Atkins' UK & Europe CEO Nick Roberts explains the value of Armed Forces employees to the company.As an engineering consultancy, our people are our greatest asset, enabling us to take on some of the world’s most technically challenging and time critical projects.
Amongst our people we have a growing number of Armed Forces Reservists, ordinary people who give up their time to train and serve alongside the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force or Royal Marines.
Being an Armed Forces Reservist demands high levels of commitment from our people, and so to recognise and complement this, Atkins signed the Military Corporate Covenant in 2014.
Demonstrating our commitment
The Corporate Covenant is a pledge of support for our people who choose to be Reservists, and commits us to sustain and enhance the ways in which that support is demonstrated.
Our pledge is on the public website which publicises the Corporate Covenant of every organisation that has one. It details what Atkins commits to do in terms of:
- Promoting that we are supportive of Reservist employees
- Supporting our employees who choose to be part of the Reserve Forces
- Supporting Service spouses and partners
- Supporting our local cadet units.
As well as signing the Corporate Covenant, we also continue to support military initiatives such as Uniform to Work day, MOD events promoting the benefits of employing Reservists and Armed Forces charitable activity.
Being recognised as an Armed Forces friendly organisationWe were recognised for our commitment to the Armed Forces community with one of the Ministry of Defence’s first Silver Employer Recognition Scheme awards.
The Defence Employer Recognition Scheme awards were launched in 2014 and include Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers. The Silver awards, which were presented for the first time in late autumn 2014, recognise employers who demonstrate support to the Armed Forces community.
We received our Silver for a number of reasons including the guidelines and policies we have in place for our Reservist staff, our support and promotion of Reservist initiatives and charitable activity, and our signing of the Corporate Covenant.
This accolade also brings us one step closer to achieving a Gold award which, as the highest level of recognition, is reserved for companies that are considered advocates for the Armed Forces community.