Negotiating civilian and military lives: Reserves, family and work

The British Armed Forces are currently undergoing unprecedented changes that will require full-time (Regular) and part-time (Reserve) military personnel to work together in new ways. These changes will affect the Army in particular, and will include a large-scale redundancy programme for Regular soldiers and increased recruitment of and reliance on Reserves. The flexibility and integration required to meet Defence priorities will need to be mirrored in how Reserves, their families and relationships, and their civilian employment, successfully mesh and become mutually supportive. Little research has been done in the United Kingdom (UK) regarding the demands part-time military service places on families, employers and co-workers. These demands are known to affect health outcomes for Reservists in ways different to those placed on Regulars. Less is known regarding their impact on Reservist's (civilian) employment, career progression, families and relationships. Our small-scale development study found that Reserves are often operating on the margins of their civilian working world, their military engagement and their family life, but there is a need to better understand these demands and how they intersect, and to extend the focus across different types of Reserves, for example including those who have previously served as Regulars. As a counterpoint to demands, findings from MoD consultations suggest that support from families and from civilian employers is crucial in encouraging Reserves and retaining them in military service. However, the detailed nature of such supports, and how they may intersect with demands, is unknown.

We therefore aim to address these gaps in knowledge through a multi-methods study of the experiences of mainly Army Reserves, their families, their civilian employers and work colleagues to better understand how part-time military service impacts upon families and relationships and gain insight into how Reserves can be best supported to enrich and inform policy and practice. The research will be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in family sociology, psychology, employment and military studies and comprises three linked work packages (WPs). In WP1 we will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 serving Reserves (representing a range of ranks and including men and women of different ages, ethnic origin and type of military employment) at two points over the duration of the project (30 months). This longitudinal element will allow us to examine the Reservist's lived experience of negotiating their different worlds and how these may change over time. In this WP will also interview two family members for each Reserve as well as their civilian employer or a work colleague, generating a total of 120 interviews from 80 interviewees. WP2 will utilise on-line digital survey methods to explore further the themes emerging from our qualitative data. The survey will be focused on Reserves and their families and will allow us to investigate aspects of e.g. support, such as the nature and quality of relationships, in more detail and amongst a much wider sample. WP3 will ensure synthesis and wider dissemination of the research. We will conduct three focus groups with a range of stakeholders (MoD, policy-makers) and will involve other users, including internationally (e.g. US and Canadian Departments of Defence) via a combination of face-face and on-line methods throughout the project. On-going user involvement will maximise the practical and policy relevance of our findings. The results will be disseminated via academic conference presentations and journal outputs alongside advice and information in accessible formats for a variety of audiences including policy briefings with the MoD, and practitioner seminars.

This work will impact on four distinct groups of users.

1. UK Military Stakeholders Group. The exact make-up of this group will be established in association with the main MOD beneficiaries of this work, but it is envisaged that it will include those from: Army Personnel Capability, FR20 Programme Board, Director General Army Reform and Army Reserves, SABRE, Army Families Federation and Defence Career Partnership members. The work will have a direct impact on the policy and practice related to reservists through being informed by our research into how Reservists negotiate their social and structural sources of support. Given the importance of this support for readiness and future retention then this work could provide very important insights for Defence in understanding the complex lives of reservists. Insight will also be gained into the motivations and understanding of ex-regular reservists so policies can be fine tuned for successful recruitment of ex-regulars into the Reserves. Appropriate policies and practices to provide support to the reservist, their family and employer could then be more efficiently targeted.

2. Veteran Charities and Associated Interest Groups. Our proposed work can also inform work on those making the transition from full time service into civilian society through examining those ex-regulars in the reserves. For example, the recent work of Walker (2012) highlights the difficulty that many UK soldiers have when leaving the Regular Army and demonstrates how erroneous perceptions of civilian life derive from the experience of being embedded in a strong military culture. Our work will show how ongoing reserve service may have an impact on this ability to make a smooth transition to civil life. While it might be expected this service would be positive, previous research has shown that weak civil social networks can be a risk factor for ex-regular veterans and that those that maintained strong military social networks were more at risk of social exclusion and mental health issues (Hatch et al, 2013). However, these military social networks were very likely with the regular army and the reserves may provide a different kind of mixed social network.

3. Reserve Personnel, Families and Employers. A better understanding of the life of reservists will feed into policy through the stakeholders above. This will provide a positive benefit to reservists and give them active support and also personal awareness of how they can juggle the demands of military, family and civil employer. This kind of understanding leads to more satisfied and better retained employees. Reserve families, it has been acknowledged, do not receive the attention they deserve. By putting the focus on the reservist in their whole environment then the demands on the family of reserve service can be better understood. This also serves to focus policy and support measures for this important factor in Reservist retention. Many claims are often made about the views of employers and the Reserves. This study will help provide that insight with policy implications for Defence and SABRE in particular but also more widely for UK business and their Human Resources policies. Reservists, families and employers are also stakeholders and users and will be a key audience in our pathways to impact.

4. Wider UK and International Military Personnel. Many countries are ever more reliant on Reserve Forces. This study will generate international interest. Our previous work has already demonstrated this (as seen in our Project Advisory Group) and with the growth of our international network then impact will grow over the course of the project. Data on how reserves juggle the demands of life will be important to those countries who are actively planning Reservist family and employer support programmes such as the US, Canada and Australia and who were keen to be involved in our Project Advisory Group.