British Army's Recruiting Adverts...

[Dawes]

UK folks, what say you - effective and relevant or not?

 

 

[Adam_S]

Funny how the British army's recruitment has dropped off at the same time as it decided to pay Capita more than the cost of a Type 45 destroyer to take over recruitment.

 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/18/capita_army_recruiting_it_contract_could_terminated/

[Stuart Galbraith]

Its proven a disaster. As one MP described it, the Army is evaporating before our Eyes. I THINK they have grasped the problem and have been talking about getting it back in house. But damage has been done.

 

You should have a search on ARRSE to see their thoughts about the new politically correct adverts, where they are all touchy feely of each other, and praying to Mecca. Not surprisingly they dont seem to have hit the mark.

 

On the positive side, the RAF and RN recruitment has been kept in house, and its reportedly on track. So its not all bad.

[Stuart Galbraith]

[Sardaukar]

This is better:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8JPj8RjZRE

[Sardaukar]

Or even better oldie:

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

I like that old advert the Royal Marines had where the guy just appears out of a treeline and abducts the drug dealer. . Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be online anywhere for some reason.

 

The top and bottom of it, modern adverts are made by people that havent served, so they have absolutely no idea what would appear to a young person about serving. They did far better leaving it to the people who did it for a living, and asking how they would approach it.

[Nobu]

I like the campaign and believe it will work. It challenges perceptions and dares British youth to stand up. I think they will.

[Anixtu]

Its proven a disaster.

The "Belonging" campaign is supposedly working very well at reaching the target audience and generating interest and applications. Whether the target audience represents good soldier material is a different question. Those serving who deride the campaign tend to miss the point. It isn't aimed at them, or even at their 18 year old selves.

 

Broadly, the campaign is achieving its intent.

 

That doesn't necessarily translate immediately and directly into a fully manned Army, but there are other problems with Crapita and the recruitment pipeline.

[Adam_S]

There's nothing wrong with the adverts - they're getting plenty of applicants. The problem is that only about 5% are managing to make it through the labyrinthine mess that is Crapita's recruitment process.

[Sardaukar]

I like that old advert the Royal Marines had where the guy just appears out of a treeline and abducts the drug dealer. . Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be online anywhere for some reason.

 

The top and bottom of it, modern adverts are made by people that havent served, so they have absolutely no idea what would appear to a young person about serving. They did far better leaving it to the people who did it for a living, and asking how they would approach it.

 

You mean this?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICSosUT7djA

Edited January 6, 2019 by Sardaukar

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Its proven a disaster.

The "Belonging" campaign is supposedly working very well at reaching the target audience and generating interest and applications. Whether the target audience represents good soldier material is a different question. Those serving who deride the campaign tend to miss the point. It isn't aimed at them, or even at their 18 year old selves.

 

Broadly, the campaign is achieving its intent.

 

That doesn't necessarily translate immediately and directly into a fully manned Army, but there are other problems with Crapita and the recruitment pipeline.

 

 

Which is a fair point. Most of the derision ive read of it was on ARRSE, but of course those guys are in their 30's and 40's now. I imagine most of the WW2 generation were fairly deprecatory over Army recruitment efforts in the 1960's.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

I like that old advert the Royal Marines had where the guy just appears out of a treeline and abducts the drug dealer. . Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be online anywhere for some reason.

 

The top and bottom of it, modern adverts are made by people that havent served, so they have absolutely no idea what would appear to a young person about serving. They did far better leaving it to the people who did it for a living, and asking how they would approach it.

 

You mean this?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICSosUT7djA

 

 

Its similar. The one I saw was a guard, apparently from a drug lords palace, has a nightmare of being attacked by unseen creatures that emerge from the forest and the sea. He wakes up, figures it was just a nightmare, then a Commando opens his eyes and appears behind him and drags him into the woods. It was actually pretty well done.

[klahtinen]

This one?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuk5bWa-C8w

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yeah, that was it. I rather liked that one.

[DB]

Crapita seems to use the standard recruiting drone technique of binning all applications that do not tick every box perfectly, and then binning any of the remainder that might have the slightest negative hint.

 

Accounts of people being binned for minor legal infractions as minors, for example.

[Dark_Falcon]

Crapita seems to use the standard recruiting drone technique of binning all applications that do not tick every box perfectly, and then binning any of the remainder that might have the slightest negative hint.

 

Accounts of people being binned for minor legal infractions as minors, for example.

 

They don't want to be accused of letting "bad apples" through. As normal, this sort of 'zero defects' tactic doesn't really work as a personnel policy, but its real purpose is to protect the backsides of the people implementing it.

[Anixtu]

Crapita seems to use the standard recruiting drone technique of binning all applications that do not tick every box perfectly, and then binning any of the remainder that might have the slightest negative hint.

 

Accounts of people being binned for minor legal infractions as minors, for example.

The Army sets the recruitment policies, not Crapita. Note the recent change on readmitting those previously discharged for drug use (Although in that case SoS changed the Army's policy for them).

[DB]

Anixtu - I think the point is that if the recruiting was in house, the criteria would be guidance, not rules. Dark Falcon's point seems valid to me.

[Stuart Galbraith]

This is changing isnt it? Im sure I read somewhere they were going to show more willingness to accept useful infractions, something Capita wasnt willing to do for whatever reason.

[Anixtu]

Anixtu - I think the point is that if the recruiting was in house, the criteria would be guidance, not rules. Dark Falcon's point seems valid to me.

I don't think changing who implements the rules in the application process (and they would be rules) would make a huge difference. Where a candidate has exceptional qualities that make a waiver to the rules desirable there is currently scope for such waivers, for a variety of reasons. I'm not deeply involved in that area, but I guess it would be service operated AFCOs leading on requesting waivers, and I know it is Directorate of Manning (Army) (i.e. the owner of Army personnel and recruitment policies) deciding on waivers.

[DB]

If you want a recruiting campaign, this should do more for you than anything else I can think of.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6604735/Special-Forces-veteran-reveals-SAS-hero-simply-following-three-deadly-principles.html

 

It's been a while since they had a public outing, and of course there are downsides, but it's always good to remind the Bad Guys that we have something special out there when it's needed.