NATO nations/organizations have aging scientific workforces and are facing challenges recruiting and retaining early-career, highly qualified, diverse civilian scientists. In response to these challenges, the NATO Science and Technology Board requested the NATO STO System Analysis and Studies (SAS) Panel initiate the SAS-148 Research Specialist Team (RST) which commenced in Fall 2020. Participating organisations included Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), the United Kingdom (UK) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the United States (US) The Research and Analysis Center (TRAC), the US Center for Army Analysis (CAA) and the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency.
The members of the research team were a combination of science managers, scientists, and human resource professionals. The methodology used by the team was to collect best practices, successes, and challenges from within organizations, to document them, and synthesize them across participating organizations. SAS-148 identifies common challenges and best practices for the recruitment and retention of early-career civilian scientists for defense S&T.
Organisations display a variety of methods to promote employer brand to prospective candidates, with the purpose of motivating them to select the organisation as a preferred employer of choice. Workforce planning is required to predict future organisational needs and turnover and requires continuous monitoring. Given the aging defence civilian scientist populations within many nations, organisations must rejuvenate their scientific staff to be able to perform cutting edge defence S&T and to provide the best advice to military partners. Assessing the status of diverse groups within organisations is also key for planning and targeting particular groups.
In their report the team concludes that most organisations positively outline their recruitment or attraction strategy as offering candidates an opportunity to work on societal issues, bringing innovation to support the defence and security of our nations. Leaders within defence S&T organisations have a critical role to play. They need to identify skills and diversity gaps, clear and achievable goals, and identify and address barriers. Awareness of the challenges and implementation of the best practices summarised in the SAS-148 report can be used to improve recruitment and retentions strategies for early-career civilian scientists.
The full report on Best Practices in Recruitment and Retention of Early-Career Civilian Scientists for Defence S&T is available, password protected, from the STO Website. Please contact the SAS Panel Office if you like to get more information. Published by SAS |
