In Focus: Use of the Reserve Forces during the Olympics This article is featured in the latest In Focus.
Dean Hyde is Chairman of Newark Business Club and Managing Director of DnA Group, a company that trains incident, fraud and claims investigators. He has recruited several Reservists over the years and has always found the experience to be an extremely positive one. In addition, DnA trains all the Army’s master drivers for Road Traffic Collision Investigations, and when Darren Knight, one of the drivers he had trained retired, he jumped on the opportunity to employ him as a lecturer. It was specifically Darren’s military training that led Dean to take him on.
Highly committed and motivated
I’ve employed several Reservists and it’s always worked out extremely well. Reservists’ training and time in the field gives them skills you really couldn’t get anywhere else - skills that are a real bonus to us here at DnA. Reservists are highly committed and motivated people, and that kind of work ethic can only be good for the people around them.
I know that some Reservists hesitate to mention their involvement to prospective employers, but I’d encourage them to be proud of it. Mobilisation is really no more difficult to work around than a maternity leave, and supporting our Reservists is important. They’re clearly vital to our Armed Forces.”
Something else Dean has noticed about his Reservist employees is their discipline, which he attributes directly to their military training.
He encourages employers to make use of the skills their Reservists have. Not only is it easier to promote from within than to recruit from outside, but employees who you encourage in this way are more likely to remain loyal.
Reservists with trade skills are particularly valuable
We usually find that people from the trade branches within the services tend to have more management training and we find that particularly useful.”