Posted on 10/08/2017 3:56:56 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
EMPLOYERS may be incentivised to recruit veterans as the Government examines ways to adopt “US-style” measures to help soldiers after they leave the Armed Forces.
It comes as a leading charity said that highly skilled former army, naval and air force officers will be one of Britain’s “secret weapons” in filling the post-Brexit skills gap.
Speaking last night veterans minister Tobias Ellwood said: “While once governments may have been accused of subcontracting veterans’ issues to the private and charity sector, this is no longer the case. We are grasping them full on.”
While plans are in their infancy the former Royal Green Jackets captain, who has recently returned from a fact-finding visit to the US, confirmed they include moves to engage directly with industry on the same way as the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Labor.
Other moves include accelerated hiring of veterans for civil service positions. In the US, veterans account for roughly a third of all federal government jobs.
Speaking after delivering a key speech at the Officers’ Association annual dinner in Westminster, he said: “Veterans can deal with pressure, they can deal with cognitive thinking in difficult environments.
“Battle skills are different from even twenty years ago – veterans are coming our with cyber security skills, and other knowledge bases. These are easily transferable skills and its the Government’s role to make businesses aware.”
He said one of the biggest challenges would be to dispel ‘some of the myths” surrounding ptsd.
“There’s a concern among some employers that many veterans are broken, but the reality is that when you compare levels of ptsd, mental health issues and suicide rates among veterans with civilian peer groups, its less in every case.
“In fact, because of the training and education they receive, officers are better equipped for life’s challenges than those facing them in civvy street.”
It follows a challenge by the Officers' Association, a charity which represents every officer across all branches of the Armed Forces, for the Government to seize the economic opportunity afforded by highly-skilled officers after service.
“Officers can be one of Britain’s secret weapons when looking at Britain’s post-Brexit economy - but the Government must get more proactively involved,“ said the charity’s ceo Lee Holloway.
”“It used to be the case thirty years ago that an officer could walk into any job, because recruiters had first-hand knowledge of the qualities a someone with a military background had to offer. Those days have gone.
“While the growing number of reservists will eventually be able to instil that knowledge into the workplace, that won’t really kick in for twenty years. Brexit is happening now.”
He said most enjoyers weren’t remotely aware of the high hurdles officers were forced to jump to secure promotion, particularly after the rank of Major (Lt Cmdr in the Royal Navy or Squadron Leader in the RAF).
“Leadership is key. The Royal Navy, for instance, recognises three leadership styles: charismatic, autocratic and democratic. While some are natural leaders, most leaders are taught and made.
“After the rank of Major promotions become selective, not automatic. Getting there involves constant assessment.
“At that rank, officers can be assigned two-year postings in areas they have no knowledge of - such as procurement.
“They know nothing about procurement, or financial strategy and accounting but they're expected to become very good within four months. If you fail, you won't reach further promotion. “
While he welcomes support by ministers, words alone aren't enough, said Holloway.
“Officers now are leaving the armed forces with another 30 years of working life before them. There is an opportunity for the Government to ask itself what it can do invest in those men and women leaving and enable them to seamlessly merge into civilian life.
“After all, each officer will have had hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on him or her in service. Getting a return on that is a win-win scenario.”
Not that we’re any better, recalling that general who said after the Fort Hood attack, that their priority must always be die-versity, or words to that effect. What’s a few mass shootings by muslims as long as they always maintain that all-important die-versity?
“In the US, veterans account for roughly a third of all federal government jobs.”
I can’t believe that. The government wouldn’t be so incompetent if that were true.
It’s the fungible employee fantasy. Just take ‘em from over here and put ‘em over there.
Agree with your#1....but in reality the structure of NCOs is different than ours. Way behind the curve IMHO.
Our postman growing up was a lifer who then went straight into the USPS. My parents explained to me early on that here was a man who was working while collecting retirement pay and going to end up with two decent pensions.
Of course it’s true, veterans preferences have be a part of civil service hiring for a very long time. For example, probably 1/2 to 2/3’rds DOD & IC are veterans with the other agencies having lower concentrations but significant percentages. Government bureaucracies are inefficient by their very nature, we make it much much worse with all the social engineering regulations & laws (e.g, affirmative action hiring\promoting and even in job assignments!) & layers of CYA lawyering that goes with every government action. Sticking a “can do” veteran in there doesn’t change any of that except perhaps make him\her go gray faster.
Your letter carrier may get two pensions, but what’s that to you? Why such hatred and envy? BTW, your letter carrier will not be eligible for Social Security because it sounds like all of his working life is federal time or military time. If for some reason he would ever go back to work after postal retirement and earn forty quarters of Social Security coverage, which would take ten years of steady work to accumulate, he would find his Social Security check subject to the Government Pension Offset and reduced by sixty percent, in certain cases to zero, based on his income. This is the situation that federal and postal retirees face, many of us don’t get two retirement checks, especially those covered by the old Civil Service Retirement System. In contrast, many private workers have both a retirement check from their company and Social Security.
I’m not quite sure where you pick up hatred or envy. I thought that it was kind of clever.
I thought that if he did it, others might do it as well, which could boost the percentage of government employees who are ex-military.
The details you add are interesting—you can’t get much by the government.
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