Induction Insight from the Chief Executive

A few weeks ago I attended the DIO Corporate Induction event along with several other people who had recently joined DIO. The day’s session was really interesting and I was grateful for the opportunity to listen to new colleagues talk about their reasons for joining the organisation and their experiences of DIO so far.

Portrait of Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) Chief Executive, Mr Dave Mitchard. [Crown Copyright/MOD2015] — Portrait of Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) Chief Executive, Mr Dave Mitchard.
Photographed outside MoD Main Building, London. [Crown Copyright/MOD2015]

The DIO Corporate Induction event is designed to welcome new staff to the organisation and to provide some insight into how DIO works, both as an individual organisation and as part of a wider Government department. Since joining DIO as the Chief Executive I have been very fortunate to gain a good, broad overview of the different business areas within DIO and how they all work together from my day-to-day interactions with staff and stakeholders. For this reason I imagine I had a slight advantage over some of the other participants, whose work is often very focused on one particular area of the organisation. The Induction event provided participants with a view of the bigger picture and ultimately explained how the disparate parts of DIO work with each other, as well as with the rest of the MOD and other relevant stakeholders.

Connecting with the Military

I’m sure it was interesting for the other participants to see the breadth of DIO’s operations and how we deliver for Defence on a daily basis. One of the great advantages of the session was how it reinforced the connection between what we do and how that impacts on our Service personnel – from providing them with housing to maintaining their runways; from monitoring their training exercises to building them new gyms and medical facilities.

DIO building accommodation at the new Defence Technical Training College Lyneham. [Crown Copyright/MOD2015]

What we do can sometimes feel a bit removed from the Front Line, so it was good to see people being shown exactly how DIO’s work can, and does, have a direct impact in enabling our Service personnel to live, work, train and deploy on operations.

History of DIO

The session also covered other areas relevant to new starters, such as the Civil Service Code and military equivalent, and DIO’s history and vision. The session was interactive, including presentations, videos, exercises and quizzes, which helped to reinforce what we had learnt.

If you are unaware of the history of DIO, here’s a quick rundown for you to provide some context:

DIO was established in April 2011 following the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review and the Defence Reform Review led by Lord Levene. His recommendations led to the MOD being restructured to operate more efficiently and effectively.

DIO's logo. [Crown Copyright]

DIO brought the management of Defence infrastructure together under a single organisation for the first time. Staff who had previously managed infrastructure from other parts of the MOD joined DIO.

These changes resulted in a single organisation with a strategic overview of the infrastructure across the defence estate, from RAF stations, Army barracks and naval bases to the thousands of square miles, both in the UK and overseas, which forms the Defence training estate. Of course we work closely with the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and Joint Forces Command and there are regular meetings at a high level to discuss their requirements and what we can deliver. Understanding this really helps staff to appreciate their role in the bigger picture and how what they do every day helps deliver for defence.

Induction Insight from the Chief Executive

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