Employer support is vital for Reserve Forces to be able to balance their civilian and military roles in society successfully.
But the Reserve Forces are changing as a result of the recently published Reserve Forces Review 2020 (FR20) and, since July, the Ministry of Defence has been working on how to implement the recommendations in the report.
To this end, SaBRE (Supporting Britain’s Reservists and Employers) is conducting research with employers on the proposed changes and I am pleased to say that we are launching the online version here.
The results will be fed back to the MOD so it can make sure employers have been able to provide input into the process of how and what changes are made to the current structure.
In addition to the online survey, we have been conducting some in-depth research with employer groups and one-to-one interviews. The FR20 review is proposing a lot of change and the online survey will gauge employer views on topics such as:
- Reservists being used more for UK operations and homeland security
- Additional legislation to prevent employer discrimination against Reservists
- Increasing the use of the civilian skills of Reservists in areas such as civil engineering or cyber expertise
- The possibility of shorter but more frequent mobilisations of Reservists for UK operations and events and/or for their civilian skills.
We are pleased that this consultation is supported by the Confederation of British Industry, Institute of Directors, Federation of Small Businesses, British Chambers of Commerce and Forum of Private Business, as we are hoping to reach out to as many people as we can.
Employer support is vital for Reservists to balance their civilian and military roles in society successfully. The results of this survey and other research SaBRE is conducting on employers’ views will be hugely beneficial to the government as they make their plans for the future.
I would like to invite all of you who are responsible for their organisations’ HR policy and decision-making in UK organisations to take part in the survey and make sure your views are heard. The survey can be accessed at the following link and will be open until 6th January 2012.
We are looking forward to telling you about the results of the survey and expect to publish the findings in February 2012 so watch this space!
Tim Corry is campaign director of SaBRE, which conducts marketing and communications activities on behalf of the MoD.
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