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Leading Practices Guide Supports Employment of Veterans, Military Families

The Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF), in collaboration with a large cross section of the nation’s leading employers of veterans and military family members today released the publication “Guide to Leading Policies, Practices & Resources: Supporting the Employment of Veterans and Military Families.”

The guide represents a response to calls for a shared resource for American employers, both large and small, to adopt a strategic and sustainable approach to the advancement of veterans in the civilian workforce, and serves to advance employment and economic opportunities for veterans and their families. The publication is one of the most comprehensive efforts to date focused on providing actionable strategies and resources to advance the employment situation of the nation’s veterans and military families.

According to unemployment statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor, post-9/11 veterans are unemployed at a higher rate than their non-veteran counterparts when examined across a six-year period from January 2006-February 2012. The trend for female post-9/11 veterans, especially, saw high unemployment rates in individual months during the period, with a steeper increasing trend than female non-veterans.

Given the employment challenges facing the nation’s veterans, the “Guide to Leading Practices” is the product of a collaborative effort of the IVMF and the more than 30 private sector employers and supporting organizations, plus many more, whose activities are reflected throughout the report, that agreed to share best practices, lessons learned and innovations tied to the recruitment, assimilation, retention and advancement of veterans in the workforce. The impetus for the publication began during the IVMF and Center for a New American Security co-hosted military veteran employment best practices summit held aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Nov. 2011.

“In light of the ongoing, and planned, reductions in the size of the all-volunteer force, issues related to the employment situation of those who have served our country in uniform are a salient public policy issue,” says Mike Haynie, IVMF executive director and founder. “As politicians and policymakers alike embrace the crucial role that industry can play through private sector initiatives focused on hiring veterans, these calls to action have been positively received by our nation’s employers, who have also voiced a need for shared and public resources positioned to facilitate the implementation of state-of-the-art human resource practices and processes supporting veteran employment. It is our hope that this guide will serve to empower American employers to hire and support veterans and military family members who are an asset to the civilian workforce.”

— Source: Institute for Veterans and Military Families