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Hiring veterans: a cost-effective staffing solution - includes related articles on employment of military veterans

HR Magazine - November 1, 1998

In today's tight labor market, hiring the men and women who are leaving the military can save your company more than $100,000 per year in search firm fees and relocation costs.

In a town few can pronounce - West Conshohcoken, Penn.-Litton PRC's human resources department is saving more than $100,000 per year by tapping into one of the nation's most underestimated sources of talent: the U.S. Armed Forces.

Not bad when you consider that Litton, which designs and develops information technology systems, hires the type of workers that are at a premium in today's tight labor market.

"Over the last two years, we hired 18 people from a Defense Department program called the Defense Outplacement Referral System," says Sandy Fimiano, a senior human resources representative at Litton. "Because we avoided search firm fees and relocation costs, we saved over $200,000 using this program."

If Litton PRC saved $200,000 on 18 hires, imagine the savings being realized at General Electric, where they hire a reported 200 junior military, officers per year.

And imagine is all you can do, according to GE spokesman Ted Meyer. "We wouldn't want to help other companies set up a program like ours. We feel we are recruiting great people from the military and don't want to share them with other companies," he says.

Like it or not, the secret is out: Hiring veterans is a cost-effective staffing solution.

THE BENEFITS OF HIRING VETERANS

Hiring veterans can give organizations a big boost-particularly those that need younger workers or those with technical skills.

"Some 45 percent of the 200,000 plus people coming out of the military each year are under 25 and have technical skills," says Susan Savino, owner of Competitive Edge Services Inc., a recruiting firm in Fairfax Station, Va. What's more, 92 percent of active-duty personnel use computers, 51 percent use LAN systems, 98 percent are high school graduates and over 36 percent have college degrees, according to the Department of Defense (DOD).

David Huffer, senior manager of recruitment services at Federal Express in Memphis, has found other benefits to hiring former members of the armed forces. "Veterans are team players and have great leadership skills," he says.

Karen Stevens, a staffing specialist at Goodyear in Dallas, says that "even low-ranking military, people have supervisory and leadership experience." An added benefit, she says, is that "many non-commissioned officers are often easier to hire and satisfy with compensation than graduating engineers."

In addition, the physical fitness requirements of military service mean that veterans tend to be healthy employees-which can translate to reduced costs for health-care claims and fewer workdays lost to illness.

Perhaps best of all, employers often can reach out and recruit veterans without spending a penny. "Every company can hire men and women leaving the U.S. Armed Forces without paying search firm fees and relocation costs," explains Litton PRC's Fimiano, because the service is free and the military pays for moving costs.

In fact, a number of programs sponsored by the DOD, The Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and veterans organizations, help employers get access to retiring veterans.

If you're tired of paying search firm fees and relocation expenses to attract the best workers, here are some no-cost and low-cost resources that can expand your workforce without bursting your budget.

DORS/THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Historians and the Guinness Book of World Records will tell yon that the largest invasion on record occurred on D-Day in World War II, when 185,000 U.S. troops took to the beaches of France.

Not so.

The largest invasion in history happened quietly and without a single burst of gunfire: It was the military downsizing of the 1990s, which sent more than 500,000 troops into the civilian .job market. To help human resource professionals find and hire men and women who were departing .from the service, the DOD created Operation Transition.

Operation Transition offers employers two vehicles for tapping into the military labor pool at no cost: The Defense Outplacement Referral System (DORS) and the Transition Bulletin Board (TBB).

DORS is an automated resume and referral system that allows employers (such as Litton PRC) to request resumes for open positions. You can register for the program via the World Wide Web at http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/ot or by calling (800) 727-3677. More than 16,000 employers are already signed up.

"I would have spent a lot of money hiring people for my company without the DORS system," says Jeff Stoker, director of human resources at Timeplex Group, a Clearwater, Fla.-based computer network consulting firm. "In the last nine months, I've hired 12 people from DORS who have the special skills I'm looking for - the highly trained computer and high-tech specialists leaving the military. I can go into the database and get resumes from qualified candidates in three minutes."

Most of the search firms get their resumes from the DORS system, explains Litton PRC's Fimiano. To get the most out of the system, companies can work with their state employment services' veterans representatives to track down military personnel who are relocated and haven't posted their new contact information. Employers also can track down military people at http://www.militarycity.com.

The TBB, http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/tbb, is a bulletin board where companies can post jobs online. Job seekers at military bases around the world see these listings.

Hires that come from Operation Transition relocate at the military's expense. For more information, call (800) 727-3677 or fax openings to (408) 583-2475.

MILITARY INSTALLATIONS

Military installations are another source of employees. Each base has a transition assistance office that can find candidates for open positions. Some bases have family service centers that can assist with job postings as well.

"Our recruiters also go to military bases to find managers and drivers," says FedEx's Huffer. "In recruiting you have to use every resource you can, especially free ones."

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which received an award in 1995 from the American Legion for its work in hiring veterans, established a relationship with Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla.

Says Laureen DuPree, a career counselor with Fort Belvoir's Employment Assistance Program: "We post jobs, offer to screen resumes for employers and have quarterly networking lunches for employers and military personnel." She points out that the program has one HR person for every seven job-seekers.

However, Belvoir's program is not necessarily the standard. Each military base has a different program, which means companies may have to contact individual bases for more information. To contact local military, bases - or around the world-companies can purchase a list of bases titled, "The Army Times Guide to Military Installations," by calling (800) 368-5718 or writing to: Army Times Publishing Go., Fulfillment Department, Springfield, VA 22159-0240. The list costs $5200. Or, companies can access the list for free on the Internet at http:///www.dmdc.osd.mil/sites (click on "start").

Another way to reach veterans is to place paid .job advertisements in base newspapers. One source for information is Comprint Military Publications, which handles a dozen D.C.-area installations. (A half-page ad runs about $400). The web site is http://www.dcmilitary.com, or call (301) 670-2680 or fax (301) 948-2787.

Military bases also can be reached through a space broker such as Armed Forces Communications (http://www.marketmedia.com; (805) 968-8007, then press 2).

SERVICE ACADEMIES

Don Drobney, vice president and a founder of Perot Systems in Dallas, recruits many employees from the service academies. "We know what we're hiring when we hire academy graduates-leaders. Service academy graduates also get peer ratings so you can assess how they handle people."

Drobney recruits during the Service Academy Career Conference (SACC), a biannual career fair jointly sponsored by the Alumni Associations and Associations of Graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The 1999 East Coast SACC will be held in Washington D.C., April 22-24, 1999. For more information, call Marcy Wilson at (410) 263-4448 ext. 130.

Employers also can purchase the Service Academies Resume Database for $150 ($350 for recruiting firms), a CD-ROM with 400 to 600 resumes of academy graduates looking for job opportunities. The data-base program sorts and identifies those graduates who perfectly match all selected criteria, then lists those graduates meeting some - but fewer than all - of the criteria. To order online, go to http://www.aogusafa.org/nonindex.htm. Or call Jock Schwank, vice president of services at the Association of Graduates at (719) 472-0300.

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