Britain’s public sector has a recruitment problem. Whether it be nurses in the NHS or bobbies on the beat, the British state consistently fails to attract and retain workers. This is particularly evident in arguably our most important sector, defence.
Last year, the number of applications to join the Army’s regular forces fell by almost a third. The armed forces have been persistently losing personnel quicker than they are able to recruit (though recently this has thankfully been reversed through improvements in the RAF and Navy). This has been happening while Britain is trying to rebuild its military capabilities through the Defence Investment Plan in order to face “a darker world” after decades of shrinking defence spending.
The “goody bag” is a worrying sign of how slow Armed Forces recruitment has become
The Ministry of Defence has recognised that failing to get potential trainees through the recruitment process quickly is part of the problem. There have been some improvements. The so-called “time of flight” – the gap between initial recruitment and beginning training – has been slowly coming down. In 2023, it took approximately 496 days for an individual to begin training; in 2024, it fell to 290 days. Impressive, but this is still the best part of ten months. In the early 2000s, it was around six to 12 weeks. Understandably, the MoD has conceded that this duration must continue to shorten.
This made it all the more confusing then to see the British Army’s latest tactic: to send surprise ‘welcome packs’ to new recruits ahead of starting Phase One training. The box contains a pen, a notebook and a £20 (you can find it cheaper) Casio F-91W. Since June, nearly 3,000 packs have been sent out. An Army spokesperson said: ‘The welcome pack is a simple way of making sure new soldiers arrive properly prepared for training while reducing some of the expense and uncertainty that comes with joining the Army.’
A wristwatch, especially one as robust as the Chinese-manufactured Casio F-91W, would undoubtably come in handy for a recruit about to begin training. Army blogs have noted helpfully to doting parents that purchasing such an item for their son or daughter would be a good idea as “punctuality is very important in the military”.
The note accompanying the pack was arguably the most important item. Encouragement, and a gesture saying, in effect, ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ will likely create that sense of involvement and engagement for recruits whilst they wait to finally get in the door.
However, the “goody bag”, beyond serving as a goodwill gesture, is a worrying sign of how slow Armed Forces recruitment has become.
The watch, favoured historically by soldiers and Al-Qaeda members alike, is durable and functional, but are potential recruits seriously being held back by the crippling cost of affordable wristwear? I seriously doubt it.
Many have been singing the merits of the gift as a morale booster for new recruits; a token gesture of encouragement before beginning training. That said, one tweet I saw rather succinctly summed up my thoughts: “This feels more like they’re auditioning to go on Blockbusters rather than learn to kill people”.
For a department that claims to be terminally underfunded – the Chancellor, John Healey, even resigned from his previous post as defence secretary over long-delayed military spending plans – this seems like largesse. This point is especially striking when you consider the MoD has spent hundreds of millions upgrading vehicles it has subsequently scrapped, and billions on Ajax, a programme years late and beset by technical hurdles. The ‘welcome pack’ has apparently been procured through normal processes; presumably at top-rate manufacturer prices.
The scheme is designed to reduce some of the costs associated with joining the Army. But solving the British Army’s recruitment problems has more to do with making the Army an attractive prospect and then actually getting them into it. The fact that new recruits need to be reminded they’ve not been forgotten about is simply proof that we are not processing them fast enough.
In August last year, despite the improved application-to-training time reducing from 496 days to 290, the Government set a new target for new recruits to receive a conditional offer within ten days and a confirmed training date within 30 days. Between August 2025 and March this year, 50,816 applicants received a provisional decision within ten days, which is encouraging, but this can be estimated to be only around 45 per cent of recruits. Less encouraging is that only 19,428 of this number received a training date within the 30 days’ target.
Another major obstacle has been the rate of medical processing. Before a prospective soldier can begin training, the Army must access their medical records. Quite understandably the Army does not want to face any legal action for accepting someone not healthy enough to sign-up. The process involves obtaining information from their GP and partaking in the exchange of paperwork between public bodies that can often resemble the speed of honey being poured from a cold jar.
The MoD has admitted that this process is painfully arduous and has introduced a new electronic system that has apparently helped considerably. Air Marshal Jones, when giving evidence to a Public Accounts Committee, suggested some cases that once took weeks to arrive are now able to be received within hours. Great news. But this is still not universal.
The Army is not competing for recruits inside a vacuum. Young adults may eagerly wish to serve their country, but in the midst of a NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) crisis, they will likely be attracted to other parts of the labour market which can manage to let them know whether or not they have a position before their next birthday. The Army cannot afford to miss out on young recruits due to a painfully slow recruitment process.
Incremental improvements are welcome, and there is clearly no silver bullet for Britain’s recruitment problems. But better pay and conditions and a significantly faster application process, building on progress already made, will do far more of the heavy lifting than a cheap, plastic watch. So too would renewing the prestige of the Armed Forces. One way of doing so would be ending the culture of lawfare that bedevils so many troops and veterans.
The Army deserves credit for reducing its “time of flight” but should make this an overwhelming priority rather than wooing new recruits with welcome packs.
Perhaps I’m being unfair to the watch itself. I appreciate wristwatches, and the F-91W certainly falls into the classic and durable category. The only remaining question I have is whether Sandhurst recruits receive a G-Shock instead.
Comments