Employer branding, recruitment marketing and the Bundeswehr
In February of this year the following headline appeared in the FAZ:
“The Bundeswehr needs 20,000 new soldiers. There is a gaping personnel gap in the armed forces, not least because the service is strenuous and dangerous. Where are most of the vacancies – and who dares to fill them?”¹
The situation
For a good two years now there has been talk of the “Zeitenwende” – the turning point. The informed citizen² and the defence industry alike keep glancing at the clock, hoping to spot reliable signs of a lasting turnaround in time. Admittedly, some issues have been tackled and changes made to procurement.
But the special fund that was called into being with the Zeitenwende – and then counted into the defence budget – is finite. What happens afterwards? The FAZ again:
“It is considered one of the coalition’s greatest riddles: how can Germany meet its NATO commitment once the Bundeswehr special fund is exhausted?”³
An even greater riddle: how can Germany’s parliamentary army fulfil its core mission – national and alliance defence – when the Bundeswehr is increasingly short of soldiers?
It has long been time for us to address the above-mentioned “personnel gap” in public debate as well – a gap which is not a gap at all, but an ever-widening hole that threatens the Bundeswehr’s capabilities.
Warfare, and with it our defence readiness, is certainly changing through new technologies; the war in Ukraine is not the only proof of that.⁴ Yet even the most modern technologies must be operated and deployed by people, and positional warfare in particular – with excellent reconnaissance on both sides and approximate technological parity – is ultimately decided by soldiers.⁵
Looking beyond our own borders I: the allies
Of course, other armies too must learn to adapt to a changing applicant market, demographic developments and generational models. The US Republicans find their armed forces too “woke”⁶, the British recruit with humour⁷ and then somehow seem intent on abolishing themselves.⁸
Each “national, historical and cultural” starting point is naturally an individual one. In design and content, however, the American⁹, French¹⁰ and German applicant landing pages¹¹ are not dissimilar. The Bundeswehr site is perhaps somewhat more artificial, evidently presented in a better light. More on that shortly.
But our environment is also different. The Bundeswehr is not, by our very historical understanding, a globally deployed army sent out from a claim to power in order to dominate and sanction in conflicts. The principle of Innere Führung – leadership and civic education – places our soldiers at the heart of our society.¹²
And of course we would also still like our soldiers to be able to read and understand a service regulation without it having to be illustrated like a comic. A mature, critical citizen in uniform who is aware that this is no ordinary profession!
In the days of a conscript army there was little need to give much thought to “employer attractiveness”. Many conscripts, whatever their career path, came into contact with the Bundeswehr through conscription and subsequently signed up as temporary-career or regular soldiers. And now it is back: the debate about conscription.¹³
Looking beyond our own borders II: the private sector
When, more than 20 years ago, application numbers gradually fell – essentially owing to demographic change – companies across all sectors began to react to counter this shift. Training and further education transformed into personnel development and talent management, career paths were levelled and the first employer branding processes launched. As an inherent change within companies, a shift in culture and self-understanding took place in HR departments. Administrators learned to shape – or were succeeded by those who could. “Makers and changers” such as Thomas Sattelberger, Margret Suckale or Uwe Loof (to name explicitly just a few¹⁴) increasingly influenced the emerging HR scene and with it the self-image of the former personnel clerk, now HR manager.
HR has developed the ambition to move from necessary implementer – driven by the many change processes – to decision-maker and business partner on an equal footing! Not everything is ideal, of course, and HR is sometimes still cast in the role of “the driven”; yet HR now also occupies the “conquered” role of strategic partner to the executive board, or even becomes the board itself – see Oliver Burkhard as CEO of tkms.¹⁵
The new challenges are now called “New Work 4.0”, “Human Performance” and “Human Sustainability”.
“Human performance and outcomes for people will become the central benchmarks for corporate progress. Only with a consistently people-centred approach to corporate leadership will it be possible to create above-average value,”
writes Deloitte in its Human Capital Trends 2024.¹⁶
HR is both pacemaker and differentiator for companies of (and in) the future!
What is happening in the Bundeswehr
Well, since 18 April 2024 we have had a new Director-General for Personnel at the Ministry of Defence in Ms Oda Döring, previously Director and Deputy Director-General at the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Personnel Management (BAPersBw), and in Surgeon General Dr Nicole Schilling her future deputy.¹⁷
Both have many years of experience in HR functions within the armed forces administration. But does this appointment change the Bundeswehr’s personnel situation?
Dr Schilling is currently still Vice-President of the BAPersBw and – with some changes – has been entrusted with HR matters since 2005 as personnel officer for medical officer candidates at the former PersABw. Ms Döring was, as noted above, Deputy Director-General at the BAPersBw.
The official statement reads:
“Döring takes over the post from Lieutenant General Klaus von Heimendahl, who had headed the directorate since May 2018. … At the same time there will also be changes in the leadership of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Personnel Management in Cologne. On 18 April 2024 Brigadier General Robert Sieger becomes the new President of the Federal Office. The Deputy Commander of the Leadership Development and Civic Education Centre succeeds Sabine Grohmann, who had held the office since 2018.
Since August 2023 Döring and Sieger have led the Task Force Personnel, which, on behalf of Minister Pistorius, developed rapidly implementable immediate measures by the end of 2023 to address current challenges in recruitment and retention. Many of the solutions have already been set in motion; others are being implemented. The dynamism and direction of personnel management are essential parameters for growing the Bundeswehr’s personnel body. Together, the new leadership team will use the current momentum, face the challenges and continue the successful work in new functions in order to achieve the primary goal – to recruit, retain and develop personnel for the Bundeswehr.”¹⁸
All clear? – Dynamism, direction and current momentum for growing the personnel body … one could hardly put it more concretely when it comes to finding professionally and personally suitable, motivated applicants in a world in which so many other attractive employers are courting the “best minds”. Applicants who will later stand up for this special profession with their lives.
Is this manner of expression perhaps an expression of the overall situation? Is the personnel organisation, owing to its internal “diversity”, perhaps losing sight of the applicant (the external customer?)?
This organisational complexity of the Ministry and its subordinate agencies is also apparent on the Bundeswehr’s recruitment pages¹⁹: “Career radar – take the strengths test” (and bring plenty of time, patience and forbearance); “Career barracks – experience the world of the Bundeswehr”. The clicks that follow under the heading “Follow your calling” lead into infinite expanses … and show the diversity of opportunities as a member of the Bundeswehr. A bit of play, a bit of adventure, a bit of technology, a bit of soldier …
It is the year 2024, German soldiers are deployed worldwide, and the Bundeswehr’s “target strength” for 2024 was set at 198,000 soldiers back in 2017.²⁰ Looking at the actual development, however, we observe a continuous, if slight, decline in numbers since 2020. As of 29 February 2024 there were 181,811 soldiers (including 10,700 voluntary military service personnel).²¹
Employer branding at the Bundeswehr?
The Bundeswehr publication “Im Visier” reported at length in issue 17/Winter 2021 under the heading “The Bundeswehr’s employer branding”.²² An excitingly colourful review of six years of employer communication and numerous, varied HR campaigns.
It began in 2015 with the slogan “We also fight so that you can be against us” in the central campaign “Do what really counts.” The tone was combative; perhaps the phrase “war for talents” was still in mind. Issue 01 of “Im Visier”, spring 2016, spoke of “The battle for high potentials”, with a focus on “digital forces”.²³ The Bundeswehr’s (still current) personnel strategy of 2016 likewise speaks of “objectives and thrusts”²⁴ – more on that below.
Do you remember Gamescom 2018? The Bundeswehr wanted to imitate the language of gamers: “Multiplayer at its best” was emblazoned next to soldiers, and criticism rained down. It also drew attention.²⁵ Or the campaign “Die Rekruten” with the Bundeswehr YouTube series of the same name – award-winning, no less?²⁶ There followed “Mali”, “Biwak”, “Unbesiegt”, “Die Rekrutinnen” et cetera; the above-mentioned issue of “Im Visier” offers a good overview on pages 10 and 11.
The campaigns of recent years come from the pens of the Düsseldorf agency Castenow Communications, which writes: “The black box Bundeswehr becomes an attractive employer in the relevant set of young people.”²⁷
Employer branding, however, is to be understood not merely as a mix of outward-facing marketing measures, but as the purposeful interplay of cultural employer identity and employer brand strategy²⁸ – or as a concept of brand-building to present a company as a whole as an attractive employer.²⁹ And so the Bundeswehr’s garish bouquet of campaigns is irritating. Would a single rose not make more sense? Is recruitment marketing – one of the tools of external employer branding – being confused here with employer branding itself?
The direction of recruitment marketing
If, since 2015, the Bundeswehr has been advertising for applicants so prolifically while at the same time its personnel worries are growing, two questions arise: firstly, whether these campaigns are reaching their respective target groups, and secondly, whether these are in fact the target groups the Bundeswehr needs as applicants.
Marketing expert Christian Rechmann has written an interesting piece on this that at least prompts reflection on the target-group orientation of the campaigns.³⁰ He defines the target groups as women (since female soldiers are still under-represented), experts, and the professionally undecided.
But how does the Bundeswehr itself define the target groups for its campaigns? Looking at the current Bundeswehr personnel strategy³¹, adopted under the then Minister von der Leyen, section 2.2 reads:
“In the military domain there is a shortage above all of specialists; particularly affected are the career paths of sergeants in the general technical service and, increasingly, of specialist NCOs in technical, IT and medical fields. In addition there is a shortage of personnel in areas with particularly demanding physical requirements.”
At the end of the section one reads:
“Solving the problems of meeting personnel requirements in shortage areas, and above all in technical, IT and health professions, thus becomes even more important.”
This is supplemented at the close of section 3.2:
“The Bundeswehr therefore aims to open up to further target groups: to people over the age of 30 as candidates for military careers and, beyond that, to applicants who could not previously be integrated directly into an employment or training relationship, e.g. for lack of formal qualifications, but who have suitable potential.”
In summary, the target groups are therefore specialists from the technical, IT and health sectors, people over 30 for military careers, and potential applicants lacking formal qualifications. Do “Career radar” and “Die Rekruten” fit these actual target groups at all? Applicant numbers for the officer and enlisted career paths appear to be fine, according to Surgeon General Dr Schilling in an interview.³²
A leadership weakness?
Why, then, has the Bundeswehr spent, and why does it continue to spend, some 34 to 35 million euros a year on recruitment advertising³³ that is largely tailored to young people and their familiar media environment?³⁴
There is the role of a “Head of Employer Branding and Social Media of the Bundeswehr” (the function is currently called “Deputy Head of Employer Branding Department”), who in 2020 spoke enthusiastically about Bundeswehr marketing: “It was a big experiment for us […] we succeeded in making the Bundeswehr the talk of the playground at many schools.”³⁵ Well, that’s something …
This colourful marketing bouquet, like the personnel strategy mentioned above, dates from a time when the Ministry of Defence was, quite literally, poorly advised at times, when internal inertia met external consultants and the Ministry came close to breaking point.³⁶ Combine this state of affairs with the structural sprawl of the change-resistant “bloated bureaucracy” at the Ministry³⁷ and you have at least one explanation for what is described above.³⁸ Page 2 of the paper just cited: “encrusted and cumbersome structures and excessive bureaucratisation [at the Ministry]”.
If we allow ourselves the assumption that this is one of the main causes of the absence of employer branding (in the sense of the common definitions) and of a poorly targeted marketing mix, then hopes now rest on Ms Oda Döring and Dr Schilling as the new heads of personnel at the Ministry of Defence!
The common thread
The starting point is the need to recruit sufficient qualified applicants for the target groups in IT-related fields, in the medical service and for the NCO career path (with completed vocational training), given the departure of temporary-career soldiers. Here the Bundeswehr is in fierce competition with the private sector. Added to this are the needs of areas with particularly demanding physical requirements and personnel for the announced and necessary growth of the Bundeswehr.
The characteristics of the profession of “soldier” are – alongside the variety of tasks, challenges and technology – the particular psychological and physical strains of deployment and the consequence of standing up for this service with one’s life. That sets the soldier’s profession apart from all others. Of course, putting health and life on the line is only a contingency, but in our current geopolitical situation this can quickly become reality.
It is necessary to engage fundamentally – and far from the video-game authenticity practised so far³⁹ – with the employer identity of the Bundeswehr, to develop employer branding built on it, and in marketing campaigns to present the particularities of the profession of Bundeswehr soldier (in its unique diversity) as the unique selling point. Authentic, lived, and not as a marketing instrument.
Furthermore, it is necessary to structure and anchor the personnel (HR) function in future in such a way that it becomes possible to adapt proactively to the societal changes that may affect the Bundeswehr’s personnel structure. In addition, there are numerous measures to anchor the Bundeswehr further and more deeply in society – think of youth officers, for example.
An exciting and special field of work!
Why does an executive search consultant write about employer branding?
As an executive search consultant specialising in defence and aerospace, my team and I are mainly concerned with filling business-critical positions; yet the cultural employer identity of your company is always a co-decisive factor in filling leadership positions.
A key focus of our work is therefore to get to know and understand candidates in their individual personality in such a way that, even before recommending them for your vacancy, we can ensure that this “cultural fit” exists. This means identifying fundamentally suitable people and then engaging intensively and individually with each candidate, each personality – and giving these candidates the opportunity to get to know the client’s culture in outline beforehand.
A sustainable approach that has given me great pleasure personally over the past 13 years in defence and aerospace and has enabled me to build a large network. And of course we are also at your side in an advisory capacity on topics such as employer identity, employer branding and recruitment marketing!
It’s a people business!
Thorsten Schneider
Talk to us. connect@focus-defence.de · +49 30 5444 5899
Sources (as of spring 2024; mostly in German)
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/schneller-schlau/bundeswehr-braucht-20-000-soldaten-wo-die-meisten-stellen-offen-sind-19493030.html
All genders are always meant; the form used serves only for simplicity.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/mehr-wirtschaft/bundeswehr-sondervermoegen-reicht-nicht-wie-geht-es-fuer-deutschland-weiter-19641487.html
Cf. https://www.nzz.ch/technologie/neue-technologien-im-krieg
Cf. https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/ukraine-krieg-mobilisierungsplaene-100.html
https://www.nzz.ch/international/wokeness-ist-schwaeche-ist-das-us-militaer-noch-manns-genug-ld.1721928
https://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/job/verrueckte-snowflakes-kampagne-ist-ein-voller-erfolg-fuer-die-britische-armee-8575960.html
https://www.bernerzeitung.ch/die-britische-armee-ist-in-einem-miserablen-zustand-937179574441
https://www.goarmy.com
https://www.sengager.fr
https://www.bundeswehrkarriere.de
https://www.bundeswehr.de/de/ueber-die-bundeswehr/selbstverstaendnis-bundeswehr/innere-fuehrung
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/wehrpflicht-bundeswehr-104.html
https://www.haufe.de/media/die-40-fuehrenden-koepfe-im-personalwesen-2007_416248.html
https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/de/unternehmen/management/oliver-burkhard
Deloitte, Human Capital Trends 2024 (https://bit.ly/4b4giAt)
https://esut.de/2024/04/meldungen/featured/48959/neuer-wind-fuer-die-personalfuehrung/
https://www.bmvg.de/de/presse/neues-fuehrungsteam-bereich-personal-5773064
https://www.bundeswehrkarriere.de
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/verteidigungsministerium-bundeswehr-soll-auf-knapp-200-000-soldaten-vergroessert-werden-1.3389114
https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/495515/umfrage/personalbestand-der-bundeswehr/
https://www.bmvg.de/resource/blob/5355516/759abc2f591f06849e0879e24bbc2298/im-visier-17-winter-2021-data.pdf
https://www.bmvg.de/resource/blob/30072/7f7ebf2f07bc3162f5f1b29e7e505805/im-visier-01-fruehjahr-2016-data.pdf
https://www.bmvg.de/resource/blob/11270/62cd3f62196935559a1cb4228315fe17/c-18-07-17-download-personalstrategie-data.pdf, p. 15
https://www.faz.net/pro/d-economy/bundeswehr-provoziert-zur-gamescom-mit-werbeplakaten-15751777.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Rekruten
https://www.castenow.de/cases/bundeswehr-arbeitgeberimage-mit-1-youtube-reality-doku
https://www.employerbranding.org/glossar/employer-branding
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employer_Branding
https://for-sale.de/die-human-ressource-kampagne-der-bundeswehr-was-wirklich-zaehlt/
https://www.bmvg.de/resource/blob/11270/62cd3f62196935559a1cb4228315fe17/c-18-07-17-download-personalstrategie-data.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHz5Irv00T4, from min. 7:00
https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/19/284/1928412.pdf
https://betweencounterstrikeandcamaraderie.home.blog
https://www.absatzwirtschaft.de/bundeswehr-marketing-das-war-fuer-uns-ein-grosses-experiment-225862/
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/bundeswehr-berater-von-der-leyen-1.4796305
https://www.dbwv.de/aktuelle-themen/schwerpunktthemen/reformen/beitrag/reformvorschlaege-der-fdp-kampf-dem-wasserkopf
https://img.welt.de/bin/FDP-Reformpapier_bn-225656231.pdf
https://www.castenow.de/cases/bundeswehr-back2school-finde-den-job-der-wirklich-zu-dir-passt