Is Your Company Veteran-Friendly?
Veteran-Ready?
In U.S. corporations, less than 10 percent of our nation’s
workforce are members of Business Resource Groups (BRG),
(VBRG), with more than 200,000 service members leaving the
military each year, you would think these numbers would be
much higher. It is an indicator to companies of employees’ desire
to engage in their companies beyond the daily 9-5 work day.
many VBRGs in the Atlanta area to join forces with VETLANTA
and dozens of other companies with one goal in mind…helping
veterans. As a VBRG leader, you are looking for ways to
enhance camaraderie within your company, and ways to bring
together veterans for opportunities to socialize, get involved
in the community, or perhaps to coach, teach, or mentor in the
workplace.
The purpose of VBRGs is much broader than a bunch of
veterans gathering together to talk about old times or network.
company are to:
Foster professional development
Enhance work performance
Assist in matching mentors with mentees
Assist Human Resources (HR)/Talent Acquisition
in recruiting a diverse workforce
Increase community partnerships
Encourage interaction and relationship-building
within and across work groups.
reference guide, courtesy of one of our members and former
Marine, Kevin Horgan. Keeping it simple, Kevin has broken
Conduit, Champion,
Communication, Caution, and Continuity.
Conduit
VBRG to be established, grow, and become part of the culture of
your company? You need an HR shepherd, the conduit for being
taken seriously and being recognized. They can help in preparing
a BRG charter that truly recognizes the BRG as a company-
8 | October 2018 | Real Hero Report
BRG, you get nothing. An important aspect is that your HR
conduit can keep you out of trouble.
Champion
Your VBRG champion should be a veteran on the staff or a senior
senior management. If not a veteran, it should be a partner with
craft, etc.). The role of your champion is to be both a mentor and
a cheerleader.
Communication
Develop and maintain an extensive email/key contacts list.
Assign a co-chair to send out tweets, and messages on Instagram,
Facebook, LinkedIn and any other social media at your discretion.
Send out a weekly “what’s happening and what’s next” email, but
do not inundate. It is important to take the VBRG message out
to the members and even prospective members through internal
company communication means. It would include recent activity,
planned events, announcements, surveys to gain some input from
your members, etc.
Caution
If you are just starting a BRG, the approach of crawl, walk, run
works best. Start accumulating small successes and learn as you
go. As you begin to chalk up these successes, you can grow the
events and/or activities in which your VBRG will participate. A
employees and perhaps a letter from the company President
thanking every veteran in the company for their service. You’ll
need your HR conduit and champion both fully engaged to
accomplish this, but it can be done very easily. So, don’t be overly
Continuity
Champion, a dedicated HR Conduit,
an effective Communication co-chair, and successful events can
bring you new members and guarantee Continuity. If you are not
growing your members and having those small successes along
the way, your VBRG will become irrelevant very quickly. For
every person you entrust with tasks, outreach, or communication,
ask that he or she bring two members into the fold, even if only
for one event.
In Closing
Banding together with other BRGs within your company is a
great way to raise awareness and maintain relevance. Reaching
out to organizations, such as VETLANTA, allows you to
capitalize on lessons learned from other VBRGs, to collaborate
and coordinate activities. Don’t make the mistake of operating
in a vacuum. You are just one email or phone call away from
help from VETLANTA. It is what we do as veterans…we help
each other.