WIF0036

Written evidence submitted by Colonel Lucy Giles

Author: Colonel Lucy Giles was commissioned in 1992 after studying at Exeter University.  Early regimental duty in the newly formed Royal Logistic Corps included postings within Germany, UK, and South Africa with deployments to Bosnia in the 1990s, East Timor and Sierra Leone. After gaining her Masters and completing the Advanced Command and Staff Course from 2001-03, she was posted to HQ Northern Ireland.

She commanded 47 Air Despatch Squadron enabling operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. She also led a training sub-unit prior to her appointment as an instructor at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in 2011. Here she focussed on command, leadership, and management, represented the College in military ethics and leadership development gaining her PGCE in 2013.

Appointed Commander of New College RMAS in January 2015, she received an entry into the Debrett’s’ People of the Day in 2016.  She won the ‘Inspirational’ and ‘Woman of the Year’ awards at the inaugural Women in Defence event in October 2016 and received an honorary doctorate from Exeter University for services to the military in July 2017.  Promoted in 2018, she was the 36th President of the Army Officer Selection Board and is currently serving at the Army Division in Shrivenham.

Lucy is an ambassador for First Women UK, a Girl Guiding ambassador, a Freeman of the City of London (Worshipful Company of Farriers), a Director for the Foundation for Leadership through Sport, a member of the FA’s Technical Advisory Board, a military ambassador for Walking with the Wounded and is on the Governing Body for Women in Defence.  She was delighted to be approved by HM The Queen as the Honorary Colonel of Exeter University Officer Training Corps on 1st August 2021.

Lucy is married to Nick, and they have two children: Jess and Alex.

She is very happy for any comments to be held on record and NOT confidential or anonymised.

Commentary for Follow Up.

1.                Change in the last year. There has been significant change in the last few years, and not just the last year because of the HCDC Report on Women in the Armed Forces from Recruitment to Retirement. Specifics include:

1.           Taken more seriously when raising a complaint or concern in the workplace (or linked to home). This is due to a change in culture at the top, but also more engagement in the ‘middle management’ of our officers and soldiers (SNCOs and Majors).

2.           We are talking about subjects previously not talked about: Mental Health, Breast feeding, menopause etc. There are publications written to support Maternity and Pregnancy (for service personnel and for the chain of command) providing a simplified way of understanding what support is out there and where/when you can demand uniform etc.

3.           Op TEAMWORK initiative went better than expected – got people in the same room to talk about their lived experience. I was delivering courses at Shrivenham at the time, so having 400+ people all at a critical part of their career, stopping to think about what is going on in some quarters of the Army, was important. It was important that this was mixed gender (as this isn’t a ‘women’s problem’).

4.           In the Professional Military Education space, I have seen a shift in course content, and a change to reporting mechanisms that in turn has the effect of driving better behaviours and raising individual awareness. This can be quantified along with the increase in attendance/completion of mandatory training linked to TEAMWORK (Bystander training for example must be completed by all students on the course and staff).

5.           The Gender Advisory Council (under Commander Field Army) is providing a forum for discussion, but more importantly amplifies the lived experience directly to a 3*.

6.             Celebrating our achievements is gaining more publicity such as Women in Defence; ‘Rising Stars’ etc.

7.           For female soldiers, the networks for service women provide a safe, kind space for us to discuss and support women, particularly those slightly more isolated. It also is an opportunity to intervene/speak to units directly to solve basic problems that may manifest as the personalities have not dealt with that problem before (for example, childcare wrap and the impact of starting work at 0800 versus 0830). I have personally been engaged on almost a weekly basis with anything from giving someone a confidence boost, offering recruiting advice, service complaint support and, most recently, encouragement to challenge the chain of command on something quite serious.

8.           For the Veteran community, there are several networks recently dusted off, professionalised, and set up to support each other, with one specifically aimed at female veterans.

2.           Areas hoped for more change and any easy wins? I had hoped that the promotion system in the Army, where you have the right women, with the right SQEP, would be an easy win to exemplify role models. The RN and RAF are better at this, the Army has been poor; I have seen two, high-quality, potential OF5s leave the Army because we (the organisation) could not find a job that suited them. One was a RE officer (they have one female OF5 in that cap badge) and one had invested in the study of Cyber for two years, wanted to remain in that space, but R SIGNALS couldn’t accommodate. There are only 28 OF5 female in the Army, less than five OF6s and one OF7. So, to get at some ‘easy wins.

1.           Embrace positive action as a tool in terms of talent management and placing people in the right appointments (see below).

2.           Get employers to have a say in their team as part of the selection process so that there is some diversity of thinking (and that can link to gender).

3.           Get rid of ‘Informal Resolution’ to service complaints – it implies a lack of importance. Instead reframe this as ‘Immediate Resolution’ so that time is given weighting.

3.           Helped by:

1.           Positive actions by hierarchy.

2.           That the subject is being discussed (and service personnel, particularly women, are being listened to,).

4.           Hindered by:

1.           Our own bureaucracy, such as the procurement for uniforms.

2.           If men/women ‘call something out’/challenge a decision there is a fear of repercussions, no matter how hard you try to create the right environment. A fallibility of being human and reluctant to fail.

3.           Unhelpful social media posts/organisations that aim to help service women and veterans, but can have the opposite effect, such as ‘Forewarned’. It is important that government and our service chiefs are lobbied and that the quiet voices have an outlet. I think there are better ways of doing so in a more balanced way.

And finally, I thought it may help the HCDC if I was to use a five-pillar framework, suggested by McKinsey and Coy, on how to win through inclusion and diversity and what we can tangibly do to take bolder action[1].

Ensure representation of diverse talent.

• Positive action[2] should be taken but needs to be recognised as different in terms of positive discrimination.

• How can more women be appointed into key roles as a soldier or officer to support role modelling?  Really important that the underrepresented person is as qualified as others, that no candidate is treated more favourably than another and positive action is used when the employer can evidence the impact that this will have on their organisation, else it will be perceived as discrimination, when it isn’t!

Strengthen leadership accountability and capability for D&I

• The Joint Chiefs have made a commitment to diversity, and gender, in their statement published in Jul 20[3].  The Army must actively get on board, however employers who wish to embrace the aspiration and actively pursue this agenda have, at present, very little influence in who is posted into their units. This is a direct result of our Career Management approach; no self-generated CVs, no interviews, no opportunity for the employer to choose from a short list of applicants and positively act to create the right team to meet their aspirations and outputs.

• ‘Increases in the percentage of female, BAME and LGBT+ promotions to OF4/5 in each service’ have been articulated[4] as an aspirational goal.  The mechanics to do that are being levered in the RAF, but the Army is not as agile.

• The stated aspiration to increase the percentage of women in the Army from 10.5% to 12% in 2025[5], toned down from 15% is unacceptable.  This percentage will not change without action.  A catalyst is required; we need to do things differently. The employment of married mothers in the workplace during the Second World War helped support changes to employment law but more importantly the mindset.

• An audacious goal of 30% within five years should be the aiming point and aligns to many comparable sectors[6].

Enable equality of opportunity through fairness and transparency

• Opening all roles to women in the Army two-years ago is just the start; practices and procedures will need to be reviewed across all our Defence Lines of Development and though our Capability Working Groups.

• Improve/sustain how women are recruited by the Army:
• Establish more events targeted towards female candidates (women in STEM events at RMAS, Harrogate, Women in Defence events)
• Targeting career fairs/events, including UOTCs
• Female only webinars
• Referral bonus

Promote openness and tackle micro aggressions

• Actively build the ability of managers and staff to identify and address micro aggressions.

Foster belonging though unequivocal support for multivariate diversity

• Creating a culture where you can bring your ‘whole selves’ to work.  Microsoft[7] have one of their key strategies as ‘uncovering’ that is being YOU when you come to work, whatever that may look like.
• ‘Diversity Allies’ are popular throughout other sectors and has been taken on through D Pers area as an on-line 3-hour course to explore how we can be more effective supporting colleagues throughout the workplace.

17th October 2022