Serving Personnel


“I’ve never felt so undervalued in the 28 years I’ve served. The general erosion of pay pension and allowances has reached a tipping point.”


“7 years of pay restraint and yet it’s taking till September 2018 to publish any details. Parliament managed to sort out their own pay offer quickly enough. Not the way to making military personnel feel valued!”


“I enjoy my job but a lot of quality people leave due to the lack of parity in pay and qualifications with our civilian counterparts.”


Appraisals and Promotion


Dissatisfaction with the current appraisal system was a theme expressed by more junior personnel throughout our seminars, workshops and survey this year. Of particular concern was that many believed that a number of their reporting officers were not adequately trained or experienced enough to write meaningful reports. There was a distinct level of scepticism in the equitability and fairness of the promotion selection system and the use of promotion boards. For some the appraisal system was seen as unfair (and centred too heavily on extra-curricular activities) and a number of alternatives were suggested including interviews, exams or a mix of all. The majority seemed to agree that every system had its flaws, but more needs to be done to ensure that those with a responsibility for report writing were mandated to undertake training.


“I feel that the current appraisal system is outdated and needs a full restructure. The fact that someone who has never met you has a matter of minutes to read a report that may or may not have been written in the style that they want does not seem fair.”


“I also feel the appraisal system is outdated, if we want promotion, we should have to apply, qualify and interview for it. There are too many weak NCO/Officer cadre writing poor reports.”


Life in a Joint Environment


RAF personnel operating in the joint environment painted a stark picture of their own experiences. A lack of recognition of their skills, abilities and rank featured heavily - in an audience who described an Army dominated atmosphere and environment. There was also anecdotal evidence describing the zeroing of leave balances and a lack of recognition of ‘RAF identity’.


“Although I feel valued by the RAF I do think that when working in a joint environment the same value is not shown by the other services.”


“I have worked for JFC for two tours and four years, it’s like I’m dead to the RAF”


“I work on an Army garrison. I visited a local RAF unit for support and was informed I’m not part of their establishment.”


raf-ff.org.uk


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Image: The Red Arrows flying over southern Jordan. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.


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