A DAY OF APPRECIATION

A blog by Adam Hudson, Corporate HR Manager

Today is Armed Forces Day. A day to show our support to the men and women who protect our nation with honour, courage and commitment. 


Having a career in the Armed Forces certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted. It takes a strong, brave individual to serve their country and it’s our promise to honour this courage by making our own commitment to the Armed Forces by signing the Armed Forces Covenant – a voluntary pledge of support from businesses and charities to the military community, including serving troops, veterans, cadets and Reserve Forces.

The Covenant is a community set up to provide support to individuals within the Armed Forces, both past and present. Areas of support can include education, family, well-being, housing, careers, healthcare, financial assistance and discounted services. Our pledge to the Covenant promises to do all we can to support reservists and to ensure all our ex-servicemen and women who work for Landmarc are treated fairly and not disadvantaged in their day-to-day lives.

Around 25 per cent of our workforce is made up of people from our Armed Services communities, which includes reservists. We know that balancing a civilian life with military commitments takes dedication and that’s why we have special policies in place to support them, helping our reservists to achieve the most from both careers.

Due to the nature of our operations, we also actively seek to employ veterans because of the specific skillsets they have. These experiences enable us to deliver the best possible service we can to those who are using the Defence estate to train. We are assisted with this by the Career Transition Partnership, the MOD’s official provider of Armed Forces Resettlement, where we specifically advertise for training area and range related roles.

In addition, for those who are looking to take the jump into self-employment, we have a partnership with X-forces, the leading organisation in the UK for enterprise in the military community. As part of the partnership, we support their business mentoring programme, which offers support to military entrepreneurs who are transitioning to civilian life. We also support the X-Forces ‘Big Business supporting Small Business’ campaign by championing the X-Forces Ambassador Network, a network of start-ups and scale-ups across the UK that unite our community and represent the best of small business from the Armed Forces. This started with the launch of the North East network, working with ambassador Richard Tucker, Managing Director of X Forces beneficiary and Landmarc supplier, AAA Caring Caretaker Ltd, as well as RecruitMe, another X-Forces beneficiary, at the launch of a second network in the East Midlands. RecruitMe is a recruitment organisation that helps ex-servicemen and women find work.

It goes without saying that we recognise the outstanding achievements of those who have served their country, and the diverse people and groups who work together in support of the Forces, and that’s why we also signed up to sponsor the Business of the Year ‘Community Impact’ Award at the 2018 SoldieringOn Awards. There were some fantastic applicants this year, all representing businesses that were started by an individual linked with the Armed Forces and that have a made a real and positive impact.

Businesses like this year’s winner, Sporting Force Ltd, which works with professional football clubs to provide work placements and courses for ex-military personnel. Set up as a charity in 2016; today, it benefits over 300 veterans with social events, free match day tickets, training and, for some, help into paid employment.

Through these small steps, we are determined to keep our commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant and we encourage other businesses to follow us.

Today is a day for making a difference; for pledging your support.

Today is a day of appreciation.