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Can We Win The Afghan War?

22 January, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Apparently the Afghan police have an attrition rate approaching 25%. Consequently there is huge pressure to recruit, just to keep the numbers up.

The Afghan authorities have clear policies about who makes a suitable recruit, but tragically these are not being followed. On the 3rd November 5 British soldiers and 2 Afghani police officers were killed when a Taliban fighter who had infiltrated the police force turned his gun on them.

According to New American Media: “At the heart of these attacks lies a frightening commonality: poor screening of police and army applicants. Apparently, all it takes to join these forces is an easily forged National Identity Card and at least one working leg.”

Fortunately for most of us recruitment is not a matter of life or death, but what is the point of having policies if you don’t have process controls in place to follow them?

Image by afgmatters

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: process control, recruitment

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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