We’re making real strides to engage with ex-military personnel and support them in their journey to get back into work
It’s been a busy start to the summer for many of our colleagues– who took on the Cumbrian Challenge at the end of May to raise funds for Walking with the Wounded charity.
We’re very proud of the team of 16 people from across five departments who pitted themselves against the elements to complete the challenge - smashing their fundraising target to raise a fantastic £4,871 for this brilliant cause, which enables vulnerable veterans to re-integrate back into society.
But this isn’t the end of our journey with the charity.
Employment is at the heart of the Walking with the Wounded vision. We became involved with Walking with The Wounded in late 2017, by making a connection with the Co-Founder and CEO Ed Parker.
When meeting Ed and the team, we realised there was a talent pool of potential ex-forces candidates who had outstanding transferable skills which could be utilised in the working world.
We have now formed a partnership with Walking The Wounded, which sees us work together very closely to recruit people from the charity’s network of ex-service personnel and support them to take their first steps in the civilian working world.
Walking the Wounded offers assistance through their employment programmes to vulnerable veterans who have been physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged during their service and supports them in achieving ongoing independence through new sustainable civilian careers outside of the military.
We’re taking key steps to employ ex-service men and women
We first signed the Forces Friendly Employer covenant in 2015 - being a Forces Friendly Employer gives us the ability to benefit from the wide range of unique skills and experiences that reservists and veterans offer. This enables us to diversify our workforce talent and ensure we’re continually innovating and delivering the very best service possible.
Our programme is yielding real results and we have recruited over 100 ex-services personnel over the past two years. Service leavers have gone into roles from driving and warehouse staff, to recruitment support, project managers, IT leaders and directors and they play a valuable role in the business.
We’re now a Silver Forces Friendly Award holder and recently submitted our case study to achieve Gold!
Alongside working with Walking with the Wounded, we have bolstered our ex-military recruitment by introducing a number of HR strategies, which support their transition into the world of work.
These include Military to Microsoft courses to provide software training for people interested in deepening their experience; guaranteed interviews to ex-military applicants who fit the role criteria we’re looking for; and attending careers fairs for service leavers across the UK to highlight the opportunities at Yodel.
Ex-army Peter Harrop (Royal Logistics Corps) said: “I started Yodel in November 2017 in the full time position of supporting Yodel’s ex-military recruitment project. I believe my military background helped me to adapt quickly, by using military ethos of getting the job done. Coming from a military background ensured I confident which helped hugely when meeting key personalities in the business.
“I have recently been promoted to Operations Improvement Manager, however I still work heavily on Yodel’s recruitment process. Yodel is a fantastic company to work for and it is a credit to them how they recognise Armed Forces Personnel.”
The future’s looking bright for our Forces Friendly programme
We’ve got real ambitions to continue to grow and develop this area of the business.
We will be introducing a Civilian Work Attachment scheme which offers work placements between three and seven days for service leavers who are keen to work within the business - giving them a taste of what working life with us is like and enabling participants to gain valuable insights and skills.
We’re not stopping at our walking either! Last weekend, an energetic team from our Aberdeen and Kilmarnock Service Centres walked an impressive 40km on behalf of the Balmoral Challenge with the goal of raising £2,000 for Walking with the Wounded.
All of this activity is all part of our wider ambition to engage with the fantastic talent pool of ex-service men and women we have across the UK and bring them into the business.
Our teams would like to thank every single person who has believed in them and donated to support this amazing cause.
To find out more about our involvement with the ex-military, enter your details on the form to the right-hand side.
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