A friend of mine recently attended the commissioning of the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) in Baltimore and I enjoyed learning about this technical marvel. It was interesting to hear that this ship, one of the largest and most technologically advanced warships in the fleet, only carries a third of the crew of previous destroyers. Doing more with… Read more »
News of Note
Digging into the recent LinkedIn Veteran Insight Report
As we approach July 4th, I took some time digging into the recent LinkedIn Veteran Insight Report. Whether it be patriotic or performance motives, it’s great to see the changing tide regarding veteran hiring in Corporate America. In 2001, when I started with Bradley-Morris, we looked for one of two things to get corporate buy-in:… Read more »
Hire military and improve hiring metrics
One of my recent readings was the IBM Smarter Workforce Institute’s The Secret to Reducing Hiring Mistakes? It’s in the metrics by Dr. Rena Rasch. I encourage you to download the white paper and draw your own conclusions. For my part, I found it an interesting view of corporate recruiting as well as a telling… Read more »
When you hire military, you hire like a Superboss
In a recent Harvard Business Review piece, Sydney Finkelstein penned his Secrets of the Superbosses. It’s a great read regarding Finkelstein’s decade of research on a specific pattern he noticed with top people in several different fields. For instance, “In professional football, 20 of the NFL’s 32 head coaches trained under Bill Walsh of the… Read more »
11 Tips for Hiring Veterans
Veterans Day is tomorrow, 11/11. In honor of Veterans Day, here are 11 tips for hiring veterans: 1. Go general: The specifics of your industry is not so unique, but many hiring managers have the false premise that what they do is exclusive and the qualifications on the job description must match the resume exactly…. Read more »
Why hire military? You tell me.
Before reading any advice on how to start your veteran hiring program, I recommend starting with Why? I’m a fan of Simon Sinek and his Golden Circle. In case you aren’t familiar with the Golden Circle, I suggest following either one of the above links for more information. But at the risk of oversimplifying Simon’s… Read more »
Military Success Trait – Decisiveness
Successful leaders who are good decision makers exhibit another military success trait – decisiveness. They understand the importance of execution while applying their moral compass to the decision. Being decisive helps them to get a jump on the competition, see around corners and/or to quickly pull the plug on a project that isn’t tracking to… Read more »
OFCCP Veteran Benchmarking and Veteran Hiring Plans
So far in 2015, a frequently occurring discussion I am having with employers surrounds EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Veteran and Disabled Veteran hiring benchmarks. The landmark change involves proactive veteran and disabled veteran hiring plans as well as several layers of self-identification for employees. I’ll be the first one to tell you I’m not… Read more »
Why is military to civilian skills matching so important?
Turnover is expensive. The estimated costs vary but it is a business disrupter that most companies want to reduce. The most damaging turnover occurs in the employee’s first year when a company is heavily investing in the employee’s training and onboarding but the employee’s business impact is not fully realized. So when I learned about… Read more »
Starting a Military Hiring Program – Is Hiring Veterans Competitive?
It’s great witness the “tipping point” regarding starting a military hiring program. When I began work at BMI in 2001, most companies I talked to had no plans to hire military. I’ll still run across a company not seeking military from time to time, but they’re now an outlier. After reading Krista Williams’ recent post… Read more »