Honours for old rope?

The recent announcement of the New Years Honours list saw a debate on many military forums about the value of the Honours system and whether it still has a place in the military of today. Many saw it as a debased system, with mates rewarding other mates, knowing that they’d get the favour returned in due course. On the flip side there is the argument that the system provides a great way of recognising the efforts of others, in a way that costs little but highlights appreciation of a job well done.

My own view is that the system does a good job well, but that it needs to be open about how it selects and rewards people. Its very easy to say ‘oh its rewards for the boys’ when you see another very senior officer get an award, but equally we perhaps fail to recognise that the ability to offer retention incentives are few and far between in public service. There are no easy ways of providing someone with a fiscal reward, no stock options and no means of saying ‘please stay, we think you are brilliant’ that don’t cost money.

In a cash strapped public sector, the award of an honour does two things well. Firstly, it provides a very cost effective means of recognising effort by someone, and hopefully making them realise that their work is appreciated and valued. Secondly it functions as a retention tool, encouraging people to perhaps stay if they are motivated by more than just money. The potential opportunity to win an Honour or award is slim, but can serve as a tangible means of encouraging someone to stay the course – anyone wavering may find that the announcement of a good job done well could help keep them on course.

For the military in particular, where the fight to retain talent at more senior levels is a real challenge, this is perhaps a valuable reason to keep the system. For mid-level – senior officers (e.g. SO1 and above), the constant appeal of the private sector is out there, with the offer of good financial rewards. These people often have skills that have taken years to develop, and are able to directly support the UK in a way that is not always recognised, but if they didn’t exist would be sorely missed. There is no easy way to keep them, but many officers who are coming up on a tough decision could be perhaps swung by the potential rewards out there.

A common argument raised on sites like ARRSE is that the system doesn’t reward more junior people and that you rarely see Privates or Corporals on the list. Is this unrealistic though – the average Private or Corporal is in an early stage of their career, and while often very capable is usually doing work that is quite proscribed in nature and where there is limited opportunity to exceed expectations. It usually takes many years to get to a point as a non commissioned person where someone is in a post which provides a chance to go beyond the usual roles and really demonstrate how they’ve excelled and contributed to more than just their role.

By contrast some relatively junior officers, by dint of the roles they are required to fill, occasionally find themselves with more freedom of manoeuvre and opportunity to excel in a way which meets the requirement for a State Honour. Whether this is a problem of the system, or a reality that the current military manpower and career structure offers these roles to Officers not junior ranks is less clear. Either way it’s a truism that there are few opportunities for junior ranks to be visibly rewarded at an early stage with a State Honour, but there are plenty of other more local ways of recognising their efforts appropriately.

One wonders too if the UK didn’t have such a system, whether strident efforts would be made to create one – noting that the vast majority of nations these days have some form of state recognition system in place.

So, while its perhaps an annual debate as much part of Christmas as the Turkey or the family arguments to debate the merits of the Honours System, at present it seems to me an effective way of trying to recognise and reward effort in a way that is entirely fitting, even if some feel it is outdated.

On that note, Happy New Year!