In Focus: Use of the Reserve Forces during the Olympics This article is featured in the latest In Focus.
Victoria Cheston is a Trust Management Executive at Guys and St. Thomas’s hospital which employs many Reservists. She recently returned from Afghanistan as part of SaBRE’s Employers Abroad programme where she met up with three of her colleagues while they were on tour. Victoria is keen to point out that employers not only gain from the professional skills Reservist employees bring back to the workplace but from their personal development experiences too.
Now I’ve seen what Reservists learn when they’re deployed, now I understand the extent of their responsibilities, the level of teamwork and decision making that they have to undertake, I can see the added value they can bring back into an organization in a way that I probably haven’t appreciated before I went to Afghanistan.”
It’s inspiring and really refreshing
When you work in a hospital, teamwork is very important and for Reservists that’s second nature. When I saw Reservists in the field I was really impressed. It’s a highly demanding environment and, working side-by-side with Regulars, they make the same tough calls. You can see those skills in them when they come back to work. It’s inspiring and really refreshing.”
An ideal work ethic
Victoria’s experience in Afghanistan has also given her a better appreciation of the commitments Reservists have to make in terms of training, year in, year out. It has also led her to believe that even without conventional medical skills, Reservists could make excellent potential employees.
I think Reservists have a work ethic as well as a skill set that you don’t always find in everyone you might employ. Talking to some of the Reservists who have never worked in a hospital in their life got me thinking about the kind of opportunities that are available in the NHS for people who might not be frontline clinical staff but could actually work in a hospital environment when they came out of their Forces roles.
As long as you can keep an open dialogue about their commitments and experiences, you’re bound to reap the rewards.”