Publication:Sea Talk Autumn 2006/Drive to find Reserves for positions
Lack of sufficient Reserves is the biggest risk to successful implementation of the Reserves Capability Enhancement Program.
In his address to the Naval Reserve Symposium, the Director-General Navy Personnel and Training, CDRE Nigel Coates, flagged the need to encourage more members of the Active Reserve (AR) to take up employment opportunities and possibly bring more Standby Reserves (SR) into the Active Reserve.
He spoke after the Director-General of Navy Capability, Performance and Plans, CDRE Trevor Jones, outlined sweeping changes to the Reserve including creation of 112 new Reserve billets in a number of categories (see pp 24-27).
"I see the lack of sufficient number of Reserves to meet the new capability requirements as the biggest single risk factor to the success of implementation (of the program)," he said.
For a number of reasons it was difficult to determine the current strength of the Reserve.
"Active Reserves have given an undertaking to render service but there is no mandatory requirement," CDRE Coates said. "Accordingly, many active reserves find that either there is no suitable work for them or they subsequently become unavailable and therefore cannot render service.
"This has resulted in the perceived growth of the Active Reserve to about 2800 personnel, however, of this number, only about 50 per cent actually render service for more than one day per annum.
"Funding obligation that arises from posting of personnel has shown that there is a take-up rate of 69 per cent and 57 per cent for the FRC (funded reserve commitment) and project programs respectively.
"All in all, there do not appear to be sufficient Active Reserves to meet the work that is currently available."
A mixture of training opportunities, sea time - or currency - and better conditions of service might be sufficient to bring the workforce supply up to the demand, CDRE Coates said.
"Even so, as part of the implementation project plan, efforts will be made to 'recruit' personnel before they leave active service (in the PN) through a number of means."
