A brand new initiative.
Recently we decided it might be nice for you to know the stories behind the names on our county committee and we are now working to persuade the members to introduce themselves. We will add more stories as they come in but first up is our new County Recruitment Officer, Kevin Swift. Heres Kev's story.
I would like to introduce myself as the new County Recruitment Officer (CRO) for Wiltshire RBL. Following a 35-year career in the RAF I retired in Feb 22. I was a member of the RBL (as part of the military community) but I have volunteered my time during the Poppy Appeal for over 15 years now. I joined the Chippenham Branch in Oct 22 becoming; the Branch Webmaster, Branch Secretary, Deputy Branch Community Support and recently undertook the Standard Bearers (SB) course and now one of the Deputy SBs for the Branch. I am a paramedic and under this registration I work in schools in Bristol, North Sommerset and South Gloucester (BNSSG) becoming the clinical lead for a team of about 70 admin and nursing staff. I live in Chippenham; I am married to Sam with one daughter and two Labradors.
My Terms of Reference, for the CRO role, can be found on page 83 of the Membership Handbook. However, in brief, I am the main point of contact for advice on and the delivery of Recruitment and Retention campaigns at the County level. I already sit on the County Committee but I will now provide advice on the recruiting structure, planned recruiting activities and the results of such activities.
I have attended the most recent CRO course and I am waiting for some information, which was gathered on the day, with regards to best practice throughout the Counties in the UK. Once I have this then I plan to go out to Branches and ask the chairs to identify those from within Branches (willing volunteers) who would like to join the County Recruitment Team and become Recruiting Advisors (RAs). Yes, I was not aware of RAs until I attended the course. more details to follow.
Recruitment is in the title but it is important that we improve the induction, communication and retention practices throughout the County. I know there is plenty of good work going on in this area, at Branch level, and we need to collate this for Wiltshire RBLs benefit. If we have a good team of RAs with support from all members then we shouldn't find recruiting and retention such a difficult task. Really looking forward to working with you all.
Any questions or please let me know if you would like to be a RA or you already are one then please contact me via wiltshire.CRO@rbl.community
Kind regards,
Kev
