Bring in the boss

Graham Boyd, Boyd Express International, fires blank rounds with a minimi.

LCpl Adam Taylor waits for approaching participants in the TESS sneaker lane set up for Exercise Boss Lift. Photos by Pte John Wellfare, Army newspaper

Pte John Wellfare heads to Malaysia as the Army reserve’s most ambitious program for bringing civilian employers on side rolls into action for its third year.

Seventeen Australian bosses, flown to Malaysia to see their employees in action on full time service with the reserves. Sounds like a rort? According to the policy makers, it’s the most successful employer relation and reserve retention program ever.

In the past, most employers and supervisors of reservists had first, or at least second hand experience with the military and were therefore generally supportive of reserve service. Those days are gone and now very few have any real understanding of what it means to be in the reserve. Exercise Boss Lift gives selected employers the chance to see first hand exactly what their employees do during their time away from work.

The 17 employers who visited RCB 68 in late-November had come from all walks of life and had all sorts of reasons for being there. A free trip to Malaysia certainly had been a draw card, but the total of 18 hours flying economy class to get there and back ensured attendance only by those with a strong interest in understanding why their employees disappear for days, weeks and occasionally months at a time.

Some people would say that sending the employers who’ve already given their people leave for the three-month RCB tour is preaching to the converted, but Head of Reserve Policy Maj-Gen Neil Wilson, who accompanied the employers on their trip, thinks otherwise.

“To a certain extent it is preaching to the converted, but I’d have to say we’ve had at least one convert on this trip who came with some reluctance and he’s now very much on side,” Maj-Gen Wilson says.

“Even though they may well be supportive, they are members of organisations like the Chamber of Commerce and they therefore have a much broader exposure to the business community.”

So what do a group of civilian bosses and their reserve employees do for three days in Malaysia? The highlight of the program was a day in the field for what one might call an interactive demonstration of Army training.

The civilian employers watched a demonstration section attack, had the chance to handle and fire some of the weapons (loaded with blanks) and could even take part in a TESS sneaker lane with their reserve employees backing them up.

While there’s nothing too physically demanding about Ex Boss Lift, a lot of thought has gone into making the most of the three days. Even a day of local leave has a practical purpose.

“Deliberately staging the tour of Penang immediately after the field experience is an opportunity for employers and reserves to talk about what they have seen,” Maj-Gen Wilson explains. “Perhaps to extrapolate on some of the things that the reserves are going to do later in the tour as well.”

And that’s what Ex Boss Lift is all about. If employers understand exactly what their people get up to in the reserves, they’re likely to be more accepting of it. According to Maj-Gen Wilson, bringing the bosses into the action is the only way to really give them that understanding.

“I gave up many years ago explaining to my work colleagues what I did on my weekends and why I was looking a little tired on Monday mornings.

“It isn’t until you come out and actually share an activity that you understand the difficulty of the task and the physical activity involved in the whole process.”

But what the head of reserve policy says about Ex Boss Lift, Maj-Gen Wilson agrees, is nowhere near as important as what the employers themselves think. While every boss who accepted the invitation to Malaysia was already basically supportive of the reserves and familiar with losing an employee to military training from time to time, most, if not all of them, were also quite surprised by what they saw during Ex Boss Lift.

Supportive of reserves or otherwise, what goes through a boss’s mind when one of his people approaches with an application to take three months off work to deploy overseas with the Army?

Meat exporter Robert Ryan, who deployed on Ex Boss Lift at the behest of Pte Tim Moore, says an organisation quickly gets to know its reserve employees and the special considerations they might need.

“It’s not really unusual when you know Tim and you know how Tim likes the Army life,” he says with a hint of pride in his voice. “He’s a bloke who’s dedicated to that more than most other things.”

“Our boss, the owner of the company, always talks about how we’re an Australian-owned company and we’re from the country.”

That Australian spirit helps reserves like Pte Moore get the time they need.

For Ian Clark, CEO of St John Ambulance Victoria, the benefits of having employees trained by the military far outweigh the loss of a staff member for extended periods.

“Ambulance-based organisations require everything from logistics and planning, communications, the actual skill of first aid itself,” he says of the crossovers between St John’s first aid instructor Sig Erin Lehane’s civilian and military careers.

“Some of the skills Erin picks up in communications – we’ve been talking about how much she’s learnt – there’s a hell of a lot we can do.

“Erin was talking about setting up communications in a fire. We’re part of the state’s emergency service, so if there is any issue where we need mobile communications, or having to set up comms in a difficult area, in all honesty, Erin can tell us what we might need.

“That might mean people’s safety, so that’s a great skill, it’s a tangible skill that’s brought back into the organisation.”

The final outcome for Ex Boss Lift 2004 is a group of 17 employers from Victoria who have now had their positive attitude to the reserves reinforced by first hand, albeit limited, experience of reserves in the field. It’s expected that the positive experience will be well remembered when a reserve next asks for leave to deploy on another exercise, or when discussing the benefits of reserve service with other employers.