COMMENT To mark last week’s Armed Forces Day, CBRE UK’s Armed Forces Network, a group which supports veterans, spouses and reservists in the business, held a panel discussion on recruiting ex-service people.
A leading thread of our conversation was on how this recruitment strategy can boost cognitive diversity – a policy in fact championed by the armed forces globally. The US armed services sum up cognitive diversity as “the DNA of innovation”, and, indeed, a diversity in how people approach problems and challenge the status quo helps organisations to change and keep ahead, positively impacting their bottom line.
While many recruiters may dismiss the armed forces as not having the relevant business experience, ex-service people bring a new set of skills which support a more diverse range of approaches and opinions to facing new, uncertain, and complex situations.
A focus on teamwork
In today’s agile and fast-paced working environment, seeing new opportunities, adapting to and leading change and carefully managing employee wellbeing are skills that will help organisations to remain ahead.
These are the skills and traits of those with an armed forces background, developed through hours of training on teamwork, communication and resilience. The armed forces are trained to lead and to make decisions under extreme pressure where success or failure can have life or death consequences.
Armed forces personnel have excellent concepts of command and leadership, are trained to be self-analytical and to uphold the standards of their organisation throughout their role – making these individuals high performers in business.
Community spirit
We encourage the real estate industry to value the armed forces as a valuable talent pool to tap into.
At CBRE we have signed the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant – a public pledge to recognise the armed forces’ sacrifices and assist with professional disadvantages they may face – and we are also working towards Gold Defence Employer Recognition Scheme accreditation, to demonstrate our commitment to making CBRE a place where individual interests can flourish and their community spirit is encouraged.
There are challenges associated with recruiting from the armed forces – for example, ex-service people can be reticent to talk about military experience in case it is perceived as irrelevant, and may also display a lack of confidence in translating their CVs into civilian parlance. It was encouraging to hear during our panel discussion that several large-scale organisations are now developing specific recruitment programmes to help combat these potential pitfalls.
Not only is recruiting ex-service people the right thing to do, but, as came up again and again in our discussion, it also makes business sense.
Nick Wright is head of digital sales for the UK at CBRE. Will Church is a senior director at CBRE Capital Advisors. Both are members of CBRE’s Armed Forces network
