The Transition from Military Service to Civilian Life – A Personal Account by Richard Morphew

22/11/18

Military service is difficult, demanding and dangerous, but to return to civilian life also poses challenges in itself. A survey carried out by the British Army highlighted 44% of veterans found re-adjusting to civilian employment difficult. The military has a unique culture, one that can be very different to civilian culture and can be a culture shock to ex-military personnel as they try to adjust to civilian life.

After joining the Army at the age of 17 and completing just over 22 years’ service I decided it was time to leave the Army for a new challenge. The biggest test I was concerned about was finding suitable employment which helped me to support my family. My ambition was to find a job which gave me job satisfaction, good pay, benefits and security.

Having joined the Army at an early age it was the only job I knew and having no experience within the civilian environment I feared it may be hard to find a suitable role. My impression was that employers might be less inclined to risk giving a job to individuals such as myself because I had no commercial experience within their sector.

A survey carried out by the British Army highlighted “Soldiers don’t have the experience and companies have not got the money to take the risk on someone who has not got the experience, so they are not going to give you a mid-management position”

With the support nowadays, the Army provide soldiers and officers with considerable educational opportunities which I certainly made good use of by completing my Level 7 CIPD in Leadership and Management. This is in addition to gaining many skills throughout my army career, such as succession planning, talent management, enhancing employee engagement, performance management and project management to name a few. This gave me the confidence to apply for a variety of management roles. I also ensured that was up to date in key developments by attending various employment law seminars to enhance my knowledge and skills within the civilian environment.

I truly believe and have shown, that I have attained many transferable skills from the Army, which will be useful to any civilian employer. But the hardest part was getting this across to employers, as they many do not see it this way. It may seem like a gamble for employers to hire ex-military personnel, but if they are more open-minded like my current employer, they can benefit from a wealth of talent. This talent can become an important asset to the business and add value where needed by displaying their skills and knowledge from their experience which they gained in the military.

In the end my transition was relatively smooth, but I did work hard and ensured I was fully prepared. I took on a short term assignment at Thomas Cook as the HR Business Partner in retail. I saw this as a stepping stone to give me an insight into the civilian environment and to display to future employers I am willing to learn.

While there I applied for the role as HR Manager at Charpak Limited, a manufacturing business which specialises in packaging. The Managing Director decided to take a chance with me; in my interview not only did I display my academic qualifications I could highlight my skills which are easily transferrable that I have gained in the Army. Leading on from this the MD could see the potential in me, which led him to offering me the role in his business.

I am now 6 months in and I have proven to the MD I can be a great asset to the business, I have developed an HR Strategy for the business along with reducing the absence by 50%, whilst driving improvements in performance and productivity.

My MD has quoted, “Richard has been very successful in his short time at Charpak where he has provided excellent HR advice and support to the senior management team (SMT) and to the board of directors”

There are many opportunities out in the civilian sector for ex-military forces personnel which I have highlighted above but it is about making sure you fully prepare yourself before leaving, start networking early and making sure you have the correct qualifications for the roles you want to apply for is a key factor.

I am hoping that my experience can inspire and help ex-military personnel, but as importantly can demonstrate to organisations that there is a whole pool of people who could add value. In nearly all sectors and nearly all levels there is a war on talent and those companies who want to ensure that they can stay ahead of their competitors need to look more broadly than maybe they have in the past.