When looking for skilled workers to grow your business, consider hiring a veteran. Nearly 1 million vets are out of work in the US despite having training and abilities that make them valuable additions to any workforce. Many veterans return from duty with disabilities, but don’t let these challenges prevent you from including them in your place of business. Get informed with these tips for hiring a disabled vet.

Use Available Resources
There are many resources for veterans looking for work and those who wish to hire them. Find potential employees through websites such as the Department of Labor’s One Stop Career Center or the Wounded Warrior Project. Hire Heroes USA also works to match qualified veterans with employers seeking specific skills.

Understand the Challenges
Disabled veterans deal with both physical and mental challenges. Some may have visible disabilities such as lost limbs while others have suffered traumatic brain injury or deal with post-traumatic stress. Make sure that you understand the needs of people with these conditions before hiring a disabled vet. Doing your research fosters understanding and reduces the fear and uncertainty that many employers struggle with when faced with the idea of hiring disabled workers. Know that disabilities don’t always remain the same; conditions may get better or worse over time, and it’s important to be prepared to work with challenges that arise in the future.

Recognize Strengths
Don’t let the societal view of disabilities as limitations cloud your judgment when hiring a vet. As an employer, you should look at what potential employees can do rather than assuming what they can’t. In fact, veterans are likely to be better workers than many other applicants you come across. They know how to listen and follow directions, work well under pressure, have experience working in team settings and have valuable leadership training. Whether or not they have a college education, veterans possess a wealth of knowledge that can’t be found in the civilian workforce.

Look for Unique Abilities
It’s not always easy to understand how military training translates to civilian job skills. Make use of resources such as O*NET Online to help you figure out which talents the veterans you’re looking to hire can bring to your company. You’ll discover a wealth of unique training and abilities that help your business to grow. Veterans also bring a great deal of life experience to any job, including an understanding of other cultures and the ability to work with diverse groups of people.

Know the Tax Laws
You may be able to get tax incentives should you choose to hire a disabled veteran. While this shouldn’t be the driving force behind your decision, provisions such as the Work Opportunity Credit, Disabled Access Credit and Returning Heroes Tax Credit can help cover the cost of necessary accommodations. These credits are meant to help employers include disabled veterans on their teams and to encourage vets to get back into the workforce.

Understand Affirmative Action
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) prohibit employers from discriminating against potential hires on the basis of physical or mental challenges. However, it’s not considered discriminatory to give preference to a qualified individual with a disability over someone who isn’t disabled. If you’re looking specifically to hire disabled veterans, affirmative action laws allow you to say so in your employment advertising and make choosing these workers a top priority.

Make Appropriate Accommodations
Some disabled workers require accommodations to make the workplace more accessible. The Job Accommodation Network can give you resources to ensure that the proper changes are made. You may need to consider:
• Flexible scheduling or part-time hours
• Specialized training to help vets work within their abilities
• Offering the option to work from home
• Other jobs employees can switch to should their conditions require it

Whether physical or situational, many of these accommodations may be covered by tax breaks and other financial incentives so you can put them in place without worrying about budget.

Create an Inclusive Environment
Not all employees know how to act around someone with a disability. Make sure that everyone understands that the veterans you hire are qualified, competent and hard-working just like the rest of the workforce. They deserve the same level of respect as every other member of your team and shouldn’t be singled out or put on the spot due to their disabilities.

Disabled veterans have a lot to offer employers who are willing to work with their physical and mental challenges. You don’t have to worry about limitations; veterans are resilient, hard-working people with a desire to work and a strong ability to adapt to new situations. Having veterans on your workforce not only brings special skills to your company but also improves your community by employing people in need.

Amy Klimek is an experienced HR recruiter and VP of Human Resources for ZipRecruiter, a company that simplifies the hiring process for small to medium size businesses. Prior to that Amy has held similar roles at Rent.com, eBay and US Interactive.
For Amy, corporate culture isn’t about dogs and free lunches, it’s about empowering employees and creating an enriching environment for people to excel.

The Marines have a saying, Semper Fidelis, which means always faithful. Former Marine and the co-founder of Six Sigma, Dr. Mikel Harry continues to sponsor a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt scholarship program to help veterans transition to six-figure positions by offering companies their mastery of business process improvement skills.

Dr. Harry has many success stories regarding the program which commenced in early 2013. He shared a Gulf War Veteran’s letter recently on his blog,

“Within weeks of completing the certification and working with you, I accepted an offer of employment today for a full-time permanent supply chain project manager position. My starting salary is $100,000.00 per year with a $5,000.00 signing bonus, plus excellent benefits. The bar is very high, and now it is time to get to work.”

Through Leatherneck.com, Six Sigma Wings for Heroes (SSWH) is awarding scholarships to Marine veterans, reservists, active-duty personnel, and family members.

SSWH is not asking for any donations, matching contributions, or economic pledges. Rather, Dr. Harry has dedicated himself to fund the scholarships as his way of making a difference to those who have sacrificed so much for our nation.

Leatherneck.com is asking Marines to submit a personal letter via email, stating the reason(s) they want the scholarship and how they feel it would impact their chances at finding work and advance their post military careers.

Letters should be sent to SixSigmaWingsforHeroes@leatherneck.com. Leaders atLeatherneck.com and SSWH will review all submissions and award the scholarships based on the impact and creativity of the entries. The program will continue until all 300 scholarships donated have been granted.

About Six Sigma Wings for Heroes

A dimension of Six Sigma Management Institute (SSMI) is about giving back to the men and women that have safeguarded our great nation and sacrificed so much on our behalf. ​

The founder of SSMI, Dr. Mikel Harry, believes in getting Veterans personally involved, investing in themselves, and becoming qualified to step into high paying jobs with security, as well as vertical and horizontal job mobility.

With this aim, Dr. Harry and the institute’s staff created the SSMI Military and Veteran Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Training and Certification Scholarship Program. Essentially, this program covers nearly 80% of the recipient’s cost. What makes this scholarship so unique is the way in which it is organized and implemented.

​Scholarship recipients receive world-class online Black Belt training from Dr. Harry, who is the co-creator of Six Sigma and a National Best Selling Author on the subject, and they are also supported through online one-on-one coaching by certified Subject Matter Experts. In addition, there are a host of other learning resources and products that are a part of the scholarship.

To Apply for the scholarship click here 

• Hear from Veterans using VA benefits for education, training, and career advancement.
• Learn how to tap into VA education and employment benefits.
• Ask questions about these benefits and share post-service success stories.
• http://on.fb.me/1t4Y7xY

Standing at the starting gate of a summer long overdue, (considering the winter most of us have had,) already a few picnics and barbeques into June’s extended sunny days, and just a few days away from a long weekend of cold drinks and fireworks, it’s tempting to fall into our tried and proven, comfortable routines. We move through our schedules towards the next “check in the box,” and we forget I fear that ambition and sense of wonder which caused us to request a tour of duty within the armed forces. We have a job, and it’s meeting the needs for now, so we settle, we accept, and we start to think that perhaps the most accomplished days in our lives may be behind us. We look for that feeling of achievement like we once had, only to find a world of supervisors who do not seem to understand our past success. We find a world full of cubicles and digital deadlines, and we may become disheartened.

Have you ever had these thoughts? Sir Frances Bacon once stated; “The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he is yet alive.” Can you relate to that? If you can, if I just explained in detail your feelings, have you settled? Do you want more? If so, how hard are you willing to work for it?

The reason that I bring this up is not to rub your perceived misfortune in your face; that is not at all my intention. No, the reason I bring this up is to wake you up, to help you if you want it. I would like to show you that the same ambition and passion that made you effective in your service to the US Armed Forces is greatly lacking in the private sector and also greatly desired by supervisors and managers alike. We are living in the greatest entitled age in my opinion that this nation has ever seen, and the only thing that must be done for you to stand out a bit from the many other resumes that flood the market every day is to be the person that feels they are owed nothing that they are not willing to work for. You joined the US Military, and started from the bottom, (as you should have) working your way up with integrity and commitment; and to that I say well done. Where we go wrong as veterans is when we reach the end of our service, and expect the private sector to not only understand our accomplishments as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, but to fast track us because of them. There is a communication gap between the US Military and our nation’s private companies, this is true; but this gap is not closed by being of the mindset that they should understand me, but rather that I should and even must learn to understand them. Don’t be the one who waits for what he feels he is owed to come and knock on his door, but rather get up off your blessed back-side and work for what you want; like you did in the military; from the bottom up.
In the Military, your accomplishments are displayed in the proudest of traditions, in small, colorful, neat little rows on your chest. These small patriotic displays are a great sense of pride and integrity across all the branches of the Military. However, they are not understood by a greater majority of the civilian populace. Now, with that said, there is something that the civilian populace does understand very well when it comes to employment considerations, and it is a virtue that you are in no short supply of.
Commitment; there are people in this life, people in our country’s work force that have never understood what it is like to not have the freedom to call in sick. Just your commitment alone is enough to set you apart from those you may be in competition with for the job you want.
Another quality that you have ample supply of that is grossly desired today in the private employment market place is resolve. I know more people that bounce around from job to job then I do know people that stick. The majority of today’s employees walk into an interview only looking for how the job benefits them, and could care less about how they are able to contribute to and impact the company. Companies are looking to make an investment in you, but they want to see a return on that investment. You want to make your Military record shine, outline your resolve and self-assigned sense of obligation toward a job not just finished, but finished well, (which in the Marine Corps always meant with time to spare and under budget.)
Finally, outline your experience, (in terms that spare the civilian who you are talking with the Military acronyms and language of bravado.) The experience of making decisions quickly with little or perhaps even none of the required information, and not only that but also standing by those decisions when the repercussions of those decisions come full circle. This is not a quality that is easy to find in the private employment world today. There are very few “decision makers” available in the private employment market place, and the ones that are available, and have outlined their ability to be able to make decisions are being compensated appropriately for it.
So there you are. Commitment…Resolve…Experience; three qualities that are greatly needed in the private employment market place which you as a US Military veteran have a generous amount of. Now, how bad do you want your best days to be in front of you vs. behind you?

Other speakers at the event included: Teri Clark, Bonnie Bessler, Chad Storlie, Tianna Robinson, and Evan Downey

Russ Hovendick & Tianna Robinson

Russ Hovendick speaking at the HRAM conference in Omaha.

Chad Storlie

Teri Clark

Bonnie Bessler

Evan Downey

Networking skills are one of the well recognized skill sets that will make the difference in finding a job, advancing a career, and learning new skills to improve your professional development. The challenge for military veterans transitioning into a new career is how to network. Everyone realizes that networking is important – the question is how do you network in an effective manner? How do you create a networking plan?

Below is a step-by-step plan employing military skill sets that have been adapted to create a successful and personal career networking plan.

10 Steps for a Military to Civilian Career Networking Action Plan

1. What do I Want to Do, Learn, Or Achieve Through Networking – Your Goal? Brainstorm what your purpose and goals are for networking. Are you seeking employment, a closer connection with a hiring manager, or do you want to learn a new skill, such as sales? Knowing what you want to achieve through networking is vital.

2. Write Your Mission Statement for Networking. Use the format of the military mission statement (Who, What, When, Where, and Why) to precisely outline your goals and what you want to achieve. Here is a sample mission statement for networking.

Goal: Gain employment in a mid-to-large Midwestern US based manufacturing company by securing 6-7 contacts per company.

Networking Mission Statement: As a military veteran transitioning into the civilian economy (WHO), I want to gain 3-4 job offers from Midwestern based manufacturing companies (GOAL). To accomplish this, I will conduct research, direct mail, and phone contacts (WHAT) of the top 10 Fortune 100 manufacturing companies with plants based in MN, IA, KS, MO, NE, SD, and OK (WHERE) over the next 3 months (WHEN). The creation of a personal network will help me understand available opportunities, company cultures; important skill sets, and positions me to have relationships in the company beyond HR and the hiring manager (WHY).

3. Define Your Value to a Company & Career. Too often, veterans only consider their technical skills and do not leverage their full range of military skills for business. My book, Combat Leader to Corporate Leader, gives veterans 20 ways to immediately leverage their military skills for an employer in a format that the employer needs . . . NOW! Networking contacts want to talk about what you can bring to a company.

4. Conduct Research of Networking Contacts. Based on your target locations from your mission statement and goals, use Business Week, Fortune, The New York Times, Hoover’s, Company Websites, the Leadership Directories – Corporate, and other sources to identify business leaders, company, name, position and their postal addresses. A military veteran should contact other mid level leaders in an industry (industries) that they would like to work to learn more about the industry, what it takes to succeed, and to position them for employment. A great technique is to look through the work biographies of key leaders to see if any of them are military veterans. Vets nearly always help other vets. Use your local library, both physical location and on line, they have lots of databases and people who can help.

5. Create a Simple Excel Database of Your Contacts. As you conduct your research, build a database in Excel with the following fields to help you begin to build your own personal database. This database that you build will be used in the next step to conduct a letter writing campaign to meet your networking goal. You should capture the following: First Name, Last Name, Position, Department, Company Name, Street Address 1, Street Address 2, City, State, Zip Code, Phone Number, E-Mail, Date Mailed 1, Date Mailed 2, Date Called 1, Date Called 2, and Other Names to Contact. Your should plan on having 20-25 prospective contacts per company that you are interested in. You should assume about a 20% response rate to your letters – so if you have 20 prospective networking contacts, you can reasonably expect ~4 people to contact you to network.

6. Write Your Networking Letter. A simple, direct and clear networking letter to your prospective contacts works very well to create contacts as well as demonstrate your skills. You should write your letter stating that you are interested to build connections that will help you understand the company, industry, and the business environment. Do not directly ask for a job. You can have two or three questions on how the contact started their career, other people to talk to, and what the growth areas are in the industry – all of these are invaluable for your search. Make sure your contact information is included, the letter is free from grammar and spelling errors, and the letter is only one page. When networking, letters are a wonderful resource to contact specific people in companies (but not only the HR department), because people receive very little “snail” mail anymore. Use a personal direct mail campaign to help build a network.

7. Mail Your Letters. Use the Mail Merge function in Microsoft Word to create professional looking labels, letters, and envelopes. You can include 1-2 business cards with your letter as well. Try to time the arrival of your letters to a Thursday or a Friday when an executive will have time to read them – Monday and Tuesday are very meeting & travel heavy for most people.

8. Follow Up With a Phone Call. Wait 3-4 days after your letters arrive and call the networking prospect to schedule a call. It is possible, but doubtful, that someone can take your call immediately. Schedule 30 minutes to discuss your questions. Confirm the date, time, time zone, phone number, and other contact information. Use Microsoft Outlook or some other scheduling program that allows changes. The follow up phone call to schedule a networking discussion time is vital to show your interest and build the relationship.

9. Conduct the Networking Meeting. During the networking meeting, take time to explain your goals, ask how to learn about the industry, explain your military background, as well as your skill sets. It is vital that you use these sessions to understand about the person, company, industry, and business challenges. Do not oversell yourself. Use this time to make sure the company, industry, and corporate culture will fit you. At the conclusion, thank the person for their time, schedule another meeting time, and see if there are 2-3 other potential networking contacts that you can talk to. Enter these new prospective contacts and the results of your meeting in your Excel database. In the follow up meetings, you can begin to explore job prospects and opportunities. It is vital that each time you speak to a potential contact, you ask for 2-3 other leads.

10. Plan for Success and Embrace Failure. In combat, we always planned as best we could for a successful mission, but also planned multiple contingencies and back up plans to account for enemy actions and other possible points of failure so that, no matter what happened, the mission would be successful. When you transition, your networking and job application plan should have multiple back up plans and contingencies as you start your new career. If you are not immediately successful, relax, step back, reassesses, learn, and move forward. This happens to everyone and you need to expect a tough road ahead. A resourceful candidate leverages failure to make them better for the next opportunity and plans multiple opportunities so they are successful in their quest for a new or a better job.

Our returning veterans face tremendous challenges in adjusting to civilian life and obtaining meaningful employment.  Think about trying to provide for spouses and children in this new civilian world that is so foreign to the veteran.  To help veterans make the transition I have published a book that is a step by step guide through the transition process. “Deployment to Employment: A guide for military veterans transitioning to civilian employment”.

But what good is a book, if no one knows about it? That’s where you come in. I believe that if you are like the majority of Americans, you would want to get involved in providing answers to this crisis. You probably know someone who is in this transition to civilian life, over 90% of Americans do.  A grass roots effort is the answer. I am asking you to get involved today in our “Invest in a Vet” campaign. We are asking you, and hundreds of other Americans to support our veterans by purchasing this book and giving it to the very friends, relatives, and co-workers that you know facing the transition. Our veterans need help and they need it now! You can help them.

Purchase your copies today directly through our publisher at the following link: http://bit.ly/170JpQu

Thank you for not forgetting those who have protected our freedom.

Recently Russ was interviewed on the January Jones radio show about the newest book in the Directional Motivation series titled “Deployment to Employment: A Guide for Military Veterans Transitioning to Civilian Employment.
Described by numerous military personnel as being “The one resource that every transitioning veteran should have” this book provides a step by step guide to success in landing civilian employment. The book’s conversational approach and easy to follow steps will provide every reader with the tools needed to land the right job. From Rob Nielsen, former Marine Corps company commander and platoon commander “In thirty minutes of reading Deployment to Employment, I learned what took me months to gather and learn from multiple seminars, resources, business coaches, and others. This book should be required reading for all service members approaching their post-military chapter of life.”
The book is available on Amazon today! Buy Now