By September 2001 I had completed a transition from active military duty to civilian employment, and elected to continue my service as a member of the Army Reserve. Ironically, one of the reasons I left active duty was because I was feeling burned out from all of the deployments I had been on throughout the 1990’s (Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, and Saudi Arabia at the time of the Khobar Towers bombing).

I had been with my employer just one short year, and in those last few months finally felt as if I was adapting well to the cultural change that came with being a civilian. On the morning of September 11^th I was scheduled to deliver some training to employees in our Birmingham office. I heard about the first plane from the radio station I was listening to as I was entering the parking garage. At that time, there was still much confusion as to what kind of plane and whether this was a freak accident or something else. By the time I made it up to the training room, every TV in the building was turned to CNN and all of the students were following reports on their BlackBerrys and telling me that a second plane had struck. We attempted to start the class, but the continuous updates of increasingly horrifying news made it impossible to continue. The students were distracted by the news, and I was becoming increasingly distracted by the knowledge that my reserve unit was certain to be one of the first called up in response to this tragedy.

At the time, the unit I served with supported a major Army headquarters in Atlanta that had responsibility for planning responses to crises (domestic and international) and for supplying and training the units and individuals who would be the responders. Whatever was going to happen in the weeks, months, possibly years to come, was definitely going to be the main focus of my headquarters. My reserve unit was trained to augment the full time military and civilian staff, so I was not surprised when I received the phone call just a few short hours after dismissing the class. I was sitting in my hotel room, transfixed on the TV and alternating between a sadness I had never felt before and rage. “I was expecting your call,” I spoke into the phone. “When do we start?”

I share this story because it is not an unusual one for those who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. The details may change, but the immediate shift in focus upon receiving that call does not. I want to highlight what my company did when I informed them that I would be taking a leave of absence for an undetermined amount of time. I hope it serves as an example of an employer being truly responsive and supportive of a Guard/Reserve member, and ask that you take a look at your policies and support programs and see if you are as Guard/Reserve “friendly” as you could be.

1. Just before I notified them of my alert, I checked the company’s HR policy on military leave. At the time, it did have a separate leave category just for military duty, but it only reflected the standard two-week annual training commitment. My company also offered differential pay, where the company pays the difference between military base pay and the employee’s salary (if the military base pay is less than the civilian pay). But, again, this was only offered for the standard two week training period. I knew I would be gone for much longer than two weeks; I knew I could possibly be away for a year or more. I brought this to the attention of my HR rep and asked if the company would consider revising the policy on military leave and also consider offering the pay differential for a longer period of time. I provided her with a sample policy letter from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) website. Amazingly, within three weeks, the company was able to rewrite and gain approval for both policy changes. Ultimately, I was mobilized for a total of 2-1/2 years and the company covered me the entire time. And, before you send me emails about USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), USERRA says employers have to let us go serve and have to place us in a job of equal or greater responsibility upon return. It specifically does not require employers to pay salary differential or benefits while we are gone. The first military leave policy addressed our retention of benefits while absent in a military leave capacity for up to two weeks. The revised policy actually became two policies: one for short term military absence (two weeks) and one for long term military absence (i.e., mobilizations).
2. While I was gone, the company asked for my permission to post my picture and name in a common area where the rest of the employees could see those from the company who had been mobilized/deployed after 9/11. This allowed employees an opportunity to acknowledge our service and to keep us in their thoughts.
3. During my mobilization, the company did not have an employee resource group (ERG) for veterans. By the time I returned to work in 2004, the first fledgling one was standing up. I joined it and took on a leadership role, and we made it our mission to continue to push for more support of our Guard/Reserve employees. Our ERG created a newsletter to inform the group of our efforts and to recognize those who were mobilizing/coming off of mobilization, those that had been promoted in the Guard/Reserve, and those that were doing great work in the community serving veterans and military families.
4. The ERG also convinced our company leaders to send out a letter to all veteran employees and Guard/Reserve employees in advance of Veterans Day, thanking them for their service and sacrifices. This letter was hand signed and mailed to the home address of each employee. It fell to the ERG to find the veterans and military members in the employee base, as HR had no record of who had self-identified as a veteran upon hire. The leaders also acknowledged our service and sacrifice every Memorial Day and Veterans Day thereafter in a statement that was emailed to all employees.
5. The last change I was attempting to enact before I left the company to start The Value Of a Veteran was a change to the short term military leave policy. It covered the standard two weeks of leave for annual training. Our ERG members let us know that they were increasingly being asked to do additional training requirements in the course of a year. We polled the group and the average was 4-5 weeks of military training a year had become the “new normal”. Our members had been taking the 2 week military training absence, and then using vacation time in order to retain pay and benefits or take the remaining 2-4 weeks as unpaid leave.

If you are looking for additional ideas as you develop your military recruiting and retention program, please consider downloading a free copy of my employers guide to recruiting and retaining military veterans. Use coupon code HireMilitary before checking out and the cost of the guide will be deducted.

• A business that has few veteran employees to be mentors to incoming transitioning service members
• A former service member who would like to mentor other veterans in an organization, but whose employer does not have a formal mentoring program, so the veteran struggles to find ad hoc opportunities to mentor

So, I was very excited to come across a group who can provide a solution for both conditions.  The Business and Professional Women (BPW) Foundation is partnering with the US Chamber of Commerce to launch a very aggressive and unique program.  Called “Joining Forces for Women Veteran’s Mentorship Program” (JFWVMP), the group’s goal is to recruit 100,000 women (veteran or civilian) to mentor 100,000 women veterans and military spouses and caregivers by the end of 2012.  The program is included in the greater JoiningForces.gov initiative, led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden.

The part I like best is that BPW and the Chamber are not trying to develop a completely new and separate program.  They’ve made the very smart decision to leverage existing mentoring groups (such as AcademyWomen and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) to build a consortium of providers who can address the various mentoring needs of women veterans, spouses and care givers and who are already employing best practices in high-touch mentoring.

Many of us in the human resources field associate mentoring with career development.  However, women veterans, military spouses and care givers face additional issues that mentoring can address:

• Packaging of military skill sets in preparation for securing civilian employment
• Guidance on starting a business
• Assistance with family support issues, such as homelessness, single parenting, or caring for a person with a disability
• Picking up the pieces and developing a “new normal” after the death of a loved one
• Decisions around pursuing additional post-graduate education, whether full or part time
• Recognizing signs of stress, depression, or other potentially debilitating conditions and finding resources to overcome them

Even with a consortium, finding 100,000 mentors and 100,000 protégées is still a challenge, especially given the aggressive 18 month timeline.  So, if the following describes you, keep reading to find out how you and/or your company can get involved:

• If your company already has a formal veteran mentoring program, and you’d like to expand to mentor veterans outside of your organization;
• If you are an employee of a company that does not offer a formal mentoring program, and you’d like the opportunity to mentor women veterans/spouses/caregivers;
• If you are a woman veteran/spouse/caregiver who does not currently have an opportunity to be mentored; or
• If you are a corporate, government or non-profit organization that has an established formal mentoring program for either veterans (in general) or women (in general) or caregivers of the ill or injured (in general)…

…go to www.womenjoiningforces.org for details on how to participate.  Do it today.

It got me to wondering how many companies offer their employees a paid or unpaid holiday on Veterans Day, or at least did something of significance to acknowledge the day.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducted a poll on the 2011 holidays that organizations plan to observe.  SHRM’s numbers reflected higher support for MLK Day than the BNA survey with 38% reporting that their organizations would be closed in observance.  Veterans Day lags behind, with 21 percent indicating they plan to observe the holiday in 2011 (encouragingly, an increase of 5% points over the 2010 reported numbers).

For the last few years I have sent out requests on LinkedIn for HR professionals and veterans to share what their company is doing to recognize and honor the service of its veteran-employees on Veterans Day.

While my method of polling is, admittedly, completely unscientific, the results are still interesting.  As you might expect, very few people reported offering or being offered paid time off.  Those companies that did tended to be small businesses that were owned by veterans, who made it a priority that all their employees have the time off to attend and/or participate in Veterans Day events.  Many veteran-employees reported that they took personal time off (paid and unpaid) to attend events.

Why should your company consider offering Veterans Day as a holiday or at least plan an event acknowledging the day?  Human Resources professionals know that recognizing and valuing the unique contributions of your employees is a critical component in any company’s military recruiting and military retention strategies.   I see many organizations hosting elaborate International Women’s Day events (March 8^th),  coordinating training and education events around National Disability Employment Awareness Month,  and planning food-and-arts centered events around Asian-American / Native American / African American History Months, and promoting them in their recruitment marketing materials and diversity web site pages, but the silence can be deafening when it comes to Veterans Day events.

While some employers have expressed concern to me that it would appear that they were showing support for the ongoing wars in the Middle East, most are just at a loss for ideas on what they could do to show appreciation for veterans in general and their veteran-employees specifically.  So I am going to give you some suggestions that you can work on this year, regardless of whether you offer a paid day off for Veterans Day.

For the organized, high energy types out there, here are some programs to aspire to from companies that have turned this into an art:

• Coca-Cola: Organizes an entire week’s worth of events.  They prepared 10,000 USO care packages, held a Vets VIP Dinner followed by a company-wide Veterans Day main event, participated in the Atlanta Veterans Day Parade and held a Military Ball.
• Accenture: Hosted a military “Dining Out” event and invited civilian employees to partake in the pomp and circumstance (and general silliness) of the event.
• Dell:  Invited several local National Guard units to participate in their event, including an air cavalry unit that provided static displays of a Blackhawk helicopter and a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.  One of the company’s executive leadership team members and an executive VP (who was a retired two-star general) flew in to address the employees.   Each veteran was presented with a certificate of appreciation, an American flag, and an American flag lapel-pin, and was encouraged to wear their military decorations.

Do those events sound too overwhelming to organize this year?  Many other companies and universities reported doing the following, which are things most any company could do with just a few months planning:

• Host a Veterans Day luncheon
• Send out an email or newsletter acknowledging the history of the holiday and profiling the service of a few veteran-employees
• Mail a personal letter signed by the CEO and/or head of Diversity to each self-identified veteran-employee thanking them for their service and sacrifice
• Post profiles of veteran-employees on bulletin boards or make a video for YouTube (click to see an example from Sodexo here.)
• Send a contingent of employees to a local Veterans Day parade with “<Company ABC> supports its veterans” t-shirts or signs
• Organize employee volunteer events at local VA hospitals or Wounded Warrior Transition Centers
• Volunteer with a local Veteran Service Organization, the USO or the American Red Cross, all organizations that have strong ties to the military community
• Arrange with your local schools to have your veteran-employees as speakers

Veterans Day is Friday, November 11^th – How will your company acknowledge the service of your veteran employees this year?

Every company has certain categories of positions that are in constant need of filling. Whether those positions are computer programmers, help desk technicians, quality assurance inspectors or warehouse and distribution specialists, it becomes frustrating when your company and your company’s competition are both fishing in the same ponds for the same people. How long does it take you to fill these positions? And, do you have to pay more to get these people in order to beat your competition, or are you constantly losing out because you can’t match the salaries offered by your competition? Did you have to bring on workers with H-1B visas to meet the demand? Is there a better way to build a pipeline of qualified applicants to fill the constant demand? Is there a different “pond” you could be fishing in for underutilized talent? There is – read on!

As mentioned in my last blog, more than 80% of the jobs we have in the military have a civilian equivalent. Generally, the main differences between the qualifications of civilian applicants and military applicants doing the same work are that the military applicants:

• Might not possess a particular certification or required license. This occurs because the military doesn’t require them to have the civilian certification/license in order to do the job in the military.
• Might not have working knowledge of specific commercial applications used by civilian companies. This is because, given some of the unique requirements we have in the military, many of our military applications have been custom built for us. So, if you ask the veteran with 12 years of human resources experience whether he/she has used Taleo (a talent management system), he/she will say “no”. But he/she will be very familiar with the military’s custom built version of a talent management system, and will have a deep understanding of the full talent management lifecycle.

These surmountable differences leave us with a huge military talent pool every year who have most of the knowledge, skills and aptitudes needed to do a great job for a civilian company. More than 200,000 veterans leave the service each year (due to retirement or end of contract) and most struggle for months to find a job commensurate with their abilities and level of management/supervisory experience. This is a talent pool that is grossly underutilized and that would be a bounty for any savvy employer who was willing to try this idea to recruit veterans.

Consider creating an on-the-job training (OJT) program and market it to veterans. OJT programs can be designed for any kind of job, from human resource specialists to business analysts to security guards to any manner of technical positions. The benefit to the employer is that they can build a pipeline of heavily skilled, easily trainable quality candidates who will be groomed in exactly the way needed for the jobs in highest demand in their organization. The benefit to the veteran is an opportunity to either build on the training he/she has already received in the military or to pursue a new career in the civilian workplace.

So, maybe right now you are thinking that an OJT program could be a good way to tap into that pool of transitioning service members and help build your pipeline, but you are holding off because you know your company’s training budget has been severely reduced. The good news here is that there is a way for employers to recoup much of the costs to produce the training by structuring the training such that it qualifies as an approved education or training program eligible for the G.I. Bill. This means that the veteran can use his/her G.I. Bill benefits to pay to participate in the OJT program, thereby allowing the employer to recoup some of the cost to produce the training (i.e., instructional designer’s fee, facilities rental, material production, etc.)

Here are a few basic things to know about creating an OJT program that qualifies for G.I. Bill reimbursement:

• The new Post 9/11 G.I. Bill does not cover OJT programs. Earlier versions of the G.I. Bill (i.e., Montgomery G.I. Bill and Reserve Educational Assistance Program or REAP) do cover OJT programs. View a comparison chart of the types of training covered by different versions of the bills.

• Veterans who are eligible for both the Post 9/11 and one other version of the G.I. Bill have to make an irrevocable decision if they want to take advantage of the very generous Post 9/11 G.I. Bill. So, the earlier you market these OJT programs to the military community, the greater likeliness you will find those veterans who have not yet made the irrevocable decision to switch to the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill.

• The G.I. Bill benefits are paid directly to the veteran, who in turn pays you. They are generally paid one month in arrears. So, for example, if they begin training on September 1st, they will receive their benefit check for the month of September in October. Keep that lag time in mind as you determine your tuition and payment plan.

• In order for your training program to be declared G.I. Bill –eligible it must first be approved by your State Approving Agency. State Approving Agencies approve the programs within their borders and determine which programs are appropriate for veterans to enroll in to utilize their VA educational benefits.

• The program must include an employment objective (i.e., “Help Desk Technician” or “Computer Software Engineer” or “Storage and Distribution Manager”)

• Hint: go to O*Net Online and type in your position name. It will display a number of related occupational titles with associated Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Systems codes.

• Select the occupational title(s) that most closely resembles the position for which you are designing the OJT program and review the lists of tasks performed and tools used by that occupation.

• Incorporate those tasks and tools into your training design, plus any other specific requirements.

• In order to be classified as an OJT program, the training must be for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 24 months in length. 6 months equals 1,000 hours of training if the OJT program is full time.

• The OJT program must have an associated incremental pay scale. This means that while the costs of the program can be offset by the G.I. Bill, the employer is still required to pay a wage to the trainee. The starting wage can be minimum wage (or higher). The ending wage should be equivalent to the hourly wage you would pay if you were hiring someone who was already fully qualified. There should be at least one incremental pay increase between start and finish for a six month program and more if your program is longer than 6 months. Pay increases can be tied to training milestone achievements (i.e., pass this exam or assessment) or to program duration milestones (i.e., every 4 weeks).

• The OJT program must include a detailed training plan. So, for a 6 month training program, what will you cover during the 1,000 hours of training?

Once you submit your training plan for review, the SAA approval can be granted in as little as 2-8 weeks if you’ve met all the criteria and have structured the program correctly. If you would like assistance in designing an OJT program, please contact me. There are minor record-keeping requirements that must be kept on file and also reported so that the veteran will be paid. Your SAA will provide you with those details.

Once you get approval for your G.I. Bill –eligible OJT program, you need to market your program to veterans. But where should you promote your program to get the attention of the military member? There are at least a half dozen avenues you can use to get the word out to the veteran community, from military transition centers to social networking sites. If you are interested in learning more, I encourage you to register for my web seminar entitled “Military Applicant Sourcing Options” (now available on demand).

This year Congress passed a resolution (http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/nvaw.asp) designating the week of November 9-15 as “National Veteran Awareness Week” to emphasize the need to develop educational programs regarding the contributions of veterans to the country. So, how can companies use that time to have an awareness program of their own?

In the next paragraphs I’ll give you some ideas for things you can do and resources you can use, and then I’ll tie it all back in to how this can impact your veteran recruiting efforts.

1. Visit The Department of Veterans Affairs website (http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/index.asp). From there you can download the official 2008 Veterans Day poster for printing or inclusion in presentations. Have a bunch of posters printed and displayed prominently in your work place.
2. If your company has a Veteran Affinity Group (sometime called a Diversity Group or Networking Group, etc.) – and I hope you do have one – ask the group leader if any members would like to contribute some basic background information about their time in service and a related photo from “back in the day”. Take those stories and photos and make posters which can be displayed along side the Veterans Day posters. Most employees have no idea they work alongside a veteran, and if they do, they don’t really understand what that person does/did in the military. They may be surprised to discover that the mild-mannered accountant in the next cubicle flew rescue missions in a helicopter, or brought medical help and supplies to an earthquake-ravaged country. Or, that the young lady who works in employee benefits administration used to repair large satellite systems or drove a 5-ton truck filled with repair parts across the desert.
3. Volunteer members of your Veterans Affinity Group to local schools for the “Take a Veteran To School” program. The History Channel (http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=54799) has great ideas for how to work with the schools to administer this program, and has teacher resources as well (if the school is not familiar with the program). The Department of Veterans Affairs website has teacher guides and student guides, too.
4. The History Channel is also championing “Thank a Vet at Work” (http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=60604&display_order=2&mini_id=54799) this year. From the site you can order 100 colorful stickers that say “thank you” to your veterans. Distribute them in your workplace or hand them out at community events (like the schools program, mentioned above).
5. Acknowledge their service directly, preferably by letter signed by a senior leader of the company if you know who your veteran-employees are by name and mailing address. In addition, sending out an email (also signed by a senior leader of the company) to the entire workforce acknowledging veterans and their contributions to the company is a great way to raise awareness.
6. One client of mine has a different diversity group host a networking event each month at their company. For Veterans Day this year their Veteran Affinity Group is hosting a modified “Dining In” event, which is a very traditional event with special meaning to military members. They are hosting this event to expose their colleagues to the culture and traditions of the military, and to show how the military uses events like Dining Ins to build camaraderie.

Now, how do these actions tie to improving your veteran recruiting efforts?

• Photos of the community events your veteran-employees support can be used in your veteran-specific recruiting materials and on your veteran-landing page on your career website (you do have those, don’t you?)
• Your veteran-employees who take part in these events and who have been recognized during the appreciation week can relate how supportive your company is of veterans when he/she is assisting with military career fair recruiting events (you are bringing them along to these events, yes?)

Has your company done something special to recognize its veteran-employees? Feel free to comment below – I’d love to hear about it.

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

]]> http://www.HireMilitary.com/2008/10/veterans-day-is-wednesday-november-11th-how-is-your-company-planning-to-remember-your-veteran-employees/feed/ 2 http://www.HireMilitary.com/2008/09/let-a-flat-daddy-show-you-care/ http://www.HireMilitary.com/2008/09/let-a-flat-daddy-show-you-care/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:48:05 +0000 Lisa Rosser http://www.hiremilitary.com/?p=61 Another fantastic suggestion that originates from Elaine Dumler’s book “I’m Already Home…Again -  Keeping Your Family Close While On Assignment or Deployment“, is a Flat Daddy(TM).  Since many deployments last anywhere from 6 months to 15 months, children of service members lose a sense of connection to the deployed parent.  A Flat Daddy is a life-size photo (from the waist up) of the service member mounted on foam board and laminated for sturdiness.  And, yes, of course, there are Flat Mommy’s too.

Military families really embrace these life-size dolls, taking them to events the service member is otherwise missing (like birthday parties, school recitals, trips to the zoo).  Many will take a photo of the family with the Flat Daddy and send it to the deployed service member to let him/her know that he/she is missed.  It’s also particularly effective for small children to use to remember what the deployed parent looks like.  There are stories of families having Flat Daddy sit at his normal seat at the dinner table and the kids take turns telling him about their activities at home.  Flat Daddy can also be present when the deployed parent calls and speaks to the children or when recordings are played of the deployed parent reading a bed time story.

Consider providing a mobilized employee’s family with a Flat Daddy.  Here are two ways you can do it:

1. Subsidize the full cost of producing the Flat Daddy by arranging to give a gift of a Flat Daddy through the company that has been producing this product since 2006.  The recipient receives an email message with a voucher code to redeem for the cost of the Flat Daddy. Complete instructions are found here.
2. Subsidize part of the cost by taking the service member’s photo and using your local resources to blow the photo up to life size (complete instructions are found here).  Provide the poster to the family and they can arrange to have it mounted and laminated.

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

Does your company currently acknowledge employees when they reach certain milestones, such as having a baby or attaining a certain number of years with the organization?  Perhaps you provide the new parent with a gift of a company logo-ed diaper bag or bib and a parenting book?  You can do something similar for the mobilized employee and his/her family.

A great resource I am happy to pass along is Elaine Dumler’s book “I’m Already Home…Again -  Keeping Your Family Close While On Assignment or Deployment“.  The book has 214 suggestions of ways for families and service members to stay connected before, during, and after a service member’s deployment.  There is even a section with suggestions for employers, schools and community groups who want to be supportive of the veterans in their communities.

Consider purchasing a quantity of these books to have on hand.  It’s a tremendous gesture of care to provide a copy of the book to the spouse or family member (or, directly to the service member to pass along) plus a letter of support from the company wishing the veteran a safe journey and hoping for a speedy return and the name and phone number of a point of contact in the company who can answer questions should any issues or needs arise during the employee’s mobilization.

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