For Leidos' Nick Hartley, tapping into veteran networks creates business opportunities
With an MBA in technology management and a decade of experience in overseeing information and communications technology development for Joint Forces Command, Leidos' Nick Hartley expected a relatively smooth transition from the Royal Air Force (RAF) to working in the defence technology industry.
“I thought I was pretty well prepared for the challenges of industry, but you can never fully prepare yourself," explains Hartley, who left the RAF in 2018, after thirty years of service.
Even though it's still working in defence, you get a very different perspective when you're operating with profit and loss or competing for new contracts. Understanding these financial and commercial factors can be a real learning curve.
Nick Hartley
Business Development Manager
Fortunately, while Hartley's time in the RAF may not have fully prepared him for the business world, his military service did equip him with an extensive network of contacts who were more than happy to help him get up to speed. In particular, he points to a good friend — a former RAF Air Commodore and head of defence at a major telecoms company — who supported him through his initial transition.
“He effectively created a role for me," Hartley explains. “That was a really soft landing because he'd been through the same process himself, so he both understood the skills that I'd have to offer as a veteran and knew how to support me in gaining the financial and business skills that I needed to develop."
Since joining Leidos as business development director for defence in August 2022, Hartley has seen the benefit of this ex-military network from the other side of the recruitment table, as he spent the past year building up a new team.
“There's five of us, all of whom I identified through former colleagues and connections within the military," he explains. “I was able to tell them my story and offer them a vision of how Leidos and I could support them in their transition and development."
In addition to their former military experience, Nick and two other team members are active reservists, giving them greater awareness of the kind of challenges the Ministry of Defence currently faces and insight into how Leidos might be able to help.
It's our appreciation for the many strengths and skills that veterans have to offer, alongside our culture and values that Hartley thinks makes Leidos such a good fit for former service people — as reflected in our place on the list of 100 Great British Employers of Veterans. Still, he believes that more can be done to maximize the potential of our global 8,500-strong veteran workforce.
“This is a fantastic untapped resource and, as a business director, it would be extremely helpful if I could just reach out to get connections and insight into specific areas," he explains. “If we can create a UK community that would allow us to connect, share and communicate more easily, that would be fantastic."
To that end, Hartley is now working to set up a Leidos UK employee resource group for ex-uniformed personnel. In addition to making it easier to draw upon our veteran employees' vast knowledge reserves, Hartley hopes that this network will also make it easier to draw upon their connections beyond Leidos, in order to facilitate collaboration with other businesses working in the defence and national security sectors.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of such a network, however, will be not only how it can maximize the contributions veterans can make towards our business, but also in facilitating their ability to support each other.
“Being able to pick up the phone and have an open and honest conversation with someone whose been through the same journey you have is often more helpful than just looking up facts about financial targets or operating plans," Hartley says. “My team all really appreciate that ability, I've appreciated it throughout my career, and this is what we're establishing across the whole of Leidos."
