Hi all,
My squadron is currently heavily low on staff. Does anyone have any recruitment material and recommendations on where/how to find staff that are willing to give their time up for the cadets?
Thanks
We have tried really hard qnd gone to town on staff recruitment, newspapers, social media etc. The only luck weve had though is convincing cadets parents to get involved.
Your wing should have a recruitment officer qho can provide you with printed resources
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First off contact your media officer. Worth asking if there are any funds available to support a campaign.
Second, get as many ads out as possible for the budget (/free). Use local interest and news groups on Facebook, relevant special interest groups can be useful. Local papers have volunteer sections. Thereās a volunteer website called Do-It.org which isnāt high visibility, but itās free so worth a punt - we had a response on it.
I wouldnāt spend Sqn funds, but if you get a grant then Facebookās targeted advertising can be a useful and powerful tool. Do your research on it though as itās a rabbit warren of options and as well as page insights there a hidden advert manager which is actually viewed externally to the main Facebook site. If going this route, get your head around the manager and targeting options before publishing or boosting. Anything you do for a page can be put Iām draft or pending format.
Parents can be a good way of getting bodies on board, but donāt expect too much (good ones are rare) and beware if their child leaves.
If youāre near any military places, might be worth approaching them to see if a SI position can be advertised.
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Then when you get them, the induction system fails them by taking far far too long and you lose them.
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Is it worth sending the local RAF Station and recruiting office an email?
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Anything is worth it, the worst that can happen is no response or a āNoā.
If you do get a recruiter come forward, I would want to make it clear to them that they leave their recruiting role at the door unless asked specifically about it. Exceptions being for organising things like OpTabletop or whatever its called (Op X?).
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Have a look at North Regionās Facebook campaign. Theyāve recruited about 10 new CIs purely through āFacebook Jobsā. If your sqn can spare Ā£5 for advertising then your reach could be potentially 1000+.
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Thatās a great shout will try get that sorted out
Would you guys recommend going to teachers at local schools?
If you need a hand send me a message
Teachers are unfortunately unlikely to have the time. There are a few exceptions, but the only teachers I know of in the corps were involved before becoming educators, some left and some stuck it out, but struggle to get course dates out of term time if they need one.
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Will do!
Yeah I get that. Itās a shame because with their teaching qualifications theyād be perfect in a Sqn
What about contacting the ātroops to teachā organisation?
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Only just looked it up - troops to teachers?
Could be useful - those enrolled might be interested in using their service experience more greatly than they would be able to.in a school.
Hahaha -_- I wish
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Very interesting, thatās the first time Iāve ever heard of such an organisation. Iāll send them over an email and let you guys know what happens. Thanks!
@Lightening are you a cadet? If so just make sure your boss is on board before sending emails. Dont want you stepping on heels! Admire your admiration to develop the sqn if you are a cadet. Wish my NCOs sometimes had that!
Yeah Iām a Cadet FS
And definitely, I run everything by him before going ahead to make sure heās happy with it.
Iāve been at my Sqn for almost 4 years now and Iāve got quite a close bond to it; Iāve seen it grow and develop through a lot. Itās a shame now though because weāre simply very low on staff, and I feel as if the cadets are starting to suffer. Iāve adopted more of an admin role to take some of the burden off of staff and as apart of that I want to also help recruit some more staff, especially some who could go into uniform.
Give them some more responsibility, see how they apply their initiative and how they develop individually and as a team. Since adopting considerably more responsibility over the last year due to staff shortages, Iāve found myself willing to spend more and more hours towards my squadron; itās become something I enjoy and believe that I am helping other young people and myself too, so why not. Everyone wins!
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Its been a good campaign for us, had 3 inquiries from it.