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The chairmen of telecoms giant BT and insurer Norwich Union have stressed the importance of employers supporting workers who join the reserve forces.

Both Sir Christopher Bland of BT and Norwich Union's Patrick Snowball are today visiting employees of their respective companies in Basra, Iraq.

Ahead of his visit Mr Snowball insisted reservists were an "integral" part of Britain's armed forces, describing their contribution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as "absolutely vital".

"If you look at the fact that currently six per cent of the troops in theatre are reservists they are an integral part of the services," he told BBC Radio Five Live's Wake up to Money.

"Therefore it is absolutely vital, particularly for large employers, to give as much support and encouragement as we possibly can to people who are either deciding to join or who have already joined the reserve forces."

But he also acknowledged that for smaller employees, reservists could be "disruptive".

"The burden, if that is the right word, should fall quite rightly on the larger employer who can release people more easily than the small ones," he proposed.

More than 13,000 British reservists have been deployed in Iraq since US-led coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.