Recruiters seeking new sources of talent should tap into the often overlooked pool of candidates who spend their non-work time with the Reserve Forces, new research says.

Reservists’ leadership and communication skills are likely to make them attractive to employers who often have trouble finding those skills in blue-collar candidates.

Experts from Liverpool John Moores University, Bradford University and Leeds Metropolitan University assessed the training and experience gained by employees who belong to the Reserve Forces.

They concluded that it could help UK businesses to tackle critical management weaknesses.

The report was commissioned by SaBRE (Supporting Britain’s Reservists and Employers), a Ministry of Defence campaign which aims to build support for members of the Volunteer Reserve Forces from their employers.

It identifies the top five key weaknesses in business and organisation management as organisational structure, communication, process, leadership and culture.

The report also found that reservists are given high levels of responsibility from the earliest stages

of their military careers, and that much of the training received by reservists would cost employers thousands of pounds to purchase from civilian education providers.

“I’ve always found reservists to be highly skilled and clear-headed and you can rely on them to do a good job,” said Ray Pugh, director at industrial and manufacturing recruiter Omega Workforce.

“The amount of training that individuals in the services go through leads to a high level of self-discipline and strong working processes which are transferable to corporate situations.

“On a financial level it is also advantageous, as employees who are members of the TA or similar have a substantial amount of valuable and expensive training provided throughout the year.”

Emma Guyton, co-founder of driving recruiter ADR Resources, believes that reservists’ training and skills are extremely relevant and generally in short supply.

“I am certain that both ADR and its clients would be accommodating when they were required for training or indeed if they were called upon for duty,” she said.

A summary of the report is available from www.sabre.mod.uk