Business engagement and the Armed Forces Covenant in Swindon and Wiltshire

Geographically, Swindon sits between several large military bases employing approximately 20,000 people with substantial supply chains linked to each base.

In the next few years, the military geography of the area is expected to change substantially. Seven ‘super garrisons’ are planned across the UK to facilitate the reintegration of forces from Germany back into the UK.

Once completed almost 20% of the British Army will be stationed in Wiltshire. And it’s easy to see why the Ministry of Defence has taken this step.

Swindon is a positive draw for reintegration given the low cost of housing and buoyant jobs market when compared to many of the surrounding towns and cities.

Nevertheless, the influx of new people to the area is likely to put additional strain on services, and given how the bases are home to an ever-changing work force, there are significant ramifications not only for the skills base of the region but also community cohesion.

Against this background, one Swindon company, Nationwide, provides a shining example of how business can engage armed forces in the community, as holders of the Gold Standard Armed Forces Corporate Covenant.

The Covenant describes a set of requirements and accreditations that a company needs to demonstrate through military engagement in order to fulfil the nation’s promise that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly.

At a recent event, Stephen Ford, Social Investment Manager, explained how Nationwide managed to achieve the Gold Standard – an accolade held by as few as 38 businesses and organisations across the UK.

The three key action areas he identified are:

• People – recruitment, sensitivity, induction of ex-forces into the business
• Products – mortgages, supply lines, commercial disadvantage from serving with the military
• Partnerships – brand reputation, military charities, collaborative working with likeminded businesses to improve bottom line

This framework helped to launch a number of different pilot programmes across different areas of the business that have involved:

• Directly supporting the armed forces at the barracks with financial awareness and preparing military personnel for civilian life
• Running webinars explaining skills and requirements needed to apply for project manager roles on their military recruitment programme, most recent programme saw the hire of 35 PM’s directly into the business
• Providing military specific products so that military personnel can apply for things like loans and mortgages without a fixed address.

With all the engagement aspects currently, Stephen was keen to stress that there is a scope for businesses around Swindon to work with him and to use the templates and experience Nationwide have generated to help others run similar engagement or to piggyback on work already taking place.

Although most of the businesses in attendance had at least some engagement with the military, predominantly through the CPT (Career Transition Partnership), recruitment or participating in recruitment activities such as fairs and events. Swindon Borough Council stated that direct contact was often limited.

Against this background, we began to map out key action points for improving military engagement across the business community. These included:

• Recognising how military personnel often struggle with the culture of working in the civilian sectors and it’s a challenge to adapt current frameworks to cater for them
• Making sure that the Corporate Covenant incorporates the Community Covenant and vice versa
• Reducing fragmentation in order to develop a whole company approach and funding for military engagement
• Driving apprenticeships across businesses that could be potentially suitable for catering for ex-military personnel, spouses and family
• Consider early service personnel leavers more carefully, given how they often don’t have the support network of those who have served for long periods

What came out of the discussion was agreement among all businesses that the military agenda was a priority area for Swindon and that taking steps toward the development a local business cluster for military engagement is the way forward.

As we work toward this end, the next steps will be to generate shared, achievable objectives that are business led and light touch with the military at this stage.