As part of Armed Forces Week 2023, we spoke to a number of our Armed Forces personnel across Morgan Sindall Construction. In this interview we spoke to Chris Westlake, SHE Advisor for Central and West.
Chris has been with the business for just over six years as a health and safety advisor. He advises and supports our projects to ensure that our teams and supply chain are maintaining best safety practice across all our sites, aligned to our 100% Safe approach. He is also a Mental Health First Aid Instructor and has been delivering training to potential Mental Health First Aiders so that our business can offer that additional level of support to our employees, supply chain and community.
Before he joined the business, Chris worked in health and safety roles in the construction sector. Notably he worked for a period of time on the world-renowned Battersea Power Station project as a H&S advisor as the building made its transition from a former power station to a shopping and leisure destination.
Chris served in the Army for just over 11 Years and left in 2015, having been a part of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, operating and maintaining the Challenger Two Main battle tanks. Throughout his career he progressed thought the ranks finishing his service as a corporal. In his own words, “I always wanted to server in the army sine I was small but the running joke in the army was I got lost on the way to college,” he attended Beavers, Scouts and the Cadets and was accepted to the Army Foundation College in Harrogate at 16 in September 2004.
Making the transition from the Army to civilian employment
Chris said: “When I left the Army, I had decided it was time to do something different. The Army is always evolving, and at the time I left I had a medical condition that was impacting my physical exertion, but we couldn’t really find what it was. I felt that when it was also impacting his progression and future career in the Armed Forces, I thought it would be an ideal point to look at progressing my civilian career.
My friend at the time, who was previously a Troop Sergeant was the one who suggested a career in Health & Safety as that was the role he was doing. At the time, there was a big demand for people to join this area in the industry and I had lots of transferrable skills and experience from some training I’d already completed.
Chris discussed some of the similarities between the Armed Forces and Construction. “The culture and make up of the team are very similar, on a project you have a project director or an operational director, project and site managers, quantity surveyors and people like myself in Health and Safety.”
“[On a project] You are part of a small project team, all batched together in a specific group, to deliver a building such as a school or hospital extension. But you’re also part of a bigger objective and in Morgan Sindall’s case for me, I am a part of the Thames Valley Office, which is part of our Central and West business region, but also just part of the national Morgan Sindall Construction business. In the Armed Forces, I was part of a tank crew, which were then part of a Troop of three tanks, a Half Squadron, a Squadron and then a Regiment.”
“On a day-to-day basis the process-driven approach is very easy for someone who has been part of the Armed Forces to join as they will have the same type of mindset. There are processes around safety, working with stakeholders and project plans to follow. But it can come with it’s own challenges too.”
“As part of your military training you’re almost broken down and remade into the army mindset. Whilst this does allow you to be very focused when it comes to following instruction, you may not be accustomed to thinking of alternative processes or innovation. Sometimes, on a site you might get asked ‘Do you think this should be done this way, or do you think this way might be better?’ and again, it’s not that you don’t have the answer, it’s just that you do sometimes get used to not having an opinion. It perhaps varies too depending on the role you did in the military.”
Matching the terminology, you’re used to, such as job roles is also something to get used to. I took part in a session after I left where people converted job roles and titles into the equivalent rank in the army, so it helped you to understand who’s who and the job world you’re entering. For example, a managing director is a commanding officer, it helps make the transition a little smoother.”
Chris mentioned that one of the challenges of attracting people to the industry is that many don’t see that the range of roles that are available. “It’s mostly seen as being the trades, brickwork, roofing, carpentry etc… He said, and whilst we do need all those roles too, some of the management roles in planning, safety, estimating and even newer roles in sustainability are still quite unknown.
“When someone is leaving the Armed Forces they may have family too, and so a break in career and salary isn’t always an option. Therefore you sometimes find that some go into a career that they didn’t want or understand as the focus in on salary, stability and pension. Understanding that these roles can offer stability is something that we need to share more.”
“Other things that people are sometimes worried about is the travel requirements, previously it was quite common for people in the construction industry to be travelling long distances to projects. Now, there is more emphasis to try and put people on projects that are around an hour to an hour and half away and to look at flexible working if it’s appropriate to the project timescales and the rest of the team.
At times I’ve had to travel to some projects on an ad hoc basis to support health and safety in our region, but sometimes it can mean you get to see and learn from a different type of project.”
Construction is a good career for people to go into from a contractor perspective, there are a range of careers you can get involved in and you don’t necessarily have to start from the beginning. Someone leaving the forces after a long careers can have a full second career and not be the ‘new person.’ There are sometimes changes in the industry which usually stem from changes in government objectives, but on the whole there is always something that needs to be built!
There are some organisations too that help support those leaving the Forces with their second career and Chris mentioned how these can help people get a foot in the door with work placements, CCS cards (which are required for all those in the industry to work on site and guided careers sessions. “The industry needs people with the relevant skills and often the work placements and opportunities set up by people like Buildforce help those on our projects who might have come from a traditional construction background to take a chance on someone and to learn more about people from a different career background.”
“These organisations can also signpost people to others who might be able to support with the unique challenges faced by those following a military career, who might also need additional support with physical health conditions, PTSD, anxiety and depression. There is a lot of work to be done, but we’re all trying to constantly do better and increase our understanding of those challenges.”
Top Tips
One of Chris’ top tips when leaving the Armed Forces – get any of the training and qualifications you’ve completed matched into those recognised in civilian employment via your education centre. “I’d completed some training that meant I’d have a teaching qualification, which in civilian employment also backs up your skills in delivering training. It might just be something that gives you the edge over another candidate! I had a friend that could breakdown a rewire a tank – but after forgetting to transfer some of his qualifications wasn’t qualified to rewire a plug.”
Secondly, sell yourself on the skills you have, ability to follow processes, time management is a key one – (“you’ll be the one to join a meeting early most will arrive at the scheduled time!), focus and discipline and the key values taught by the military – courage, respect and discipline. Chris said, “Those in forces have a tendency to be able to ‘fail fast’ so if something goes wrong, you learn quickly from it and move on rather than it hold you back.”
Sometimes leaving the forces is known as ‘7 Clicks to Leave/7 to Heaven, but it’s so much more than that. Spend time thinking about your next steps, go to as many careers’ events as possible, speak to anyone and everyone, organisations such as Buildforce are also specialists at helping people to find careers in the construction sector. You never know who you might get speaking to and it might spark an idea for your next steps. It not only helps understand what’s available, but it might give you an idea of a location you’d be happy to settle and live.
Chris’ final piece of advice:
“When it comes to civilian employment, the grass isn’t always greener, it’s just a different shade! It can be harder at times as there’s longer days – no sports afternoons or early finishes for example but you can book a holiday and make plans and know that you’re going to keep them!”
Find out more about Armed Forces careers
Chris' interview and others can be found in our Armed Forces booklet. Which also includes some of the advice compiled from our team for Armed Forces personnel seeking roles in the Construction industry.