REME Soldier Wing Update

What has been happening in REME Soldier Wing?

REME Soldier Wing Update

Scribe: WO1 (ASM) Reed – REME Soldier Wing WO

Alot has changed since the last REME Soldier Wing (RSW) Update in July 2019 – career management has been on a steady path of continuous improvement. We have posts and the opportunity for numerous preferences to be submitted. Consequently, an improvement in the quality of PPPs has been witnessed, with more realistic aspirations been looking both in and out at how the process can be made more efficient, freeing up the career managers to spend more time actively delivering career management to REME Soldiers. A concerted effort has been made to improve how REME Soldier Wing communicates. The introduction of the REME Career Management Facebook Group has been central to this and the take up has been impressive. With over 3300 serving REME now subscribed, information is hitting exactly where it is needed instantly. It is an exclusive group with membership constantly monitored to ensure that everyone in the group is still a current serving member of the Corps; those that have left are removed.

The publication of the Job List for all ranks and the reinvigoration of the Posting Preference Proforma (PPPs) in a new PDF format provides improved visibility of available being submitted based on what is available. Equally, five vlogs on how an Assignment Board works, how to complete a PPP, the FCR process and how the Promotion and Employability Boards work have now been published. A Field Force Representative (FFR) now attends each Assignment Board in direct support of the career manager. Current military input is now injected into all Assignment Boards by the FFR, as well as adding military judgement –they are being used to clarify any PPPs that don’t make sense to the board, or to discuss other options if all preferences have already been taken. So, don’t be surprised if the FFR gives you a call during an Assignment Board! RSW also deliver mock Promotion / Assignment Boards to units that have requested training. These have been designed

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to demonstrate how a board is conducted, who attends, the code of conduct that is adhered to or how it is assured. This training can be delivered remotely, or units can organise a visit to APC (post-COVID-19) via the RSW WO.

So, as you can see, RSW was evolving for the better in several areas. Then COVID-19 happened.

This global pandemic threatened to bring career management to a grinding halt. Those who have been to APC know how tight and busy the floor is and almost immediately, Kentigern House shut its doors with everyone sent home. With very limited IT at the start of the pandemic (one laptop between the whole of RSW), Dougie Devlin became the SPOC for all REME matters on the laptop and the SO1 managing all emails on the work Blackberry.

To keep things interesting the SO1 wanted the boards to continue as planned if possible, so a new digital way of boarding needed to be quickly devised. After only four weeks, laptops had been sourced and 90% of REME Soldier Wing staff were back online again.

The Career Management Portal is now being used to run all Promotion Boards and, having been used for the recent LCpl to Cpl Board, is excellent. There is no longer a requirement to use paper copies of SJARs and all future Promotion Boards will be done electronically using the CM Portal. Again, this is a great move forward and frees up valuable time to allow the career managers to proactively get involved in their primary role of managing careers.

COVID-19 has forced APC to move forward in time; initiatives that would have taken years have now been introduced within a few months. In REME Soldier Wing there are several continuous improvement initiatives taking place, where digitisation features heavily. These include the use of Power Automation to streamline workflows and the use of Power BI to graphically display the assignment opportunities that are available. Moreover, paper P-Files are soon to be nomore as APC seek to find a digital solution to store these files in the future.

JPA accuracy is becoming increasingly more important –data cleansing continues at pace as JPA remains the single source of truth and becomes increasingly more important in the digital era. The CoC has a part to play and it remains vital that the CoC continue to update JPA regularly, especially since the filter requirements are now being applied using the Career Management Portal. Making sure all educational qualifications and class are recorded correctly is even more important. Equally, the data cleansing work sets the conditions for the arrival of the new My Career app. The My Career app will be a game changer as it begins to offer our Officers and Soldiers the ability to directly engage in the management of their own careers from their own personal electronic devices – more to follow.

Programme Castle is gathering momentum too. Brigadier Cook and his team are looking into different areas of innovation in Career Management across the Army (lots of information on Twitter and Defence Connect). The Assignment Exchange survey was recently published across the Army, gathering data to see if Soldiers would like to see a job swap policy. How that will be managed exactly will fall out from the feedback that you provided.

REME Soldier Wing says hello to Maj Kelly Keen who has arrived from the BEME role in 2 Brigade, WO1 Paul Reed from the RCMWO role at 8 Trg Bn REME and the new Section Head for B Section, Mr Bhupinder Johal, who joins us from DIO. Also, we say goodbye to Mrs Lorraine Wylie, Mr Dougie Devlin, Capt Kenny, Chalmers and Maj Hollinger. We wish them the best of luck in their new roles and would like to say thank you for all the hard work they have done over the last few years.

The REME Soldier Wing's Career Management Top Tips:

All SP are encouraged to try and find the answer by looking at Corps Instruction E5/E6, JSP 757 or the ALDP homepage first then ask the CoC or RCMO to address their Career Management questions. If you would like some advice directly from your Career Manager then please get in touch using the email address APC-MSSldrsCSS-REMEMailbox@mod.gov.uk

Join us on Defence Connect under ‘REME Career Management’. • Please encourage everyone, especially Craftsmen and JNCOs, to join. • You will benefit from the latest updates including topics like Board feedback, trawls, and short notice postings. Alternatively, join the REME Career Management Facebook page. After six months in post, WO1 (ASM) Reed offers the following top tips: • There is no such thing as a bad decision, just good decisions based on bad information – make sure you get involved in your careers, take an interest, ask questions and look further ahead than just the next rank. • Understand your career stream and know what you want to do/get out of your chosen career – make sure you have joined REME

Career Management on Defence Connect or Facebook. The vlogs are a must watch! • APC are here to help when they can, but sometimes the needs of the Service must come first – you are in the British Army after all! • For promotion potential, understand the responsibilities and traits of the next rank up and what a Promotion Board looks for in our leaders – engage with your 1RO to seek suitable objectives / challenges to help develop for that recommendation. • Selection for Artificer is competitive – just because you have passed a PAB doesn’t mean you will be selected for Artificer training by the ACSLB. You have to work hard at it. • If you are doing something good, does your CoC know about it? How will your 1RO and 2RO be able write about it if they don’t? • Take an interest in what the rest of the Army is doing, what Regiments are deploying to or where – this will shape posting preferences for those seeking opportunities on operations or major exercises. Information is obtainable through a quick

Skype or search on SharePoint.