're 1.8 million 18 to 25 year olds short in that year when compared to other age groups, and then it recovered afterwards. But it means that cohort now between 18 to 25. Now as a result of the low birth rate back then they are coming into the workforce. Yes, the rest of them are but there aren't as many of them as they should be. So take all of that into the round and note that whether or not we do go into a recession and we know we're not we've got low growth and high inflation, but we don't seem to be experiencing anything on the the unemployment front as a result of it. This could be the first recession in living memory or ever where we don't have an increase in unemployment. We have full employment and and a load of vaccancies and recession at same time. So we've got this problem and companies are still trying to grow a number of our clients are doing very well are looking to recruit and struggling. So we thought Well, what other angles are there? And what is the usual? And hence why when you and I were talking about potentially having you as a guest on our podcast, this subject came up as really quite relevant. So let's have a quick sort of summary then of what we know about the numbers on military vets. Do we know how many there are and how many are coming into the workforce every year?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 10:20

It seems to me there's, approximately 14 to 15,000 exiting military vets every year,

David Parry 10:30

So it's quite a pool of labour.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 10:31

That's a good pool from a community of people with vast skills, experience, That's perhaps not tapped into. Yeah, as it as it could perhaps be.

David Parry 10:47

Now, most of those do get jobs. I looked at a stat that said, about 90% of military vets are in work six months after they leave. So there's certainly work out there. That may not necessarily be the work they want, there may just be a job. Tide them over until they get what they want. So there's nevertheless there's there's a big flux of new people who are rather unlike graduates coming out with no experience and some very focused training. Military vets are coming out with very detailed training and experience different end of it all. Yeah. So it's a it's a different pool to recruit from what why do you think they're a special case? Why should SME business owners and recruiters be thinking about military vets as a special thing to go after rather than just putting the normal adverts up here seeing who applies?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 11:33

I mean, I think there's this maybe, I think perhaps they may be misunderstood the community, probably dating back to days gone by where the stereotypical, you know, ex servicemen marches in through the door and tells everyone to do some press ups and the military has moved on is such an advance and sort of technical organisation, there are those quite obvious skills that people could bring. And I know that large corporations already have incentives in place, but it's a bit, as I say, a bit sort of like corporate governance, it trickles down, or ought to trickle down, to SMEs to use that same incentive. And, you know, and because of one reason or another, in smaller businesses, maybe not focused on their recruitment, as often as you know, as larger organisations

David Parry 12:30

That's certainly my experience from the clients that we know who are predominately SMEs and see recruitment to vets being talked about on websites of much larger firms. And of those companies that we deal with in the SME sector. Of course, they do recruit military vets, but more just as the course of normal recruitment, they you know, they're part of the population that apply for jobs just like anybody else. So it's been interesting talking to some of them for their reflections on the differences, the pros and the cons, which we're going to come over to, but I don't see many SMEs promoting it. And we're going to come on later to some of the schemes around for that, or including it necessarily in their adverts to say that they're particularly positive about recruiting vets. So I think that's what today's podcast is a little bit about just exploring whether there's merit in doing that, and maybe changing some views. So let's go through from your experience, then on what are the pros of recruiting an ex military person, someone who's overseas rather than just someone from civvy street? That already has experience?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 13:32

Yeah. I mean, it's it's interesting that businesses might see an ex military person who lacks experience in the, in the business world, which may be the case in terms of your your specifically that but actually vast a huge, huge experience generally in things like leadership and resilience and coping under pressure. Dealing with the, you know, with a variety of different sorts of situations, adapting adaptable, transit, you know, verbal skills, like communication, organisational skills, I mean, they've just been sort of built into their DNA. And, and often overlooked, and, and some of the military I mean, from my experience, I know that a lot of the military processes have been adapted in organisations, I think years ago, I went through an endless selection process at Cranwell, RAF Cranwell, and been interviewed by panel. And it was the most thorough and well organised process and I very rarely hear about, certainly, maybe the larger organisations may be more structured that way. But it's a it's it's it was it was a good experience. I know that a lot of smaller businesses have taken that on board, you know, so there's, there's lots of stuff that the military veterans can take into SMEs.

David Parry 15:05

Yeah, it's interesting. I was asking around some of the clients we have for their experiences in recruiting ex military people. And the one about resilience came up more than the maybe more vision about leadership and teamwork in niche, maybe upon expects. And it was more the fact that someone from the military is, is less likely in their view. And I'm just quoting what they said he less likely to be fazed by a deadline, which requires going the extra mile putting the extra hours in suffering some higher stress levels at a manageable level. We're not talking about you know, over stressing here, but they know that harder work period, having to put an extra shift in, but they talked. And of course, there'll be recruiting other people as well, that also put an extra shift in this isn't trying to paint a black and white distinction. But they say that they never had problems with their ex military people realising that when there's a mission to be accomplished, and a deadline they'll apply themselves to that task for the sake of achieving it

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 16:02

A work ethic. That's I think, yes, that's true. A pro in the in the pro box, you know, that would be the the work ethic, you would expect from somebody coming from a military background? Because of course, you know, there is no, there is no time to have people in the military who are not part of that team, part of that work, it's part of the training or culture, it goes with the job, you know,

David Parry 16:30

And it goes without saying that there are lots of very specific skills that people will pick up in the military, which may well be applicable everything from logistics, engineering, medicine, whatever it may be, there's lots of, of those sorts of things. And that that could well be valuable when you come into a company. 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 16:47

Yeah. Engineering. You know, the specific different specific trades, that you are, you know, getting, you know, high end training right from the start and military career logistics. Yeah. operational skills. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's wide and varied, isn't it? No, quite, quite. When you talk about it quite, quite obvious. And then why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you tap into that community?

David Parry 17:15

I'm thinking then listeners to this who are looking to recruit anyway, and business owners and so on will probably not be too surprised by what we've just talked about. I think that's probably taken as read the military people come with those those pros, if you'd like them for team working, with leadership, the resilience, the structure, their specific skills that they bring their, their aptitude for hard work, and training and structure. So maybe we're reinforcing a belief there. The bit that I'd like to explore a bit more now is talking about the cons, the potential cons and the actual cons, both the myth and the reality of taking young people from a military background, because this isn't big, just a big advert for saying almost people are perfect to nurse the way we should know. There are pros and cons. So how do you think that plays out? When you take on an ex military person? What do you think, is the biggest concern that employers should be aware of? 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 18:10

I think I've given this a bit of thought, and I would think that the different hierarchical structure in a in a business than the military? Could well be a potential for it being a struggle for both both both parties, you know, I mean, you think about it, you know, even if you haven't served in military, we all know how the military is a sort of structured managed, and it has to be, of course, because that's its role. And then imagine going into a small, medium sized business, having spent 20 years with a very, very clear, structured reporting line, chain of command. And a business that wouldn't have that chain of command necessarily very relaxed, liberal sort of, inviting insubordination, if you like, even to a point, you know, creativity,

David Parry 19:08

That like insubordination. It sounds like an entirely negative thing. I don't know what you're me, I think what you're trying to say is that you don't always follow orders to the letter without question, you know, in civvy street, there is space to be able to ask. Yeah, and and challenge and if you do something a different way.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 19:24

Yeah. And it's actually, I actually don't like that word. I use it. It's a very military word, actually. But in my job as an employment lawyer, I really cringe when businesses say, well, what's the allegation? Well, he was he was insubordinate to his manager. And he does. It takes me back to the military. It's probably only a word, maybe describe it something else. But yeah, I mean that. You know, you're inviting somebody to challenge let's say, yeah. Whereas in the military. There will be times to challenge Of course there will be. But in your traditional sort of chain of command, you get on with stuff. 

David Parry 20:06

Similarly, I picked up all that in asking around the clients again about some what did they see as some of the cons, and they put one of them in particular, an experience that they'd had with a recent employee more in the context of from their point of view, the employees point of view, but they struggled with the fact that people around them didn't just do what they were told without question. And they thought that was really odd, you know, how can you run an organisation where the manager has asked for certain things to be done? And they're not everybody does it? And that why are there not consequences? And that sort of thing. So yes, that was more of a struggle for them to come to terms with that.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 20:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's, there's obviously the lack of experience in, in businesses in general commercial decision making. You know, that's quite, that's quite an obvious one. But remember, there are the military since my day has has changed. I'm sort of not qualified to talk about that. Bbut I, I know, because a number of my friends are more recent leavers. That there is. There are areas where you're encouraged to challenge especially with more senior management levels. And in the military, of course, of course there are. But the further down the line, you go, it's just like, say, for example, the factory setting you, you have to have people who simply just do as they are asked to do by their line manager. But the more senior you get Board of Directors, of course, you're not going to your whole point is that you sit around and challenge one another. So to a large extent, especially now, in the modern military, there might there might not be much of a difference, you know 

David Parry 21:47

I think we need to distinguish the little bit here between the military is such a broad organisation with lots of different roles. Yes, if you're recruiting someone to be an operator or a supervisor on the shop floor, then the idea of being able to follow instructions and having a reasonably structured hierarchy and reporting lines is a good thing. And may well be closer in your, your manufacturing organisation to to that expectation anyway. Whereas the support arms, people from behind the scenes, whether it be logistics and medicine or up the chain of command, yes, then they're more likely as you're describing them to, to operate in a very similar fashion anyway, it's about decision making, brainstorming, challenging one year or disrupting. 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 22:26

Yeah, yeah. So I think those are the, when we talk it through, think about it, that there's a there's a whole community out there that there actually might not be that much different

David Parry 22:37

What about that sort of sense of camaraderie and banter that I can only imagine being a layman that when you're in the military, you have a very strong bond with people you're away from home, you've been looked after you've got every all of your needs from your housing and your food graphed and being looked after for you as well. And you've got that sort of way of joking with one another. There's that language, you use the acronyms and all the abbreviations and everything and, and that way of, you know, just bonding as a team, maybe even encouraged maybe with some alcohol and, and, you know, in the officers mess, and that never happens, I'm sure. When when someone goes into the workplace, there's a divorce there between you may get up to all that sort of stuff with your mates. But that's not where you go to work for necessarily. Do you think that's something that military people, you know, have to be aware of, or employers have to be aware of, in that making that adjustment?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 23:28

Yeah, I think without doubt, that's the military sense of humour is well known. And I mean, even 22 years later, when I'm in amongst ex military friends, it's quite a bizarre situation. If anybody was listening to us, it would be ridiculous. But there's, you know, this civilians who have never served in the military in that same pool for example, I'm thinking of a cycling trip up in Scotland a couple of years ago. And it was it, I loved it, it was fabulous to be back in that sharp, witty, pretty, sailing close to the winds on on on a couple of things. But you put that in the context of, of workplace, it can be a challenge.

David Parry 24:14

And I'm not saying it's especially the case. Now, it should always have been thus, but I think our awareness these days of being very inclusive, a diverse organisation, and being very aware not to cause any environment within working, excluding people or make me feel uncomfortable. We're going out of our way now as employees to be to be very sensitive to all sorts of issues where the sort of culture you talked about would be absolutely at odds with that. So yeah, I must take a little bit of well, adaptation. 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 24:43

It does, but, if you're talking about intelligent people who are able to adapt, you judge your audience, you know, that's the there's no difference. I mean, you know, yeah, I'm thinking a situation if I was in the military, still, my conversation with some friends in the bar clearly, I'm smart enough to be able to, well, I'm then mixing with members of the public in a some sort of ceremony or something like that. You're clearly you adjust and adapt. But that's, I think that's, that's a skill. My one of my strengths, I think, was that I could actually mix with all sorts of different people here. So if you turn that on his head, that's fantastic. I think that's a great, great skill, you clearly behave yourself at work. That's a control mechanism. That's what we know

David Parry 25:34

I don't think that from what you're saying, and it makes absolute sense. Any of the cons that people or employers might perceive are in large part down to the adjustments anyway, that the ex military person will be making naturally anyway, and as you say, they are well suited to do that. But there's nothing really in there, which is a showstopper, all of those things just have to be taken into account that their transition, maybe getting used to the less strict command or control structure perhaps and the lines of reporting and they help people respond to orders and the banter and all that, that will probably happen reasonably naturally. Anyway, yeah. You're not like different taking on a graduate who hasn't been used to the workplace, either. They have to learn that where they've come from that behaviour goes away. Or even just another business who operates maybe they're stricter, in a different way, or liberal, more liberal. And I think that's true. As good point, if you go from SME to large corporate, or vice versa, you'll notice quite a difference. SMEs can often be a lot more jovial and bantery. But suddenly go to large corporate, and you feel the threat of HR coming down on bricks if you make jokes of a certain type. So I think that's it's not a preserve of, you know, military culture, it's culture generally.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 26:49

And I think you're just talking about going back to the sort of behavioural stuff and the banter, but that's down to businesses, reasonably managing that and managing itself sensibly. I mean, there's behaviours that go on that, for that are not bad. The behaviours of military vets, you don't need to be a military veteran to to conduct yourself in a particular way. That's not acceptable. Yeah, that goes on all the time. So employers have that duty, in any event, to to manage their people sort of sensibly.

David Parry 27:22

I think it's a good roundup then. And yeah, we've covered I think, trying to be honest there on both sides. Really, there's an awful lot of pros from taking on someone with that sort of life experience at the training that pattern and the culture of team working and leadership and achieving mission. And yet, we're just trying to be honest, that it's not all roses, and that there are adjustments to be made once the adjustment has been made. You've got yourself a very valuable employee. So what do you think then, in terms of practical steps that employers can take, if they're looking to not just accept all applicants, and some of them may be military vets, but target it? Or what what could they do? Practically? Yeah, to put a name out there.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 28:02

Yeah. I mean, I would go, you and I talked about Armed Forces, the Armed Forces covenant, which has some traction now with many, many businesses. 

David Parry 28:14

Yeah, what do you know about that?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 28:16

It's an undertaking. It's not a legal legally binding. It's, it's an undertaking a desire by a business to actively seek and support military vettery, military vets communities. And obviously, in that sense, they would be looking at looking at the military veterans to recruit them into into jobs to help them try and transition

David Parry 28:44

Are there some requirements you have to meet to get to sort of pass and be awarded the covenant? Or is it just a state pledge? Almost, yeah, 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 28:51

it's a pledge. It's not necessarily an onerous task. But the you know, this is the informations online Armed Forces covenant. There's lots of information about that. But you're right, the good word is pledge. And it's, it's a recognise, it's a recognition, really, you can use that the phrase and you can use the covenant on your websites and your letter heads and, 

David Parry 29:15

and there must be a directory of those companies that are signed up. So that's one way of doing it. And I guess, even as simple in your job adverts pointing out that you are particularly welcoming applicants from a military background, you that you understand that some of the transitions will be different from someone coming from a different background and that you're ready for that and you're welcoming it.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 29:38

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

David Parry 29:39

Maybe the onboarding will be slightly tailored accordingly. And you can point that out 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 29:43

You can you can focus I mean, you could do there are some organisations I'm thinking some of the professional services by PwC and by Barclays Bank, actively do this or they do this already, the guarantee interviews for military veterans and There are some who, who specifically target military veterans into roles that the latter been could be controversial. You know, in terms of fair selection, but it's certainly it's, it's certainly something that

David Parry 30:18

It's an interesting device that I have not thought of before. And the idea of guaranteeing an interview is something you're not guaranteeing anybody a job, but you're saying that maybe your CV isn't presented conventionally the way we're reading them, or the way you're presenting yourself in your cover letter. So take that out, take that risk, and you're coming across well out of the equation and say, as long as you've applied, you'll at least get a chance to come interview

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 30:40

Sit in front of you. And I don't know about you, Dave, but you're involved in a lot of recruitment. I know. And CVs are quite clearly brilliant, aren't they when people, people tell you how they've been brilliant 

David Parry 30:55

Well polished? 

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 30:55

Of course they are, they're not going to do anything other than that 

David Parry 30:58

You'd be surprised how many receive that aren't? Well, on the whole they are

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 31:01

On the whole yes, it's an opportunity to tell people how brilliant you are. But I always like to get under the skin and meet the meet the person. So you're quite right. You know, if there is a, although there is a lot of resettlement support for the military leavers in their CV in preparation for transitioning out. So you'd like to think that isn't such a problem. But if it was a guaranteed interview, that's

David Parry 31:25

It's a nice idea, the guaranteed interview if you actually go down that route. Yeah. You also mentioned earlier something about the Career Transfer partnerships. So what do you know about that was that

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 31:32

so that's an MOD government initiative that helps the partners with Right Management which is a global trends and placement business. And so CTP is sort of where I would sign posts, I suppose any businesses and listeners who are looking at into this further 

David Parry 32:01

so they get access then to a recruitment or placement?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 32:04

So they can, yeah, it's a platform to search for military veterans,

David Parry 32:09

and you can put your own jobs on there?

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 32:11

Put your own jobs in there, register.

David Parry 32:12

I'm right in thinking that that's free. It's a free service.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 32:15

Yes believe I believe it is. I believe it is. And there's details online. Career transition partnership, CTP.org.uk There's a section where you click on for employers, and it tells you all about it. 

David Parry 32:35

Alright, well that's really interesting. Okay, so been a good few sort of practical tips there as well. If anybody's looking to tap into 14,000 potential employees coming in every year, and it's the machine that's producing on a regular basis. Maybe look at either the career transition partnership CTP to all quit UK, or considered the covenant and making it clear in your own advertising and recruitment processes, even with a guaranteed interview type approach. You welcome people with a military background and acknowledge that they bring an enhanced level of skills from what you might get another applicants.

Richard Llewellyn-Bell 33:13

Yeah. recognise that and create a, ultimately, what would be a diverse workforce, or perhaps a more diverse workforce? 

David Parry 33:21

Well, I hope that's been useful to our listeners today, who are running SME businesses and trying to recruit in these difficult times with so many vacancies out there in the market. So thanks again, for listening. This has been The SME Growth Podcast focusing on challenging the recruitment difficulties with potentially a different approach to looking at ex military personnel. As I asked every week, when you listen, please comment on and share and like our podcasts depending on wherever you get them from, but more importantly, tell anybody you know, that's also in business that you think might be interested in the sort of content we're producing, and tell them to listen, and maybe give them a chance to pick up on what we're talking about as well. So in the meantime, good luck with your businesses.

Further Resources

In the episode, Dave and Richard discuss several organisations SMEs could access to look for further guidance in regards to recruiting ex-military. 

 

 

Career Transition Partnership

The Career Transition Partnership (CTP) is a program that supports military personnel transitioning to civilian careers in the UK. It offers a wide range of services, including career guidance, job finding assistance, and vocational training. By partnering with the CTP, businesses can access a diverse pool of skilled veterans, benefiting from their unique abilities and experiences. The CTP plays a vital role in facilitating successful transitions for service members while providing businesses with valuable recruitment opportunities.