Case Study: BT achieves stronger veteran recruitment and retention with NHS Employers

BT - Customer Case Study

BT worked with NHS Employers to address a major recruitment challenge in 2010, when its Openreach division needed a large volume of hires to support the rollout of superfast fibre broadband across the UK. Existing recruitment channels were unlikely to deliver the numbers required, so BT looked for a way to tap into a wider, skilled talent pool.

NHS Employers helped BT recruit from the Armed Forces community through the Career Transition Partnership and the Transition Force mentoring programme, which connected over 250 mentors with service leavers and veterans. BT has since recruited more than 2,500 veterans into Openreach, who now make up around 10% of its engineering workforce, with measurable benefits including lower sickness absence, stronger assessment-day performance, higher promotion rates, longer retention, and reduced performance or discipline-related exits.

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