Following on from the Comandants Briefing, what are the rumours circulating about cuts to the RAFAC?
WEXOS are civil servants. The MOD has a no compulsory Redundancy policy. It is entirely possible WEXO post who have left are not being filled currently but that’s not due to rafac specific budget cuts as announced by commandant but is an effect of the MOD wide Hiring freeze for Civil servants which is currently ongoing. Those posts will remain to be filled when the hiring freeze ends (although that’s not expected before 2025)
This is one I have not heard before
So what will be the motivation to take extra responsibility in the Corps.
Depending on what Wing you are in you might not get it even if you do take on the responsibility. My old Wing kept all WSO’s except the Sector Commanders and after a long time the Training Officer as Flt Lt.
Finding this more akd more as a structure decision rather than a cost one. Surely easier to let people have it acting unpaid like they do for some Flt Lt’s.
Just because they can’t be made redundant easily doesn’t mean their roles cant fundamentally change. From my view it looks like across the corps there seems to be a movement towards scrapping the small Wing Perm Staffs and taking the LASER route of regional perm staff teams that encompass the roles of WHQ perm staff for the whole region. One former WExO in charge of finance/approvals, one in charge of Pers Management etc.
I honestly don’t think the role of WExO as we currently know it will be around in a couple years time
Most Sqn Ldrs don’t hold the same level of responsibility as Sqn Cdrs in my opinion.
Fair point, hadn’t thought of it that way I guess it would be relatively (this is the MOD) easy to change responsibilities of individuals if all their doing in specialising in one of the areas they already work in but have them cover a wider area ie a Region. Would a LASER system work in the more geographically separated areas LASER is a lot more compact than Wales and West for example
That will vary depending on the position and the Wing as there are Wings where the Wing team are very active and push activities out on a frequent basis. Other Wings are very happy sitting back doing very little to naff all!
If your in an active Wing and have a very active Wing Shooting Officer, then I would say that this position holds a considerable amount of risk and pressure which many OCs wouldnt face.
For most elements I’d imagine so. Especially with pers management, arranging virtual boards and transfer requests etc can all easily be done remotely. H&S audits are already a regional job iirc, the only bits that might be more difficult is for stuff like BPSS clinics and other in-person only functions that can’t easily be done from RHQ. You mention W&W being sparse, I raise you S&NI!
Yeah, it might take some adapting but it seems the natural way to go if we cannot replace WExO posts, as the “functional” system as opposed to the geographical one we have now seems to be saving a job role or two at laser. Not saying it’s a good thing, just seemed more and more likely to me in recent months with the way things are going
It’s a people-oriented organisation with a large amount of individual and geographical differences, challenges and specificity. This more bureaucratic, less personal, regionalised approach risks a lot of damage to interpersonal relationships and personnel management.
Certain processes may become more efficient, but are they more effective at achieving positive outcomes?
Considering the number of complaints about decisions and lack of logic, response, efficacy, or transparency from “ivory towers” or “powers that be”, it baffles me that the organisation would be looking at increasing the distance between the front line and decision makers.
If this happens, and I know SWR is looking at it, I will be incredibly sceptical and preparing for worse outcomes. UNLESS a very good, data and feedback-driven, impartial report out of LASER suggests otherwise and I might soften. However, this is SWR. Proof of concept in LASER is not enough to prove that it will work as well elsewhere, because personalities, egos, and competency are variables that cannot be controlled or assessed.
However, I don’t see this directly as a budget issue at least in the short term as I’m not aware that staffing is to be directly reduced through this move.
Not necessarily endorsing it, just noting that it appears to be the direction of travel for SWR and at least one other region, on top of LASER. Agree with your points though, skepticism is warranted.
