New Approach to Practice
Therefore, this study shows there are four steps that businesses in this space should follow to properly support separating members of the police, military and emergency services:
Recovery
Skills recognition
Learning
Redeployment.
Recovery as the first step is to understand that mental and physical health issues are not the only barrier to successful transition, they are but one of the barriers. This means appropriate medical treatment for all ailments should be sourced and applied as a first step. Mental health issues need to be resolved or stabilised as much as possible before any further transition steps are taken. Services are offered by registered psychologists with expertise in mental health issues related to trauma and these should be accessed. Medical practitioners can refer patients to psychologists with treatment plans that allow them to access psychological care under Medicare. Numerous not-for-profit and charity organisations are offering psychological services for the military, with an additional small number starting to offer services for former personnel from police and emergency services. It is recommended that any business seeking to offer support to transitioning members from the three service groups either engage psychological services, or work with existing organisations to offer this support. The mental and physical health of the participants was not directly addressed in questioning the participants but became apparent through the recalling of their stories. Therefore, the presence of these issues cannot be ignored and must be addressed in any practice application for their transition support.
Skills recognition as the second step is to ensure a recognition process to make sure that the individuals’ skills and knowledge gained in their service roles are measured and, where possible, converted to the currency of the civilian world. The participants’ descriptions that they could not effectively relate to the employers in the civilian world and that their skills were not recognised by these same employers arise from two behaviours. The first behaviour is the continued us and them mentality that sets the participants apart, in their minds, from the civilian world. When they start to search for employment in what they perceive to be the civilian world, they fail to understand that they are civilians and that their position is secured in the community by them acting, relating and behaving like civilians. They need to be educated in the process of re-identifying as civilians, understanding that they always have been civilians, and be taught to communicate in an appropriate manner and with language that is common to the civilian labour market.
The second behaviour is the assumption by the participants that presenting at a civilian job interview with police, military or emergency services experience as their ‘go-to’ reference will secure them the position. Contrary to participant beliefs, civilian employers are not versed in the roles of service personnel nor do they ordinarily know what skills and knowledge they have acquired. Like any recruitment process in the labour market, the individual applicant needs to present to a potential employer with experience and skills that are relevant to the job they are applying for and will present them as the best candidate. Applicants in the civilian world do not assume that the employer is aware of their experience or existing skills and knowledge; instead, they inform them of this through the application and interview process. Former service members need to do the same. The need for this arises from the extensive training that these services offer to prepare their personnel to undertake their service roles, which is recorded in a manner that is not easily understood by civilian employers. This widens the gap between the participants and the civilian world and further facilitates the us and them mentality. The participants have access to their service records before leaving, which are lengthy and hard to decipher.
This leads to step three, learning. An important development as a result of this research is a focus on not only the recognition of existing skills but the availability of training programs that encourage adaptation to learning in the civilian environment and instil confidence in the former service worker of 1. their ability to adapt and learn outside the service organisation, and 2. their ability to grow and develop outside the group collective that is strongly apparent in the service organisations. Encouraging learning amongst these individuals will help them shed their previous titles and start the process of disconnecting their identity by providing them with new tools and skills to redefine themselves in the workplace. It will help the former service workers to understand how they are perceived by the civilian world and the adaptations they can make to be confident operating in the new environment. In turn, new employers will have greater confidence in the individual worker and more easily recognise not just their newly learnt skills but also the full picture of their abilities when new skills are combined with existing skills.
Step four is redeployment and this is the point at which former members should have the opportunity to be employed in the post-service environment, without risk of underemployment. There are some mistakes being made in the treatment of former service personnel as many community groups and organisations attempt to weigh in on the subject. One mistake is developing and implementing new recruitment processes specifically for service personnel on the basis that existing recruitment processes do not properly appreciate nor demonstrate the existing skills of these individuals. This further isolates the individuals from the civilian world, perpetuates the us and them the mentality and fails to identify the need for the re-creation of the individual through the development of a civilian body and mentality. The recruitment industry in Australia and internationally invests extensively annually in the movement of people. To ignore a proven system and suggest that former service personnel need a different process will prolong the ‘between-ness’ experienced by these individuals.
Another mistake is suggesting that all service personnel from the police, military and emergency services transition into positions that have no continuity of employment. Processes need to be developed to help these members transition effectively even when continuity of employment is sustained. Of the 32 participants, 25 had continuity of employment. It is likely that opportunity for gainful employment would have been reduced if they did not pursue continuity of employment. However, if this continuity stalls their transition process then the issues need further exploration. This suggests that the use of the term transition is another mistake. The term transition needs to remain where it is currently used in the military as an administrative label for those preparing to separate and must not be used in the post-service environment, nor should it be applied to police and emergency services. Continuity of employment needs to be identified as a natural option for these individuals in order to continue to utilise their existing skills and knowledge. Any interruption to continuity should be of their own choosing and only when it is in their best interests to pursue a new field of employment. Instead, practices should be implemented to assist these individuals with the issues that arise when they maintain continuity.
The findings from this study can inform the development of new business processes that should focus on career change support for former police, military and emergency services in Australia. Any new business practices to support career change for these personnel can now be equipped with four key pieces of knowledge informing the business development and design and to support the implementation of the four steps listed above. The first is that support for individuals separating from the police, military and emergency services is warranted and that their needs are different to those of others separating from employment in the labour market. The second is that mental health issues must be addressed and resolved or stabilised as much as possible before the individual navigates through the career change process. The third is that the use of the term transition is not helpful in the post-service environment and should be discouraged from use as it perpetuates the us and them mentality. Lastly, the fourth is that poor job satisfaction for former police military and emergency services in the post-service environment is the result of a labyrinth of factors that need to be addressed and unfurled in order to support career change. The most important factor amongst all this is that the individuals are educated on why they are experiencing the feeling of loss post-service and given techniques to help them adapt to the change.