Military manoeuvres

The business

Inchcape Automotive is a global importer and retailer of vehicles. It also provides related services such as vehicle transport, refurbishment and remarketing. Its primary clients are car rental companies such as National and Europcar. It has 930 staff, with five in the HR team.

The challenge

In late 2004, one of the company's drivers came to the HR department to explain that he was a member of the Territorial Army (TA), and had just been called up for active service in Iraq. HR director Brian Benneyworth recalls the impact of this surprise announcement.

"It was a shock for everyone involved. He'd been called up for nine months, had been given six weeks' notice and didn't know whether he was going to be paid, if he'd keep his job, or what would happen when he came back," says Benneyworth. "We hadn't known that he was a reservist and had no real idea of how to handle the situation."

The business implications of losing a highly qualified driver of large transporters were significant. Having such a vehicle off the road costs the company 550 a day. To bridge the gap, Inchcape took on a temporary contractor and trained him with a view to making the appointment permanent.

The solution

In October 2002, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) set up a group called SaBRE - Supporting Britain's Reservists and Employers - to help employers manage the mobilisation of reservists.

Benneyworth says: "We were lucky that one of our colleagues had been in the Armed Forces and so knew of SaBRE. We got one of its teams to visit us. They learned about what we do, and we found out about the support that is available from the Armed Forces. After this, we had a couple of meetings while they guided us through the development of our mobilisation policy, and they helped us to develop a relationship with the TA. All of this was free."

The outcome

The company now has a mobilisation policy. It explains to employees what mobilisation is, and how the company will support staff returning from service through training and by giving them more time with their families where possible. However, this has only been the beginning of a relationship that is proving to be highly beneficial to Inchcape.

Following discussions with the SaBRE team, Inchcape sent a dozen of its employees on the TA's two-day 'Executive Stretch' leadership course in October 2005.

"We saw it as a great opportunity for those on our management development programme to apply what they've learned in the classroom in a more practical setting," Benneyworth says. "The cost was subsidised by the MoD, so it only amounted to 130 per person. They all found it really useful, and I'm planning to make it a mandatory component of next year's management development programme."

At the same time, Inchcape has forged closer links with its local TA branch. "We're lucky that the local branch is a Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers regiment, so it has similar skills to our own," says Benneyworth. "A couple of our colleagues have expressed an interest in joining the TA, and we're hoping that, by building a presence there, we can recruit engineers who are coming out of service."

If I could do it again...

Looking back, Benneyworth would do more to promote the work that he was doing with the TA to colleagues.

"I kept it pretty close to my chest, but should have told others about it," he says. "Getting the rest of your management team on board is important, and often fellow directors struggle to understand why you are spending so much time with the Army. A presentation to the executive management team would've been a good idea."

Employee perspective


Sam Gunn is operations manager of Inchape Automotive's Islip and Corby sites. She has been with the company for just over a decade, and started the management development course at the beginning of 2005. She jumped at the chance to go on the TA's Executive Stretch course.

"We arrived at the tents on Friday evening and were woken up at five o'clock the next morning by the sound of a horn and several sergeants shouting," she says. "We then took our heavy rucksacks to Sherwood Forest where we spent the weekend doing activities such as carrying an 'injured' person across a minefield. We took turns as leader and were marked on each activity."

Although it was hard work, Gunn says it was definitely worthwhile. "The TA gave us useful feedback and encouraged us all the way," she says.

"The main benefit was meeting colleagues from other parts of the business. When we speak on the phone now we know each other, and that makes communication so much easier."

Guide to developing a mobilisation policy in 10 steps

1. Make your employees aware of your support for members of the Reserve Forces. Give your reservists the confidence to discuss their commitments with you.
2. Encourage your reservists to discuss the timing of future activities with you, so that any potential areas of difficulty can be resolved early on.
3. Plan ahead - especially for the two weeks of continuous training that reservists do each year.
4. Look for useful synergies between the training and experience your employees gain from the Reserve Forces and their civilian work, particularly in areas such as management, leadership, problem-solving and planning.
5. Familiarise yourself with the key rights and obligations related to employing reservists, which include financial support and the right to ask for a mobilisation to be delayed or cancelled.
6. Make sure you are on SaBRE's mailing list so that you stay abreast of any changes to the law or other matters relating to employing reservists.
7. Carry out some basic contingency planning as soon as you discover that your employee could be mobilised.
8. If an employee is mobilised for full-time service, make sure their colleagues know what they are doing.
9. If you have any concerns, seek advice from SaBRE online (www.sabre.mod.uk), through its helpline (0800 389 5459), or from one of SaBRE's regional representatives.
10. Remember the benefits that the TA can bring. Much of the training received by reservists would cost employers thousands of pounds to buy from civilian education providers.

Guide compiled by Tim Corry, director of SaBRE