Experience. Loyalty. Discipline. Leadership.   These are just a few of the important qualities employers look for when interviewing potential employees.  To an employer, finding all of these qualities in one person might sound like a heavy lift, right?  Not if you’re doing your employee recruiting at a U.S. military base or specifically seeking exiting military personnel.

            Every year the Department of Defense spends eighteen billion dollars training our men and women in uniform encompassing many of the very skills and technical abilities needed by America’s businesses.  This training is often in state of the art equipment, procedures, and processes that correlate directly to the civilian workplace.  The U.S. military is one of the largest organizations of air, sea and ground transportation assets available in the world today. The same can be said for supply and logistics, telecommunications, health care, computer technology, mechanical and electrical repair, finance and law enforcement activities.

            George Kollarik, a Senior Program Analyst for Universal Technical Resource Services (U.T.R.S.), INC., headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey spoke about the value of his military background in the civilian workplace.  “Having served in the U.S. Navy for over 28 years, there is no question that my military experience was instrumental in my current employment.”  Veterans and employers make an excellent team, but putting the two together has not been such an easy task for either party.

            Enter the U.S. Department of Labor.  Hire Vets First is a national campaign to raise employer awareness of the value of hiring men and women who have served in our armed forces. This campaign is aimed at heightening business’s awareness of the diverse capabilities, broad range of skills, excellent training and proven character of America’s veterans.  Hire Vets First was initiated by the President’s National Hire Veterans Committee during its three-year tenure from 2003 through 2006.  The Committee has taken a practical, pro-active message to employers that veterans are a great, untapped resource of can-do performers.  Hiring veterans benefits the bottom-line of a business, their productivity in the workforce is good for the economy, and hiring veterans is worthy of all employers’ support.  This message is encapsulated in the national Hire Vets First campaign, which is supported by web, magazine, news and multimedia messaging.  The campaign’s theme line, American Excellence at Work, succinctly summarizes the campaign message for employers.   So how does an employer go about finding these hidden treasures?  The cornerstone of the Committee’s campaign, the Hire Vets First web-link, www.hirevetsfirst.gov, offers a portal for employers to find veterans and veterans to find employers.  The site provides employment resource information, a video of how a one-stop career center can assist an employer’s recruiting, listing of job fairs nationwide, identifies local community career centers that provide employment assistance to employers, and access to veterans locally and via links to Americas Job Bank and electronic job search engines. 

                        Teddy Roosevelt once said that “if a man (or woman) is good enough to shed his (her) blood for his (her) country, he’s (or she) is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”  I think most Americans would agree that the “square deal” should include a fair shot at The American Dream.  Given the talent, training, experience, and dedication of our Armed Services, we are proud to have The New Jersey Conference of Mayors join the Hire Vets First initiative and extend to its sponsors and members the opportunity to access the best and brightest human resource capital available in America today, our Nation’s veterans.

            Because hiring veterans isn’t good will; it’s just good business.

 Amy Osborn is President of Capitol Concepts, a Cherry Hill based consulting firm.  Previously with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Ms. Osborn has represented the U.S. Departments of State and Defense internationally and currently serves as a Proxy Member representing Veterans Service Organizations on the President’s National Hire Veterans Committee.