A recruiter asked me this week, “Why should I focus more attention on military job fairs that take place on the military installations as opposed to off-base events?”  What I explain is that by attending military career fairs on the installations, their chances for connecting with high-value transitioning military job seekers are higher than with “off-base” job fairs. In this same vein, military job fairs held on-base make it easier for the men and women of the military to be able to participate as in many cases they are simply walking from their current military job to the civilian job fair. In addition, the employers I work with enjoy being able to meet the military candidates face-to-face in a setting where the job seekers already have a comfort level.

I have clients that look for maintenance, logistics and driver backgrounds and they have informed me that they have been able to meet more of this profile via an on-base military job fair than with any other channel.  Part of this has to do with the specialized outreach we do to attract candidates, but much has to do with the fact that it is easy for candidates to attend an on-base career event.

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 .

The truth is the government buys just about everything you can think of.  And it’s not just the obvious items such as general contracting/construction, training development, office supplies and vehicles.  Here is a sample list of recently requested items that may surprise you:

• Aerobics and fitness instruction
• Document storage and reproduction
• Trash removal and recycling
• Shoeshine kits, hairbrush and comb sets, lint brushes
• Cosmetology instructor
• Lodging and conference services
• Meeting facilitation

As a bonus – being a Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) or Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) is an advantage.  Federal agencies have procurement goals for doing business with VOSBs and SDVOSBs.

So, how does one “do business with the government”?  As someone who is going that route herself, here is the down and dirty list.

1.  The SDVOSB is a certifiable designation, so you have to go through a formal process to attain the designation.  It’s not hard to do, but you do have to do it.  The Department of the Veterans Affairs VetBiz page has a good explanation of the process

2.  Get a DUNS number .  It is a unique 9-digit identification number assigned to a business.  It is free to obtain.  You’ll need it for the next step.

3.  Register with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) website.  You cannot get a government contract if you are not in the CCR.  It is free to register.

4.  Figure out which North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are related to your business and make sure you associate them with your profile in the CCR.  For example, if your company does junk removal and recycling you can look up NAICS codes for those services using “recycling”, “sanitation”, “hauling”, “garbage”, etc. as keywords.  Be very thorough and pick as many NAICS codes as necessary even if it just touches on what you do.  Read the next tip to find out why.

5.  Once you are in the CCR, register in Federal Business Opportunities (commonly known as FedBizOps).  You can set up watch lists for your various NAICS codes so you get daily/weekly emails with any Requests For Proposals/Presolicitations, etc. that are newly posted to FedBizOps.  Agencies sometimes send out a blast email to companies with a particular NAICS code in their profile to alert them to an opportunity coming down the pike, so it is a good way to find out information early.

6.  Contact your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).  They can give you advice, training, and help you make connections and introductions in the federal government.  Most of their services are free.  Some of their classes may cost a minimal amount ($25-100 depending on the topic).

7.  Contact the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) for each federal agency you want to do business with.  They are very helpful and it is their job to help you make connections within the agency and to explain “how to do business” with that agency.

8.  Search each agency’s OSDBU web page to see if the agency has a “vendor outreach” day or other event where SDVOSB/VOSB’s can come to the agency and meet with various contracting officers from that agency (sort of like speed dating for contractors).  There are also a lot of conferences you can attend (two good lists are at http://www.osdbu.gov/general.html and at http://www.fbcinc.com/search.aspx)  to do a larger-scale meet and greet with a lot of federal agencies and other small businesses and learn something from the seminars offered at the conference.  A lot of these events are in the Washington, DC area but several are held in other locations.  Two big ones you should try to attend: 20^th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference, April 21, 2010 in Chantilly, VA (near Dulles Airport in the DC area), and there is a really big one just for veterans called the 6^th Annual National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo in Las Vegas July 19-22, 2010.

9.  Decide if being on a General Services Administration (GSA) schedule is right for you.  There are many different schedules, covering lots of different types of products and services.  You can search for schedules by keyword at GSA’s eLibrary.  For example, recycling services are covered under 9 different schedules.  You can be on more than one schedule, and that eLibrary site will display which companies are registered under each schedule (a good way to check out your competition).

Basically, being on a schedule makes it easier for the government to do business with you because you are already “pre certified” in their eyes.  Many agencies will look to schedule holders first when announcing opportunities (schedule holders have their own website where opportunities are posted that are not posted in FedBizOps).  If it makes sense for your business, all the steps for the process and even video how-to’s are on GSA’s web site.  However, the more specialized your product or service, the less sense it may make to be on a schedule.  It is great for commodities (i.e., pens, lumber, gravel, office supplies) and highly competitive general services (i.e., janitorial services).

You can “get on the schedule” yourself and it is free; however, it is a 4-8 month process and a lot of writing and paperwork to get on a schedule, so don’t think you can do this in a weekend.  Know that once you are registered in the CCR there are companies who will send you emails and snail mail offering to “help you get on the schedule”.  They generally charge anywhere from $6,000-20,000 to do it.  Many of them do offer free seminars on “how to do business with the government”, and those can actually be fairly helpful (some more than others).  The PTACs also offer those kinds of classes for no or low cost and GSA has those classes for free as well.

Last but not least:  the most important thing to keep in mind when trying to do business with anyone/any agency is that your status as a SDVOSB/VOSB is NOT what is going to get you a contract.  You have to have a product or service that an agency needs, and you still have to sell yourself as the best provider of that product or service.  Being a SDVOSB/VOSB is the “icing on the cake” because agencies do have goals for doing business with disadvantaged businesses.  However, they aren’t just going to hand you a contract because of your status.

I just came back from a conference in Tampa for SDVOSBs and VOSBs and I cannot tell you the number of business cards I was handed that said something along the lines of “Bradley and Company – a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business” and NOTHING ELSE.  One day from now when I am going through these cards I am not going to have any idea what Bradley and Company does.  Are they a general contractor?  A records and documents company?  A seller of office supplies?  One tidbit I learned in a class was to put my status (I am a VOSB and a WOSB – a Woman Owned Small Business), my DUNS, my CAGE code and all of my associated NAICS codes on my business card.  I printed up a bunch of labels with that info and plastered them on the back of my existing cards.  I also made a tri-fold prospectus for my company and put all that info on the back of the prospectus as well.  I use those cards and marketing materials when I attend the vendor outreach days/conferences so the contracting officers know what I do from the front of the card and how to do business with me from the back of the card.

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.

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.

“Aeroflex was seeking a reliable source of quality candidates for their sales positions.  Typically, Aeroflex sales managers market their products within the commercial and defense industries. Serious candidates to the company generally have a four-year college degree, preferably in engineering or business. Prior experience in sales is a definite plus. Knowledge of basic engineering principles is a must.”

Find the full hire military case study here .

So, clearly, it is better from a cost savings and productivity standpoint for your company to find someone who already has a clearance or who can more easily obtain one so he/she can begin being productive as quickly as possible after starting. This is why sourcing from the military is a great way to fill those “clearance required” positions.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, many (though not all) service members already have a security clearance as a requirement to perform their job in the military. This population includes college seniors who are about to be commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. There are several ways to confirm the status of the clearance.

If your company is a defense contractor, it should have an account to access the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS), which is the Department of Defense’s personnel security migration system. From there your designated JPAS account holder(s) can look within the system and confirm if the veteran you are considering for a position does in fact have a current clearance, or has evidence of a clearance in his/her history.

If you recruit for a government agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has an internal government database that is linked to JPAS. This provides an across-the-government view of current and historical information which allows agencies to confirm clearance status online.

Can you still consider an applicant who previously had a clearance but who left the military a year ago? As long as the break in military service has not exceeded more than 24 months and an inquiry discloses no reason why the clearance should not be accepted you should still be able to have his/her clearance reinstated without needing to redo the full investigation. However, if the break has been more than 24 months there will need to be a reinvestigation. The process should be faster for someone who previously held a clearance versus someone who has never had a clearance.

Even if the veteran you are considering never had a clearance, in general he/she could be considered more “clearable” compared to an applicant who never served in the military, simply because the veteran has already passed a number of background checks before being allowed to serve, including finger print checks, and (possibly) criminal record checks, and financial credit checks.

Some food for thought: I have spoken with some recruiters who fixate on trying to find a veteran with both a Top Secret (TS) clearance and some additional skill (such as functional familiarity with a specific commercial software application such as Siebel or SAP). I have to remind them that often the veteran with the TS clearance can learn the missing skill faster than the civilian with the skill can obtain a TS clearance. People who are successful in the military are that way because they are highly adaptable and trainable. Your company could still save a lot of time and money by sending the veteran with the TS to Siebel training versus hiring the civilian with Siebel skills and waiting up to a year to be able to staff him/her on a project.

All service members who serve overseas are provided training on the local culture. A number of service members, by virtue of the time they spent overseas or as a result of the job requirements they had while stationed abroad, speak a second (or third) language. Most of the military services have even set up programs whereby their members can take free language training through Rosetta Stone. Online access to all 30 Rosetta Stone language training courses is free to all Army Active, Guard, and Reserve soldiers as well as Army civilian employees and contracted Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) and United States Military Academy (USMA) cadets. The Air Force has contracted for a similar program. The Marine Corps offers the Rosetta Stone courses for free, but for a select number of languages.

So why should recruiters and hiring managers care? Employers who are knowledgeable about hiring military know that service members begin exploring civilian career options as far as a year in advance of separation. So, if hiring for international positions is routine for your company, you should begin reaching out and building relationships with separating veterans as early as possible. You can describe the types of international positions and assignments you have and if those positions require a level of proficiency in a language, you can remind the service member that he or she can increase their level of hiring attractiveness by taking advantage of the free language training the military offers. Then, when the veteran is 1-2 months away from their separation date, they can apply for your position and already have the language proficiency requirement met. And that doesn’t cost the employer anything other than the time to build the relationship.

Some military officers have a job specialty called Foreign Area Officer which requires them to become regional experts on a geographic area and on the culture of the people who live there. Their military jobs require them to be able to communicate and interact with foreign militaries and organizations in their assigned regions. The Foreign Area Officer Association is made up of over 750+ current and formers military FAO’s from all services. The association allows employers to post positions and to review member resumes for free.

Posted by Lisa Rosser, Author of and Speaker/Workshop Leader on The Value Of a Veteran(TM): The Guide for Human Resource Professionals to Regarding, Recruiting, and Retaining Military Veterans