In my last newsletter I tried to describe what a veteran is and now I thought I would go one step further and answer the question “what is in it for me and my workforce?”
Veterans bring with them a lot of soft skills and abilities when they join various companies, and this will be for another newsletter, but in this one I wanted to concentrate on the bottom line so to speak.
- The first and most obvious benefit of recruiting a veteran straight out of the forces is that, at the moment, you will receive an employer’s NI relief on any earnings below a £50,270 threshold, which would in effect save the company up to almost £6,000 for the first year, a considerable sum in its own right.
- Secondly, and it often very underutilized is that service personnel once they have finished their service may have Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC). These they can use to help them retrain into their new career choice, and depending on their service, they can use these ELC’s to help offset the cost of any Nationally Recognised Qualification at level three or higher. They could be entitled to up to three ELC’s up to a value of £2,000 each, which will pay for up to 80% of any course. As the employer it could again save some of your training funds or even add to those funds so you can spend more on each individual.
- The last area that again is not used all that much, is that you can “hire” an individual for up to a month “work experience” on the role. The military will be paying their salary during this time, and you can see how the individual would fit in with the company. You would be able to assess their skills and ability for your company. At the end of the work placement, you can then make an informed decision which may calm some fears on hiring. However, I would stress that this also depends on the individual’s unit being able to release him for a period of time to carry this out, and not all units are allowing this at this time.
So here are three very basic value additions that can help a company look to potentially recruit someone who is in the process of leaving the forces. This can add value in the longer term for the hiring company.
Should you have any questions or queries, please feel free to reach out to me or my team at Ex-Mil Recruitment Ltd.
