Why You Should Hire Veterans in 2012

As we start off 2012, Hire a Hero thought it appropriate to remind our readers how veterans of all ranks and branches can add value to their company throughout the New Year.

• Junior Military Officers (JMOs) have earned a BS or BA, and many have advanced degrees. US News & World Report named U.S. Junior Military Officers as “America’s Best Leaders” in November 2008 due to the circumstances under which they have led their troops. JMOs are ideal for positions in Engineering, Leadership, Operations Management, and Sales.
• Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs) are senior enlisted personnel in a direct leadership role, with 7 to 20+ years of military experience. NCOs are the primary military leaders responsible for executing the mission and training military personnel. They have extensive training in leadership and management, as well as combat, service-specific and specialized technical training. Many have college degrees. NCOs are ideal for Technical, Maintenance, and Field Service Management and Supervisory positions.
• Enlisted Technicians possess strong technical qualifications and training as Electrical, Electronics, and Mechanical Technicians. They have world class technical training, hands-on experience, and excel in any situation, no matter how difficult. They are ideal for positions in Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical, Maintenance, Field Service, Operations, and Technical Supervision.

This blog is chock full of posts highlighting a variety of reasons and opinions on why veterans should be your next source of talent. Take a minute to peruse these posts, and you will see why Time Magazine named veterans “The New Greatest Generation” in August 2011. Veterans represent a large, talented labor pool ready to provide leadership, teamwork, and ingenuity to any workplace.

Stress Prevention Policies

Work-related stress is common for the average worker and can be caused by a variety of situations including communication difficulties between workers and management, work overload/understaffing, insufficient training, and inadequate resources. Considering the toll that stress can take on an employee’s health, and therefore their productivity, it may be time for your company to create its own stress prevention policy.

Stress prevention policies should be a combined effort between both employees and management. Policies should focus on work organization, and companies should take the same approach as they would to address safety hazards and health issues, by eliminating the issues where possible.

Some basic steps a company can take to reduce or eliminate work-related stress include:

Ensuring management styles are consultative, so that employees take part in determining the expectations of the job and the arrangement of their work situation.

Avoid pay arrangements that encourage excessive overtime.

Distribute workloads fairly and with realistic goals.

Make sure the work environment is safe and comfortable

Eliminate or control all safety hazards and health concerns.

Ensure vacation, family and sick leave time is adequate.

Removing all stress factors from the workplace many not be possible, but taking small steps to reduce workplace stress, or creating stress prevention policies will keep workers happy, healthy and more productive.

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Veteran Spotlight: Chris Canfield

Chris Canfield transitioned out of the Marine Corps in July 2008 and started a career with RQ Construction through Orion International. Since that time, he has been rapidly promoted, which he attributes to his time in service. Chris's story exemplifies the type of success veterans are having in the civilian workforce.

Chris’s first position in the construction industry was as a Project Engineer. RQ Construction is a general contractor firm in the commercial construction industry specializing in government buildings ranging from BEQs to Armories to all buildings and structures in between. They have an internal career advancement program into which Chris was placed back in 2008. Chris’s program was called the Project Engineer Farming System, where they developed his values and skill sets to match those required by his eventual position in company as a Project Manager.

Chris first served as Project Engineer on a project for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) at Camp Pendleton. At the end of 2009, he was promoted to Assistant Project Manager. “The rapid promotion was based on my leadership, management, and communication experience gained in the military. During that time, I also helped write various parts of our company’s proposals, mainly because I was able to understand what the lingo was and how it applied to our projects,” explains Chris.

When MARSOC ended in the summer of 2010, Chris was assigned as an APM for a utilities job on Camp Pendleton. That assignment did not last long, however, as Chris was again promoted to Project Manager and was asked to take over a struggling job in Camp Lejeune, NC, as well as run a project at Miramar, CA. Chris attributes his rapid promotion and being trusted to run two concurrent projects to the competencies and values he learned while serving.

Chris’s success in the construction industry is a familiar story to employers who understand the benefits of hiring veterans. Skills like time and resource management, organization, communication, flexibility and adaptability, managing people and situations, and leadership set veterans apart in the civilian workplace and enable them to succeed just like Chris.