• For employers: Insights to recruiting and retaining military, as well as an overview of translating military culture and values to civilian.
• For veterans: Insider (read: recruiter-provided) information on how to apply for jobs and translate military skills to civilian nomenclature and adapt to a civilian work environment.

First, the bad news:  Low employer attendance.  I counted roughly 35 people in the room (once the sessions split into their tracks), but that included the speakers and their entourages, a number of vendors offering military-placement services, and SHRM supporting staff.  So the number of actual employers/HR professionals in attendance was probably closer to 20.  I feel this had a lot to do with limited promotion of the event, not lack of employer interest. I didn’t find out about the event until about 30 days earlier – and all I do is talk to employers about hiring military, so you might think I’d be in the know about these things .  For those HR professionals who made their flight arrangements early, it would have been tough (and expensive) to change plans under short notice, no matter how interested a person was to hear the information.

The good news (and there is a lot of it):

• SHRM President and CEO Lon O’Neil, who attended the opening event, committed to the group that SHRM is going to offer this event each year at the annual conference.   So mark your calendars now for Vegas, baby!  June 26-29, 2011 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Expect to see details on the agenda and the dates/times of the military event by late January.
• The keynote speaker for the event, Raymond  Jefferson, the Assistant Secretary for the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) at the U.S. Department of Labor, knocked it out of the park.  Click here to see a highlight video of the event (Ray’s remarks begin at 6:18).  Impassioned, dynamic and charismatic – Ray had several calls to action for the HR professionals in attendance.  The two that I think are most beneficial to this readership:
• He asked employers to take advantage of the free services of the more than 2000 Local Veteran Employment Representatives (LVERs) and Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists across the US whose job it is to connect veterans in transition with employers looking to hire military.  To find your local LVER or DVOP go to America’s Service Locator to locate the One-Stop Career Center nearest you.
• He announced a new veteran-specific demonstration project in partnership with Job Corps, another Department of Labor initiative.

In case you are not familiar with Job Corps, it recruits, provides free education and career training and placement services to over 60,000 students ages 16-24 annually.

VETs (Ray’s office) and Job Corps are partnering in a demonstration project that will provide Job Corps’ comprehensive array of career development services to eligible veterans 20 to 24 years old to prepare them for successful careers.  This is an accelerated, customized program developed specifically for veterans. This program recognizes the maturity and life experience that veterans have gained from their military experience

Up to 300 service members can participate in this demonstration.  This is a fully-funded, all-expense-paid demonstration project which includes transportation to and from the Job Corps center, housing, meals, basic medical services, academic and career technical training, bi-weekly living allowance, and job placement and post-graduation support.

Career technical training options include, but are not limited to:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Automotive and Machine Repair
• Construction
• Finance and Business
• Healthcare
• Homeland Security
• Hospitality
• Information Technology
• Renewable Resources and Energy
• Retail Sales and Services
• Transportation

Upon completion of training, Veterans will be assigned to a career transition counselor to assist them with job placement or enrollment in higher education.

Veterans always have the option to enroll in Job Corps training programs at any of the 123 Job Corps Centers across the US; however, this veteran-specific program, while in its year-long demonstration/pilot phase is being run out of only 3 Job Corps Centers:

1. Atterbury Job Corps Center in Edinburgh, Indiana;
2. Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center in Morganfield, Kentucky; and
3. Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

Veterans:  To  enroll click here go to the Job Corps recruitment site

The enrollment at any of those three centers will be open and continuous until a center reaches 100 Veterans. It is expected that Veteran participants will be enrolling and graduating at various rates. Although Job Corps has set aside 300 slots for the demonstration project, actual participation during the year may exceed that number due to the continuous enrollment.   By the end of the demo year DOL wants to show demand for the program and its effectiveness so they can look to expand it.

So, here is my call to action to employers & higher education institutions:

Having a bunch of really well trained, highly-experienced veterans sitting around unemployed is not going to demonstrate a successful program.  The Job Corps wants to partner with you to make this veteran-specific program a success.

HOW you can partner:

• Internships: Job Corps offers many work-based learning programs and they need employers to offer those internship opportunities.  It’s a Win-Win for all parties:  The veteran gets to demonstrate his/her exceptional skills in a civilian environment; the employer gets a skilled intern at no cost, and has first dibs when it’s time to hire.
• Entry-level hiring: If you are hiring now or anticipate hiring in the next 6-12 months for entry-level positions, the Job Corps will screen eligible students to give you the best possible candidates.  Build a relationship NOW with your local Job Corps contacts to better position your company at the top of the list when the veteran-students graduate from their programs.
• Degree Programs: Some Job Corps centers have cooperative agreements with community colleges or related institutions to teach career area courses or to have individual students take courses to gain college credit. Job Corps will also work with students to help them transfer into college programs when appropriate.  Colleges/Universities: If you are not currently partnered with your local Job Corps Center, get on the band wagon now, in advance of this program being rolled out nation-wide.

WHY you should partner:

• Training tailored to your company’s needs: Your company can establish a training partnership with Job Corps.  Job Corps will specifically tailor their programs to teach the skills your company is looking for in its employees.  For example, Walgreens has a Pharmacy Technician training program offered in a number of Job Corps centers.
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Hiring veterans through this program can save you money at tax time by earning you tax credits under the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program.  Refer to the two earlier blogs I wrote on how to apply for the WOTC.

For complete details including brochures and fact sheets on the program go to http://www.dol.gov/vets/jc-info.htm .

And, lastly, for my VOSB/SDVOB readers out there:  Job Corps spends $1.2B on operational, construction and rehabilitation contracts.   A quick search on Federal Business Opportunities for Department of Labor/Employment Training Administration (which runs Jobs Corps) shows over 500 active requests for proposals posted in the last 90 days.  Also, Job Corps is considering re-implementing the mentor-protégée program that will enable young entrepreneurs specifically veteran and service disabled veteran owned small business leaders to learn the Job Corps business model and how they can prepare their businesses to grow and prosper in this environment.

Lisa Rosser

The Value Of a Veteran

www.TheValueOfaVeteran.com

These lines sum up the article: “Veterans reentering the civilian workforce are increasingly finding a warm welcome. That’s especially true for young officers who have led combat units on the front lines. According to headhunters, human resources executives, and business school admissions officers, these candidates — most in their late 20s or early 30s, with a college degree and leadership experience far beyond that of their civilian peers — are stars waiting to happen.

Whatever one may think of the wars they have been sent to fight, there’s no question that these people can lead. And they are products of a military that has now learned, in response to unconventional warfare, to value independent and adaptive thinking.”

Korn Ferry previously studied the ability of military-experienced talent to translate their skills and training to business leadership and found “Companies led by (military-experienced) CEOs delivered higher average returns than the S&P 500 index over the one, three, five and ten-year horizons.”

While I have seen indications that some agencies have established an office, I haven’t (yet) seen more OBVIOUS evidence on any agency career site that their VEPO exists and is open for business.  And, when I say OBVIOUS I mean a “can’t miss it” link or graphic on the agency career home page that says “Veterans – click here for direct assistance in finding a career at Agency X”.   I’d also like to see a full list of agency VEPO’s with links made available via the FedsHireVets.gov website so veterans have one place to find this kind of information.

(And, speaking of the FedsHireVets.gov website – it just updated its site on Jan 21^st.  Now it has lots of good basic information in one location for both veterans and federal HR practitioners and hiring managers – go check it out.)

To have an OBVIOUS link on the career home page is not such an odd request.  Most of the agency career sites (see a few examples here such as the Department of State, Department of Justice, and Department of Treasury) have a special link for college students, with a page full of information directed toward them on internships and special programs (such as fellowships and clerking opportunities).  Why not add a veteran link from the main career page which lands on an information page targeted at veterans?

Having an OBVIOUS link for veterans on a career homepage with a veteran-specific landing page is a “best practice” tactic I advocate in my Marketing to Attract the Military Applicant web seminar and my employer’s guide to hiring military.  Most of the civilian companies on the G.I. Jobs Top 100 Military Friendly Employers annual list and the CivilianJobs.com Most Valuable Employers for Military employ this tactic, and clearly they have proven their success and experience in attracting veterans to their organizations.

All employers (civilian or government) who want to attract military veteran applicants have to remember that this is a group of people who, while having a tremendous amount of valuable job skills and training, do not have experience in navigating a civilian/federal applicant tracking system.

Rarely does a military person have to “apply” for a job while in the military.  We can express our preferences for where we would like to be stationed, and the higher in rank we are the more room we have for negotiation on types of assignments we’d like to accept, but at the end of the day we go where we are told to go (that’s why it’s called an “assignment”).  In the military we are centrally managed by a group of human resource professionals who know where the job openings are and have access to service members job performance records and basic resume-like information (education, training, previous jobs completed, etc.).  With that information these HR professionals create a list of service men/women who meet the requirements of the upcoming vacancy and who are also in a position to move to their next assignment.  The magic happens from there.   So, you can see why navigating a civilian/federal job site can be overwhelming and frustrating.  Taking that seemingly small step of creating an OBVIOUS link and a veteran-specific landing page makes the whole process easier and less daunting.  It also demonstrates that your organization wants to attract military and wants veterans to apply.

One closing thought, just for our Federal employers:  The government has a web site called StudentJobs.Gov which lists jobs, internships, scholarships, fellowships, grants, apprenticeships and cooperative education within the Federal Government.  I don’t know that we need a VeteranJobs.Gov just yet, since for the most part we can apply to anything in USAJobs.gov.  But, if the government decides to get creative and start offering internships, on-the-job training programs, management trainee programs, fellowships, etc. just for veterans, then it should consider creating it.

I posted a link to Executive Order #13518 “Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government” as a discussion item in about two dozen different veteran groups on LinkedIn.  I was curious to see what kind of response news of this order and its “Veterans Employment Initiative” would generate.  Reaction fell into one of three categories:

1. Roughly 10% of the respondents were very excited to hear this news.  I’ll call this group “The Inexperienced Innocents.”  This group was comprised primarily of service members who will be transitioning from the military in the next few months and looking for employment.  They have not yet tried to navigate the federal job world, but they trust that, somehow, this order will make the federal job hunt experience one that is simple, expedient, full of feedback, and generally not frustrating.
2. Almost 80% of respondents fell into the category of “The Scorned Skeptics”.  These veterans have “been there – done that – couldn’t even get a d*mn t-shirt because I never heard back from anyone regarding any job I ever applied for on USAjobs.”  Phrases like “lip service”, “smoke and mirrors” and “just trying to look like they support veterans” were common.  The tales these veterans told of frustrated job searches were soul crushing.  Somewhat surprising was the number of former service members with easily transferrable experience (i.e., healthcare, transportation, and logistics) who were unable to find a job within the government.
3. The final 10% I’ll call “The Reservedly Optimistic”.  That is the category into which I fall.  The folks in this category tended to be those who currently work or have experience with corporate recruiting practices.  We know the current system does not work well for veterans (or, arguably, anyone who doesn’t already have a federal job).  However, we also know that systems can be improved.

I know personally of the frustrations veterans experience with breaking into the federal job scene.  Back in 2005 my husband spent almost 9 months applying for government positions before he gave up.  If someone with solid technical/IT/telecommunications skills (both military and civilian), a current top secret clearance, and Washington DC area residence couldn’t find work anywhere in the federal government, what hope should anyone else have?

So, President Obama, the burning question all respondents want to ask is “What will be done differently this time?”

As evidenced by my depressing statistic of 80% Scorned Skeptics, simply coming up with a slick marketing campaign that tells the veteran community “the government wants to hire you!” is not going to persuade us that this is more than lip service.  Change does not come easily to those who are entrenched in a comfort zone. You will have to convince, nay, motivate, the Department of Labor, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Office of Personnel Management, and all 24+ members of the Council on Veterans Employment to think “outside the box”.  They must be willing to look for and try best practices from corporate recruiting and retention initiatives, in particular those veteran hiring initiatives that civilian companies have undertaken that have had much success.  If the companies listed on G.I. Jobs “Top 100 Military Friendly Employers” and CivilianJobs.com’s Most Valuable Employers (MVE) for Military can figure out how be successful at hiring military veterans, I think the federal government can be open to learning something from them.

As I have spent the last two years educating civilian employers, federal hiring managers, and college/university human resource professionals on how to develop and implement a military hiring initiative, I feel uniquely qualified to offer you some of my personal suggestions:

• Allow federal HR professionals to more aggressively search for the right candidates.  This is opposed to passively posting a job opening on USAjobs, waiting for 400 applications to come in, and then sifting through them to find the one diamond in a pile of coal.  Civilian recruiters actively seek out (though the use of social networking sites, Internet Boolean searches and data mining multiple resume databases) potential ideal candidates for their openings and “push” jobs to them rather than using the “pull” method described above.
• Allow those companies with extensive experience in placing military veterans with civilian employers to assist you in this effort while you train your current HR practitioners/recruiters how to do that kind of work.  Corporations know that when they don’t have a particular knowledge area or ability it often makes good business sense to bring in outside experts (short or long term) in order to ramp up quickly and get the hiring machine moving.
• Motivate federal recruiters and hiring managers to utilize the hiring tools they already have. The government has veteran hiring preferences, several special approval authorities just for veterans and special schedules that allow a tremendous amount of flexibility when traditional competitive hiring procedures are not feasible or practical.  Hiring managers can choose to use any or all of these to simplify and bypass the standard route to employment.  The number of veterans hired under these approving authorities is quite low.   Is that condition because hiring managers don’t know they have these tools, don’t know when to apply them, don’t know how to apply them, or is it because they choose, for whatever reason, not to use them?   Human beings are motivated by two things: fear and reward.  Civilian companies figured out a long time ago that incentivizing their employees to do things increases compliance and productivity.
• Add creative training experiences, such as internships and on-the-job training programs, designed just for veterans as vehicles to bring them into the federal government.  Civilian employers have been using these kinds of programs for decades, with the shift in emphasis now going to “experienced” applicants vs. the more traditional college students.
• Invest in creating better career websites for the agencies.  Include things like “chat with a recruiter”, informational web seminars on “working at Agency X”, videos on a “day in the life at Department Y”.  How about a skills cross walk – “if you did this in the military, you may want to consider these careers in Agency Z”.
• Come up with a comprehensive campaign to market federal jobs to the military. Outreach takes on many forms.  Take a look at your own military service recruiting sites (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps) for great examples on how to go “above and beyond” the norm to recruit.  And, really work with the Veteran Service Organizations to get the word out and to develop a pipeline of referrals.  The VSO’s will either be your strongest allies or your worst detractors, depending on how you approach and integrate them into the initiative.  And, don’t forget to include the professional military associations such as the Military Officers Association of America and the National Guard Association of the United States.
• Change the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) policy that places a time limit on how long a veteran can use the services of transition centers.  Currently, active duty service members (or reserve component members who are on active duty) have 180 days after separation to use the services of a transition center.  Given that it takes 6-12 months on average for veterans to find jobs, why is the service window so short?  Take a lesson learned from colleges and universities – generally their alumni can use their career service centers indefinitely after graduation.  And, why don’t we have career services support for reserve component members who have not recently served on active duty?  Lack of close access to a transition center can easily be mitigated.  Many civilian career counselors/coaches offer their services virtually (i.e., via web seminar, over the phone, via computer/chat/IM, etc.) so, inability to council Guard and Reserve members face-to-face should not be an excuse. 
• Provide more robust services in the area of military resume writing, especially federal resume writing.  Feedback I’ve received directly from transitioning military members is that they are not getting the guidance they need and the follow up they want so desperately from the transition centers.  And the “military friendly” recruiters I’ve spoken with say that the quality of the resumes is still very poor.  That those recruiters are still able to successfully find and hire great military candidates is due in large part to the effort they have made to educate themselves on the military and how to translate an un-translated resume.
• Implement sponsorship and integration programs to help the service member adapt to and thrive in a civilian workplace.  Creating a federal “veteran networking group” (affinity group, affiliation group) would be a great start.  The precedent has already been set with Young Government Leaders.
• Start tracking the retention statistics on the number of veterans hired.   Include that data on the annual “Employment of Veterans in the Federal Executive Branch” report.  Is anyone else besides me curious about the retention percentage of veterans hired under those above mentioned special authorities after the initial authorization period expires (generally 1-2 years)?

To those leaders from DOL, VA, and OPM charged with implementing the Executive Order – I have more ideas if you are interested in hearing them.  I’ll be attending The Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Employment, Training and Employer Outreach (ACVETEO) Open Meeting on December 2^nd.  Let’s chat.

View the 2009 MVE Winners .

While no one is yet sure when this will translate into increased numbers of veterans applying to colleges and universities in order to pursue college degrees and/or certificates, there is no denying that interest in using the program is very high, unlike previous versions of the G.I. Bill.

So, what should colleges and universities be doing now to prepare for a return of military veterans to campus in the coming years?  This question and many more are addressed in a new 1-day workshop offered by The Value Of a Veteran. If you are a College/University Director of HR, Admissions, Student Life, Veterans Services, Office of Disabilities, or Diversity, I encourage you to go to The Value Of a Veteran website for more details on this workshop and to request a sample agenda.

But, wait a minute – isn’t this a forum for recruiters and hiring managers?  Why should we care about the new Post 9/11 G.I. Bill? You may already know that I advocate using colleges & universities as a source for hiring veterans. I cover the technique in my web seminar “Military Applicant Sourcing Options” and I have written two blog articles in this forum on the subject. Here’s how you can use knowledge of the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill and its effects on veterans applying to higher education institutions to help you recruit on campus:

Let’s say you have a recurring need to hire geospatial analysts. The ideal candidate should have a bachelor’s degree in Geospatial Intelligence (or related program), a minimum 4 years of experience, and a current security clearance. Wouldn’t it be extremely helpful to for you to know:

• Which colleges/universities offer geospatial intelligence degrees? (You may already have this information.)
• Whether those colleges/universities have created a “veteran friendly” environment to maximize the likeliness that service members will want to use their Post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits there? (You’ll have to ask.)
• Whether those colleges/universities are marketing their geospatial degree programs to the military to attract veterans with clearances and real-world experience in geospatial intelligence? (You’ll have to ask.)
• Whether you could build/improve your relationships with those colleges/universities and offer internships or other incentives to influence those degree-seeking veterans to apply to your company?

If you determine that some of your standard sources of colleges/universities are missing the mark when it comes to attracting veterans to campus, you can let them know they are missing a huge opportunity by not actively trying to attract veterans to their degree programs. Then you can tell them to give me a call and I’d be happy to get them on the right path

So why are military-experienced job seekers targeting these areas, as well as being targeted by the energy sector for open positions?

Prior-military service members have always been a significant part of the energy industry’s, oil and gas industry’s, and energy utilities’ hiring plans. Because of their related training and work ethic, military-trained project managers, engineers, maintenance technicians and field service technicians can walk into any energy-related company and begin providing an immediate positive impact.

The focus on green energy hiring in areas such as solar, wind and biomass derives from the rapid ramp-up that is happening in those industries, in addition to the government’s focus on green energy. Some published reports have discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has energy-specific provisions that will create more than 500,000 energy jobs. And don’t forget the energy-related manufacturing sector. Manufacturing has always been an area of strength for military talent, and as the solar panels, rechargeable battery cells and wind turbines are being produced, many military job seekers will find great careers in these areas.

One of the other big drivers of the military to energy trend is “doing something good”. One of the reasons that people sign up for the military is that they have a strong sense of service. Then when they are in the military, many times they are doing high-speed jobs working with cutting-edge projects. So green technologies appeal to both the “sense of service / doing something good” that these military job seekers have, plus the desire to do something on the new frontier in the civilian world.

Bradley-Morris, Inc. (BMI), a firm that helps employers hire military, was quoted in the article:

Bill Scott, a vice president for marketing at Bradley Morris, a military job placement company, also noted the importance of nuclear training.

“Many job seekers come out of the military with training that is directly applicable to civilian energy needs, for instance in the nuclear power sector,” he wrote in an e-mail message. His company, he said, is having a military hiring event specifically geared toward energy and renewables in Houston next month.

You can read the full New York Times piece here.

• BNSF Railway Company
• CACI International Inc
• Consolidated Edison, Inc.
• CSX Corporation

For the full list, see the official announcement here.

Thanks to The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (provision mentioned in Subtitle C – Tax Incentives for Business, Part III – Incentives For New Jobs on page 223 of the act –whew!) there is a new veteran category eligible for the WOTC. For a limited duration (January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010) companies can take a maximum tax credit of $2,400 per veteran for any veteran (not just a service-disabled veteran) who was:

• Discharged or released from active duty in the Armed Forces at any time during the 5-year period ending on the hiring date, AND
• In receipt of unemployment compensation under State or Federal law for not less than 4 weeks during the 1- year period ending on the hiring date.

This new veteran category of WOTC is retroactive to apply to individuals who began work for an employer after December 31, 2008.

So, how much paperwork is involved in order to claim the tax credit? Not much, so it is really a shame more employers don’t make the effort to do this. Depending on how you found the veteran applicant there are a total of two forms that require completion in order to attain certification.

If you found the veteran through your state workforce agency (SWA), you will need to complete the employer’s portion of the:

1. Conditional Certification, Work Opportunity Tax Credit, ETA Form 9062, and the
2. Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, Form 8850

If you found the veteran on a commercial job board or at a military job fair, or if he or she applied directly to your company, you will need to complete the employer’s portion of the:

1. Individual Characteristics Form (ICF) Work Opportunity Tax Credit Form 9061, and the
2. Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, Form 8850

If you found the veteran through your SWA, his or her veterans’ status may already be conditionally certified by the SWA. Either the SWA or the applicant should provide you with a copy of the Conditional Certification, Work Opportunity Tax Credit, ETA Form 9062. All you need to do is complete the employer portion of the form, which asks for:

• Your company name,
• The position/job title the applicant is being hired to fill,
• The employment start date, and
• The starting wage.

Both the Form 9062 and the Form 8850 must be sent back to the SWA no later than 28 days after the applicant starts work. If all information can be verified, you will receive a WOTC Employer Certification Form for that veteran.

If you found the veteran on a commercial job board or at a military job fair, or if he or she applied directly to your company, you can still request certification of his or her status by completing the Individual Characteristics Form (ICF) Work Opportunity Tax Credit Form 9061, collecting a copy of the required documentation (listed on the form) from the veteran, and providing it and the Form 8850 to your SWA for verification.

With the Form 9061, you must first determine if the applicant is willing to provide the required information. Prospective employees are not required to provide information of this sort to an employer – their participation must be voluntary. A simple way to do this is to make this a routine document that is presented to all applicants – attach a cover sheet indicating that status disclosure is completely voluntary and does not adversely affect hiring decisions.

If the applicant is willing to provide the required information, have him/her complete blocks 6-8 and 12-19 of the form. The form must be completed on or before the applicant is offered employment.

There are some military placement companies and military job boards already collecting this information as a service to the employer. If you are considering using a placement company and/or a job board as part of your military hiring strategy you should inquire if it collects this information for you.

As with the earlier situation, both the Form 9061 and the Form 8850 must be sent back to the SWA no later than 28 days after the applicant starts work. If all information can be verified, you will receive a WOTC Employer Certification Form for that veteran. Those certification forms serve as documented proof that will back up the claim you make on the IRS Form 5884 when your company files its taxes.

Note that the language on Forms 9061 and 8850 has not yet been updated to reflect the new veteran category, and it is yet undetermined whether the forms will ever be updated, given the relatively short duration this new category is in effect. I’ve spoken with a few state WOTC coordinators and their advice is to just write in the category “unemployed veteran” across the top of the form.

The WOTC can be carried back one year or forward 20 years, which is especially helpful for smaller businesses who may not have enough tax liability this year to take the full credit, but who have hired qualified veterans and are otherwise entitled to the credit.

]]> http://www.HireMilitary.com/2009/03/an-update-on-tax-credits-for-hiring-military-veterans/feed/ 3 http://www.HireMilitary.com/2009/03/how-does-working-for-your-company-compare-to-serving-in-the-military/ http://www.HireMilitary.com/2009/03/how-does-working-for-your-company-compare-to-serving-in-the-military/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:16:41 +0000 Lisa Rosser http://www.hiremilitary.com/?p=239 Have you checked out Glassdoor.com? It’s a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers — all for free. It is refreshing to see how employees (and former employees) honestly rate a variety of workforce factors such as career opportunities, work-life balance, compensation and benefits, recognition, morale, and more. Raters can even offer advice to senior management (and, no shock – most do).

Glassdoor.com recently announced the winners of its first annual (2009) Employees Choice Awards for Best Places to Work. Are you curious to know how the U.S. Military services ranked (yes, government agencies get rated right along with Wal-mart, Google, and Whole Foods)? Given the environment of non-stop deployments, the results may surprise you.

The Army placed in the Top 50 list, coming in at #43. Soldiers and DA civilians gave their employer a 3.6 satisfaction rating (highest rating was 4.5 earned by General Mills), and reported a 54% approval rating for Under Secretary Pete Geren.

The Navy is next, with a 3.5 satisfaction rating and a 53% approval rating for Secretary Don Winter. The Air Force actually had the highest approval rating (4.0), but because Chief of War Fighting Integration and CIO Michael Peterson only garnered a 40% approval rating, the Air Force was not eligible for Top 50 ranking. The Marine Corps did not have enough reviews by the deadline to compete for the 2009 award. The website continuously collects and aggregates reviewer data, so currently viewable ratings may not reflect where the organizations fell out at the survey’s conclusion last December.

The Top 50 were selected from more than 11,000 companies reviewed by the nearly 75,000 employees who completed a 20-question survey on Glassdoor.com in 2008. To be eligible for the list, a company must have had at least all of the following as of December 15, 2008:

• 25 reviews from United States-based employees,
• “satisfied” ratings overall and across all categories, and
• a CEO with at least a 50% approval rating.

The survey questions relate to employees’ attitudes about Career Opportunities, Communication, Compensation & Benefits, Employee Morale, Recognition & Feedback, Senior Leadership, Work/Life Balance, and Fairness & Respect. After the overall ratings are calculated, a company could have been excluded from the list if a review panel determined detrimental acts by management or other negative company events could ultimately damage employees’ faith in the company’s senior leadership and/or adversely affect its overall rating on Glassdoor.com.

Overall, the military services ranked high for benefits (free medical, free housing, money for education, etc.) , extensive training, opportunities, leadership development, and the quality of the people. As you might expect, negatives were long hours, time away from family, and harsh working conditions (being shot at and mortared tends to have that effect). A complete copy of the survey questions and the methodology can be obtained by sending an email request to bestplacestowork@glassdoor.com.

Implications for civilian employers: When developing your marketing approach for recruiting veterans, determine how your company compares with the positives of serving in the military and emphasize areas where you are similar. For example, if your company offers extensive training or a great tuition reimbursement plan, make sure that information is included on any printed materials you display or handout. If you show videos of current employees extolling the benefits of working for your organization, emphasize one where education and training is mentioned.