Webinar 7 Assisting Veterans Obtain Employment Transcript

Welcome to webinar number 7 in the Promoting Employment for Homeless Veterans series of presentations, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, the National Veterans’ Training Institute, or NVTI, and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

In this presentation, we’ll be introducing techniques and tools you can use to help Veterans who have experienced homelessness assume more responsibility and control over the job search process. In Webinar 5, titled Employer Engagement, we discussed the role that Local Veteran Employment Representatives (or LVERs) and the other employer outreach staff in our American Job Centers, or AJCs, have in locating or creating employment opportunities for Veterans who have experienced homelessness. In this webinar, we’ll look at ways we can enable and empower Veterans to conduct their own job discovery and job development

We’ll start by quickly reviewing a few basics that are no doubt familiar to everyone in our organizations  Standard operating procedure when working with job seekers is to begin by encouraging them to review their work history in order to identify the responsibilities and tasks performed in each job. Ideally, they are also able to identify specific impacts or results they accomplished in those jobs and a series of Situation-Action-Result or SAR statements

At the same time, we encourage them to invest time using an interest profiler like the one on O*Net, which generates their Holland Code or Holland Occupation Themes - Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional – and then allows the Veteran to explore a list of occupations that might match their code. Employment staff often utilize a variety of techniques, both formal (i.e., O*Net) and informal (i.e., Vocational Assessment Profile or VAP) to support Veterans in identifying their skills, abilities, preferences, and employment goals.

Additionally, we can also help Veterans review local labor market information to zero in on the occupations that are expected to provide the greatest number of openings in the future based on their work field preferences, skills, and abilities.

If all goes well, Veterans will then search for advertised vacancies or unadvertised employment opportunities in one or more of the occupations they’ve decided to target. If the experience, skills, and accomplishments they’ve included on their resumes are a close match with what the employer is looking for and their work history compares favorably with other job applicants, and their interviewing skills are polished, the odds are good that they’ll soon be back to work.

Some of our homeless Veterans , including those who may have encountered an economic or personal perfect storm, may have an easier time moving along this path to employment than others.  

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For example, some homeless Veterans may have been making ends meet but were living paycheck-to-paycheck, as many of us do. They may have then run into a financial setback: a divorce, ruinous medical bills, transportation issues, or the loss of their job.

If the Veteran’s occupational skills have not become obsolete, they continue to possess adequate soft or personal productivity skills, and an acceptable work history, then the traditional tools and approaches to job searching may be viable.

We assume your AJC and VA employment programs have well-developed systems in place for assisting Veterans with such challenges master and implement the essentials of a job search, including workshops, one-on-one coaching, or self-service options that help Veterans identify their interest and skills, update and upgrade their resumes, practice their interviewing skills, and search for posted vacancies.

Of course, as the individual searches for a job, you may also help them take advantage of supportive services, including temporary shelter, health benefits, and the other programs we’ve outlined in previous webinars in this series that are available in your local community.

However, we will also assume that many Veterans who have experienced homelessness will not find the path to employment as easy to navigate as the Veterans we’ve just described for a variety of reasons.

Many do not have a competitive resume, not necessarily because of poor writing or resume formatting skills, but perhaps because they have a problematic work history, legal history, serious skill gaps, or other issues.

Veterans, especially those with a patchy or inconsistent employment history, have difficulty identifying marketable skills or aptitudes using traditional skill inventories. They may have more trouble writing accomplishment statements that will give prospective employers a compelling preview of the contribution the individual will make to the employer’s business or organization.

The traditional approaches to assisting an individual in discovering his or her strengths, such as the Interest Profiler on O*Net that we use in our AJC, fall short in one of several ways:

o Veterans are under external or self-imposed pressure to get a job as quickly as possible and resist our best efforts to convince them to invest the time and effort to use those self-exploration tools.

o Tools such as the O*Net Interest Profile yield a “flat” profile, making it difficult for the individual to identify specific occupations that would match their interests.

o If the Veteran is able to identify the occupations they would like to pursue, there are often few locally available jobs in desired fields or the requirements for the occupation exceed the individual’s experience, skills, or education.

At some point during the job search or hiring process, the Veteran may send subtle – or not so subtle - messages that cause prospective employers to worry that the individual’s homeless status will interfere with his or her ability to succeed and contribute to the business.

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The stresses, turmoil, and unpredictability associated with homelessness or one or more of the co-occurring conditions we’ve explored in previous webinars, including health, mental health, and behavioral health challenges, interfere with the Veteran’s job search success.

This second group of Veterans – the Veterans who have experienced homelessness for whom the traditional job search tools and strategies are less likely to be effective - are the ones we will focus on in this webinar.

Several quick points to make as we begin: Many of the ideas we will outline here will benefit any Veteran who is having difficulty

finding a good job, not just Veterans who have experienced homelessness. That being said, some of the following suggestions will seem to contradict the

conventional wisdom around job searching and career planning. Truth is, the target audience for much of the conventional wisdom found in career-related books, articles, and websites, is geared towards white collar, salaried professionals, or hourly employees with robust, marketable, and competitive skill sets. The dynamics change a little when the job seeker lacks some or all of these advantages.

There are three basic tasks that every job seeker needs to master on their path to employment: First, they need to identify their capabilities, including the knowledge and skills they’ve

accumulated, and then identify the ways they utilize those capabilities to contribute to the success of a business.

Second, they need to identify the local businesses that need the capabilities they offer and then learn as much as possible about each employer. By researching businesses in the local labor market, learning about the types of services they provide, and identifying the specific qualifications for positions within the business that fit within the individual’s own capabilities, the Veteran can be better prepared when searching and applying for employment.

Finally, our Veterans need to be able to market themselves and convince a hiring decision maker that the value they can deliver to the business exceeds the total cost of employing them.

Let’s explore these tasks in more detail, and look at some tools or techniques that may be especially helpful for Veterans as they tackle these tasks.

Every Veteran we work with will possess some combination of capabilities that include: • Occupational skills acquired through military experience, paid employment, , or through

non-work experience, including hobbies or other recreational activities. • Personal effectiveness skills, frequently referred to as soft skills.• Acquired knowledge and insights. • Aptitudes or natural talents that enable the individual to quickly master certain kinds of

skills. • Traits or characteristics, like optimism, integrity, or a sense of personal responsibility.

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• Interests and motivations, which shape how eagerly an individual will learn certain kinds of skills or engage in certain types of work.

Both AJCs and VA employment programs have developed several tools to assist Veterans reflect upon their past experience as well as identify skills and contributions they’ve made in past employment that and can be offered to a prospective employer.  Together with Veterans, we can use tools such as the Motivated Skills and Results Worksheet and Vocational Assessment Profile (VAP)to inventory key skills and abilities to begin to identify the most impressive or significant results they’ve produced by applying those capabilities.

Veterans will typically be more motivated to search for and succeed in positions that allow them to do work that they enjoy doing (i.e., their identified work preferences), that they are proud of, and that they are good at. The Motivated Skills and Results Worksheet includes columns the client can use to rate each of their capabilities in terms of their interest in using it and their competence. This will help AJC Employment Outreach staff recognize employment opportunities that match the Veteran’s strengths and interests.

Describing the results that they have achieved in Column B will help Veterans begin identifying the ways they have contributed to the success of the organizations they have been affiliated with and thus prepare them to explain to prospective employers about the contributions they can make in the future. The worksheet is a Microsoft Word document so feel free to modify it as necessary with each client, adding or deleting capabilities as you see fit.

The Vocational Assessment Profile (VAP) is an informal, ongoing assessment tool utilized in many VA employment programs. It is a starting point for stimulating discussion about abilities, interests, and preferences. The VAP is a guideline or tool for better understanding the interests, needs, and desires of Veterans who’ve had limited opportunities. The VAP allows the Employment Specialist to support the Veteran in identifying background information, strengths/gifts, positive and negative personality traits, possible challenges or obstacles, life experiences, current routines and community contacts, and dreams and aspirations.  Based on the information provided through the VAP, the Employment Specialist is able to empower the Veteran to develop a plan based on their identified interests/preferences, environment(s) they tend to enjoy or do well in, and supports available to the Veteran should there be challenges that arise.

Since many Veterans who have experienced homelessness may have a limited or disjointed work history, we may want to assist them in reflecting upon and analyzing all of their work experiences as they identify the work through the capabilities and interest worksheet and/or VAP.  

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We’ve included three Experience Wheels we can use to frame discovery conversations with Veterans about their experience while in the military, their non-military work experience, and their experiences related to being homeless.

Each of the wheels consists of a number of individual slices or subcategories of experience and each of the individual slices can serve as the basis for a conversation with the individual.  Dimensions on the Military Experience Wheel include:

Military occupational specialties; Leadership or supervisory roles held while in uniform; Collateral or additional duties, a rich and often overlooked source of skills; Deployments and other “stretch” experiences; and Formal and informal training.

The slices on the Life Experience Wheel can help the Veteran reflect on their: Paid work experiences; Unpaid work experiences, which may include volunteer roles in a religious congregation

or self-help groups; Formal or informal self-employment; Hobbies and other leisure activities, which may have opportunities to acquire technical

skills; Formal education & training; Informal learning experiences or projects; Other “Stretch experiences” such as overseas vacations that involved considerable

research and planning; and Other roles and responsibilities filled, such as a caregiver for an elderly parent.

The Homeless Wheel helps staff frame a discussion about the skills or insights Veterans have gained as they have been:

Dealing with the challenges of obtaining shelter, food, heath care, transportation, etc.; Weaving a support network of agencies and non-profits; Conducting their job search thus far; and The capabilities they’ve acquired or strengthened while incarcerated, if they are an ex-

offender.

When discussing each dimension of experience on the wheels, Employment Outreach staff can help Veterans drill down by encouraging them to ask themselves What, How, Who, and Why questions:

What did I do? What tasks and subtasks did I perform? How did I perform those tasks or achieve success? What skills, knowledge, traits, and

aptitudes did I apply or draw upon? Who else was involved? Did I have any supervisory role or was a high level of

teamwork required? Why did I perform those tasks? What results was I aiming to achieve and why was it

important to achieve them?

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As we mentioned earlier, many of Veterans who have experienced homelessness may find the odds stacked against them when competing for advertised vacancies, whether the jobs are posted online or in newspaper want ads. Advertised vacancies typically generate dozens, if not hundreds, of applications and unless Veterans are close to a perfect match for the advertised position, they’ll probably enjoy a better return on their investment of time and effort pursing the so-called hidden job market.

Because it’s a hidden market, it’s impossible to precisely count how many people find jobs through it, but most estimates place the number at between 60 and 80 percent.  There are several reasons why so many employment opportunities are never formally publicized.

First, advertising open positions can be an expensive and time consuming process, especially for small businesses. Many lack a sizeable human resources department or the key people in the business usually lack the time and/or expertise to wade through the tall stack of resumes and applications they are likely to receive, as well as identify ideal candidates and then schedule and conduct interviews.

Second, many small business owners have learned the hard way that the small amount of information about a job candidate they’re able to gather from a resume, an application, or an interview does not permit them to identify applicants who will succeed in the position.

Third, many small businesses owners fear that recruiting employees in the public spotlight will be a complicated and risky process from a legal and regulatory standpoint.

Finally, many employers would like to develop a pool of prospective employees because they may be aware that vacancies are likely to occur within their business before it makes sense to begin a formal search for a candidate:

They may know of upcoming retirements. They may be able to estimate the likely turnover rate among their employees and,

therefore, replacements they need to hire. Perhaps they’re planning to extend hours, open a new establishment, add another

production shift, or bid on a big project.

For these reasons, employers often prefer to search for qualified candidates informally and one of their favorite strategies is to ask people whose judgement they trust if they know of and can recommend anyone who might be interested in coming to work for them. The trusted sources they rely on include their current staff, especially those they consider excellent employees, and members of their professional or personal networks, including other small business owners or managers who are not direct competitors.

By the way, the Small Business Administration, or SBA, estimates that there are just over 5.1 million businesses with less than 20 employees and roughly one (1) in every five (5) people who are employed work for these very small firms. It’s unlikely that many of these businesses have HR staff who oversee the hiring process.

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We’ve posted the SBA’s Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories on our resource page, which includes the breakdowns for each of our states. We’re also including a link to the SBA’s web page where you can download state-specific reports.

We introduced the Direct Canvassing approach in Webinar 2 when we discussed how Veterans without personal transportation could identify their transportation footprint and then visit or otherwise contact each of the businesses within convenient reach.

Direct canvassing depends on two factors: First, good timing, since the people the Veteran will encounter in the business, including the receptionist, or other gatekeeper, and the hiring decision maker will be far more likely to invest the time to meet with a job seeker if they have an immediate or near term job opening.  Second, the Veteran will need to persuade the hiring decision maker that they will be able to perform the required tasks. Veterans will need one or more general purpose resumes with five to ten signature capabilities phrased in ways that employers will readily recognize how the individual will meet their needs. The Motivated Capabilities worksheet and Vocational Assessment Profile we introduced earlier in this webinar are good tools to identify the soft or personal effectiveness skills that matter more to employers who can quickly train a new employee on the necessary task-related skills.

We suggest the Veteran develop a general purpose resume because direct canvassing is a numbers game – the likelihood that any single business they visit will have a hiring need on the day the individual makes the contact is small, but if he or she contacts a great many of them, the odds that they will encounter at least one firm with a hiring need improves.  When they’re using a mass marketing approach like this, it’s doesn’t make sense to invest the time and effort to conduct research on each business they may encounter during the day and write/print a customized resume for each

However, if the individual knows that he or she will be contacting several different categories of business over several days – retail establishments, repair shops, and light manufacturing or assembly operations, for example, it probably does make sense to create three (3) different versions of their resume and drop off or send the most relevant one.

Of course, targeting a resume does make sense if the Veteran is able to identify a promising employer and research the employer to uncover his or her specific challenges, opportunities, concerns, and priorities, and if the client can customize the descriptions of his or her capabilities and contributions in ways that closely match the employer’s needs.

One of the best ways to identify and learn about promising employers in the hidden job market is through networking.Most of us probably already encourage Veterans to tap into their networks, but many job seekers are reluctant to employ the strategy. They may:

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Be unsure of how to ask for help without sounding like they will be imposing on others; Believe they lack a sufficient number of contacts who can help them locate employment

opportunities; and Not be sure what questions to ask their contacts or what information to share with them.

Let’s look at each of these barriers

Veterans will be more comfortable asking for help if they have practiced how to communicate three key points:

They’re looking for a job and the reason why; Why they are asking the contact for help; The type of assistance the contact can provide.

Here are some ways to lead off a request for help. Encourage the Veteran to adapt any of these to fit their situation:

I've been out of work for a while… My company had a big cutback and I was laid off… I been dealing with some health issues, but I’ve got them under control now … I left my last job due to some personal issues I had to take care of… I’ve decided to try my hand at something new… I needed to take a break from working for a while, but now it’s time for me to get back

into the game… I just moved here…

… so now I’m looking for a job.

Everyone in the Veterans’ network has some special insight, connection, motive, or other reason that makes them a valuable partner in the individual’s search for employment and including this reason in a request for help will usually increase both their willingness to help and their confidence in their ability to help. Here are examples that can help Veterans explain to a contact why they are asking him or her for help:

You've lived around here for a long time … You seem to know / meet a lot of people… It seems like you hear about things before anyone else does … You’re working in a field / in the type of job / for a company that I’m interested in … You've been a big help in the past… You probably know what kinds of jobs are open in this area / field… You know me pretty well… We’ve worked together before and you know about the kinds of things I’m good at... We've helped each other in the past…

Many Veterans who have experienced homelessness may lack robust networks so we may need to spend time advising and encouraging them to expand their networks. For example, by joining a religious congregation, one or more local Veterans service organizations, or self-help groups, Veterans can quickly begin establishing networking relationships with dozens, if not hundreds, of people.

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Moreover, we should encourage Veterans to consider everyone they encounter during the day – from the supervisor of the convenience store where they buy a cup a coffee to the drivers of the buses they ride – to be part of their network.

Four roles that network contacts may fill and how to leverage each:• Sources are people who have inside information about particular businesses, including:

o The likelihood that a company is in hiring mode;o Who the hiring decision makers are within the company; o The types of skills that matter most to hiring decision makers; o The pay, prospects for advancement, workplace environment, and other

information that enable Veterans to decide if it makes sense for them to target that company.

• Recommenders are contacts who are willing and able to facilitate a meeting between the Veteran and hiring decision maker, either directly or by passing along a resume and a recommendation.

• Hiring decision makers include small business owners or others inside a company who are directly involved in the hiring process, including team leaders, supervisors, or department heads.

• Linkers can introduce the Veteran to Sources and Recommenders, and in some cases, to Hiring decision makers. There’s a good chance that when Veterans begin to develop a list of their network contacts, most of the people they initially identify will be linkers. Some of these Linkers may only know other, better connected Linkers.

It’s possible for a single person to play several roles. A Source, Recommender, or Hiring Decision Maker, for example, may also be able to link the Veteran to additional people or employers who could provide more information or assistance.

In some cases, a Hiring Decision Maker might agree to meet an individual for an Informational Interview, in which the decision maker expects to be acting in the role of Source. The Veteran should respect this situation and should not ask about job openings. However, the Veteran should be aware that every networking conversation is potentially a “stealth interview,” since it’s impossible to know who may be involved with some stage of the hiring process in the companies they work for. The safest course of action for job seekers is to assume they are “auditioning” whenever they are talking to anyone. Their language, actions, demeanor, and appearance will be sending messages that, in the eyes of their network contacts, are far more accurate and credible than anything they say in the artificial context of a formal job interview.

Here are a few core topics Veterans should cover during all networking conversations: o A brief overview of the Veteran’s signature capabilities we helped them identify using

the three Experience Wheels and/or Vocational Assessment Profile (VAP); o The contributions he or she made in previous jobs and how the individual delivered those

results using his or her capabilities; o The kinds of positions and businesses where the Veteran thinks he or she will be able to

make the greatest contribution.

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Depending on which type of network contacts Veterans are talking to, they can cover additional topics or ask additional questions. We listed these on the Networking Conversation Checklist we’ve posted on the Resource Page.

In whichever way the Veteran chooses to engage with employers, they need to give the hiring decision makers reasons to put them on the company’s payroll.A nearly universal piece of advice given to job seekers is to craft accomplishment statements with the gold standard being a statement that includes an impressive quantitative result, such as “Increased sales or customer retention by 50%” or “Decrease costs by 20%.”

There are two potential problems with this standard advice: First, many Veterans who have experienced homelessness may have a difficult time identifying impressive results they’ve generated in previous jobs, even more so if we ask them to assign a numerical value to their accomplishments. Truth to tell, unless the individual maintains a careful diary of what they do at work or are excellent record keepers and track the right indicators, most people would be hard pressed to quantify the results they generate at work.

Second, even if the individual is able to identify and quantify results he or she has produced, accomplishment statements are by nature backward looking and job seeker-centric. The results the Veteran is most proud of may not relate to the goals or concerns of the Hiring Decision Maker.

So we propose that Veterans concentrate on developing contribution statements, not merely accomplishment statements.

This is more than semantics. Veterans who have experienced homelessness who have problematic work histories should try to shift an employer’s perspective from what they have done and accomplished in the past to what they will contribute when they join the employer’s team. Past accomplishments can be important evidence for the contribution claims Veterans should make, but if they cannot think of any significant accomplishments, Veterans should focus on the capabilities they will bring to the job and how they will benefit the employer.

Job seekers with weak spots in their work history and resume may need to offer something extra to convince a Hiring Decision Maker to take a chance on them and one of the most powerful extras a job seeker can offer is a contribution mindset or, to use a term the Veteran probably remembers from his or her time in uniform, a mission orientation.

One opportunity to convey a contribution mindset occurs during a job interview.  We recommend that the Veteran memorizes the following two sentences, or his or her own version of them, practice them until they sound natural, and then use them at the beginning of a job interview:  “From what I’ve been able to learn about the types of work here, it sounds like it consists of things that I like to do, and that I’m good at doing or could quickly learn to do.”

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 “But now that I’ve gotten this opportunity to talk with you directly, could you tell me in more detail what the most important things are that I can do in this positon to contribute to your success and the success of the team / department that I’d be joining?”

This question will accomplish three things:First, it will set the Veteran apart from most of the other applicants that the Hiring Decision Maker talks to by making the point that the individual is committed to the employer’s success. This mission orientation is rare, especially in the workplaces where many Veterans who have experienced homelessness may be seeking work.

Second, if the Veteran listens carefully after asking this question, then asks clarifying questions to help the Hiring Decision Maker define the four or five most important factors that matter to him or her, the Veteran will have a virtual outline of the points they should emphasize during the rest of the interview. Their goal for the rest of the interview is to explain how they will be able to deliver on the things the Hiring Decision Maker cares about.

Finally, if the Veteran gets the job, he or she will have a blueprint for how to succeed on the job.

The second opportunity to convey one’s contribution mindset or mission orientation occurs during informal networking conversations, especially those with Sources, potential Recommenders, and potential Hiring Decision Makers.

Here are several questions a Veteran can ask that may persuade someone to hire or recommend them, even if their work history is problematic:  “Why do customers do business with (company name) rather than a competitor?”  “What kinds of things can employees do (in general throughout the business, in the specific department, or in the positon the individual is targeting) to move the needle on the things customers care most about?”

“What kinds of behaviors by employees allow them to contribute to: • Higher productivity?• Lower costs?• Higher profitability?• Higher quality?”

Hiring Decision Makers also have personal needs and interests at work, and they’re eager to find and hire people who will make their lives easier and make them look good to their boss. So here are several questions to uncover these personal motivations:

o “What behaviors by the people who work for you create aggravation, hassles, or risks for you?”

o “What things can employees do to make your life easier?”

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o “What are your priorities here at work? If I was in your department, what kinds of actions could I take to help you achieve them?”

There are several ways a Veteran who has experienced homelessness can set off warning signals inside the head of a Hiring Decision Maker and these can derail the most promising job interview. Fortunately, some of these are fairly easy to address and if Veterans send the right messages, an employer need never suspect that the individual may be homeless.

Here are several basics that every job seekers needs before they begin serious networking efforts or meeting employers:

o Appropriate attire or grooming; o Stable contact information, including a mailing address, email address, and, ideally, a cell

phone number and voice mail; o Well-rehearsed answers to the most common interview questions an employer is likely to

ask.

Here’s a bonus strategy: Encourage Veterans to treat every job they get, especially low-wage entry-level positions, as stair-step jobs that will lead to self-sufficiency. Many of the jobs that Veterans with especially challenging employment issues may find will be on the lower end of the scale in terms of pay and benefits. At worst, an individual who takes and remains in one of these jobs will join the ranks of the working poor.

For this reason, it’s important for us to help Veterans convert these positions into stepping stone jobs that can lead to better jobs that lead to financial self-sufficiency and satisfying work.  Here are some principles and approaches that can turn a low-wage job into a stepping stone position.

First, Veterans should realize that every job provides at least four (4) forms of compensation:1. Pay and benefits. These are obvious ones, and while they’re important, in the long run the

size of the paycheck in a stepping stone job may matter less than the next three (3) forms of compensation.

2. The opportunity to strengthen or acquire new occupational knowledge and skills that qualify one for an internal promotion, pay raise, or for a better paying job with a different employer. In addition, the work experience may provide the individual with opportunities to discover additional skills and interest he or she might not have been aware of, expanding the breadth of jobs the Veteran will be motivated to pursue.

3. The opportunity to improve one’s track record at work. By focusing on creating a list of accomplishments, establishing a record of consistent attendance, or otherwise demonstrating commitment and competence, Veterans can accumulate a compelling list of bullet points for their resume as well as examples to share during interviews or networking conversation. For an individual burdened with a poor work history, this opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin anew may be the most valuable element in an entry-level job.

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4. The opportunity to expand one’s professional and personal network. We noted earlier that personal contacts are a key to finding and pursuing unadvertised employment opportunities and the networks of contacts Veterans develop at work may multiply,

The second principle of stepping stone jobs is that Veterans must understand that paths to advancement do indeed involve stepping stones and not an escalator. The Veteran needs to pay attention and recognize when the opportunities to acquire the relevant skills, establish the appropriate track record, or expand their network present themselves and then take advantage of those opportunities.

For example, Veterans might: o Ask a more experienced co-worker to share insights and/or techniques or demonstrate

how to operate a new piece of equipment.o Volunteer for new assignments or committees that will involve learning new skills or

meeting new co-workers, customers, suppliers, or others who can become part of the Veteran’s network.

o Begin to think in terms of the results produced and not merely the tasks performed, then record these results, expand them into Situation-Action-Result (SAR statements), and imagine ways to make similar contributions in the future to other employers.

o Brainstorm ways to improve processes, customer satisfaction, or other aspect for their work and share these ideas with supervisors, either through a formal suggestion program, if the company has one, or informally, if it does not.

o Commit to achieving an excellent attendance and safety record, high customer satisfaction ratings, or other evidence that will persuade the next Hiring Decision Makers who interview the Veteran that the individual will be a risk-free and valuable addition to their workforce.

This concludes Webinar 7, the last in our series. If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to spend some time looking at all of the resources we’ve posted for all seven webinars and to share the resources as well as the links to the other webinars with any of your colleagues who may not know about them.

On behalf of everyone at the Department of Labor, the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans, and the National Veterans Training Institute, many thanks for your service to those who have served their country.

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