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NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2003
The 'ultimate Divisional Officer' is on your side New Second Sea Lord focuses on the individual
T
HE new Second Sea Lord has assumed control of the Navy's complex personnel machinery - but the self-styled 'ultimate Divisional Officer' recognises the importance of looking beyond the statistics to the individuals who make the whole thing tick.
Indeed, as the Navy continues to market itself under the slogan 'The Team Works', Vice Admiral James BurnellNugent is at pains to point out that a team works most effectively when each member is valued and encouraged.
Vice Admiral James BurnellNugent talks to Mike Gray
direction, but I am convinced there is a lot more we can do in the dialogue between the personnel machine and individuals. "In policy terms, to some extent "The Second Sea Lord is the you have to think about people as ultimate Divisional Officer in the categories - you've got to start by Royal Navy and Royal Marines, and doing some arithmetic of the catethat is a hugely important responsi- gories that different people would bility that I take very seriously," said fall into and the structures that are Admiral Burnell-Nugent, who has needed - but when it comes to an over 30 years personal experience individual's issues that arc imporof looking after the welfare of seatant to him or her, and their family men as a Divisional Officer and a and friends, and aspirations, then Commanding Officer. we must all try harder to treat The Admiral, who took over them as individuals. from Admiral Sir Peter Spencer on "I'll lay down a challenge here. If January 28, has identified three anybody - officer or rating or main priorities (see below) and in Marine - feels they are not being his view, many problems in the given the due consideration approNavy need to be priate to an indiaddressed at vidual, on pergrass roots level. sonnel matters, "The first they should sec area where I their Divisional • Treating people as want to have a Officer, and ask individuals major influence t h e i r • Making sure those in is in the diaCommanding positions of responsibility logue between Officer to write concentrate on problem ratings and offito me and I'll areas cers with the follow it up, • Continued roll-out of the various personbecause this is a Topmast programme nel authorities, really important to make sure issue." that we here in Victory Building By getting this right, the and other parts of the personnel Admiral believes that there may be world treat ratings and officers as a significant effect on the "number individuals, rather than as a collec- one challenge" - retention. tion of statistics or categories," he Encouragement at the right time said. could be enough to retain someone "This is an area where a lot of for one more draft, and collectiveprogress has been made, particuly that might just tip the numbers larly with the formation of the in the Navy's favour. Waterfront Manning Offices and The retention issue is confused the RDCAs, the Regional Drafting by current operational needs, as Career Advisory centres, where a the Admiral is all too aware. rating can go and get personal "I think the situation we are advice about his career and draftfinding ourselves in now is going to ing opportunities. be a real challenge for retention, "So we arc moving in the right because what's happening is a num-
2SL priorities
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' Vice Admiral James Burnell-Nugent:'... we must all try harder to treat people as individuals.' Pictures: PO(PHOT) Gary Davies
ber of different communities or included nuclear submarines groups of individuals are emerging. HMS Conqueror, frigate HMS "There are those who are Brilliant and carrier HMS deployed with a prospect of operaInvincible. tions in the Gulf, which is about "My third priority is Topmast 10,000 people; there are those who the system that has been introarc firefighting - about 3,500 - who duced for ABs is part of Topmast, have been doing so for some months but isn't by any means the full now; there is another group of peo- story," he said . ple who arc left behind - the non"Topmast is a project that will firefighters, who be with us from arc left looking now on, design'I'm sure if you asked the after their ship, ing and impleCommanding Officer of unit or establishmenting manHMS Victory he would ment, who have ning arrangegot seriously ments for the have told you about the shortened Navy and diversity of the people watchbills as a Royal Marines on board a ship like his result of the to put us in the 2OOyears ago..." number of peoright configuraple who are tion for Type away; and then there are other peo- 45s, the future carriers and ple who may actually be in the DLO beyond." Admiral Burnell-Nugent said or other parts of the Service who have been called forward as aug- the scheme had been given renewed impetus by the ordering mentees or reservists, and so their lives are being affected - and so are of these ships, and that the "good the people who are being left work" that has been done with ABs behind in those areas, because should benefit all ranks and rates maybe they had a deputy or an assisin the seagoing part of the Navy. tant and that person has now gone. Topmast is intended to have a "All corners of the Navy and beneficial effect on the work-life Corps are being affected by current balance both now and for future operations, and it is difficult to pre- recruits, and the next issue will be dict what effect this is going to have. adapting the mechanism for senior "Some people will be hugely rates and officers. enthused by the prospect of operaTwo more areas of interest are tions, and it will encourage them to diversity and communications. stay on; others might find they Admiral Burnell-Nugent said have had enough of the separation diversity is an old tradition in the that goes with it. Navy - "I'm sure if you asked the "That is why I place such imporCommanding Officer of HMS tance on treating people as individVictory he would have told you uals, because this is what we are about the diversity of the people on going to have to do this year in par- board a ship like his 200 years ago". ticular - everybody will have a "Diversity is a hugely important slightly different story, slightly dif- area," he said, noting the the Navy ferent effect on their personal life, continues to "move forward on a slightly different effect on their broad front, doing our level best to career aspirations, and we have recruit people from as many and got to really look after people and diverse as backgrounds as we posgive them all the consideration sibly can." Memories of queuing for a phone they deserve." The Admiral's second priority on a rainy jetty on return from a is to make sure senior staff are Cold War submarine patrol have focusing on the the made problem areas. Admiral a keen 'Any generalisation campaigner on Blunt overall about morale is statistics tend the issue of extremely dangerous..." to conceal the keeping in fact that there touch. "The whole business of commuare some "serious shortages" of categories, such as submariners nicating with families from sea has and LOMs; planners need to con- been a hobby horse of mine for a tinue coming up with the answers. number of years, and we had fallen "We haven't got time to wait quite a long way behind people's until the next generation of sailors expectation," he said. joins - these are here-and-now "We have made a lot of progress issues, particularly for people in through the NavyStar and Navythe shortage categories, and we've Link system, but it is still patchy. "The issue is that aspirations got to find solutions," said the Admiral, a Cambridge mathemat- move ahead all the time. We will ics graduate whose commands probably not be able to keep up
with the very latest technological wizardry, but we do need to keep moving on this topic, and make communications with families in particular, with friends and families as easy as it possibly can be." On morale, the Admiral reiterated that there arc a number of different groups, who are being pulled in different directions. "Any generalisation about morale is extremely dangerous in those circumstances, and again it goes back to my point about treating people as an individual. "Each individual's morale may or may not need addressing depending on how they feel about it, so I wouldn't presume to make any generalised comment about morale, because I think that is just sweeping any morale issue under the carpet. Morale has to be tackled at the individual level, and by looking at each individual's circumstances." Admiral Burnell-Nugent said his predecessor had travelled widely as part of the job, and he would try to follow suit, while his Personnel Liaison Team will, as usual, visit some 7,000 people annually and cover every unit on an 18-month rota.
Key man starts new job on same day as boss One of the first decisions made by the new Second Sea Lord was to create the post Command Warrant Officer (CWO), taken up by WO Eddie Seaborne, who started his new job on the same day as his boss. "How I see this job evolving is really as a two-way street," said Admiral Burnell-Nugent. "The CWO will act as a sort of lightning conductor between ship's companies and RM other ranks and all the other men and women serving, wherever they are, ashore or afloat, back to me. "At the moment he can do that as he is dual-hatted as a member of the 2SL Personnel Liaison Team, so he gets around establishments anyway, but the idea is that he also gets very closely alongside WO Baz Cook, the people pillar champion, and the Royal Marines counterpart, Corps RSM WO1 RSM George Forst3r. "So the three of them, all very experienced warrant officers, will provide a very important mechanism to me. "Coming the other way, where I hope the CWO will prove particularly useful, is when my staff here are working on projects such as Topmast, really important projects for the personnel policies and career structures for the future. "Someone like Eddie Seaborne, with a huge amount of experience in the front line, and a lot of contemporaries and contacts out there, can act as something of a litmus paper for new ideas and tell me - give it to me straight: 'I'm sorry, sir, this scheme simply will not work', or suchand-such a scheme will work really well. "He will be a really important sounding board as to the sort of thing that people are looking for in the future and whether they are likely to work or not Eddie (46), has more than 30 years' service, initially training in gunnery. His ships include HM ships Hampshire, Plymouth, Juno, Manchester, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Southampton and Ark Royal. He was awarded the MBE for his work with Naval Party 1042, serving with the United Nations in Cambodia in 1993.
• New Command Warrant Officer Eddie Seaborne