It is just that mind set that is chasing “experienced” staff away. By devaluing experience you are set on a course of self destruction, it is by gaining experience that people learn, indeed, organisations learn. Sadly those who purport to have the best interests of RAFAC, ACO, ATC or whstever guise it had when you joined seem to be losing the " Team work" ethos. Teams draw on experience and grow because of it. It is time you all gave your heads a shake and put the Cadets first instead building your ivory towers.
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Yes. Over a year later and look where we are. Maybe more of a death circle?
Tutors grounded and no ACPS for another year.
Only getting worse.
Look at the RIAT thread. Paramedics etc using their own equipment at events… Risking the registrations etc. Utter jokes.
Not seen any improvement in delivery. Cat bleed courses exist now, which is nice.
No comment.
Less of this. But certainly more CFAVs realising the effort is not worth it. Lots of ‘straw breaking the camels back’ going on. Minor things crossing people over a line.
Hahahahaha. Yeah. This is only worse. Leadership at all levels seems pretty broken. There are some great people, volunteers, perms and FTRSs. But far far too many bad eggs.
This has already been summed up perfectly tonight:
So what will be the straw that breaks the organisations back? I think we’re heading that way where something, not necessarily even that major, will cause a bit of a crumble.
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tbh I don’t think the RAFAC has “recovered” from Covid.
On a local level everything is continuing as before, but from what I gather with 1-2 fewer staff as what was 100% attendance each parade now has now shifted to 50% (or those who did 50% a less again).
The only positive I believe we have seen in recent years is the Cadet and Volunteer portal (which is mainly the efforts of a CFAV team) everything else which is “new” or “different” from 5 years ago is a restriction on events, or burden on the CFAV and for what benefit to the Cadets?
I am lost at how the Cadet experience (lets forget the CFAV experience for the time being) has benefitted, improved, been enhanced, or simply progressed from what it was 10 years ago.
the Cadets opportunities are fewer and further between while the CFAV (lets go back to them) are putting in more and more effort to make just the basics happen…
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Unpopular opinion: right now, the CFAV experience is more important.
Why? Because staffing is at a critical level. Almost every activity I attend is on skeleton staff. Of 5 local squadrons, 4 have minimal staffing.
The CFAV experience needs to be positive so volunteers stay.
Then we can look at the onboarding experience to help get new staff in.
Then… Then we can look at the cadet experience.
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Not so unpopular as you might think. The cadets will always be there; it’s much harder to recruit, train and retain good CFAV.
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From what I have perceived, there is quite a blasé and cavalier attitude to the volunteer from on high, especially at HQ level. There is a disconnect with the employed staff and the volunteer.
The paid staff see the RAFAC as a job and put in their 37 hours, they then shut off for the weekend. They see the RAFAC in the same way as the volunteer sees their own jobs. The volunteer has a passion for the organisation; it is their way of switching off from their jobs. They will go the extra mile.
There are two thing that will need to alter before the RAFAC can change,
- Promote volunteers into employed positions at all levels and pay grades. Even at 1 star
- Diversify recruitment at senior level See above. The senior leadership team of the RAFAC is white male, middle class and “Ex-RAF”. This leads to groupthink and has a very narrow field of experience.
There have been some moves in the right direction RC SW and the Senior Volunteer advisor, but until we have more ex CFAVs in positions of power and influence, things will not improve.
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does the salary meet the expectations of these roles?
I wonder if as a CAFV Sqn Ldr WSO, or even OC Wg was offered such a role their salary would be comparable??
Given the WExO rate, a role which commands the rank of Sqn Ldr, is less than I earn (and I am no where near Sqn Ldr Level in the RAFAC) I certainly have no interest from a financial point of view in applying for a WExO role so do wonder if CFAVs were offered full-time roles in “positions of power and influence” who would be applying given what is no likely to be a competitive salary…even more so when considering the responsibility the role could have
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I would actually be interested in a role like WExO or similar if the pay met the responsibility level. Currently, I don’t think it does.
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no and that is exactly my point.
I suspect a good number of competent CFAVs who would excel in the WExO role have a civilian salary which exceeds that of the WExO rate - be that by a few grand or double it.
It therefore worries me when i hear of CFAVs who become WExOs as they see it as a benefit to their career (which may well include a financial benefit). I am in danger of offending people now suggesting wages = intelligence, which i know it doesn’t (my wife is a nurse and earns less than WExO rate) but does make me think what did they do prior to WExO if they see it as a positive move for them.
even more so concerns me why anyone would take the WExO role on given the compensation vs responsibility
the only exception would be those Senior RAF officers who retire from the RAF but not yet ready to retire from work and see it as healthy pocket money until they are ready to retire from working life…
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Our last WgExO was a former CFAV, supposedly qualified to do the role.
He was the most lazy, incompetent and rude WgExO I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet
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To be fair, around here, the majority of stupid policies seems to originate from CFAV.
There are a number of WSOs in my wing that are shunted from post to post, that seem to enjoy making up policies and processes that have no real point - presumably to make sure lots of people can see how busy and effective they are.
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God no - part of this issue is the over reliance on volunteers in critical areas.
Unless those people have experience managing volunteers in other organisations then they need to be kept away as they just try & recreate what the did as a cadet & not take the organisation forward.
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Im not going to contribute too much into this thread (well because its really obvious who I am ha)but want to ask a devils advocate Q.
How much of the issues stated do you think are legacy issues that previous leadership teams across all levels have failed to actually challenge and fix? now we have a CAC who is turning over every stone and is unearthing dead bodies that should of been dealt with over the last decade or so and its all come to light in a short amount of time.
Full disclosure some decisions i’m not a fan of all decisions but just a different perspective maybe.
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Not the case everywhere, some squadron’s near me simply never reopened or are still(!) to reopen. The amount of admin to reopen was just too much for a lot I suspect.
Absolutely. I don’t think it needs to be done as linearly as you suggest, but I think some financial investment is needed (e.g. a suitably sized IT team, consultants(?) for the syllabus, new HQAC training team staff etc) to properly fix a lot of the long-term issues we face.
Absolutely what is happening, it’s something that can’t be fixed quickly and isn’t easy. Although the decisions made and the way those have been communicated is a different story IMO.
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Yet he is still making decisions that are at best baffling, and at worst criminally negligent - as shown by the FOI that we’ve been recently discussing.
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But how many of those legacy staff and volunteers are still in post or since promoted?
The attitudes persist, problems aren’t being solved, and the fixes aren’t working. During which time, experienced people are leaving the delivery arm of the org.
Change journeys are a journey, and leadership needs the buy in of those they lead. If they lose the faith and/or respect of the people through their decisions, actions, inaction, attitudes, or especially pertinent in our case a lack of transparency, then they are failing and the organisation is suffering damage.
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The organisational culture presently appears to be that the higher ups are right and everyone else is wrong (anyone else reminded of Ms Trunchbull from Matilda).
I think the seniors believe they’re starting to change that with RAFAC Astra, but there are very few CFAV who this has reached. It has potential, but from what I’ve seen of it so far I can’t imagine it reaching that potential.
This means that shop floor problems don’t reach management. Partly because there’s no real mechanism to raise it (VOV will only ever go so far, as there are names attached) and partly because (IMHO) some seniors just see more junior CFAV as moaners & whingers.
My day job is organisational change and continuous improvement. I’d love to do some work with RAFAC on this to create an open and collaborative culture that focusses on strengths and a collective growth mindset, but the org has shown no evidence of being interested in such ideas, as far as I’ve seen.
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With that said, I’ve heard talk of a concept being developed akin to the RAF’s disruptive thinking programme, but with different terminology and implementation.
It would be a good start if true, but needs to be very publicly announced.
Like the middle management in the NHS, those in those management positions see no advantage in highlighting problems and in fact by doing so can be career limiting. Same problem in the NHS where this endemic.
I was a middle level person when I was in the NHS when I felt it was needed would send e-mails to the chief exec and chief nurse. Never made me popular and as an example, the recent furoar over recruitment in the RAF, a senior officer did what was right not what her seniors wanted her to do.
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Gotta remember some people see being a CFAV as a way to gain more power and prestige compared to their day to day life.
I’m sure if you offered a walt-like CFAV the chance to get a “proper” military rank, they’d take it.
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