Smart Tasking
We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.
The Armed Forces Covenant
An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families
The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.
Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.
Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant
1.1 We Smart Tasking will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment
2.1 Smart Tasking recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
- Reserve Forces Day
- Armed Forces Charities
We also pledge the following:
Promoting the Armed Forces: We will strive to promote, where appropriate, the status of Armed Forces across our growing/various media activities. We would ensure this message lands clearly and proudly both inside our own business among our employees, suppliers, and extended consulting team and also externally, with our clients and business contacts. We would communicate this status in a number of ways: i) via our standard channels of communication on our website, our LinkedIn and Twitter feeds, our standard email signatures, our business development materials ii) via specific, scheduled campaigns which we run quarterly to increase followers on social media and traffic to our website iii) via regular communications platforms which we run both internally and externally: our monthly newsletter, our regular Client Partner meetings, our community meetings, and more. Veterans: We already actively support the employment of Armed Forces veterans, as we recognise that their intrinsic skills and mindset wholeheartedly reflects those which we hold so close to our own company values. Tenaciousness Curiosity Integrity Authenticity Reliability these are all vital values that underpin the way we work, and given our understanding of the Armed Forces, we understand them to reflect the values which you, also, hold as crucial. Despite being an SME (Small-to-Medium Enterprise), we already employ a number of ex-military personnel, whose experience and interpersonal skills we simply could not do without. We would commit to actively increasing the number of ex-military personnel on our books through working with the Career Transition Partnership and through our own network (also including military families and reserves please read further, below). Service Spouses & Partners: supporting the employment of Service spouses and partners; partnering with the Forces Families Jobs Forum. As a relatively small team, we are extremely proud that almost 10% of our workforce is already made up of service spouses, partners, and families. This is a superb relationship and commitment on all sides: as a business, we fully understand that military families may, at extremely short notice, have to relocate to unforeseen locations. We commit to providing enduring employment for our colleagues who are in this position and they, in return, graciously remain committed to fulfilling their obligations to smart/tasking. This is just one example of the trust, flexibility and ownership that we hold as essential to our business. Reserves and Cadets: We wholeheartedly commit to supporting, and where required supporting any employee or direct relation of an employee who elects to become or resume Military Reserve Status, or Cadet Status. We offer this unconditionally, as we acknowledge the vast and valuable skills and discipline which is required in our armed services, and which is also incredibly important to our own business activities. National Events: Smart/tasking hosts and co-hosts numerous events throughout the calendar year. Through these, we already showcase the support we provide to local businesses and communities, and we have previously sponsored local youth sports teams and other ventures. Should our application be accepted, we would take pride in showcasing our commitment to the military, to reserves, cadets, and military families Armed Forces Charities: Over the years we have donated to numerous charities and community-based fundraising activities. We would be extremely proud to support Armed Forces Charities via fundraising and donations, and we would actively encourage our employees and wider business network to volunteer for these charities on a regular basis.
2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.