[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HIRING AND RETAINING VETERANS FOR THE MODERN DAY WORKFORCE
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-69
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
35-807 WASHINGTON : 2019
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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee, Chairman
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice- TIM WALZ, Minnesota, Ranking
Chairman Member
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado MARK TAKANO, California
BILL FLORES, Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
Samoa BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
MIKE BOST, Illinois KATHLEEN RICE, New York
BRUCE POLIQUIN, Maine J. LUIS CORREA, California
NEAL DUNN, Florida CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut
CLAY HIGGINS, Louisiana SCOTT PETERS, California
JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
JIM BANKS, Indiana
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, Puerto
Rico
BRIAN MAST, Florida
Jon Towers, Staff Director
Ray Kelley, Democratic Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas, Chairman
GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida BETO O'ROURKE, Texas, Ranking
BILL FLORES, Texas Member
JIM BANKS, Indiana MARK TAKANO, California
BRIAN MAST, Florida LUIS CORREA, California
KATHLEEN RICE, New York
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
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Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Page
Hiring And Retaining Veterans For The Modern Day Workforce....... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Honorable Jodey Arrington, Chairman.............................. 1
Honorable Beto O'Rourke, Ranking Member.......................... 2
WITNESSES
Ms. Elizabeth O'Brien, Senior Director of Military Spouse
Programs, Hiring Our Heroes, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Foundation..................................................... 3
Prepared Statement........................................... 37
Brigadier General Gary M. Profit (Ret.), Senior Director,
Military Programs, Walmart..................................... 5
Prepared Statement........................................... 31
Mr. Matt Kress, Manager, Veterans and Military Affairs, Starbucks
Coffee Company................................................. 7
Prepared Statement........................................... 39
Mr. Charles J. Sevola Jr., Vice President, Head of Veterans
Initiatives, Prudential Financial.............................. 10
Prepared Statement........................................... 41
Mr. Robert Douthit, Senior Director, Americas Customer Solutions
Centers, Dell EMC.............................................. 12
Prepared Statement........................................... 44
STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD
Letter From: Joe M. Naylor....................................... 47
HIRING AND RETAINING VETERANS FOR THE MODERN DAY WORKFORCE
----------
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 2:02 p.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Jodey Arrington
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Arrington, Bilirakis, Banks, Mast,
O'Rourke, Takano, Rice, and Correa.
Also Present: Representatives Roe.
OPENING STATEMENT OF JODEY ARRINGTON, CHAIRMAN
Mr. Arrington. Good afternoon, everybody. The Subcommittee
will come to order. I want to thank you all for being here with
us today for the hearing entitled ``Hiring and Retaining
Veterans for the Modern Day Workforce.''
But before I give any formal introductory remarks, I would
like to ask my friend from Texas to introduce his special
guest, and you can imagine who they might be. They are the
cutest of people in this room. So--
Mr. Takano. Oh, don't talk about me.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. Mr. Takano. Mr. O'Rourke, please introduce
your special guest, and then I will say a few words about
Takano.
[Laughter.]
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And in exchange for
this privilege, I will waive my opening comments. But my son
Ulysses, who is 11, and his brother Henry, who is 7, and his
sister Molly, who just turned 10, are with us on a visit to the
Capitol, their first in a long time.
Mr. Arrington. Do you want to stand up?
Mr. O'Rourke. Do you guys want to stand up, so everyone can
see who you are?
[Applause.]
Mr. O'Rourke. So, anyhow, I am very lucky that they are
here with us and thanks for introducing them.
Mr. Arrington. You bet.
Mr. O'Rourke. I really appreciate it, thank you.
Mr. Arrington. Molly, right?
Mr. O'Rourke. And thanks to our panel. I am looking forward
to your testimony and having a very productive conversation
today. I am grateful that you are here. Thank you.
Mr. Arrington. You all aren't nearly as cool as those kids,
but I will try to do my best when we introduce you. But we are
honored that you are here and what you have done to support our
veterans, and the recruiting and the hiring and the retaining
of these heroes. And giving sort of special consideration to
the assets that they are, but also to the unique challenges of
serving this country in the armed services and coming back as a
civilian. And I think they are an incredible asset, if we are
intentional about it.
And companies like the ones you represent have been
intentional and we want to understand what you are doing and
how it is going and why it is working, and we want to increase
the things that you are doing exponentially. We want to
highlight them and brag on them, and we want others to follow
your lead. But, you know, we have an economy and I don't want
to be partisan about it, but I think the pro-growth policies
that we have put in place, we are starting to see some growth.
And I think to have millions of surplus jobs and low
unemployment rates is great for everybody, not just our
veterans, but certainly this is a season that is welcomed in
the life of this country and this country's economy.
And we have got a lot of returning servicemen and women who
are transitioning as veterans, again, who have some unique
skills and unique experiences. We need to work, and we are, on
a program called the Transition Assistance Program. I hope to
get your thoughts on that today, but so that we can improve
that process by which we engage our Active duty men and women
before they leave, and assess their health challenges and their
skills and the gaps on the education and workforce training,
and make sure we empower and equip them to maximize their full
potential as civilians.
So we, again, are appreciative of what you are doing for
our veterans and we are anxious to jump right in to hear from
you all, and that is why I am going to depart from my
traditional, sort of formal introductory remarks.
Beto, why don't you say a word or two just about them being
here. I know you said you would waive it, but say a couple
words to these guys.
OPENING STATEMENT OF BETO O'ROURKE, RANKING MEMBER
Mr. O'Rourke. Well, again, I am grateful for what you do. I
know in the case of Prudential and other large employers in El
Paso, you haven't waited for the Government to give direction,
you have taken the lead yourselves in making sure that that
transition is a successful one.
And one of the things that I love about the approach that
each of you represent to meeting this opportunity with our
veterans is that they represent this opportunity given their
experience, their expertise, their service to do something
phenomenal for your organizations or the organizations that you
represent, for the communities in which they live, and for our
country. And so often we talk here about our failure to meet
the challenge for health care or housing or the Post-9/11 GI
Bill, and where there are deficiencies we have got to ensure
that we are responsive to that, but I love the idea behind
today's hearing, which is how do we make the most out of what
those veterans are ready to give back.
And so for all those who are here today, for Prudential,
for your work in El Paso, we are really grateful for the lead
that you have already taken. I am looking forward to any
direction you can give us, any guidance that we can follow and
implement in that Transition Assistance Program that the
Chairman has been working on, or anything else that we can do
in our capacity as Members of Congress.
So, thank you for being here, I am looking forward to the
conversation. And, Mr. Chairman, again, thanks for pulling this
together.
Mr. Arrington. You bet. Well said.
Now let's recognize our panel. With us today we have Ms.
Elizabeth O'Brien, Senior Director of Military Spouse Programs
for Hiring Our Heroes at the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Glad that you are here with us. Brigadier General Gary M
Profit, Senior Director for Military Programs at Walmart; Mr.
Matt Kress, Manager for Veterans and Military Affairs at
Starbucks; Mr. Charles Sevola, Vice President and Head of
Veterans Initiatives at Prudential Financial; and, Robert
Douthit, the Senior Director of Americas Customer Solutions
Center at Dell.
Again, thank you guys for being here with us. We will now
recognize each of you for 5 minutes for your opening statement
and, Ms. O'Brien, we will start with you from the Chamber of
Commerce.
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH O'BRIEN
Ms. O'Brien. Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking
Member O'Rourke, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee.
I am Elizabeth O'Brien, our Senior Director of Military Spouse
Programs at U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Hiring Our Heroes. I am
a military spouse of 12 years and at one point sustained six
moves in 8 years. So our background on employment is fast and
knowledgeable.
Hiring Our Heroes was founded in 2011 as a nationwide
initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in
response to the crisis situation facing our veteran population
struggling to find employment opportunities. Hiring Our Heroes
assists military veterans, transitioning servicemembers, and
military spouses in finding meaningful employment opportunities
in a 21st century workforce.
Our program accomplishes this goal in a myriad of ways,
including hiring fairs, on-installation transition summits,
career development, and networking events; focused research,
best practice development, and communication campaigns, in
partnership with many of our sponsorship companies here today.
To date, we have hosted over 1100 hiring events around the
United States of America and on U.S. military installations
around the world.
Incredible transformation has occurred in the space of
military hiring since 2011. Currently, our veteran unemployment
is at 3.7 percent, and as the employment landscape for veterans
and military spouses has changed, we have evolved our
operations. Why? We have to remain effective in serving our
veteran and military families. We are looking to connect them
with not just a job, but the right job.
Innovative programming has allowed us to move left of
transition; it is a process, one that requires preparation.
Over the last 2 years, our summits have doubled at military
installations around the country and around the world. We have
expanded to dozens of new installations and this year we were
able to host our first transition summits on Coast Guard bases,
having an opportunity to serve a population we had not been
engaged with before.
One of the most innovative programs that we have created is
our Corporate Fellowship Program, which we stood up in 2015.
Developed under the guidelines of the Department of Defense's
Skill Bridge Job Training Initiative, it is a 12-week
fellowship program. We take Active duty servicemembers in their
last 90 days of transition, place them with corporate partners
around the country, and often cases leveraging the permissive
TDY option through the Army. So we can take a fellow or
servicemember from Hawaii and they want to retire to Atlanta
and place them with a company in Atlanta.
To date, 13 locations in the United States, a thousand
fellows have graduated. We have a 90-percent job offer rate;
180 companies have hosted fellows with a starting salary of
$88,000. The success of the program has led to the development
of pilot programs for veterans and military spouses with the
Military Corps Career Connect.
But we as a country have to understand that veterans are
part of a military family, we have to understand the needs of
21st century military families. We have over 700,000 Active
duty military spouses around the world, 92 percent of them are
female. This does not include our veterans' spouses that have
returned home to many of your communities away from military
installations. We define a military spouse as any individual
who identifies as having their career impacted by a military
member's service to the Nation.
Our military spouses are unemployed at a rate of four times
the national average of their civilian counterparts, four times
the national average. We want and need opportunities to have
dual-income households, as is the norm for married Americans
across the country with children, over 60 percent. We are not
at that rate.
Seventy one percent of employed military spouses agree that
having two incomes is vitally important to their family, and
yet we stand to lose over $12,000 a year in income for spouses
that do work, and over a course of a 20-year military career,
over $189,000 in lost wages.
We are younger and more highly educated than the average
American adult of working age. The lack of employment
opportunities creates stress and influences a military family's
desire and want to stay in our all-volunteer force.
Our program has responded appropriately. We have launched
and created over 50 networks around the world to serve military
spouses, that is our Military Spouse Professional Network, with
15,000 members. We have created economic empowerment zones,
grassroots, localized efforts that create connections and
collaboration between regional and national employers,
launching in San Antonio, Tampa, Colorado, and the great State
of Washington, with another six roll-outs anticipated by the
end of the year.
On Thursday, we will host our Military Spouse Employment
Summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where we will address
many of these issues and launch Part 2 of our study.
In conclusion, we are proud at Hiring Our Heroes to serve
our veterans, servicemembers, and a wide array of private and
public sector members. We are committed to the mission of
connecting veterans and military spouses around the world, and
we will continue to unite our partners across the Nation in our
common mission as we work together to continue to achieve
fundamental change. And I call upon everybody in this room to
help us get military spouses out of the fine print as we move
forward across this country to serve our families.
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and Members of
the Subcommittee, I thank you again for the opportunity to
testify and look forward to answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Elizabeth O'Brien appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. My only question is I thought that the Great
State was reserved for only one state, Ms. O'Brien.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. But I will reserve--
Ms. O'Brien. It appears everywhere we go, everybody is the
Great State.
Mr. Arrington. You have got to be proud of your state. Ms.
O'Brien, thanks for your comments.
General Profit, we recognize you now for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL GARY M. PROFIT (RET.)
General Profit. Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member
O'Rourke, and Members of the House Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, on behalf of Walmart,
Incorporated, I want to thank you for the opportunity to rejoin
you today to talk about hiring and retaining veterans for the
modern day workforce.
I had the privilege of testifying before the Full Committee
in 2014 and, as I stated then, I am grateful for your
leadership and partnership in honoring our Nation's veterans'
service and sacrifice, and for all you do to aid in their
transition to civilian life.
Walmart has a rich history with veterans, those who serve
on Active duty and in the Reserve and the Guard, and veteran
and military families. Arguably, it began with Captain, U.S.
Army, Sam Walton, who founded Walmart over 50 years ago. His
legacy has been enriched by countless veteran associates over
the years and has recently been enhanced by our Veterans
Welcome Home Commitment, established in 2013 and expanded in
2015, when we pledged to hire 250,000 veterans by 2020.
I am proud to say that since 2013 we have added more than
200,000 veterans to our workforce, and promoted more than
28,000 to roles with higher pay and greater responsibility.
When we announced our commitment in 2013, our goal was put
returning post-9/11 U.S. veterans back to work. At that time,
their rate of unemployment was disturbingly high. Now, it is
the lowest it has been in decades and we'd like to think we
have played a small part in helping bring that number down.
Rather than taking a victory lap, however, we must remain
vigilant and know that more work remains.
Through my interactions with veterans over the years, I
have learned that we have a much better chance of retaining our
veteran hires if they have an understanding of the company's
mission, if they are able to make a positive impact to their
team or business quickly, and if they feel supported.
Furthermore, we found that a clear vision of a new veteran
associate's career path within the organization is one of the
more crucial pieces to veteran recruitment and retention.
To realize those ends, our recruiting and hiring process
combines technology and personal consultation to achieve scale
without sacrificing the human touch. And perhaps one of our
most successful practices is our approach to on-boarding where
we place new hires with seasoned associates who are veterans,
military spouses, currently serving members of the Guard and
Reserve, or associates who just have an affinity for those who
have served.
In a world in which new skills are required to meet the
rapidly changing demands of our customers, Walmart is investing
in training and talent development for our front-line
associates, aimed at building foundational and advanced skills
through our Pathways Program and Academies.
An additional business initiative that I feel holds
tremendous value is our Military Family Promise. It guarantees
a job at a nearby store or Club for all military personnel and
military spouses employed by the company who move to a
different part of the country because they or their spouse have
been transferred by the U.S. military. The Military Family
Promise allows military spouses in particular to remain in the
same personnel and pay systems, and turn jobs into careers.
Outside of what we do for our associates, Walmart actively
seeks products from veteran-owned businesses to add to our
stores and online assortment. Two weeks ago, we held our fifth
annual Open Call where we invited suppliers to our home office
to pitch products made in the U.S. Out of more than 450
companies that attended, 22 self-identified as veteran-owned
businesses. And as a founding member of the Coalition for
Veteran-Owned Business, Walmart is committed to help grow and
support veteran-owned businesses in communities throughout the
U.S.
In 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20
million through 2015 to support veterans and their families
with assistance programs that provide job training, transition
help, and education. With the early completion of the
commitment in May of 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation
renewed the commitment, announcing an additional $20 million
through 2019.
We are supporting many organizations doing great work
through these commitments and I would like to call out just
three of them: The Institute for Veterans and Military Families
at Syracuse University, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and,
as the number of women joining our U.S. Armed Forces and the
number of female veterans reintegrating into civilian life have
grown, Boston University School of Medicine's Women Veterans
Network.
As we look to the future, we see great potential to address
the remaining barriers to a successful transition from military
service to civilian life, but only through collaboration and a
shared vision will we realize it.
Our goal is to synchronize efforts and empower every
veteran and his or her family to lead a full and meaningful
life by achieving optimal health and wellbeing, leveraging
education and workforce readiness, and fostering employment and
entrepreneurship opportunities. With clearer data, a unifying
vision, and leading strategy we can better serve our veterans
and their families; enhance our national security by
contributing to the preservation of the All-Volunteer Force;
ensure our global competitiveness and civic leadership; bring
our military, veteran and civilian populations closer together;
and meet our moral and social obligations to our veterans.
We salute America's heroes. We are honored to have the
opportunity to employ them, to learn from them, and to support
them and their families in every way we can.
Thanks again to the Subcommittee for its leadership and
partnership, and for holding this hearing. I appreciate the
invitation to appear and look forward to answering your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Gary M. Profit appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, General.
Now Mr. Kress, you recognize you for 5 minutes,
representing Starbucks.
STATEMENT OF MATT KRESS
Mr. Kress. Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking
Member O'Rourke, and Members of the Subcommittee. As a post-9/
11 combat veteran, it is an honor to share with you how
Starbucks Coffee Company is continuing to support Active duty
military spouses and veterans as they transition into Starbucks
partners, as we refer to our employees.
To give some personal context to my remarks, I spent 22
years in the Marine Corps between active and reserve service,
as both a commissioned officer and enlisted Marine. After
deploying to Iraq in 2004 with Marine Corps Special Operations
Command, I left Active duty to become a firefighter in Southern
California. During my time in public safety, I took advantage
of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, turn a Master's degree to an MBA,
which took me to Starbucks.
In November 2013, Starbucks made a groundbreaking
commitment to hire at least 10,000 veterans and military
spouses in 5 years. I am proud to say we achieved that goal
early and in March 2017 set a new goal of hiring 25,000 by
2025, which we are quickly working towards.
Throughout this process, we have recognized that serving
our veterans and military spouses is about much more than
simply providing jobs. Starbucks understands that the unique
skills, experiences, and knowledge that they bring through
their service are tremendously valuable. Our goal, therefore,
is not only to hire 25,000, but also to create a work
environment and corporate culture that fosters their personal
and professional growth.
A steady paycheck is important when shifting jobs, but
veterans and their families are not just shifting jobs when
they leave the service. They are leaving an environment where
they had a clear sense of purpose and worked closely with
others towards goals that were much bigger than themselves. I
am proud to say that Starbucks provides that environment.
Moving to the topic of innovations, one of our early
recognitions was the need to evaluate this population through a
different lens based on their training and life experience. To
this end, we shifted from a skills-based hiring model to a
competency model when evaluating job candidates.
While the job-specific training received in the military
might not be a direct match for our environment, we know that
the leadership, teamwork, and other intangible skills are a
great fit for Starbucks.
We also know that the enthusiasm and dedication that
military spouses bring to our stores creates a welcoming
environment for our customers.
Parallel to this, Starbucks has focused on preparing our
field leaders to effectively lead veterans and military spouses
through an understanding of their unique differences in
culture, leadership expectations, and even language. One of the
best ways we have found to achieve this are through immersions
on military bases where our field leaders and partners get to
see firsthand the natural teamwork that translates so well to
our stores.
We have also listened to our partners and developed or
improved several programs or policies that are unique to our
veteran and military populations. For current Reservists, we
provide 80 hours of flexible leave to facilitate military
participation. If Guard or Reserve partners are called to
Active duty, we pay the difference between their Starbucks and
military wages for up to 78 weeks. Finally, our veteran
partners can now gift their college achievement plan, which is
a fully-funded, remote bachelor's degree at Arizona State
University, to their spouse or child.
We also recognize the need to build an internal veteran
cultural competency that not only understands and values
veterans, but is improved by infusing their values into the
company's culture. For Starbucks, this started with the
recognition that much of what has made the company incredibly
successful parallels military values: a commitment to
excellence, a strong sense of ethical and moral principles,
comradery, and empowerment of our partners are among the values
that makes Starbucks a special place to work and parallels what
drives our military.
Another internal cultural piece is the growth of our
veteran affinity group, the Armed Forces Network, which has 16
chapters throughout the country. The AFN provides a source of
mentorship, comradery, and connection for our veterans and
spouses; it also provides a forum and focal point for building
our military cultural competency. In return, our veteran
partners pay it forward by engaging in community volunteer
activities and represent the best of Starbucks.
Continuing on the broader question on innovations in the
space, we are currently focused on meeting the employment
challenges faced by military spouses. With an unemployment rate
that is four times the veteran population, we are partnering
with Hiring Our Heroes, USAA, MOAA, and others to find lasting
solutions. On our side, we have specifically designed processes
that assist our military spouses to transfer their jobs to new
Starbucks locations when the inevitable change-of-duty-station
orders arrive. We also have flexible leave policies for spouses
that take into account the reality of deployments, moving, and
homecoming.
Starbucks is increasing the opportunities for local
communities to use our stores to engage with military members
and their families, expand partnerships with Veterans Service
Organization, to relevant programming, and using our scale to
create connections to bridge the military-civilian divide.
Utilizing our 44 military family stores, which are situated in
communities near military installations, we are working with a
range of our partners such as the USO, Blue Star Families, and
Team RWB to provide needed transition programming and services.
Our stores are also a hub for organizing partner-driven
community service projects in conjunction with veterans groups
The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon. These organizations
provide veterans and spouses with opportunities to make
connections in their new communities, as well as leverage their
considerable skills for the greater good.
Moving forward, our ambition is to change what it means to
support their troops. While being thanked for their service is
appreciated, military members and their spouses wanted to be
given the opportunity to demonstrate their incredible
leadership, experience, and talent that they bring to the
workplace. We will continue driving and refining this effort
through our policy, storytelling, and partnerships.
As our dedicated hiring program and veteran cultural
competency matures, we are increasingly sharing our models and
lessons learned with others.
In closing my remarks, I would like to raise opportunities
for Congress to enable the success of our veterans and military
spouses.
First is recognizing and supporting the unique employment
challenges of our military spouses. A second request is related
to your 2018 Mulder Transition Improvement Act, Mr. Chairman.
Giving the transition process greater structure and adding
counseling and wraparound services are truly important changes
that will increase the value and impact.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. After
serving our country, it is my honor to discuss the Starbucks
Veterans and Military Spouses Program, and the difference it is
making in the lives of our military members and their families.
[The prepared statement of Matt Kress appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Kress.
We now recognize Mr. Sevola from Prudential for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES J. SEVOLA, JR.
Mr. Sevola. Thank you. Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member
O'Rourke, and Members of the House Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, my name is Chuck Sevola.
I am an Army veteran and I head Prudential's Office of Veterans
Initiatives.
Thank you for having me here today and the opportunity to
speak with you about Prudential's veterans programs.
The mission statement of our Veterans Initiative Office is
to establish sustainable programs and activities that have a
positive impact on the lives of veterans and their families,
helping them to achieve professional success, financial
prosperity, and peace of mind.
Our dedicated Office of Veterans Initiatives was formed in
2010 at the direction of our Chairman, John Strangfeld.
Prudential strives to be a preferred employer for veterans and
military spouses, a community leader in supporting Veterans
Service Organizations, and a national leader in developing and
sharing best practices for corporate veteran programs.
We have established a five-pillar strategy to achieve our
goals. The first pillar, and our primary focus, is education
and employment. This covers our programs in recruiting,
training, and retaining veterans and military spouses not just
for jobs, but for fruitful careers in our firm. Our flagship
program with this pillar is our VETalent collaboration with
Workforce Opportunity Services.
Our second pillar of employee engagement focuses on
harnessing the passion that exists in our workforce to help
veterans and their families through volunteerism.
The third pillar, Thought Leadership, covers our work to
understand the issues that veterans and their families face,
and establishing and sharing best practice programs to address
these issues.
The fourth pillar is corporate giving. Here we provide
financial resources through philanthropy and sponsorship to
Veterans Service Organizations and other like-minded
organizations to extend our reach beyond what we can do on our
own.
Finally, our fifth pillar, Veterans and Military Business
Support, seeks to find the intersection between the work we do
with veterans through our corporate social responsibility and
the work we do as a financial services firm. Our primary focus
here is bringing Prudential's expertise in financial wellness
education to the issues that veterans and their families face
as they transition to civilian life.
Our multi-faceted approach to our veteran program is robust
and mutually supporting among the five pillars. Elements of our
WOS program mentioned previously can be found within each of
these pillars.
Founded in 2005, Workforce Opportunity Services is a
leading nonprofit committed to developing untapped talent from
under-served and veteran communities through partnerships with
organizations dedicated to diversifying their workforce. The
WOS model has its roots in a program developed by Dr. Arthur
Langer of Columbia University. This program has been adapted
and branded VETalent at Prudential in 2010 to serve as the
basis of our veteran training and hiring activities for post-9/
11 veterans.
One of the key attributes of the Prudential VETalent
program is its adaptability to a variety of roles. The multi-
phased approach to this program allows a sponsoring company to
see the progress of candidates in the program and to assess
their readiness at various checkpoints for eventual hire. This
program has been used with success in many of our offices
around the country, but most recently in our newly established
Business and Technology Center in El Paso, Texas. Of the
Prudential staff in the El Paso office, more than 50 percent
are veterans or military spouses, the majority of which were
sourced using this WOS model.
Consistent with our desire to be a national leader in
establishing and sharing best practice programs, we tested and
refined this WOS Prudential model with the intent of sharing it
with other like-minded companies to expand its impact beyond
what Prudential could do on its own. As a result, in close
cooperation with WOS, this program model has been adopted by
over 60 other companies around the country.
In support of our efforts to hire and retain veterans and
military spouses, Prudential has found it helpful to educate
hiring managers on the military in general and the value that
veterans and military spouses bring to the workplace.
With a very small percentage of our Nation's population
having a direct connection to military service, there is a lack
of knowledge and misconceptions that must be overcome by hiring
managers before they will routinely consider them as a viable
source for talent. Prudential has developed an in-house
training curriculum specifically designed to close this gap in
understanding.
Private sector programs can effectively be built on
governmental initiatives to help advance veterans and military
spouse employment. An excellent example of a successful program
is the Corporate Fellowship Program of the Hiring Our Heroes
organization. Not only does this intern program allow the
fellow to begin the acclimation process into corporate America
much earlier, but also gives the prospective employer an
extended period to judge fit into company culture. These
factors play a positive role in job satisfaction and retention.
Prudential has created an integrated five-pillar strategy
to focus our efforts in education and employment of veterans
and military spouses. By adapting an effective model created by
Workforce Opportunity Services, Prudential and WOS have created
a program that not only has been a key enabler in our own
staffing activities, but also in the staffing activities of
other companies interested in tapping into this valuable talent
pool.
Hiring manager training, as well as participation in select
government programs, have been a significant factor in the
overall success in achieving our mission.
Prudential would like to thank the Committee for its
invitation to speak with you and share our experiences. We
stand ready to work with others to help further expand the WOS
program or any other that will be beneficial to servicemembers,
veterans, and their families.
I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank
you for having me.
[The prepared statement of Charles J. Sevola appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Sevola.
Mr. Douthit with Dell, you are now recognized for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT DOUTHIT
Mr. Douthit. Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking
Member O'Rourke, Members of the Committee, thank you for
inviting me today to testify on ``Hiring and Retaining Veterans
in the Modern Day Workforce.''
My name is Robert Douthit, I am the Senior Director for
Dell's Customer Solutions Centers for the Americas, and a 20-
year Army veteran, serving from 1986 to 2006. I come from the
perspective of five deployments, two combat deployments to Iraq
in '90 and '91, Somalia in 1993, peace-keeping deployments to
Bosnia in the summer of 1998, peace-keeping deployments in
Kosovo in 1999, and commanding an Air Cavalry squadron in the
Anbar Province of Iraq from 2003 to 2004. I appreciate the
opportunity to be here today.
I would like to start by noting that the U.S. Department of
Defense was one of Dell's first customers and, accordingly, we
have a long tradition of identifying with and working for
United States military. And we greatly appreciate, as I expect
you do, the skills that veterans bring to our workforce and our
business.
My testimony today has three objectives: to explain why
Dell is a vigorous recruiter of veterans and their spouses;
explain how we recruit veterans and their spouses; and,
finally, offer a few suggestions on how the Federal
Government's Military Transition Assistance Program, or TAP,
would enhance veteran hiring.
Dell recruits veterans and their spouses because we
believe, as we expect again you do, the military provides a
rich source of talent, especially in key areas of worker under-
representation, and we believe that a diverse workforce is an
economically and dynamically effective workforce.
A recent study found that when compared to their peer's
student veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill represent the
single best source of potential and current achievers in higher
education with nearly 100,000 graduating annually.
In 2001, Dell established its Veterans and Supporters
Employee Resource Group, or ERG, as a means for veterans within
the business to connect, support, and mentor each other. The
success of the Veterans ERG is due in large part to the
dedicated commitment of our Chairman, Michael Dell himself, his
senior leadership management throughout the company, and, most
importantly, those veterans actively engaged in the ERG.
In terms of how we recruit veterans and spouses, we
participate in a number of on-base military transition fairs,
where veterans begin to look for employment outside their
military service. Specifically, our Dell Talent Acquisition
Team participates in monthly partner calls with the Texas
Veterans Commission to identify talent opportunities for
businesses seeking workers with those kills that military
service and training provides.
Additionally, Dell works with a variety of programs and
partners, many of which you have heard previously mentioned
here today. We also use these organizations as a source of
well-trained future Dell team members. My written testimony
lists many of those veteran activities and programs that we
work with and from which we recruit.
At Dell, we also have a social media strategy known as
Heroes Among Us. This campaign has reached 6.2 million
potential readers. Additionally, on our military jobs page, we
have seen an over 100-percent increase in veterans actually
tabbing the ``Apply'' click for a job in the last year.
In terms of suggestions for how the Government might
improve the member's transition experience, as you know, some
employers may not understand the many skills that the military
service provides or that veterans acquire during their service
and, accordingly, those businesses may not understand the value
that veterans bring to their specific businesses. Again, my
written extended testimony offers suggestions to improve that
transition experience. Most of these do not require additional
funding.
Most notable among those suggestions are invigorating the
existing military TAP program with a curriculum aligned more to
career exploration rather than applying for a role and writing
a resume; initiating programs that train the civilian, the
business HR and talent acquisition teams on what the military
provides, and allowing that talent to actually participate in
the TAP program on base to learn firsthand as that transition
occurs prior to the military member's separation; explore the
opportunity to permit government TAPs professionals to visit on
site with the myriad businesses seeking veterans for their
businesses, so that those TAPs professionals might learn the
inner workings of the businesses looking to hire veterans.
Again, it is my honor to appear before you today and I
would like to thank the Committee for your efforts in exploring
how we might improve veteran hiring opportunities, and I am
happy to answer any questions you have.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Robert Douthit appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Douthit. And, again, we
appreciate you and your service to our country in the military
and now in service to your brothers and sisters who are
veterans, and through your positions in corporate America and
at the U.S. Chamber.
I am going to ask that our Chairman, we are honored in the
Subcommittee to be joined by the Chairman of the VA Committee,
Dr. Phil Roe, from the great state of Tennessee.
Dr. Roe, Chairman Roe, we yield as much time as you would
like.
Mr. Roe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And just to point out, we
have two Texans in the seat, and there wouldn't be a Texas if
it weren't for Tennessee. I just want to point that out as we
get started.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Roe. We had to bail them out a number of years ago.
I think I first of all want to thank all of you all. And I
remember very specifically a 2014 hearing we had where Walmart
came in here and said we will offer any honorably discharged
veteran a job. I remember that like it was yesterday and I
appreciate very much you're doing that. That meant a lot to I
think veterans around. And we got on the airplanes, we do three
or four times a week get on an airplane, and it didn't happen
during my generation, but now those military young people in
uniform can get on the airplane first. I sit in a lot of
airports, unfortunately, and it makes me proud as an American
to see our country treating this generation of veterans
different than other generations, Vietnam specifically had been
treated.
So I want to thank all of your companies for what you are
doing, stepping up.
You know, one of the things that--there are a couple things
that have been brought up, one was the GI Bill, Post-9/11 GI
Bill. I used the GI Bill when I got out of the Army in 1975 and
I still appreciate my country investing $300 a month in me for
2 years, to this day I appreciate that.
I know that right now the Student Veterans of America have
come in and met with us a number of times, and it is over a 70-
percent completion rate for those. It is an amazing statistic.
So that is an investment that is paying off big time that you
all can leverage.
One of the things that Secretary, then Secretary Shulkin
wanted to do is reduce veteran suicide. And General Haston, who
is our Guard Commander in Tennessee, when he took over in 2011,
he had four suicides the first 40 days he commanded the Guard
in Tennessee. He said we had to do something. And he started a
program called Guard Your Buddy, but what he found was
relationships and money, finances were a big part of the
problem. If you have a job, a good, steady job that takes care
of the finances part, and that is part of the issue I think
these young people leaving the military and separating.
And that is why I was going to ask Mr. Douthit, the TAPs
program--the TAP program, I should say, is a good program, but
what I found in talking to employers in my district is they
don't know how--because we don't have a military base, I grew
up in Clarksville, Tennessee where there was a huge base there,
but where they are, they want veterans, they can't find them.
And so I think we need to find a way to make it easier for
businesses.
I had a friend of mine in Nashville who is a CEO of a large
health care company, he said, look, I want to find out how I
can hire these young company commanders and bring them into my
system. They have already got the leadership skills, they have
got all that, the things that I want to help eventually run my
hospitals. They didn't know how to connect it to and I think
that is a key problem that we have is finding that connection.
And where we are, we can't find enough veterans. We looked for
them and when they get out, they can get hired in no time at
all, because they do bring those great skills.
So would you have any suggestions, you mentioned a couple,
which I thought were very important in your testimony about how
we line up our people, what can we do to the TAP program to
make it better? Like you pointed out a couple things, instead
of just learning how to fill out a resume, and how can we line
up those great people with employers out there that want to
hire them.
Mr. Douthit. Yes, I think a couple things. First, we all
recognize it is important that the mission of the military is
to deter aggression and fight and win our Nation's wars, and
that is what we are paying these young--
Mr. Roe. I thought they told me was to blow up things and
kill people, that is what--
Mr. Douthit. A win-win, and we understand that is what the
young servicemembers and older servicemembers are paid for.
That critical time in TAP, towards the very end of their
career, is essential that when you bring the businesses
together--and, again, hopefully the best of the best
represented here today who recognize that talent, but that
understanding what that transition process is for particularly
the younger military members.
So that if you can bring business on base into the TAP
program, so that again the HR and the talent acquisition
members from business understands exactly how that process
works, I think you would find a real fight for talent. Right?
That they would come in and they understand in one-on-one
dialogue with the TAP professionals around who exactly is
coming through the process, not necessarily by name, but by
capability and training levels.
To your point, those company commanders who can go out and
run a store today or lead a sales team. And so that sort of
osmosis that occurs between business getting on base or access
to the TAP program, and then conversely allowing TAP, I will
use Central Texas as an example, to move from a joint base in
San Antonio or from Fort Hood into businesses in the region, or
El Paso, even in those areas, to understand exactly how do
things work at Dell EMC, how do things work at those other
businesses around the region. And so that sort of permeation
during the TAP program is important.
Mr. Roe. I think one of the other things you all are doing
for the spouse program is that you--I was just counting up
today in my head, in 2 years I moved seven times. Most of the
tours were unaccompanied, but during my 2 years in the military
that is a lot of moving and it is very disruptive on families.
And the spouse programs that you all are putting in are equally
important, because I do think that affects relationships and
finances.
And so, you know, including those spouses in your program I
think is as important as including the veteran themselves or
the Active duty person at that point. It makes a lot of sense,
because you allow that family economically to be stable and I
want to commend you for that. I think that is a huge thing you
are doing.
I remember in 2009 during the height of the recession, we
had unemployment in veterans, I mean, it was maybe north of 15
percent, it was horrible. And now I think the unemployment rate
for veterans is around 3.4 percent in the country. So it is
very, very low. And part of that were the companies like you
all that set out and said we are going to hire veterans. Those
companies made it a goal for their company to hire these great
people, and I am sitting here today as the Chairman thanking
you for doing that and this effort you are continuing to do to
hire veterans.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the record, I
have not been able to get Mr. Correa or Mr. Takano to say that
the low unemployment rate has anything to do with tax reform,
but I am going to work on them through this Committee.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. In case you leave early, I just want you to
know I am going to work on them.
With that, I yield 5 minutes to my colleague Mr. O'Rourke.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I really like that the Chairman of the Full Committee, Dr.
Roe, reference the crisis we have in veteran suicide right now
and the conservative estimate, and we don't know the real
number, but it is 20 a day, every day are taking their lives.
And the Chairman mentioned that finances are part of that, but
also we have heard some very powerful testimony from veterans
talking about function and purpose. You know, you cannot be
more essential or useful than being a member of that military
unit. Everything that you do will determine not just your fate,
but the fate of those other servicemembers in your unit. And to
come back and sometimes not have purpose or function in your
life can be very hard to survive, honestly.
And so the programs that we are hearing about today I think
help to satisfy both of these challenges, both the financial
and the challenge in function, and I am very, very pleased by
the example that these organizations have set. And, you know,
you all have a responsibility to your shareholders, and so you
wouldn't just do this because it is the right thing to do,
though it is, it has got to be right for you and your bottom
line, and it sounds like it is as well. And to any degree you
can help us measure or articulate what those measurements are,
because your good example and then the example in terms of how
it has been profitable for your companies is one that we need
other businesses to see and to follow.
I really liked the suggestions, Mr. Douthit that you
provided for how we can improve the Transition Assistance
Program. Just having the literacy amongst employers about what
it means to serve when fewer than one percent of America has
served post-9/11. It was far more common in World War II, in
the Korea era, even in Vietnam, and now it is really the
exception. And so I love this idea of bringing the employer
into the TAP program, so that they can meet those transitioning
servicemembers or just gain some competence in the skills and
experience and expertise that they can provide to those
employers, I liked that idea a lot.
Also, not lost on me, General Profit, you know, your
comment that perhaps to some degree what you and other
employers have done has helped to reduce the unemployment rate
among veterans. And I love the example Walmart is setting for
how you treat military spouses. You know, any man or any woman
who is in conjunction with their husband or wife serving by
helping that family move and survive and thrive in the midst of
some challenges that most of us don't experience or know, that
is really important. And I would love to see the same kind of
return for those military spouses.
Ms. O'Brien, you mentioned the unemployment rate is four
times as high. What are some--to the degree that you from
personal experience or as a representative of the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, what are some specific programs, perhaps in line
with what Mr. Douthit has suggested, that we can implement for
military spouses going forward?
Ms. O'Brien. So it four times, we are unemployed at four
times the rate of the national average of our civilian
counterparts.
One glaring omission that exists on the TAP side is that
military spouses are not able--they are only able to attend on
a space-available basis. And so oftentimes military spouses
don't have access to the programming and knowledge that is
being shared during the TAP process. I think if there is an
opportunity to integrate military spouses into the TAP process,
it would be unbelievably impactful.
Another great opportunity that we are seeing now at Hiring
Our Heroes is that states are actually putting delegations
together to travel to our transition summit. So as we are
convening, you know, several thousand transitioning
servicemembers, states, the State of Wisconsin, the State of
Indiana, they are sending businesses to Fort Bliss, Texas to
try and find folks that want to return home, and capture them
and bring them back and let them know that there is
opportunity. So I think exploring opportunities for states to
integrate businesses into these larger-scaled summits is a
wonderful opportunity, and also they are going to have the
opportunity to interact with military spouses.
Starbucks is doing a fantastic job, really one of the
leading employers across the country right now. And on Thursday
we are going to make a fantastic initiative announcement at the
spouse summit where Starbucks, in conjunction with Hiring Our
Heroes, and a fantastic coalition of companies is going to work
over the next 3 years to hire 100,000 military spouses, and
that is going to be I think a call to action that our country
needs from an employer perspective.
Mr. O'Rourke. And I will just say, and I am sure my
colleagues have similar experiences, as we have hired both
veterans, military retirees, and military spouses, we have
always found that to be extraordinary value for our office. As
a Representative of Fort Bliss with 32,000 Active duty
servicemembers, there are a number of military spouses, and the
single largest challenge for us to do our part in holding up
our end of the bargain is to make sure that those spouses have
opportunity in our community. And it can be accreditation, it
can be certifications across border, it can be all number of
challenges that they face, but when we the employer find a way
to make use of their value, we always get the best end of the
deal.
And so just from personal experience, I want to be sure
that I share that and that we facilitate the really good news
that you just announced with other employers and for all
military spouses. So thank you for the suggestion and thank you
each for what you do within your organizations, both for
retirees, veterans, and spouses as well. I am grateful.
Mr. Chairman, thanks.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Ranking Member. I am going to
yield myself 5 minutes.
Someone mentioned that employers don't always recognize or
understand the unique skills and experiences that become an
asset for their organization. In your experience, could you
highlight, you know, two or three unique skills based on the
experience and training as an Active duty military person
transitioning as a veteran? Highlight two or three of those
that have become now an asset at Starbucks or Walmart.
Mr. Kress. Yes, sir. We know at Starbucks that if we looked
at a direct skills translation, particularly with our business
model, we would not be employing as many veterans outside of
some narrow areas, say finance or technology. But since we have
broadened and looked at a competency-based model, we have been
very successful, and I have one great example.
We recently hired a retiring Marine Corps special operator
to manage a group of our stores in Western Montana, he is
responsible for about ten stores and several hundred employees.
And if you look at his experience, he probably wouldn't fit
into the Starbucks model, but his ability to lead people, his
ability to overcome challenges, his ability to accomplish goals
is absolutely fantastic and he is doing a great job for us.
So that is just one example. And I will turn it over to
General Profit to talk about what Walmart has done.
Mr. Arrington. Excellent. General Profit?
General Profit. Mr. Chairman, I guess I would say three
things. The first thing is the Nation makes a huge investment
in the knowledge, skills, and abilities of all who serve, and,
further, an equally huge investment in their growth and
development as leaders, but I think the greatest things that we
find in the people who have served and their families are the
values that they bring to our organization.
We find that the idea of service and sacrifice and
excellence and respect is something that aligns very well with
the culture at Walmart, and the values that we hold dear, in
addition to integrity, and those are exactly the Army values
that I lived for 31 years. And I think the Marine Corps and the
Navy and the Air Force and the Coast Guard are equally imbued
with those same values. And it is important to note that their
families and their spouses come with that same values base, and
that is the most important thing to us.
Mr. Arrington. Well said. I think we can assume that this
probably cuts across all companies in terms of the leadership
skills that are sort of ready-built into these men and women.
What about the challenges? What are the unique challenges
that the veterans come with that you as an employer and others
consider and recognize to sort of smooth out any bumps in the
transition.
General Profit. I guess I will start by saying that-- and
we have talked around it a little bit here--I think one of the
things that I would say about the TAP program that I think
could be a huge opportunity is to enhance the opportunity for
the private sector and non-profit organizations to network with
these great Americans well before they transition, because most
of them have no idea about their career aspirations when they
separate. And so it is really hard to have a personal brand
discussion with someone who doesn't really know what they want
to do, and it is very hard to understand where the gaps exist
between that portfolio of preparation and experiences, if you
don't even really understand their aspirations.
And I think if we had an earlier conversation with them,
Mr. Chairman, I think we would better understand them and I
think they would better understand us.
Mr. Arrington. Great. Mr. Sevola?
Mr. Sevola. Yes. I think we know that we have to work with
hiring managers to make sure that they understand the skills
and abilities that veterans bring to the workplace, but we have
also found that we have to work with the veterans themselves to
understand the skills and abilities they bring to the
workplace, because many times they believe because you are an
infantryman or you are an artilleryman, that those skills
aren't readily transferrable to Prudential. It is true, we
don't do a lot of that type of work at Prudential, but
certainly the leadership skills and the teamwork and things of
that nature are absolutely, critically applicable. And we have
to educate the veterans as much, so they have their own
confidence in their own skills.
Mr. Arrington. Mr. Douthit, yes.
Mr. Douthit. If I could add to that. I think the one word
that best describes veterans, given all that you have heard
here, is athlete. There isn't a lot of fire and maneuver at
Prudential, nor is there at Dell EMC. Whether you are a combat
MOS or in the logistics IT world, the leadership that has
already been alluded to here and the ability to make decisions
under extreme, intense pressure in very short periods of time
with grave consequences, I think veterans probably don't quite
appreciate how well that is appreciated in the business world
with the kind of values that General Profit alluded to, with
the kind of diversity that Mr. Sevola mentions as well.
So, I think athlete is the word I would leave you with.
Mr. Arrington. Well, your comments are timely. Mr. O'Rourke
and I and my colleagues have been working on a comprehensive
reform of TAP, it is still open and the ink isn't dry, and we
are going to consider everything that you are saying to make it
as impactful and as effective as possible. So, thanks for your
comments.
My time is way expired, so I am going to ask my friend from
California, Mr. Takano, to take 5 minutes for questions and
comments.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This is a question for everyone, if you would briefly
answer it. Do you include servicemembers in the National Guard
and Reserve in your veteran training and employment programs,
or is it just for veterans?
General Profit. No, absolutely. If you have retired, if you
have separated as a veteran, if you continue your service in
the Guard or the Reserve, or if you are part of a military
family, we equally value you at Walmart.
Mr. Takano. So Walmart, so you do include servicemembers in
the National Guard--
General Profit. Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Takano [continued]. --in your program? Great.
Mr. Sevola. At Prudential, we start from the position of
this is a talent play. So we look for great talent wherever it
exists, so we have a very broad definition of veterans when we
execute our program. So members of the Reserves, the National
Guards, veteran from Active duty are all included, to include
military spouses.
Mr. Takano. Wonderful.
Mr. Kress. Similar for Starbucks, that we put them in the
same standing as retired military or veterans. And we also
facilitate, much like my peers here, their military service by
giving them special consideration when they are wearing the
uniform.
Mr. Douthit. As well for Dell, yes.
Mr. Takano. Wonderful. With the change of the National
Guard and Reserves to an operational reserve from a strategic
reserve, the Guardsmen and Reservists you employ have been
required to attend more training days and increased
deployments. Have you noticed an impact from your employees
being gone more? I am talking about this Reservist and
Guardsmen population.
General Profit. I don't think so, Mr. Takano. We just
recently enhanced our military leave-of-absence policy actually
to include the opportunity for folks who have not served to
enlist initially into the military, to remove that final
barrier for them. So I think we are just very supportive, and
we haven't noticed, I think, any uptick in the move from a
strategic reserve to an operational one.
Mr. Sevola. At Prudential, there has not been significant
impact to our business operations. We stress communication
amongst the servicemembers, the Reservists and their management
to ensure that as soon as they understand there is going to be
a training requirement, that that could be worked into business
plans. That has worked well for us, so there has not been
appreciable impact that has been detrimental.
Mr. Kress. For Starbucks, similar to our peers, we haven't
noticed an impact. For the servicemembers who do deploy, we
hold their job and they go right back into their job. And we
also have a policy, knowing that we don't want them coming from
48, 72, or 96 hours of active drill period back to work. So we
give them a flexible leave policy if they need to take some
time off to get back to us.
Mr. Douthit. Yeah, we understand at Dell EMC that that is
the cost of freedom and the cost of doing business.
Mr. Takano. Wonderful.
Mr. Douthit. And anecdotally speaking, a Lieutenant Colonel
in the United States Army, National Guard will deploy, his job
will be waiting for him and we expect he will do fabulous when
he gets back.
Mr. Takano. Thank you. That is so important to our national
defense. I have a Reserve base in my district and part of the
challenge is finding employers who understand the various needs
of our Guardsmen and Reservists.
Do you know if these servicemembers are advancing at the
same rate as their peers? Are these servicemembers retained in
the company at the same rate as their peers?
General Profit. The evidence that we have seen so far is
that our veteran associates are more loyal than the average
Walmart associate and that they perform at a higher level. And
we think that is part of the value that you talk about to the
business beyond merely the civic and social responsibility,
because once we have a better handle on that, you can monetize
those kinds of things, and at Walmart all those numbers are
really big.
Mr. Takano. Wonderful.
Mr. Kress. I would say, sir, that for our field leader
positions where we move veterans and military spouses into
them, we have had an absolutely fantastic retention and
promotion rate for our district managers, which typically lead
up to ten stores. We have at this point, I believe, a 96-
percent retention rate for the veterans that are in those
positions.
Mr. Takano. Great.
Mr. Sevola. At Prudential, I think our retention is
commensurate with our other employees. I will tell you that
measurement is an area that we are focusing on, so we can get
better at it. It is a challenge given some privacy rules and
things of that nature within our company, but that is an area
where we are focusing and working very closely with our HR
organization so that we can better answer that question in the
future.
Mr. Takano. Great.
Mr. Douthit. Yeah, I would echo Mr. Sevola's comments
around privacy in terms of how we measure it, but I can tell
you that veterans are doing very well, but I can't speak to the
numbers specifically.
Mr. Takano. Well, thank you all for your answers.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Takano.
Now my friend, another distinguished gentleman from
California, Mr. Correa, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Correa. My good friend from Texas, thank you very much
for that wonderful introduction, sir.
I just wanted to thank all of you for the good work you do.
And we have had this challenge when I was in the State of
California dealing with Veterans Affairs, we were always trying
to figure out how do we give the private sector incentives to
do exactly what you are doing, which is to hire more of our
veterans.
Any thoughts how we can fill this room with good employers
that are hiring veterans?
Ms. O'Brien. At Hiring--
Mr. Correa. What can we do to make your job more effective?
Ms. O'Brien. At Hiring Our Heroes, what we know works
successfully is when each of our employer partners shares their
stories and puts it out there in front of the country. When we
show models of success from Dell, from Prudential, from
Starbucks, from Walmart, it leaves a lasting impact, and those
stories of success for military spouses. We know that through
educating and informing hiring managers and recruiters that it
allows us to retain and offer opportunities for military
spouses to have career mobility. But really the impact of
storytelling we find over and over again is what changes the
narrative at companies that aren't at the table yet.
Mr. Correa. Go ahead.
Mr. Sevola. I was just going to say that what is important
is that we talked earlier about the fact that there is a big
divide between the civilian population and the military
population, with less than one percent of our population have a
direct military service, that means there is a gap of
understanding. And getting the word out and telling the
stories, as Ms. O'Brien states, is very, very important to help
bridge that gap. The talent is there, they are very, very
effective, and once employers have a taste of that skill set,
there is no incentive needed.
It is a talent play that getting them in the door to show
what they can do is all you really need to do.
Mr. Kress. And I would also add to that, Mr. Correa, that
the companies at this table and many others around the country
are doing a fantastic job of cooperating. The tool kits, the
best practices, and coming together on a regular basis to
continue to build and refine our practices are happening every
day, sir.
Mr. Correa. Gender, men and women, any thoughts on how to
approach women veterans versus male veterans?
General Profit. I guess we are learning more every day, and
some of what we are learning from the Women's Veterans Network
at Boston University is very insightful for us. We know that
there are unique challenges, but frankly we are finding--we
just showcased a Navy helicopter pilot who works in our
technology function at Walmart. There are countless stories, as
Liz and others have talked about, of women veterans coming to
our organizations and being very successful.
I think we have more to learn about our women veteran
associates, as it has more to do with their health and
wellbeing than it does with their education and training, or
their interest in starting their own business or being a
Walmart associate.
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I would like to work with you and these
wonderful folks here on trying to figure out how to approach
these men and women in uniform before they separate and, you
know, double, you know, quadruple the amount of businesses that
are actually reaching out to our veterans before the day of
separation.
And, Ms. O'Brien, to all of you here, I like your thoughts
about the storytelling, the story. I would invite you to come
to Southern California, so we could do some storytelling to
some of the locals, local chambers and other folks, to really
get, you know, this kind of a process going. As you said, it is
really about one-on-one, telling folks the success.
And again, like the Chairman said, I am very interested in
helping you help us come up with good public policy to make
sure that people understand what value our veterans are to the
private sector.
With that, Mr. Chair, I yield the remainder of my time.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Correa.
If you have any other thoughts, I think you and I are the
only ones here now. So we will, in case anyone is watching at
home, shall we name all of our colleagues? No, I am kidding.
I have got one more follow-up question and then we will
close. We talk a lot, Mr. Correa and I, Mr. O'Rourke, as we
work through the various programs within the purview of this
Subcommittee, and it seems invariably that when we have folks
from the VA we will ask the question--well, first we will say
we think it is a great program, we think the mission and the
objectives are all good, and if those were achieved, we would
be a better country, our veterans would be better served,
taxpayers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then we ask,
how is it going? And I find it frustrating that we don't get
very good, definitive, clear data on what is working and what
is not.
And all we want to do is find out, if it is working, let's
double down; if it is not, let's get rid of it or fix it. How
do you all--I mean, you are in the private sector, there may be
a greater sense of urgency and accountability, I suspect, we
would like to take some of that and transfer it to the VA, how
do you measure, how do you report to your superiors that what
you are doing is actually working? How do you measure, how do
you track, what are your metrics?
Just give me a couple of examples and then we will close
out.
General Profit. Obviously we report quarterly on a very
public commitment. Part of it is just the fact that we have an
obligation to deliver on our hiring commitment. But
increasingly we are looking at data capture and reporting and
analysis on much more quality metrics that are associated with,
in our case, how loyal they are to Walmart. And it is beyond
traditional retention: It is, whether they stay at Walmart or
not, they remain or become productive members of our
communities and, hopefully, they remain customers.
So, it is more loyalty than retention, and we are trying to
get much, much better at the differences in their performance,
whether it be in our academies or our Pathways Program, or
whether it is in their traditional performance in their
operational roles.
Mr. Arrington. Can you ever imagine a scenario where your
superiors would ask you for the outcomes of your programs for
veterans where you said that you just don't know, you don't
have the data?
General Profit. I would try not to have that experience'
and I would rather not imagine it.
Mr. Arrington. Yeah, we have that experience like Groundhog
Day sometimes.
General Profit. I will tell you, Mr. Chairman, I am very
encouraged with the participation of the Department of Defense
and the Department of Veterans Affairs at convenings like the
Bush Institute Military Service Initiative Stand-To Series,
which is coming up on its second session this summer, because I
think the exchange between the public sector, the private
sector, and the non-profit organizations has been very healthy,
and I think we are learning from each other.
Mr. Arrington. Good. Any other final thoughts on just--
Ms. O'Brien. Sir?
Mr. Arrington. Yes.
Ms. O'Brien. I would like to say the Executive Order that
was recently dropped by the President in reference to military
spouse employment across the Government, that one of the most
important parts that was included in that is that the
Government will now have to track how many military spouses
were interviewed, how the job was advertised to military
spouses, how many spouses were hired, and how many were
retained.
I think that sends a very clear signal to the rest of the
country that this is important, it is relevant, and data
capture really drives what we are doing.
Mr. Arrington. That is great, great point.
Mr. Kress. Yes, sir, I would add that our best measure of
success is how quickly we are exceeding our hiring goals for
veterans and military spouses, and continuing to up that bar.
But on the qualitative note that my peers talked about, that is
the next focus. And we are currently working with that
Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse to do
a deep dive into military spouse employment and understand the
numbers behind that, so we can give more quantitative answers.
Mr. Sevola. We certainly count the number of hires that we
have as an objective measure, but with our desire to want to be
a national leader in terms of programmatic solutions, we report
routinely to our Chairman about the work that we are doing to
help change the game with some of the macro problems,
specifically in the area of military spouses and job
portability and things of that nature.
So we measure ourselves in how we are influencing the
workplace on these larger problems and putting programs in
place that others can emulate.
Mr. Arrington. Let me now yield as much time as the
gentleman may consume to Mr. Correa.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I wanted to point out that when I deal with my veterans in
my district, I have a lot of town halls with them, a lot of
meetings, and I ask them, what is it that I can do to make your
life better? How is it that I can honor you for your years of
service to our country? And that is really the way I get ideas
as to legislation and issues, and what have you.
I would like to pose the same kind of question to all of
you, which is what is it that we need to do to make you more
effective when it comes to hiring veterans? What is it that we
can do to incentivize you, to help you hire our veterans? You
are the ones that are doing the hiring, so I would welcome the
opportunity to hear from you and to work with you on any
suggestions you may have and to implement them.
Whether you want to respond to that now or you want to talk
to me later on or the chair, but, you know, let's talk, let's
work together.
General Profit. First of all, sir, I will tell you that you
don't probably have to incentivize anybody at this table--
Mr. Correa. Right.
General Profit [continued].--because this is an enlightened
self-interest for us. These people are great members of our
teams, and we want them to join us and stay with us, and I
think that the public policy that is already in place has done
a lot to make that good for everyone.
I will just say one thing that I think is terribly
importance once again. I do think that the TAP program is still
a little bit too Government-go-alone, and I think the more that
you can include the places where these people are going to go
to work when they separate, i.e. mostly the private sector and
non-profit organizations as a part of the Transition Assistance
Program, I think you will give those young men and women a leap
ahead.
Mr. Correa. Those are the kind of suggestions I want to
hear as we move forward, sir. Thank you.
Ms. O'Brien. Sir?
Mr. Correa. Yes, Ms. O'Brien.
Ms. O'Brien. I think we need--everybody at this table as
referenced is highly committed, how do we get the next level
employers to the table to emulate and model what is already in
place?
And then a big piece that we see over and over again is
that companies identify as veteran-friendly. Well, nobody here
has ever met a company that is not veteran-friendly.
Mr. Correa. That is right, that is right.
Ms. O'Brien. Right? But how do we get them to move to
military family-ready, so that they are truly ready to welcome
the family to the table and provide employment opportunities
that have traditionally been reserved for veterans moving
forward.
So I would love to see a shift from veteran-friendly to
military family-ready.
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much.
Mr. Douthit. I think there is opportunity. We recognize
that, I think all these companies do, in terms of particularly
when it comes to spouse's remote work, that just because you
move doesn't mean you have to lose your job with the company
for which you are working. So that if you are able to work
remotely and you make businesses aware.
Again to my earlier answer, we recognize having Reservists
and spouses as the cost of freedom and the price of doing
business, and we think that is good business for America. And
so offering those opportunities to say, look, just because you
are moving every two years or every three and a half years
doesn't mean that you are going to lose the services of that
employee or are there things they can do remotely.
Mr. Kress. And, sir, I would like to add onto that and
focus on military spouses, because one of the challenges that
our spouses face is that they are very highly educated and they
have occupations that require licensure in individual states,
and when they receive those PCS orders, they have challenges
moving their profession from state to state, and that is what
keeps many of them out of the workforce or delays their success
and promotion in their given careers. And there are a number of
organizations, HOH, MOAA, and several others are looking at
this problem, but it is a tough one. I would suggest that that
is one thing that could be examined.
Mr. Correa. That is actually, Mr. Chair, that is a heck of
a suggestion that we can have some kind of a temporary license
in a vocational area or something of the sort that would permit
you to practice what you are practicing in maybe your home
state in a different state, as long as you are, you know, for
military purposes stationed in that new location.
Mr. Kress. Yes, sir, and bringing that back--
Mr. Correa. There are a hundred ways to skin that cat.
Mr. Kress. There are. And bringing it back to the earlier
conversation on mental health, that is one of the biggest needs
and there are so many military spouses who have that expertise,
and our entire population and veterans could benefit from their
experience and their expertise, but they are having challenges
transferring that from state to state.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, thank you very much.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Correa. And this has been
very informative and insightful and encouraging, and you and
your companies are to be commended for being leaders in support
of our veterans and then just taking advantage of an amazing
community of Americans. So, congrats and thanks.
I want to encourage you to sort of memorialize in a more
specific way, like Mr. Douthit did, and you are just rattling
through a list of recommendations. As I said, we are moving
close to a markup, but the ink isn't dry, and I would ask that
you look at H.R. 5649, that is our Subcommittee's effort to
improve the TAP program, but I suspect, I know I have made a
few notes, but if you would look at that and then you would
give us very specific ways we could consider improving the
service to our veterans and helping better prepare them for you
all and your companies, and the marketplace in general, that
would be tremendous.
So, again, good feedback, but if you could do that for us,
that would be great. And if you need any help, I know the staff
would be happy to guide you there, H.R. 5649.
One last moment of personal privilege, because I have a
colleague who has worked on this Committee for 6 years, I
believe, Ms. Kelsey Baron, it is not like she is--she is not
dying, but she is going to the Senate, so it is pretty, you
know--anyway, that is a House joke, but in all seriousness,
Kelsey has supported me as Chairman. This has been a tremendous
honor for me and I am a new member, so there was a lot of hand-
holding and a lot of coaching, and she was very patient with
me. And she is the consummate professional, she loves our
veterans and this country, her parents both served, and she is
going to be sorely missed, I will tell you.
I mean, I like you, John, but, you know, you are much
better with Kelsey.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Arrington. And so we are going to talk about that
later. Kelsey, we love you, we appreciate you, and we are
grateful for your service to this Committee and to our country.
With that, let's close this baby with my final words of I
ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days
in which to revise and extend their remarks, and include any
extraneous material on today's hearing.
Without objection, so ordered.
We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:22 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Prepared Statement of Elizabeth O'Brien
ON: ``Veteran and Military Spouse Employment: A National Security
Conversation''
The Foundation's mission is to strengthen America's long-term
competitiveness by addressing developments that affect our nation, our
economy, and the global business environment. USCCF presents a broad
range of programs that promote a greater understanding of economic and
public affairs issues.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USCCF) is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce dedicated to
strengthening America's long-term competitiveness by addressing
developments that affect our nation, our economy, and the global
business environment. USCCF presents a broad range of programs that
promote a greater understanding of economic and public affairs issues.
The Foundation conducts research and produces events on issues
facing business now and in the future. Through its initiatives, the
Foundation builds skills, drives innovation, and encourages growth.
``Veteran and Military Spouse Employment: A National Security
Conversation''
Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and
distinguished members of the Subcommittee. My name is Elizabeth O'Brien
and I am the senior director of military spouse programs for the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Hiring Our Heroes.
Founded in 2011, Hiring Our Heroes is a nationwide initiative of
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which assists military
veterans, transitioning servicemembers, and military spouses in finding
meaningful employment opportunities in a 21st century workforce. The
program accomplishes this goal in myriad ways, including hiring fairs,
on-installation transition summits, career development and networking
events, focused research, best practice development and communication,
campaigns in partnership with sponsor companies and nonprofit groups,
and a robust suite of online digital resources.
Since 2011, there has been an incredible transformation in the
military hiring community as private sector companies have admirably
stepped up their hiring efforts for veterans and military spouses. When
Hiring Our Heroes first launched, the employment outlook for veterans
and military families was bleak. In many ways, the nation was in a
crisis situation with regards to the employment struggles faced by so
many individuals who had sacrificed so much for our country. However,
with the business community meeting the challenge of finding career
opportunities for this population, the unemployment rate for veterans
has continued to drop precipitously.
In fact, the overall veteran unemployment rate continued its
downward trend in 2017, decreasing to just 3.7 percent. \1\ However,
while the overall veteran employment news is good, we also know there
are segments of the military community that continue to struggle. In
2017, for example, post-9/11 veterans under the age of 25 faced an
unemployment rate of 7.9 percent. And our most recent veteran
employment study, Veterans in the Workplace, showed a significant
gender disparity in employment outcomes for veterans as well: female
veterans were less likely to find their first post-military job within
three months of leaving service and were more likely than male veterans
to report being financially worse off after leaving military service.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ ``Employment Situation of Veterans Summary.'' U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 22 Mar. 2018, www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.nr0.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The employment landscape for military and veteran spouses is
another important piece of the economic puzzle for our veteran
families. Our 2017 study, Military Spouses in the Workplace, revealed a
16 percent unemployment rate for military spouses. Among employed
military spouses, underemployment is widespread, with roughly 70
percent reporting that their education and experience is underutilized
in their current position. And although military spouses are more
highly educated than most working Americans, military spouses with
degrees face the greatest challenges in nearly every measurable
military spouse employment category, including the highest rates of
unemployment and the most difficulty finding meaningful work.
In the 21st century economy, dual income households have become the
norm--and in many cases, a necessity--for American families, with 60
percent of married civilian couples with children now bringing home two
incomes. \2\ Military and veteran families are no exception, so as we
consider economic opportunity and long-term success for our veteran
families, it is imperative that we address the parallel importance of
veteran and military spouse employment. A dual income family structure
provides financial stability for our military families during their
service and through their transition to veteran status and beyond.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Kent, Lauren. ``The Rise in Dual Income Households.'' Pew
Research Center, 18 June 2015, www.pewresearch.org/ft--dual-income-
households-1960-2012-2/.
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We know that hiring veterans and military spouses is not just the
right thing to do for the country; it also makes good business sense.
Veterans bring incredible value in both tangible and intangible skills
to companies who hire them, from extensive training backgrounds in
their military occupational specialties to the less concrete
characteristics such as loyalty, discipline, and a work ethic that is
unrivaled elsewhere in the economy - all skills crucial to a productive
work environment. Similarly, military spouses bring to their career a
diverse body of educational, professional, and volunteer experience as
well as traits honed through their military community experience, such
as resilience, perseverance, and grit.
We also recognize that these employment challenges for veterans and
military spouses are not solely an economic issue for our country, but
a national security concern. The success of our present-day veterans
serves as a beacon for young Americans, enabling the recruitment of
high-quality candidates into the next generation of the all-volunteer
force. In the same way, the availability of meaningful career paths for
military spouses impacts the stability and well-being of military
families and thus also impacts the military's ability to both recruit
and retain top military talent.
Background on Hiring Our Heroes
When Hiring Our Heroes was first created, we had a very simple
mission - to carry out traditional hiring events and connect with state
and local chambers to find opportunities for military job seekers
across the country.
As the employment landscape for veterans and military spouses has
changed, we have evolved our operations to maintain our relevance and
effectiveness in what we do. Through our experience and ongoing
research, we have become more strategic in our approach and programs,
and more focused on not only connecting the military community with job
opportunities, but ensuring that they are finding the right jobs.
In 2014, Hiring Our Heroes pioneered a series of hiring events
aimed particularly at connecting veteran, Guard, and Reserve candidates
with employment opportunities in major metropolitan areas. Hosted at
professional sports venues, these hiring expos have been conducted in
dozens of cities around the country in conjunction with Major League
baseball, NBA basketball, NFL football, and NHL hockey teams. The high-
profile nature of these events has attracted a particularly high volume
of veteran job seekers and veteran-seeking employers while
simultaneously providing an opportunity for communities to come
together and show their support and appreciation for the veterans in
their hometown. Community demand for these events is strong, and in
2018 we anticipate holding around 20 of these hiring expos and
expanding into new cities and additional sports.
In recognition of the role that early preparation plays in post-
military career success, beginning in 2014 Hiring Our Heroes also
worked with our public, private, and nonprofit partners to launch a
series of on-installation transition summits aimed at reaching and
empowering servicemembers long before their last day on Active duty.
Created as a complement to existing transition education provided by
the Department of Defense, these summits provide an intensive
opportunity for servicemembers and their spouses to learn what economic
opportunity looks like for them in today's workforce through industry-
specific workshops presented by leading employers, interactive panel
discussions with employment and human resources experts, breakout
workshops, networking opportunities, and finally, a large-scale hiring
fair featuring both regional and national employers.
In the seven years since our program's launch, we have held more
than 1,100 hiring events in the United States and on U.S. military
installations around the world, and from those hiring events alone we
have confirmed more than 31,000 veteran and military spouse hires into
the civilian workforce. Beyond those hires, our program has facilitated
thousands of additional meaningful connections between job seekers and
employers through our networking opportunities, workshops, and training
programs.
Beyond hiring events, we have introduced a number of initiatives
aimed at improving employment opportunities for veterans. In early
2015, we launched the inaugural cohort of the Hiring Our Heroes
Corporate Fellowship Program at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, outside of
Tacoma. The program, which aims to connect experienced leaders from the
military with management-level corporate positions, was developed under
the guidelines of the Department of Defense's SkillBridge job training
initiative to provide civilian management training in a classroom
setting followed by hands-on experience in the civilian workforce. The
program's goal: easing the transition to civilian employment for
servicemembers who had both the technical and interpersonal skills
employers seek but whose past job titles did not explicitly correlate
with their civilian equivalent while simultaneously providing a high-
quality talent pipeline for employers seeking experienced management
candidates.
Hiring Our Heroes also developed and continues to improve our
robust array of digital tools and online resources for both job seekers
and employers. With support from our generous sponsors, including
Toyota and USAA, we provide tools such as the Resume Engine for
veterans and Career Spark for military spouses, VET Roadmap, the
Employer Roadmap, Fast Track, and others, free of charge for all users,
whether job seekers or employers. These online tools are designed to
ensure that our target audiences are equipped with best-in-class tools
and resources and best practices as they enter into this unique and
often challenging environment.
Moving ``Left of Transition''
One of the key lessons we have learned over the last seven years is
that many of the challenges that military veterans face when
transitioning off Active duty are tied to a lack of preparation. Far
too many servicemembers have traditionally viewed transition not as a
continuing process but as a single point in time when they simply pick
up their DD-214 papers and leave the military. Unsurprisingly, this has
left too many veterans without a clear pathway to economic success.
Our 2016 Veterans in the Workplace study showed that 44 percent of
veterans left their first post-military job within the first year. The
reasons for departure varied, but the most common reason cited was that
those veterans accepted that first job in order to make ends meet
following their transition from the military and not because it was
their career path of choice.
In response, we have renewed our focus on transition education for
servicemembers, introducing a modified, scalable transition summit
model to provide right-sized, targeted transition education
opportunities on installations of all sizes and with a wide range of
transitioning populations. As a result, we have doubled the number of
transition summits we will host this year over the previous two years,
and have expanded summit programming to more than a dozen new
installations, including hosting our first transition summits on Coast
Guard bases. We have continued to hone our educational and career
development offerings, providing in-depth workshops on concrete, in-
demand transition topics, such as professional networking in the
civilian business world and evaluating civilian pay, benefits, and
total compensation.
Since the highly successful launch of the Corporate Fellowship
Program in 2015, the program has grown exponentially. Service members
report that they value the introduction to the corporate world, hands-
on civilian work experience, and networking opportunities the program
has provided. Employers benefit from this access to a larger, highly
skilled veteran talent pool and appreciate the unique perspective and
insight that the fellows brought to their companies, whether they are a
small business who hosts a single fellow or an multinational
corporation like Amazon, who has hosted more than 145 fellows via the
program. Today, the program operates in 15 locations around the
country. More than 1,000 fellows have graduated from the program, with
an 80 percent job offer rate for graduating fellows. Nationwide, more
than 150 companies have hosted fellows.
The resounding success of the Corporate Fellowship Program for
transitioning servicemembers has also led to the development of a
similarly-structured pilot program for veterans and military spouses.
In partnership with Military Corps Career Connect and with the support
of a national Dislocated Worker Grant from the Department of Labor, the
pilot program offers 6-week paid fellowships with businesses of all
sizes, from a host of industries, to recently separated, honorably
discharged veterans as well as current Active duty military spouses.
Military Spouse Employment: A Unique Landscape
Early on, we realized that while the military spouse population
faces its own unique set of challenges when searching for employment,
these challenges have an important impact on both the long-term
economic stability of our veteran and military families and on our
military's recruitment and retention efforts. While a servicemember
will typically only transition off of Active duty once in his or her
career, military spouses make multiple transitions while serving
alongside their servicemember, making it all the more challenging to
maintain meaningful employment.
Our Military Spouse Program, which has been in place since 2012,
provides programming for Active duty, veteran, Guard, Reserve, and Gold
Star spouses and has long been a bastion of impact in the military
spouse employment space through spouse-specific hiring fairs,
networking receptions, roundtable discussions, and professional
development opportunities. We convene regularly with employers from
around the country to collaborate on and highlight best practices for
military spouse recruitment and retention, leading to innovative
strategies for hiring military spouses and veterans, such as Comcast
NBCUniversal's installation-specific virtual employee training.
Over the past two years, our military spouse program has launched a
fresh wave of grassroots programming and initiatives. In 2016, we
acquired an established military-spouse focused, chapter-based
professional development and networking nonprofit with a standing
footprint in more than two dozen military communities around the
world--a footprint that, with the support of military spouse-friendly
employers like Prudential Financial, has more than doubled in size to
50 locations and which now provides programming in twenty states as
well as eleven overseas installations in nine countries. Later that
year, we joined the Military Officers Association of America to bring a
new series of employment symposiums to installations around the
country, providing a forum for spouses to engage with local and
national career resources. Additionally, multi-day, personalized career
development programming for military spouses was added to the Hiring
Our Heroes lineup in 2017 with the introduction of AMPLIFY career
intensives.
As we have worked to further build our robust array of programming
for military spouses, we recognize that to permanently move the needle
on military spouse employment and underemployment, a collaborative
effort is an imperative. To that end, we have simultaneously endeavored
to elevate the national conversation around what it means to be a dual-
income military family in the 21st century. Last June, we hosted the
inaugural Military Spouse Employment Summit to engage the public,
private, and nonprofit communities on the topic, identifying best
practices in talent management for recruiting and retaining military
spouses, highlighting standout military spouse professionals and
entrepreneurs, and promoting avenues to remove barriers to military
spouse employment. Later this week, we will once again host the 2018
Military Spouse Employment, where we will focus on empowering change
through innovation in the military spouse employment space.
Key Partnerships: Working with the Public, Private, and Nonprofit
Sectors
A central tenet of our strategic approach to veteran and military
spouse employment centers on private sector engagement. From our
inception, we have been committed to providing the highest quality
events, tools, and resources to employers seeking to hire veterans and
military spouses--all at no cost to the employer or job seeker. Through
our hiring events, digital tools such as the Employer Roadmap, the
Corporate Fellowship Program, and more, Hiring Our Heroes has continued
to provide touchpoints and opportunities to engage with military
community job seekers for businesses of all sizes.
In February, we launched the first Military Spouse Economic
Empowerment Zone (MSEEZ), a grassroots effort to combat the economic
impact that military spouse unemployment and underemployment have on
the 21st century military family. These MSEEZ will bring a localized
focus to building connections and collaboration between regional and
national employers, educational institutions, and community resources,
resulting in a robust employment network for military spouses across
the United States. Steered locally by a working group of employers from
a diverse cross section of locally significant industries (such as the
defense industry's Booz Allen Hamilton) as well as a wide swath of
community resource groups (like the USO Pathfinder), MSEEZ are designed
to be responsive to the locality's unique employment outlook.
These localized efforts are balanced by large-scale national
campaigns. In 2012, together with Capital One, we launched the Hiring
500,000 Heroes campaign to secure half a million commitments by various
employers to hire veterans and military spouses. Once businesses who
joined this program committed, we worked with them to translate those
commitments into hires. And in June of 2015, we surpassed the 500,000-
hire mark for veterans and military spouses who were hired as a result
of this initiative.
Building on that highly successful model, on Thursday, Hiring Our
Heroes, in collaboration with a coalition of private sector partners
led by Starbucks, will announce the launch of a similar campaign to
serve as a national call to action for companies of all sizes to make a
collective commitment to hire military spouses. For businesses, the
campaign will present scalable, actionable pathways for connecting with
military spouse talent; at the same time, the campaign will provide
real solutions for military spouses seeking meaningful 21st century
career opportunities.
In addition to working closely with American employers of all
sizes, cultivating strategic partnerships with organizations in the
public and nonprofit sectors has been crucial to our success. As an
initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Hiring Our
Heroes is in a unique position to leverage influential connections to
thousands of state and local chambers, providing us with tremendously
effective grassroots teams across the country poised to engage with
military job seekers in their communities. The enormous impact that we
have seen at every level has been extremely beneficial to our mission.
Our program has also been able to develop key partnerships with the
Department of Defense and its many services, the Department of Labor,
and the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Small Business
Administration. Working with these federal agencies, we have leveraged
our events and programs to raise awareness of their employment and
transition resources for the military community and foster
collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The relationships that we maintain with other nonprofit
organizations within the military hiring community have been integral
to our success as well. Our work with groups such as the USO, Paralyzed
Veterans of America, the George W. Bush Institute's Military Service
Initiative, and many others have furthered our reach and strengthened
our ability to provide networking and training opportunities for job
seekers, and make valuable connections for them with employers who are
hiring.
Our combined effort to focus on developing resources to educate job
seekers and employers will continue as our program evolves in the
months and years ahead.
Conclusion
Over the last seven years, Hiring Our Heroes has been proud to
serve our veterans, transitioning servicemembers, and military spouses
in local communities throughout the United States and to do so with a
wide array of private and public sector partners. And with more than
200,000 servicemembers making the transition off of Active duty
annually, there is always more work that needs to be done.
Hiring Our Heroes remains wholly committed to the mission of
connecting veterans and military spouses with meaningful career
opportunities, and is honored to serve on the front line of this
movement. We will continue to unite our partners in our common mission
as we work together to continue to achieve fundamental change in the
veteran and military spouse employment landscape.
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and members of the
Subcommittee, I thank you again for the opportunity to testify and look
forward to answering your questions.
---------
BG (Ret) Gary M Profit
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke and Members of the
House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity,
On behalf of Walmart Inc., I want to thank you for the opportunity
to rejoin you today to talk about hiring and retaining veterans for the
modern-day workforce. I had the privilege of testifying before the
House Veterans Affairs Committee in 2014, and, as I stated then, I am
grateful for your leadership and partnership in honoring our nation's
veterans' service and sacrifice and for all you do to aid in their
transition to civilian life.
Walmart has a rich history with veterans, those who serve on Active
duty and in the Reserve and National Guard, and veteran and military
families. Arguably, it began with Captain, U.S. Army, Sam Walton who
founded Walmart over 50 years ago. His legacy has been enriched by
countless veteran associates over the years and has been further
enhanced by our Veterans Welcome Home Commitment established in 2013
and expanded in 2015 when we pledged to hire 250,000 veterans by 2020.
Since 2013, Walmart has added more than 200,000 veterans to our
U.S. workforce and promoted more than 28,000 to roles with higher pay
and greater responsibility. Their jobs range from part-time hourly to
salaried management; from Walmart Stores and Sam's Clubs; to
Distribution Centers and Transportation Offices; and to our Corporate
Headquarters.
When we announced our Veterans Welcome Home Commitment in 2013, our
goal was to put returning post 9/11 U.S. veterans back to work. At the
time, the unemployment rate for these returning veterans was
disturbingly high. Now, it is at the lowest it's been in decades, and
we'd like to think we've played a small part in helping bring the
number down; rather than taking a victory lap, however, we must remain
vigilant and know that more work remains.
Veterans bring years of leadership training, problem solving and a
host of other strong, transferrable skills to civilian jobs and
careers. Hiring veterans should be a top priority for any company that
wants to add true leaders, problem solvers and innovators to their
workforce.
I've spent the last decade helping veterans find employment.
Through my interactions with these men and women, I've listened to
their frustrations with navigating the multiple agencies offering job
placement services and the struggles they face when applying their
military skills to civilian job descriptions. We can and must do better
by these men and women who gave so much for our country.
We've learned over the years that we have a much better chance of
retaining our veteran hires if they have an early understanding of the
company's mission; if they are able to make a positive impact to their
team and/or the business quickly; and if they feel supported.
Furthermore, we've found that a clear vision of a new veteran
associate's future or career path within the organization is one of the
more crucial pieces to veteran recruitment and retention.
To realize those ends:
Our evolving, but generally enduring, strategic and programmatic
approach includes an integrated, complementary, technology-powered and
people-infused process to achieve scale without sacrificing a human
touch: determining career aspirations, translating a portfolio of
experience, communicating it to talent acquisition professionals, and
interviewing can be quite daunting for those transitioning from the
military; therefore, Walmart offers an opportunity for veteran
candidates to consult with experts.
Perhaps one of our most successful practices is our onboarding
process where we place new hires with seasoned associates who are
veterans, military spouses, current serving members of the Guard or
Reserve or those who have an affinity for those who have served.
At Walmart, we believe that retail can be a powerful engine for
economic mobility, and we are committed to helping make it a place of
inclusive opportunity where our jobs and purchase orders can help
people build a better life for themselves and their families. We
recognize that technology is changing how we work, live and shop, and
the effects of automation are on everyone's mind. In a world in which
new skills are required to meet the rapidly changing demands of
customers, we are investing in training for our associates to help meet
the increasing expectations of our customers, including the use of
technology. For our frontline workers, we're providing training and
talent development aimed at building foundational and advanced skills
through our Pathways program and Academies.
The Pathways training program helps associates gain vital retail
job skills including merchandising, teamwork and communications. Our
Academies offer hands-on, immersive learning, using cutting-edge
technology in handheld devices and virtual reality and combines both
classroom study and training on the sales floor. To date, more than
400,000 associates have been through Pathways, and more than 250,000
have completed the Academy training program. While we don't currently
track the number of veterans that are going through Pathways and
Academies, we do know that many are utilizing these training programs
and some are even instructors at our Academies.
Earlier this month, Walmart unveiled a new associate education
benefit designed to remove barriers to college enrollment and
graduation. In partnership with Guild Education, Walmart associates
will be able to access affordable, high-quality associate's and
bachelor's degrees in Business or Supply Chain Management. Under the
program, which will be made available to all Walmart U.S. associates,
Walmart will subsidize the cost of higher education, beyond financial
aid and an associate contribution equivalent to $1 a day. In addition,
associates can earn college credit for paid training at Walmart
Academies. Hundreds of thousands of associates have already undergone
skills training equivalent to more than $210 million in college
credits. This will save associates both time and money in completing
their degree. We anticipate that our veteran associates will take us up
on this offer, and we also believe that it may help in recruiting
transitioning servicemembers.
An additional business initiative that I feel holds tremendous
value for our veterans and military families is our Military Family
Promise. The Military Family Promise guarantees a job at a nearby store
or club for all military personnel and military spouses employed by the
company who move to a different part of the country because they or
their spouse have been transferred by the U.S. military. It allows
military spouses, in particular, to remain in the same personnel and
pay systems, and gives them the opportunity to turn jobs into careers.
While I've shared with you what Walmart is doing to recruit, hire
and retain veteran talent, you should also know that outside of what we
do for our employees, we are actively seeking products from veteran-
owned businesses to add to our stores and on-line assortment. Two weeks
ago, we held our fifth annual Open Call where we invited suppliers to
our home office to pitch products made in the U.S. Out of the more than
450 companies that attended, 22 self-identified as veteran-owned.
Gaining a purchase order from Walmart can be a powerful thing for a
veteran entrepreneur, and we see more opportunity here to cultivate and
help grow these businesses. As a founding member of the Coalition of
Veteran Owned Business, Walmart is committed to help grow and support
veteran owned businesses in communities throughout the U.S. The
Coalition provides economic opportunity to veterans, their families and
the communities in which they live by offering leadership and a
national platform to support military spouse and veteran-owned
businesses, entrepreneurs and suppliers.
Whenever possible, Walmart shares what we have learned about
veteran employment with others - in this regard, we aim to help others
to do the same - accelerating/maximizing impact.
In the spirit of accelerating and maximizing impact, in 2011,
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20 million through 2015
to support veterans and their families with assistance for programs
that provide job training, transition help and education. With the
early completion of the commitment in May of 2014, Walmart and the
Walmart Foundation renewed the commitment, announcing an additional $20
million through 2019 to support job training, education and innovative
public/private community-based initiatives that address challenges many
veterans face when returning to civilian life.
While Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are supporting many
organizations doing great work with veteran transition through these
commitments, three that I want to callout are Hire Heroes USA, the
Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse
University, and The Henry M. Jackson Foundation .
Hire Heroes USA's singular focus on veteran employment is not only
working to place veterans with the right job, but also gaining
incredible insights into what the critical needs are for those
separating from service.
IVMF's AmericaServes program streamlines and digitally connects
veterans to services in their communities. Through our commitment, we
are supporting AmericaServes programs in New York, the Carolinas and
Texas.
As we seek to learn more about what's working in the field, we look
to grantees like the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of
Military Medicine's Center for Public-Private Partnerships. Our
investment in The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI): Linking Program
Components to Post-Military Well-Being, a five year study, launched in
2015, is following 9,500 veterans 0-90 days post separation from
military service to within three years thereafter, documenting and
analyzing the components of the transition and reintegration programs
veterans report that they use.
Since 2011, we've been very deliberate about our funding efforts to
support transitioning veterans and military families, and, in the last
few years, we've been intentional about applying a gender lens to these
efforts. As the number of women joining our U.S. Armed Forces has grown
rapidly over the years, so have the number of female veterans
reintegrating to civilian life.
Two organizations that are focusing on the unmet needs of women
veterans are the Boston University School of Medicine and Goodwill.
Boston University School of Medicine launched the Women Veterans
Network (WoVeN) just last year with the help of a grant from the
Walmart Foundation. Also in 2017, the Walmart Foundation awarded a
grant to support Goodwill's Operation: GoodJobs, which in its next
iteration, will place a special emphasis on resources and job training
for female veterans.
As we look to the future, we see great potential to address the
remaining barriers to successful transition from military service to
civilian life, but only through collaboration and a shared vision will
we realize it. When government programs and initiatives, large and
small corporations, and non-profit organizations come together much is
possible. One prominent example, of which we are a proud partner, is
the Stand-To convening, launched last year by the George W. Bush
Institute's Military Service Initiative and now in its second year.
Our goal is to synchronize efforts and empower every veteran and
his or her family to lead a full and meaningful life by achieving
optimal health and wellbeing, leveraging education and workforce
readiness, and fostering employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
With clearer data, unified vision, and a leading strategy, we can
better serve our veterans and their families; maximize national effort
and resourcing; enhance our national security by contributing to the
preservation of the all-volunteer force; ensure our global
competitiveness and civic leadership; bring our military-veteran and
civilian populations closer together; and meet our moral and social
obligations to our veterans.
We salute America's heroes. We are honored to have the opportunity
to employ them, to learn from them, and to support them and their
families in every way we can.
Thanks again to the Subcommittee for its leadership and partnership
and for holding this hearing...I appreciate the invitation to appear
and look forward to answering your questions.
WALMART
APPENDIX
I. Walmart Military Fact Sheet
II. Military Family Promise Impact Story
III. WoVeN Impact Story
WALMART
Supporting Those Who Serve: Walmart's Commitment to Veterans and
Military Families
At Walmart, we are grateful for the sacrifice our nation's
veterans, military men and women and their families have made in
service to our country. It is our duty and our honor to support our
military not only when they are in uniform but also when they
transition to civilian life. We are committed to helping them as they
face this important period through job opportunities as well as support
for programs that provide job training, reintegration support and
education.
Veterans Hiring Commitment
On Memorial Day 2013, Walmart introduced our Veterans Welcome Home
Commitment, which guaranteed a job offer to any eligible, honorably
discharged U.S. veteran who was within 12 months of Active duty. Our
initial goal was to hire 100,000 veterans by the end of 2018.
In May 2015, we announced the expansion of our original
projection with a new goal of hiring 250,000 veterans by the end of
2020. We also changed the eligibility from within 12 months of Active
duty to any veteran honorably discharged since we announced the
commitment in 2013.
Since Memorial Day 2013, Walmart has hired 200,820
veterans, and 28,839 have been promoted to roles of greater
responsibility.
Veterans can explore career options with the company at
www.walmartcareerswithamission.com.
Supporting Veterans
Whether through career fairs, recognition campaigns,
entrepreneurial support or company policies, Walmart seeks to
demonstrate the value veterans bring to the workforce and to our
communities.
Hiring Our Heroes - Walmart, Sam's Club and other
employers have recruited tens of thousands of veterans through hundreds
of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Hiring Our Heroes' career fairs.
Coalition for Veteran Owned Business - As a founding
member of the Coalition for Veteran Owned Business, Walmart is
committed to help the organization grow and support veteran owned
businesses in communities throughout the U.S. The Coalition provides
economic opportunity to veterans, their families and the communities in
which they live by offering leadership and a national platform to
support military spouse and veteran-owned businesses, entrepreneurs and
suppliers.
Greenlight A Vet - In its third year, GLAV continues to
encourage communities to mobilize around a shared purpose of showing
appreciation to our nation's veterans through volunteering with veteran
organizations, raising awareness on social media and signaling
appreciation by changing one light to green in one's home or business.
Military Family Promise - Walmart guarantees a job at a
nearby store or club for all military personnel and military spouses
employed by the company who move to a different part of the country
because they or their spouse have been transferred by the U.S.
military.
Military Leave of Absence (MLOA) - Since 2008, Walmart
has offered differential pay to associates taking a leave of absence
for specific military assignments lasting more than three days and
through the duration of leave. If an associate's military salary is
less than what they make at their job at Walmart, the company will pay
them the difference while they're on MLOA. In May, Walmart announced
enhancements to this policy to include any eligible military
assignment, including basic training, allowing associates who are
considering enlisting in the Armed Forces to do so without fear of
losing wages.
Education, Job Training and Reintegration Assistance
In 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation recognized that
opportunity sometimes isn't the only challenge facing transitioning
military families. The company committed $20 million by 2015 to support
veterans and their families with assistance for programs that provide
job training, transition help and education. With the early completion
of the commitment in May of 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation
renewed the commitment, announcing an additional $20 million through
2019 to support job training, education and innovative public/private
community-based initiatives that address challenges many veterans face
when returning to civilian life.
The following are a few of the most recent programs supported with the
$40 million commitment from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation:
Boston University School of Medicine -Launched in 2017 with the
help of a $469k grant from the Walmart Foundation, the Women Veterans
Network (WoVeN) at Boston University is a program where BU clinicians
and researchers are leading a 5-year initiative to establish a
nationwide network of structured, trained peer-facilitated, 10-week
support groups for female veterans to enhance wellness, quality of
life, family relationships and referrals for additional services.
In May 2018, the Walmart Foundation granted over $250,000
to WoVeN building upon the 2017 grant to continue strengthening the
initiative. When complete the program projects that it will have served
2,500 female veterans.
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military
Medicine, Inc. - Center for Public-Private Partnerships (CP3): In 2015,
the Walmart Foundation awarded a $500k grant to support The Veterans
Metrics Initiative (TVMI): Linking Program Components to Post-Military
Well-Being study.
This five-year study will assess the well-being of 9,500
veterans 0-90 days post separation from military service to within
three years thereafter, and document and analyze the components of the
transition and reintegration programs the veterans report that they
use.
Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse
University - IVMF launched the AmericaServes initiative in 2013 to
streamline and digitally connect veteran services available in
communities and create the nation's first coordinated system of public,
private and non-profit organizations.
Building off of a $1 million Walmart Foundation grant
awarded in 2015, the Foundation granted an additional $5 million in
2016 to support the ongoing implementation of existing AmericaServes
communities and seed planning investments in New York, the Carolinas
and Texas.
Goodwill Industries International - Launched in 2012 with a $1
million grant from the Walmart Foundation, and a subsequent $5 million
grant in 2013, Operation: GoodJobs (OGJ) has helped thousands of
veterans and military spouses with job training and placement services.
With an additional $5 million grant awarded in 2017, the
Walmart Foundation is funding the next iteration of OGJ programming
which places a special emphasis on resources and job training for
female veterans.
Additional Veteran and Military Family Service Organizations funded
through the $40 million commitment:
Operation Homefront - In response to the 2017 hurricane
season, the Walmart Foundation granted $500,000 to the organization's
Critical Financial Assistance program to help meet the urgent needs for
military families affected by disaster or deployed to help with relief
and recovery.
Blue Star Families - With a mission to strengthen
military families every day, Blue Star Families strives to better
understand and provide solutions to the challenges facing today's
military families through career development, caregiving and leading
research on military family life.
Hire Heroes USA - With a singular focus on veteran
employment, Hire Heroes USA offers personalized employment training to
clients at no cost, delivering a three-phase, high-touch program that
helps clients market their skills and secure meaningful employment.
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
When my wife received her transfer orders, we prepared ourselves
for the Army to move us from Wichita, Kansas to Joplin, Missouri.
Once again, we were off to a new-to-us destination. The life of a
military family is not for those who don't like change. So much of life
is built around constants, yet in a military life, change is one of
those constants.
I admire my wife for her devotion to our family and to our country.
I get it. I really do. I served from 1992-2006 in the U.S. Marine
Corps, and my wife has served in the U.S. Army since 2000. Both of us
spent time overseas with Operation Iraqi Freedom. And while I chose to
transition to civilian life a few years ago, my wife stayed the course
and built a career with the Army.
Most don't think about the toll transfers take on military
families; when one serves, we all serve. Being at the military's beck
and call is something we are used to. We know what we signed up for.
While I'm not complaining about this life of service, trying to quickly
find a new job when your spouse is transferred can be challenging and
stressful.
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But there was something different this time - something that made
our family's latest transfer experience better than it has ever been
before.
As an asset protection manager at store 3492 in Wichita, Kansas, I
wasn't familiar with Walmart's Military Family Promise (MFP) program
until I spoke to a friend who worked at the home office. The MFP
program guarantees a job at a nearby store or club for all military
personnel and military spouses employed at Walmart or Sam's Club who
move to a different part of the country because they or their spouse
have been transferred by the U.S. military.
I had no idea we had policies in place to support me, a military
spouse.
I didn't go into the MFP process with any preconceived notions. I
knew I might not get the exact job I wanted unless something opened up.
And, while I would've been thankful for any opportunity, I was
fortunate enough to land the exact same position I had in Wichita at a
Neighborhood Market in Joplin, Missouri, just a few miles away from
where my wife is serving.
I knew Walmart cared about veterans and was familiar with our
Veterans Welcome Home Commitment. But I had no idea we had policies in
place to support me, a military spouse. The MFP allows me to focus on
what's most important during this transition - and that's getting my
house in order and getting my kids acclimated to their new
surroundings.
I'm also taking time to share my story so other military family
associates can take advantage of MFP and focus on what's important in
their lives during their own moves. Thanks to programs like these, we
don't just have jobs at Walmart, we have careers.
A Common Thread Is Woven Between Women Veterans
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Last year, I was dealing with some major life issues: transitioning
careers as an older adult and stressing about loved ones who were
incarcerated. My energy was low, and my self-identity was in question.
As a single, divorced mom of two young adults, I was trying to be
strong and cope with life all alone.
I realized I hadn't had a great support system since I'd left the
Marines over 20 years ago. That was my missing puzzle piece - I needed
to find fellow women veterans who understood my experiences and the
special bond that military service provides.
I'd tried many times over the years to find such a sounding board,
but continually came up short. I knew there were a lot of people with
similar experiences out there, but I thought maybe they were like me
and hesitant to speak up about their service.
Then suddenly, just when life was hardest and I needed support the
most, I found Women Veterans Network (WoVeN), a support group made
specifically for women like me.
After attending one of their community focus groups, I eagerly
joined WoVeN, and as Marines say, I hit the ground running. I never
imagined something so simple could be so life changing, but this
organization - and more specifically, the women in it - gave me the
spark I needed to push myself to be better and do more.
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
WoVeN provided me a non-judgmental environment to openly express
myself, communicate with and support other women veterans. And when
that group came together, it created an atmosphere of energy, respect
and understanding that I'd never witnessed in my life. I felt
comfortable. The group was motivating and encouraging. I felt a sense
of comradeship I hadn't experienced in years. WoVeN accepted me as-is
and put me back on the path to improving my quality of life
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Since then, I've been inspired to take personal responsibility for
my health and wellbeing. From mountain biking and completing a 5K, to
developing new skills and better managing my stress, having this
network of women has helped me improve not only my life, but also my
family's.
Because this was such a valuable experience, I wanted to do more to
give back. I've started to reach out to other women veterans and engage
with them outside of the WoVeN community. Now, I have an extended
family I can call on anytime. My hope is that WoVeN will continue to
grow and reach more women veterans all over this country, so they can
have the same experience and support I have.
In 2017, the Walmart Foundation awarded a $469,000 grant to the
Boston University School of Medicine (BU) to support the establishment
of the WoVeN initiative. Through WoVeN, BU clinicians and researchers
are leading a five-year initiative to establish a nationwide network of
structured, trained peer-facilitated, 10-week support groups for women
veterans to enhance wellness, quality of life, family relationships and
referrals for additional services. Today, the Walmart Foundation is
building on the existing grant to BU and is bringing its total
commitment to WoVeN to nearly $720,000 with the announcement of an
additional $250,782 grant. The program is projected to reach
approximately 2,500 women veterans by the end of 2022.
---------
Prepared Statement of Matt Kress
Introduction
Good afternoon Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and
Members of the Subcommittee. As a post 9/11 veteran, it is an honor to
share with you how Starbucks Coffee Company is continuing to support
Active duty military, military spouses and veterans as they transition
into Starbucks partners, the term we use for our employees. In
particular, I will be discussing how we are working with a broad group
of companies, public agencies, non-profits and veteran/military service
organizations to create an effective transition experience and
integration into civilian life. I am also pleased to offer some
thoughts on continued innovations to our policies and programs that we
believe are critical to improving this experience.
To give some personal context to my remarks, I spent 22 years in
the Marine Corps between active and reserve service, as both a
commissioned officer and an enlisted Marine. After deploying to Iraq in
2004 with Marine Corps Special Operations, I left Active duty to become
a firefighter in Southern California. During my time in public safety,
I took advantage of the Post 9/11 GI Bill to earn my Master's degree in
Strategic Planning from the University of Washington and an MBA from
UCLA. Turning to the corporate world as the natural transition from
this chapter, I was surprised to learn that, despite my advanced
education and years of leadership and management experience in very
challenging environments, I had a difficult time translating my value
and experience for potential employers. If I had a hard time sparking
interest, you can imagine the challenges other servicemembers face when
they speak with companies. Through the support and assistance of
veterans in corporate America that were generous with their time and
opening their networks, I was fortunate to land in a role where I can
continue my career serving others in a company that cares tremendously
about our military members, has the leadership and humility to
incorporate an effective veteran hiring program into its culture, and
is pushing others to join the movement.
Background
In November 2013, Starbucks made a groundbreaking commitment to
hire at least 10,000 veterans and military spouses in five years. I'm
proud to say that we achieved that goal early, and in March 2017 set a
new goal of hiring 25,000 by 2025, which we are quickly working
towards. Throughout this process we have recognized that serving our
veterans and military spouses is about much more than simply providing
jobs. Starbucks recognizes that the unique skills, experiences, and
knowledge that veterans and military spouses gain through their service
are tremendously valuable. Our goal, therefore, is not only to hire
25,000 veterans and military spouses, but also to create a work
environment and corporate culture that fosters their personal and
professional growth. A steady paycheck is important when shifting jobs,
but veterans and their families are not just shifting jobs when they
leave the service. They are leaving an environment where they had a
clear sense of purpose and worked closely with others toward goals that
were much bigger than themselves. I am proud to say that Starbucks
provides that environment.
Driven by the passion and dedication that starts with our senior
leadership and extends to the rest of our partners, Starbucks is
committed to creating a workplace and culture where our military
members and their spouses can succeed. In the past five years that we
have focused on hiring veterans and military spouses, we have focused
very closely on becoming a veteran employer of choice.
Innovations
One of our early recognitions was the need to evaluate this
population though a different lens based on their training and life
experience. To this end, we shifted from a skills-based hiring model to
a competency model when evaluating job candidates. While the job
specific training received in the military may not be a direct match
for our environment, we know that leadership, teamwork and other
intangible skills are a great fit for Starbucks. Similarly, we know
that the enthusiasm and dedication that military spouses bring to our
stores creates a welcoming environment for our customers. Parallel to
this, Starbucks has focused on preparing our field leaders to
effectively lead veterans and military spouses through an understanding
of the unique differences in culture, leadership expectations, and even
language. One of the best ways we have found to achieve this are
through immersions on military bases where our field leaders and
partners get to see firsthand the natural teamwork that translates so
well to our stores.
Benefits
We have also listened to our partners and developed or improved
several programs and policies that are unique to our military and
veteran populations. For current reservists, we provide 80 hours of
flexible leave to facilitate military participation. If Guard or
Reserve partners are called to Active duty, we pay the difference
between their Starbucks wages and military wages for up to 78 weeks.
Finally, our veteran partners can now gift their College Achievement
Plan, which is a fully funded remote bachelor's degree at Arizona State
University, to their spouse or child.
Culture
We recognized the need to build an internal veteran cultural
competence that not only understands and values veterans but is
improved by infusing their values into the company's culture. For
Starbucks, this started with the recognition that much of what has made
the company incredibly successful parallels military values. A
commitment to excellence, strong sense of ethical and moral principles,
camaraderie, and empowerment of our partners are among the values that
make Starbucks a special place to work and parallels what drives our
military. The dedication to service that is second nature to our
military members has unlocked a passion in all of our partners to be
more engaged and involved in volunteer and community programs. Another
internal cultural piece is the growth of our military affinity group,
Armed Forces Network (AFN), which has 16 chapters throughout the
country. The AFN provides a source of mentorship, camaraderie and
connection for our veteran partners. It is also a forum and focal point
for building our veteran cultural competence. In return, our veteran
partners pay it forward by engaging in community volunteer activities
and represent the best of Starbucks.
While these efforts have not been flawless, we continue to learn
from our mistakes and drive forward to serve those who have so
selflessly served our nation. In addressing the broader question about
innovations in this space, we are currently focused on meeting the
employment challenges faced by military spouses. With an unemployment
rate that is currently four times the veteran population, we are
partnering with Hiring Our Heroes, USAA and others to find lasting
solutions. On our side, we have specifically designed processes that
assist our military spouses transfer their jobs to new Starbucks
locations when the inevitable change of duty station orders arrive. We
also have flexible leave policies for spouses that take into account
the realities of deployments, moves and homecomings.
Community Partnerships
Starbucks is increasing the opportunities for local communities to
use our stores to engage with military members and their families,
expand partnerships with veteran service organizations to offer
relevant programming, and using our scale to create connections to
bridge the military - civilian divide. Utilizing our 44 Military Family
Stores, which are situated in communities near military installations,
we are working with a range of our partners such as the USO, Blue Star
Families, and Team RWB to provide needed transition programming and
services such as resume counseling, interviewing skills and family
cohesion counseling. A very successful example of this is Military
Mondays, which was developed in conjunction with the William and Mary
Law School, to provide free legal counseling to servicemembers at our
stores. Military Mondays is now scaling nationally and growing to
include other critical services such as financial literacy training and
investment counseling. Our stores are also a hub for organizing
partner-driven community service projects in conjunction with the
veteran groups The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon. Partnering with
veteran services groups such as these provide veterans and spouses with
opportunities to make connections in their new communities, as well as
leverage their considerable skills for the greater good.
Moving forward, our ambition is to change what it means to support
our troops. While being thanked for their service is appreciated,
military members and their spouses want to be given the opportunity to
demonstrate the incredible leadership, experience and talent that they
bring to the workplace. We will continue driving and refining this
effort through our policies, storytelling and partnerships. As our
dedicated hiring program and veteran cultural competency matures, we
are increasingly sharing our model and lessons learned with others. In
addition, Starbucks is increasing the opportunities for local
communities to use our stores to engage with military members and their
families, as well as expanding partnerships with veterans service
organizations to offer relevant programming.
In closing my remarks, I would like to take the opportunity to
raise opportunities for Congress to enable both our efforts and the
larger effort to reverse the military-civilian drift.
First, is recognizing and supporting the unique employment
challenges of military spouses. With an unemployment rate that is 4
times that of veterans, they need a coordinated focus that is well
represented by the Hiring Our Heroes 100,000 Military Spouses Campaign.
A larger and more critical request is related to the needs that
Chairman Arrington outlined in the 2108 Mulder Transition Improvement
Act. Giving the transition process greater structure and adding
counseling and wraparound services are truly important changes that
will increase the value and impact of the process.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. After serving
our country for 22 years, it is my honor to discuss the Starbucks
veterans and military spouses program and the difference it is making
in the lives of our military members and their families. Our CEO, Kevin
Johnson, and our Starbucks partners look forward to working with the
House Veterans' Affairs Committee in the months and years to come.
---------
Prepared Statement of Charles J. Sevola Jr.
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and Members of the
House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, my name is
Chuck Sevola and I head Prudential's Office of Veterans Initiatives.
Thank you for having me here today and for the opportunity to speak
with you about Prudential's Veterans Programs and specifically our
VETalent program.
Prudential has historically had numerous veteran hiring programs.
To help address the unemployment crisis with our nation's veterans
after the economic downturn of 2008, our dedicated office of Veterans
Initiatives was formed in 2010 at the direction of our Chairman, John
Strangfeld. The mission statement of our Veterans Initiatives Office is
to establish sustainable programs and activities that have a positive
impact on the lives of veterans and their families, helping them to
achieve professional success, financial prosperity, and peace of mind.
This statement reflects our desire to distinguish Prudential as a
preferred employer for veterans, a community leader in supporting
veteran service organizations and initiatives, and a national leader in
developing and sharing best practices for corporate veteran programs.
To create a rounded approach, we established a five-pillar strategy to
achieve our goals.
The first pillar and our primary focus is Education and Employment.
This covers our programs in recruiting, training, and retaining
veterans and Military Spouses not just for jobs, but for fruitful
careers at our firm. Additionally, we seek to use Prudential as a test
bed for programs that once proven and refined, can be exported to other
likeminded companies. Our flagship program of this pillar is our
VETalent collaboration with Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS) which
I will detail later.
Our second pillar of Employee Engagement focuses on harnessing the
passion that exists in our workforce to help veterans and their
families through volunteerism. Service to the community in which we do
business is a part of our corporate DNA and Prudential employees can be
found lending their time and expertise to such organizations as the
United Service Organization (USO) on a regular basis.
The third pillar, Thought Leadership, covers our work to understand
the issues that veterans and their families face, and establishing and
sharing best practice programs to address these issues. An excellent
example of this work is our sponsorship and collaboration with the
Institute for Veterans and Military Families' (IVMF) research on
employing Military Spouses.
The fourth pillar is Corporate Giving. Here we provide financial
resources through philanthropy and sponsorships to like-minded
organizations to extend our reach beyond what we can do on our own. We
provide more than $4 million dollars annually to many excellent
organizations working on activities in line with our mission. Some
examples of our partners include Tragedy Assistance Program for
Survivors (TAPS), U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring our Heroes
organization, and the United Service Organizations (USO).
Finally, our fifth pillar, Veterans and Military Business Support
seeks to find the intersection between the work we do with veterans
through our Corporate Social Responsibility and the work we do as a
Financial Services firm. Our primary focus is bringing Prudential's
expertise in Financial Wellness education to the issues that Veterans
and their families face as they transition to civilian life. Through a
partnership with the USO, we offer a completely non-solicitous
Financial Wellness training program to help transitioning Service
Members plan for, and work towards, their financial needs in civilian
life.
Our multi-faceted approach to our veteran programs is robust and
mutually supporting among the five pillars. While these activities are
distinct, there is a common thread in how they support our main focus
of veteran employment. Elements of our WOS program mentioned previously
can be found within each of these pillars.
Founded in 2005, Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS) is a leading
nonprofit committed to developing untapped talent from underserved and
veteran communities through partnerships with organizations dedicated
to diversifying their workforce. The WOS Program has its roots in a
program developed by Dr. Arthur Langer of Columbia University. It
started with Dr. Langer's research on solutions to address the effects
of poverty, social isolation, and stress in underserved populations who
may lack resources and access to higher education and career
opportunities. The initial program was a collaboration between Dr.
Langer and Prudential's Global Chief Information Officer Barbara Koster
to establish a new talent channel for Prudential's technology
organization. This program was then adapted in 2010 to serve as the
basis our Veteran training and hiring activities for post 9/11
Veterans. This adapted program, branded VETalent at Prudential, was one
of the first programs of its kind training veterans for new careers in
Corporate America.
The WOS model is unique among U.S. organizations because WOS
combines all aspects of the new employee lifecycle to ensure its
participants are successful. The hands-on model is a key driver of the
programs' success as well as the success of those who've completed the
program. The process is holistic as WOS and the sponsoring partner
works with participants throughout the recruiting, training, and
employment process. The program summary is as follows:
WOS works with a partner organization to identify its
workforce needs. Once the number of roles and individuals requested are
agreed upon, WOS conducts a needs assessment to understand the type and
length of the training required for the program.
WOS uses the information gathered during the needs
assessment to create a unique program. Each WOS program is unique due
to the specificity of the requests of WOS partner organizations. Once
the program design and development are complete, WOS identifies
academic partners with the technical expertise required. WOS also
infuses its own interpersonal skills curriculum into the program. The
interpersonal skills training is the common thread throughout all WOS
programs. During this stage, WOS builds a program participant profile
and creates a unique selection tool for the program.
WOS casts a wide net to recruit applicants to the
program, with the intent of having the largest pool of candidates to
put through the selection process. WOS uses numerous online and in-
person channels to do so.
The WOS selection process is rigorous and designed to
identify the best qualified candidates. These top candidates are
invited to precertification, the final stage of selection where
candidates take part in a various assessment to gauge interest in the
course material and fit for the identified roles. Once candidates
complete the precertification, WOS confers with the sponsoring
organization to finalize the program participants.
WOS manages the entire academic training. WOS has
resources in the classroom and works with the participants and training
providers to ensure the designed curriculum is being delivered and that
the participants are engaged and absorbing the content. The in-class
WOS resource facilitates early issue identification and remediation to
ensure maximum candidate course completion.
Once the training is complete, WOS then employs the
program participants. After 90 days of employment, program participants
receive individual health insurance with a $0 contribution to the
premium, tuition reimbursement for up to three classes per semester,
which includes books and fees, at a public higher education
institution, paid holidays and vacation, and access to zero interest
loans for unexpected financial issues. Finally, the partner company's
sponsorship fee helps finance a stipend that is paid by WOS to the
candidate during the academic phase prior to employment. This is
particularly important given that veterans are often married would
likely be less apt to focus on the training if they are worried about
supporting a family.
After the candidates are fully trained by WOS and at the
requisite level of expertise for the assigned role, employment is
offered by the sponsoring organization and the candidate is fully
integrated into the work force.
One of the key attributes of the Prudential VETalent program is its
adaptability to a variety of roles. The program has been customized to
accommodate a host of technology roles such as Quality Assurance,
Database Development, Technology Operations, Security Administration to
name a few. Other roles include, customer service and project
coordination. The multi-phased approach to the program allows the
sponsoring company to see the progress of the candidate in the program
and to assess readiness at various checkpoints for eventual hire. This
is valuable as it allows hiring managers to provide guidance to WOS for
them to provide further training if specific skills are still in
development.
This program has been used with success in many of our offices
around the country but most recently in our newly established Business
and Technology Center in El Paso Texas. The experience we gained in
implementing the program elsewhere made it a natural fit for our work
in El Paso. There are many types of work done at this office and the
adaptability of the WOS model allows its use as an effective talent
source for this key location. Since the office opened in 2014, we have
hosted 15 cohorts or veterans and military spouses. Of the Prudential
staff in the El Paso Office, more than 50% are veterans or military
spouses - the majority of which were sourced using the WOS model.
Refinement of the selection and assessment criteria for the program
is an ongoing effort to better select candidates with genuine interest
and aptitude to learn and flourish in the specified roles. Our focus is
providing opportunities for meaningful careers, rather than providing
just a job. This is in line with Prudential's vision to help veterans
and their families find the long-term prosperity they helped to protect
while in service to their nation.
Consistent with our desire to be a national leader in establishing
and sharing best practice programs, we tested and refined the WOS
Prudential model with the intent of sharing it with other like-minded
companies to expand its impact beyond what Prudential could do on its
own. As a result, in close cooperation with WOS, the program model has
been adopted by over 60 other companies around the country.
In support of our efforts to hire and retain veterans and military
spouses, Prudential has found it helpful to educate hiring managers on
the military in general and the value that veterans and military
spouses bring to the work place. With a very small percentage of our
nation's population having a direct connection to military service,
there is a lack of knowledge and misconceptions that must be overcome
by hiring managers before they will routinely consider them a viable
source of talent. Prudential has developed an in-house training
curriculum specifically designed to close this gap in understanding.
Both the in-class and web based training versions have been well
received and effective in increasing veteran and military spouse
representation on hiring slates. The efficacy of this training approach
is being shared via the Veterans Employment Advisory Council (VEAC) and
the Military Spouse Employment Advisory Council (MSEAC) - both
sponsored by the U S. Chamber Hiring our Heroes organization. These
bodies are excellent forums for sharing of best practices with other
public and private organizations.
Private sector programs can effectively be built on governmental
initiatives to help advance veteran and military spouse employment. An
excellent example of a successful program is the Corporate Fellowship
Program of the Hiring our Heroes organization. Implemented on the
authority of the Skills Bridge program of the Department of Defense,
transitioning servicemembers can intern with a prospective employer
before they leave Active duty. Not only does this allow the fellow to
begin the acclimation process into corporate America much earlier, but
also gives the prospective employer an extended period to judge fit
into company culture. These factors play a positive role in job
satisfaction and retention. Prudential has piloted this program in two
locations and we plan to expand participation based on our success.
Prudential Veterans Initiative Program's mission is to establish
sustainable programs and activities that have a positive impact on the
lives of veterans and their families. Prudential has created an
integrated five pillar strategy to focus our effort in the area of
Education and Employment of veterans and military spouses. By adapting
an effective model created by Workforce Opportunity Services,
Prudential and WOS have created a program that has not only been a key
enabler in our own staffing activities, but also in the staffing
activities of other companies interested in tapping into this valuable
talent pool. Hiring manager training as well as participation in select
governmental hiring programs has been a significant factor in the
overall success of achieving our mission. Active participation in bodes
such as the VEAC and MSEAC allow Prudential to learn from others and to
propagate our lessons learned to other like-minded organizations.
Prudential would like to thank the Committee for its invitation to
speak with you and share our experiences. We stand ready to work with
others to help further expand the WOS program or any other that will be
beneficial to Service Members, Veterans, and their families. I'm happy
to answer any questions you may have.
---------
Prepared Statement of Robert Douthit
Thank you, Chairman Arrington and Ranking Member O'Rourke for
inviting me to testify today on ``Hiring and Retaining Veterans for the
Modern Day Work Force.'' My name is Robert Douthit. I am the Executive
Director of Dell EMC Customer Solution Centers for the Americas and a
20 year United State Army Veteran. I am honored to appear before you
today to discuss how more of our former military men and women can be
hired, integrated and retained by civilian workforce employers.
The U.S. Department of Defense was one of Dell's first customers
and so we have a long tradition of working for and identifying with the
United States Military. We appreciate the skills that veterans can
bring to our business. At Dell, we help our customers define an
objective. We help them identify, develop, and evaluate options to
accomplish that objective, and once an option is selected to meet that
objective, we focus relentlessly on execution of the option or mission
to meet the objective just as every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or
Coast Guardsman is trained to do. So at Dell, veterans are a value-add
to our workforce.
My testimony today has three objectives:
1) To explain why Dell is a vigorous recruiter of veterans and
their spouses;
2) To explain how we recruit veterans and their spouses; and
3) To offer some suggestions as to how the federal government can
strengthen military Transition Assistance Programs (TAP) and sharpen
existing programs to enhance veteran hiring.
Dell stands ready to help ensure that America's veterans can
seamlessly transition to the civilian workforce and begin serving their
country in a different capacity or to immerse themselves in one of our
many information and data technology businesses.
Why Dell Recruits Veterans and Their Spouses
I have already noted that Dell's culture aligns with the
competencies of veterans' with a keen focus on execution
The military provides a rich source of talent, especially
in key areas of worker under-representation and we believe that a
diverse workforce is a dynamically effective workforce
Approximately 46% of all Active duty personnel are near
our key market locations
A 2017 Student Veterans Research Brief found that when
compared to their peers, student veterans using the Post-9/11 GI Bill
represent the single best source of potential and current achievers in
higher education, with nearly 100,000 now graduating annually, and that
nearly 1.1 million student veterans are in higher education right now;
and
Finally, a 2017 Blue Star Families survey found that 28%
of military spouses are unemployed and 55% military spouses state that
they are underemployed. Dell would like to lower those statistics.
Dell's Veterans & Supporters Employee Resource Group (ERG) was
officially started in 2011, but it was informally started several years
before then as a means for veterans within the business to connect and
support each other. The success of the Dell Veterans and Supporters ERG
is due to the dedicated commitment from Michael Dell to all levels of
management throughout the company. To demonstrate that point, our
Veterans and Supporters ERG is sponsored by Rory Read, Dell's Chief
Operating Officer and our second most senior company official. This
senior level management commitment is what encourages and sustains us
to recruit veterans and - equally important - to assure veteran
retention.
Veteran Jobs Mission is, in our view, the leading private-sector
solution addressing U.S. military veteran unemployment. It began in
2011 as a coalition of 11 companies including EMC Corporation, now a
part of Dell that was committed to hiring 100,000 veterans by 2020.
Since its founding, the coalition has evolved to more than 230 private-
sector companies that represent virtually every industry in the U.S.
economy. The Veteran Jobs Mission coalition has collectively hired more
than 400,000 veterans since it began and, building on this momentum,
has raised its goal to hire 1 million veterans among its member
companies by 2020.
Beyond their ongoing search for top military talent, Veteran Jobs
Mission members are continuing to increase their focus on retention and
career development of veterans in the private sector. This includes
supporting veterans as they adapt to the workplace by establishing
sponsorship and on-boarding training programs, as well as industry-
based coalition subgroups to increase collaboration among members.
How Dell Recruits Veterans and Spouses
We utilize a number of different means and methods to recruit
veterans and their spouses. We are active participants in career fairs
at military bases as transitioning military members begin to look
outside of their military careers. Dell's Veterans ERG has developed
customized training to suit the needs of transitioning servicemembers
on how to `Build Your Brand.'
Dell's Talent Acquisition Team also participates in monthly partner
calls with the Texas Veterans Commission to identify talent
opportunities for employers seeking workers with the skills that
military training brings. Dell partners with the Microsoft Software &
Systems Academy which provides 18-week training for high-demand careers
in cloud development, cloud administration, cybersecurity
administration, and database and business intelligence administration.
Program graduates gain an interview for a full-time job at Microsoft or
one of our hiring partners.
Dell is also a participant in the MBA Veteran Conference which is
dedicated to connecting military veteran students and alumni of the
world's top-ranked universities with employers. The annual conference
has veterans from the top 50 MBA programs.
Dell works with a wide variety of programs to provide training to
transitioning servicemembers, but we also use these organizations, as I
will describe in a moment, as sources of well-trained future Dell Team
members. Among the military transition organizations that Dell works
with and recruits from are:
Onward to Opportunity-VCTP - O2O VCTP empowers highly qualified
transitioning servicemembers and military families with the specific
skills, certifications and training required to start successful
civilian careers in growing industries. O2O-VCTP connects hiring
employers to veteran talent that is prepared to meet current, real time
labor market needs. Dell Boomi offers a free technical certification
program to veterans in the program and the program serves as a source
of candidates for open positions at Dell.
Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) - The MSEP provides a
targeted recruitment and employment solution which creates connections
and direct access to military spouses.
All Dell job opening are posted daily on the site; and
Dell has quarterly progress calls with the MSEP account
manager and provides regular updates on upcoming spouse and veteran
hiring opportunities.
FourBlock - Is a Career Readiness Program which equips veterans
with professional development, career exploration, and professional
networks
Dell attends sessions at Northeastern University in
Boston and presents student veterans with an inside look of Dell
Dell is also working on expanding the FourBlock
partnership to a new location in Austin, Texas where Dell's
headquarters is located.
Bunker Labs - Dell partners with Bunker Labs to connect veteran
entrepreneurs with the proper resources to grow and expand their
businesses. Bunker Labs is a national nonprofit whose mission is to
inspire, educate and connect current and retired military members and
their families to the resources needed to help them succeed as leaders
in innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Honor Foundation - Is a unique transition institute exclusively
for Navy SEALs and the US Special Operations community and supporters:
There are unique roles for former Special Operators
within Dell; and
Dell recently hosted Honor Fellows to spend time with our
chief operating officer, Rory Read, and also invited Bunker Labs to
discuss veteran entrepreneurship.
Vetted - Is a Veteran Accelerated Management Program, a 5 month
distance education and 2-month residence education module that
culminates with a Capstone project followed by either placement in
industry or small business start-up assistance. The program is hosted
at UT Austin, Texas A&M, and Rice University. Dell recently hosted
Vetted Fellows for a Harvard Business Case Review where Vetted Fellows
worked with Dell executives on the business case of Michael Dell
purchasing Dell and taking the company private.
At Dell, we also have a social media strategy known as the `Heroes
Among Us' Campaign, an effort to brand Dell digitally and socially in
the veteran community to make sure that all transitioning
servicemembers know that their skills are welcome at Dell. Our `Heroes
Among Us Campaign' has reached 6.2 million potential readers, it has a
111% increase year over year in ``apply'' clicks from our Military Jobs
Page and our top post on that page was read by 716,000 readers in the
last year.
While these are the just the major veterans' programs that Dell
invests in, you can see that that investment is well repaid by
providing us with a well-qualified, well-trained pool of military
veterans to join our team. The mutual benefits to veterans and to Dell
are obvious.
Suggestions for Government to Improve Service Member Transition
Experience
As much emphasis as the federal government puts on transitioning
servicemembers, those same resources need to be invested in expanding
potential employers' knowledge and awareness that there is a highly
skilled pool of transitioning servicemembers available. With less than
1% of our population serving in the Armed Forces, many employers simply
don't think about veterans and the many skills that they acquire during
their military service as being qualified candidates for the jobs that
they need to fill. Based on our experience at Dell, we offer the
suggestions which follow to improve or expand existing programs or to
engage new programs that have low overhead costs, yet significant
potential benefit to transitioning veterans and to private industry.
We encourage invigorating existing military TAP's with a
curriculum aligned more to career exploration of veterans competencies
and skills vs. just applying for a job
Consideration should be given to offering pre-TAP career
awareness courses
Consideration should be given encouraging employer
immersion days on base with TAPs.
Consideration should be given programs that train
civilian HR / talent acquisition professionals on the value of the
veteran and how to work with TAPs
Consideration should be given allowing civilian HR /
talent acquisition professionals to intern on-site with TAP offices
Consideration should be given to allowing TAP
professionals to come on-site to learn more about the inner workings of
companies
A program might be designed to enhance an employer's
basic knowledge of the fundamentals of being in the military pay
grades, ranks, housing allowance, hazardous duty pay, basic housing
allowance, and cost associated with healthcare benefits. These all
equate to overall compensation packages in the corporate world
Just as a Military Skills Translator can be used for
comparing military occupational skills to job types, might it be
possible for the military to align the amount of training and the
professional development that goes into developing a servicemember at a
particular level such as comparing the equivalency to a high school
diploma, associate degree, bachelor's degree, or an advanced degree?
Companies are more in tune with that language; and
The U.S. Department of Labor should establish an advisory
board of HR professionals and talent acquisition professionals to
assess, audit, and contribute to the overall TAP curriculum so that it
is based on real employer needs, not theory.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. I am happy
to answer any questions you may have.
Joe M. Naylor, Vice President, Policy, Government and Pubilc
Affairs
---------
Statements For The Record
Joe M. Naylor, Vice President, Policy, Government and Pubilc Affairs
June 23, 2018
The Honorable Jodey Arrington
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Veteran's Affairs
335 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman Arrington,
Thank you for your June 13, 2018 letter inviting our Chairman and
CEO, Mike Wirth, to discuss with the Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity of the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs how business
can continue to improve employment opportunities for Veterans.
Unfortunately, Mr. Wirth is unable to attend the hearing and has asked
me to reply on his behalf.
Chevron's global scope requires a wide range of talents and skills
to create new and innovative energy solutions. The experiences and
capabilities that our U.S. Veterans bring to the energy industry, and
specifically Chevron, are a strong fit with our needs for a
diversified, global workforce.
We have a number of programs aimed at improving recruitment and
retention of U.S. Veterans, including partnering with several external
recruiting sites to attract candidates like Monster.com,
Recruitmilitary.com, and organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project
and Disabled American Veterans. We leverage our relationship with
military.com to highlight job opportunities by matching military codes
to open positions: https://chevron-veterans.jobs/.
Chevron maintains a U.S. military website to inform both internal
employees and external candidates about programs offered to Veterans,
see: http://careers.chevron.com /find-a-job/united-states/united-
states-military. In addition, we have Employee Network with chapters
located that often provide on-the- job education, training and support.
Finally, we are corporate partner of SVA's Student Veteran Success
Corps (SVSC) and have made a commitment to provide enhanced access to
employment opportunities for student veterans at select schools.
Thank you for your interest in Chevron.
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