The head of the Army has urged companies to hire more reservists. General Sir Peter Wall, the chief of the General Staff, told The Daily Telegraph: “Having people who are getting a wide range of training will undoubtedly help to augment their role in the workforce… We need to have a more proactive relationship between the reservist, the Army and the employer. We need to have the employers onside.”

Sir Peter’s comments come as the Army embarks on a major restructuring that will see the UK’s reserve force, the Territorial Army (TA), grow to 30,000 by 2018, while regular Army numbers are cut from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020.

This could put further strain on employers, who are often reluctant to employ reservists. As a spokesperson for the Forum of Private Business tells Recruiter: “While employing reservist staff may have some benefits, most small businesses would be loathe to see employees vanishing for months at a time, whatever the reason.

“In the current climate with many firms operating reduced staff numbers, few would want to lose a valuable team member with little notice, and government would really have to look at a generous compensation package to change minds here.”

Speaking to Recruiter for the cover feature of the April edition of the magazine, Brigadier Andrew Jackson, director of recruiting and training (operations) for the British Army, said that perceptions of the TA needed to change. “Some people have an old-fashioned view of what it is and what it does. Another proportion doesn’t even know that that reservists get paid, and the understanding is low.”

And in the same interview with Recruiter last month, Shaun King, managing director of the Recruitment Partnering Project (RPP) within Capita, which last year won a £440m 10-year contract to recruit for the Army, told Recruiter that being a reservist and working in industry were often complimentary. 

He said those working in cyber security and logistics, for example, were naturally fitted to using their skills both in industry and in the TA.  

Jackson told Recruiter that the situation would become clearer once the government publishes a White Paper later this year, which will seek to formalise the relationship between employers and reservists. He said the White Paper would reflect the views of employers submitted during the consultation process.

However, he added, there was already regular dialogue between the Army and employers, and that it already worked with closely with companies such as BT.

• For more on what Jackson and King had to say about how the Army and Capita are modernising Army recruitment, see this month's issue of Recruiter.