A blog by Lucy Miles, Talent Acquisition Manager
In Employment Week, week three of Business in the Community’s 10-week Responsible Business in Action campaign, Lucy Miles, Landmarc’s Talent Acquisition Manager, blogs about recruiting from the local communities that surround the national Defence training estate.
“The more local employment that exists, the more mutually-beneficial the area becomes for everyone. Using recruitment initiatives which are designed to keep investment buoyant in the local community can only have a positive impact. As a business, we seek to employ locally and provide opportunities that help to retain local skills.
“Around 60 per cent of Landmarc employees live in either a ‘rural’ or ‘rural in a sparse setting’ location, so we recognise that recruiting fresh talent requires us to devise new methods of working. We attend local recruitment fairs, frequently, which have proved to be an excellent means of engaging directly with prospective candidates. While we continue to advertise online, we supplement this with the more traditional print advertising in local newspapers.
“And, wherever we can, we use hyper-local networks to spread the word about our employment opportunities; from community noticeboards, to shops, local libraries and even pubs, as well as engaging with our military communities through the Career Transition Partnership.
“As a national employer, we also take full advantage of the Government’s Apprenticeship Levy, which enables us to access a training fund to upskill our existing workforce in England as well as to bring new apprentices into the business.
“A key requirement of the fund is that each participant is ‘upskilled’, meaning that the training received must offer additional skills or qualifications to those that are already held, offering genuine lifelong learning opportunities for our employees.
“In addition, employers are required to focus on the skills necessary for the specific job role, concentrating on task-orientated knowledge and behaviour training, alongside more traditional academic or vocational qualifications.
“In the last six months, our Skills Matrix has enabled operatives to develop 1,462 new skills and we have 45 learners enrolled on apprenticeship programmes across England and Wales, resulting in two promotions so far, as a direct result of participating in the programme.
“Our approach is supported by our Investors in People commitment and our Sustainability Strategy, which is based on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The goals for ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ and ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’ specifically, are influencing objectives that are helping Landmarc to contribute to building resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities that surround the UK Defence training estate.
“In short, we are proud to employ a diverse team of skilled people that is both reflective of the communities in which we operate as well as helping to stimulate a culture where employees of all ages are able to teach, share and learn from one another. The skills, knowledge and experience of our people enable us to maintain high levels of performance so that we can deliver the best service we can to our Armed Forces”.