September, 2015

This Resource Kit is meant to inspire your veteran employee resource group (ERG) to take an active role in the recruiting, retention and development of veterans in your company. It is based on research and best practices that the Families and Work Institute (FWI) has collected and recognized over the years.
To learn more about our current VET spotlight recognition, please visit www.whenworkworks.org.
As a corporate member of FWI, you are entitled to use any and all of these slides in any presentation, as long as you give FWI appropriate attribution.
FWI is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing research for living in today’s changing workplaces, families and communities. More info at familiesandwork.org
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This master deck is divided into the following topics:
• Military – Civilian Transition Landscape
• The Role that Veterans Networks Can Play
• Examples of Veteran Supportive Employer Practices
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14,0%
12,0%
11,6%
11,2%
10,0%
9,6%
10,0%
8,0%
7,2%
6,0%
6,8%
5,4%
6,9%
4,5%
6,2% Oct-13
Oct-14
4,0%
2,0%
0,0%
Civilians overall
All veterans
Gulf War II overall
Gulf War II men
Gulf War II women
Source: U.S Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm
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The Annual Employment Situation of Veterans (2012) 6
Prepared by: Institute for Veterans and Military Families, Syracuse University

Challenges in hiring veterans (MFRI-SVA 2012)
2,6%
10,0%
16,4%
47,7%
No problems
Skills missmatch
Education mismatch
Legal hurdles
Disability or Absences
22,8%
Source: Hitt, S.F. (2012) SVA Leadership Institute Overview. Purdue
University’s Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) and Student Veterans of America (SVA). https://www.mfri.purdue.edu/resources/public/presentations/SVA_Inst_Intro_
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2012July20.pdf

Current economic situation in the U.S.
Explaining how military skills translate
Competing with candidates in workforce longer
Lacking required education
Employers don’t understand or are insensitive
Finding comfort in non-military environment
Employers think veterans don’t have adequate skills
Employers avoid hiring veterans
0%
62%
60%
46%
43%
31%
30%
28%
10% 20%
24%
30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Source: Veterans Employment Challenges; http://www.prudential.com/documents/public/VeteransEmploymentC hallenges.pdf
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• Civilian employers and veterans are struggling with how to systematically overcome the following transition challenges:
• Translating military resumes into civilian skill sets
• Developing civilian job search skills and networks
• Creating and branding veteran supportive workplaces
• Bridging military/civilian culture gaps
• Connecting recruiters with military talent pools
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• More work hours than civilian women but less pay than military men
• Active duty women are 3x more likely to be divorced than men (3% vs.
9%); more single parenthood and opportunity for work-life conflict
• Complex medical arrangements (VA can’t provide family care, and is working on full access to gender-specific care)
• Since VA systems are not calibrated to support families, they must navigate multiple government and military networks for support.
• As of 2009, women veterans were up to 4x more likely to be homeless than nonveteran women and 23% of female veterans in the VA’s homelessness programs had children under 18 years old
Sources: Mulhall, E. (2009). Supporting She ‘Who Has Borne the Battle.’
Washington D.C.: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
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• Identifiable employee community for recruitment, retention, sales and branding purposes
• Clear point of contact for formal and informal cross-cultural exchange
• In-house subject matter experts
• Opportunity for cross-departmental collaboration and creativity
• Benefits of informal mentoring and sponsorship networks
• Humanize work, improving relationships and engagement during and in preparation for active teaming
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• Repeated, positive opportunities for veterans to self-identify
• Standardize involvement in strategic and creative processes
• Imagine greater than identity groups to behaviors and experiences (e.g., heavy machinery)
• Include military families and veterans in company activities
• Connect with local commanders, bases, and community programs
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Act as a Resource to Your Recruiting Team
Help them:
• Evaluate veteran resumes
• Post jobs
• Attend military career transition job fairs
• Connect them to resources on the military experience https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits/jobs
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• Consider opportunities to build civilian/military partnerships that help the business
Example: Bon Secours expanded neurology practice to address PTSD
• Expand focus to onboarding, retention and development
• Streamline processes for entry (e.g. paperwork and certification resources)
• Skills training and relocation adjustment support for military spouses
• Coordinate with other diversity efforts without loosing sight of community specific concerns
• Join with women’s networks on programming for women veterans
Source: 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW),
Families and Work Institute (FWI)
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• Be patient: Innovation is both unpredictable and iterative
• Maintain a diverse mix of HR and business goals
• Take credit for all ideas emerging from member collaboration; not just in community ideas
• Create a mission that applies even if there are no current, major military actions
• Integrate with other ERGs and activities; don’t stand alone
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• Includes specialized supports for problems unique to veterans such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress around caring for a veteran, military reunions and subsequent deployments.
– Cornell University (education services; 10,460 employees in
Ithaca, New York) is currently restructuring its Faculty and Staff
Assistance Program (an EAP) to include a counselor who will have special training in issues facing veterans, including PTSD.
• PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder that can occur after seeing or experiencing a traumatic event involving the threat of injury or death. PTSD is neither an automatic result of military experience nor unique to veterans.
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• Includes pay advances, no interest loans and financial advice/planning to weather changing circumstances and establish a firm financial foundation for civilian life.
– Capital One (financial products and services; 27,000 employees in the U.S.) maintains a Disaster Recovery Grant that can help employees deal with sudden misfortune. After employees file an application describing their needs, Capital One usually responds and provides any awarded funds within 72 hours. The granted funds are not a loan so recipients do not need to worry about paying the money back to their employer.
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• Includes a variety of options about when, where, and how employees work to better manage their professional and personal responsibilities. Veterans confronting complex military benefits processes, seeking treatment for injuries or psychological trauma, or readjusting to child/elder care responsibilities will benefit from these programs.
– Booz Allen Hamilton (business strategy and technology consulting; 25,000 employees globally) offers job-sharing, flexible scheduling, part-time employment and child care services to veterans returning from deployment so they can better manage their responsibilities.
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• Includes additional sick or vacation leave to pursue care or paper work and manage separation and reunion events.
– Homefront Health Care (long-term home health care; 117 employees in Providence, Rhode Island) offered an employee, whose son was injured during military service, an extended leave and other employees were allowed to donate their own accrued time off to further extend the employee’s paid time away from work.
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• Employer-supported child care (i.e., regular, sick and backup care) is an important benefit for all employees but may have special value in the woman veteran population.
– Scottsdale Healthcare subsidizes sick-child care and back-up child care assistance as a low-cost benefit for working parents when a child is ill or when regular child care options are unavailable.
Scottsdale Healthcare also has an on-site child care center for children up to age 5 and provides free child care referral services.
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• Employers with large veteran populations have established veteran affairs liaisons and coordinators who provide assistance with filing military benefits forms and accessing other services.
– Columbia University (education services; 7,738 employees in New York
City, New York) employs a Veterans Affairs Officer to provide support and resources to Columbia’s veteran populations: both students and staff.

• Some veterans will not be able or ready to engage in full-time work all at once. They may need more time to effectively reunite with family, complete a therapy, or otherwise reintegrate into civilian life. Phase-in programs allow veterans to begin working part-time and increase their hours over time to full-time work.
– Nelson Laboratories (a microbiology testing lab; 385 employees in Salt
Lake City, Utah) allows returning veterans to work part-time as they readjust to civilian work.

• Includes veteran and military specific training for civilian recruiters to make them better seekers and judges of military talent.
– Charles Schwab & Co. has implemented its Forward March: Taking the
Next Step With Schwab program, a strategy centering on providing expanded training for Schwab talent advisors and hiring managers in working with service members and their families. The training is focused on helping to translate military resumes and spot key talents and strengths most transferrable to the work done at Schwab.
– Military Job Skills Translators http://www.vetsuccess.gov/military_skills_translators http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/skills-translator/

• Includes the provision of services directly to military members on local bases before they transition. By connecting with veterans before their transition is complete these organizations can deliver advice and mentoring to large groups of future veterans to better prepare them for their transition.
– Northrop Grumman’s Talent Acquisition representatives create customized workshops for service members to address transitioning into the civilian workforce. These workshops include “How to Work a
Job Fair”, “Corporate Cultural Awareness” and “Networking for Career
Development.” These workshops are presented on military installations and at various conferences and recruitment events.

• Relocation is a common requirement for continued advancement in military positions and veterans and civilians married to active duty members will benefit if their civilian employers can accommodate multiple workplaces over the course of their employment. Relocation and remote work arrangements, streamlined job transfer policies and multilocation employment postings can also enhance veterans’ abilities to stay with their civilian employers.
– Skylla Engineering Ltd. (engineering consulting; 17 employees in
Houston, Texas) allows veterans to work remotely so they can remain employed while furthering their military careers.

• Some of the issues women veterans face is due to a lack of consideration of their unique perspectives when setting up systems and branding of those systems. Efforts that integrate gender issues rather than try to be gender neutral will have better overall effects.
– Cornell’s Military Personnel and Veterans Find Success at Cornell video was developed with the special needs of all veterans in mind, and features two female veterans who stress Cornell’s support of family and children, career development, leadership development and Cornell’s strong, tightly knit community. The video also highlights transferrable skills, continued education, with a special focus on women veterans, to support our continued special recruiting efforts.

• Employers can share their resources (financial, material and intellectual) to create or enhance events that specifically address the issues facing women veterans.
– JPMorgan Chase has partnered with the New York Mayor’s office and other major companies to host a day-long symposium for women veterans since 2012. These symposia are tailored for women veterans and cover such topics as resume writing and interviewing skills, dressing for success, money management and networking.
– JPMorgan Chase partnered with Syracuse University to host the
Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-Wise) conference in June 2014. The conference provides women veterans the tools to become successful entrepreneurs.

• The When Work Works Award recognizes model employers of all types and sizes across the U.S. for their innovative and effective workplace practices. The Awards are part of a research-based initiative to highlight how effective and flexible workplaces can yield positive business results and help employees succeed at work and at home.
• Check out the 2014 winners at: http://www.whenworkworks.org/beeffective/2014-when-work-works-awardwinners-state-by-state
• Apply online at: http://www.whenworkworks.org/apply-now
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