News
June 12th 2018
Employers exercise with the Army Reserve
Two of the teams receiving a debrief after a leadership challenge
A group of employers were put through their paces on Friday (8 June) when they took part in an engagement event run by the Army Reserve at Chetwynd Barracks, Nottingham.
Exercise Martello Stretch is an annual competition based on leadership and teamwork that sees six teams made up of representatives from different engineering and construction companies competing against each other to win the Martello Trophy.
Participating in a command task
The national companies taking part in the event include RPS from their Newark office, AECOM with an office at Chetwynd Business Park, Balfour Beatty that has an office in Derby, Essar Oil UK, Ramboll and WYG that has an office in Nottingham.
Activities included learning to build a miniature bridge, leadership activities based around an assault course, a communications task, an in depth emergency planning exercise and an introduction to drill.
Captain Terry Gillard, Engagement and Retention Officer at the Army’s 170 (Infrastructure Support) Engineer Group, organised the event. He explained: “This is the third annual Exercise Martello Stretch that we have held and it is good to see that again all participants have given their all and thoroughly enjoyed the event”.
“We put each of those taking part outside of their comfort zone and test them in many different ways. I am sure they will remember these few days for years to come and may consider joining the Army Reserve.”
One of the employers attending the event was Paul Stubbs who is Defence Director at Ramboll said: “It gives some of our office based staff more of an understanding of what the Army does and what their aims are. I think the benefits are fairly significant certainly it’s developing the younger members of our staff for a career path.”
Jamie Hinson who works in Stakeholder Engagement at AECOM in Nottingham said: “We’ve all had a go at leading a team and you’re out of your comfort zone which encourages you to work together as a team. It gives you confidence to go out and tackle real problems.”
Steve Hunt an Associate Director with AECOM added: “Training such as this is invaluable and the skills the team can learn is absolutely transferable to the civilian workplace.”
The RPS Newark team
Nicola Macleod who is an Architectural Project Manager at RPS Newark explained: “I think days like this are really beneficial for a company like ours because we’re multi-disciplinary. We find that we have different individuals that might not ever work on a project together so it helps to build bonds that go back into the office and work as a team across the whole business.”
“We’ve all had a go at leading a team and you’re out of your comfort zone which encourages you to work together as a team. It gives you confidence to go out and tackle real problems.”
