Flak Vest to Safety Vest
If you’re looking to hire military veterans, you’ll come away from this episode with some solid action items.
Today we talk to Jay Snyder. Jay is a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force Reserve and has served six years of active duty. He is also the president of Big Blue Innovations, a construction consulting firm. Jay has been in the private construction industry for more than 20 years, and he joins us today to talk about increasing the recruitment of military veterans into the construction industry.
Military vets are exceptionally well-qualified for employment in the construction industry. Jay runs down a list of reasons this:
They’re used to rigor and structure.
They’re accustomed to establishing a sense of comradery.
They understand the value of training and careful execution.
They know how to trust their teammates.
They have experience adapting to always-changing circumstances.
Jay shares a bit about his experience returning from active duty. He’d been doing project management while deployed. He expected to have a smooth transition from that role into construction. He was surprised to find that the private sector didn’t really understand what he’d done or know how to fit him into their structures. Jay realized that he needed to use different words.
Jay talks through a list of organizations that work with veterans to get them set up on post-active-duty employment. Here are a couple that he mentions:
ESGR (Employee Support of the Guard and Reserve): Facilitates communication between veterans and companies who are seeking to employee
TAP (Transition Assistance Program): Seeks to prepare service members for their transition back to civilian life. Jay encourages employers to connect with TAP and discuss how they can work together
We discuss how military draw-downs lead to large pools of potential employees. Not all of the people in this pool are looking for immediate employment, but a great many of them are. We discuss the benefits of actively targeting these people for recruitment.
Eddie discusses specific candidate pipelines that companies establish from colleges or training facilities. Jay explains that these pipelines can function like flywheels, requiring very little effort once they’ve been established.
As an industry, we need to communicate as clearly as we can with service members and transition-assistance programs in order to ensure that veterans feel welcome into our field.
Jay’s Megaphone Message: The construction industry is in the midst of a huge transformation toward increased sophistication. Much of this transformation is occurring in response to a lack of people to fill positions. Companies that want to take the simpler route should make a concerted effort to recruit veterans.
Find Jay online: LinkedIn - Big Blue Innovations
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