Nicholas Harrison dreamed of becoming a soldier. From childhood he knew that he wanted to join the Army – but a knee injury meant he was robbed of his chance to go to Sandhurst to train as an officer.
Now, he uses his experience in recruitment and career transition to offer bespoke career management services to people who have been medically discharged from the armed forces.
It has been a long road to be able to provide the support that Soldier On! offers, but for Nicholas it began when he found himself fresh out of university with no clue what his next move would be.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do, because I was interested only in the Army. It was the only thing I wanted to do and I didn’t know what else I could do,” he explains. “I was there at the start line of my civilian career and I just wasn’t interested. It shattered me – it’s about the dream you can’t have, but looking forward, you don’t know what to do next either.”
The careers advice available to him was lacking, to say the least – libraries full of pamphlets about different jobs didn’t really give him the genuine guidance that he needed. One computer-based test told him that he should join the Royal Marines.
“I couldn’t understand this at all,” he smiles. “I was never a good swimmer!”
After a brief period working at a magazine publishing company, Nicholas eventually “fell into” executive search when he started out in a researcher role. As he progressed through his career, his approach to managing candidates became more unconventional.
“I was conscious that I was upsetting the standard processes because when I was interviewing I really wanted to know if candidates had the right fit for the role,” he says, “and weren’t feeling pressurised into taking the job on offer.”
“Why are they here? What are their true capabilities? There were a few years of really trying to find the right person for the role – not necessarily according to the wishes of whoever wrote the job description. What does that person really want to do?”
As a way of giving something to the armed forces community, Nicholas became involved in volunteering with veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress.
Nicholas had been aware from an early age of the psychological impact that military service could have on some individuals, and felt passionately about getting them the right help and support.
“When we were younger there were a lot of people who had fought in the Second World War,” he explains.
“Those who were suffering from what we today call post-traumatic stress disorder were just described as having had “a bad war” – any suffering they had was often kept at arm’s length.
Working with Combat Stress was immensely rewarding for Nicholas, but it was around this time that he noticed a gap in the service provision for people who had been medically discharged. Many of the existing mental health problems that the former service personnel there faced were being made worse by unemployment. In many cases, he believes, these people were seen by businesses as unemployable.
“Employment is the bit that sits at the top of that spiral of descent. Whether it’s a psychological problem, homelessness, family breakdown, addiction, all problems that can happen to anyone – often right at the top is a lack of decent employment,” he explains.
“It impacts every single thing in your life: who you meet and have relationships with, holidays, hobbies, activities. If you lose your job it’s the most mind-moving, earth-shattering experience.”
Many of the services that exist to help people who leave the armed forces work on CV writing, interview tips and other advice that work well for people who have an idea of where they want to go in their new careers, Nicholas feels. However, he noticed that there was a need for extra support for some personnel who are less sure.
“Many people who are medically discharged are not aware of their transferable capabilities, where they might fit in the civilian world and aren’t comfortable looking at an endless list of job vacancies that don’t make sense to them,” Nicholas says.
“A different service needed to be offered to those who don’t know who they are, where they’re going or how to get there.”
That’s where Soldier On! comes in. Nicholas began the charity in 2008, and since then it has evolved to offer a thorough career transition management programme that helps medically discharged forces personnel work out what they want to do and how their plans can be realised.
“We take them back in their mind to a time when they were looking ahead and they wanted to be in the forces,” Nicholas says. “We take them back and allow them to realise what their true capabilities were then and are today.
“By having a greater understanding of what they had to offer, we allow them to see that even in the past as they stood before the door of the armed forces recruiting office, without knowing it, the military was not necessarily their only option.”
It is this approach, Nicholas believes, that gives fresh hope for a happier and more fulfilling future to people who are struggling to accept that an injury or illness has ended their chosen career.
“They’re no longer focusing on a particular role, they’re guided by their life’s purpose,” he adds. “The difference is immeasurable.”
The process is not without its difficulties, he adds – especially since it depends on a level of trust, so that Soldier On! understands all the aspects of the individual’s life before they can offer the right support.
“It’s very difficult to begin with. David and I expect them to open up, potentially discuss things they’ve put a lid on or might not be proud of. They do all that hopefully safe in the knowledge we’re not here to judge them,” he explains.
“I always say for the first few sessions it will make no sense at all – that’s normal. But eventually, there’ll be a ‘light bulb’ moment when it all suddenly starts to make sense.”
It may not always work out that way, and the programme may not be for everyone, Nicholas acknowledges. But anyone who does decide not to keep working with Soldier On! will always have the option of coming back to benefit from that support all over again.
Crucially, Soldier On! puts the emphasis on believing in the individual from the start, breaking the cycle of dependency and trusting them to know themselves better than anyone else, giving them the tools to find the right role for them in which they can bring genuine benefits to businesses. Their injury or illness is no longer the driving force.
He says: “We have to make sure they’re not employed because of their situation. We need to invest the time so that businesses working with Soldier On! realise they can enhance their business by employing a capable and suitable member of staff. That’s why we put in so much effort to understand who we’re helping- that’s also why it takes time! We want it to be beneficial and a pleasurable experience for businesses as well.”
With the career transition management programme going from strength to strength, Soldier On’s support is available for life to any medically discharged former service personnel who need it regardless of time served, rank, or nature of their injury or illness.
“I find it quite difficult to deal with when they say thank you, because that makes it feel like we’ve done something for them and they’re grateful,” Nicholas says. “The point is we’re grateful to them from the start.
“What we’re doing is repaying a debt that we owe to them in spades. It just so happened I could use my abilities within the employment world to help them best.”
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