Veteran Hiring Is Not the Field of Dreams
Listen in as Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient and Hiring Our Heroes and Toyota Personal Brand Ambassador, sits down with Phillips 66’s Manager of Talent Planning and Acquisition Jonathan Rosenberg and Director of Talent Acquisition Programs Kevin Blasco on this episode of the Sitrep podcast. Rosenberg and Blasco explain how Phillips 66 moved from a veteran-friendly to a veteran-ready company committed to recruiting, hiring, and retaining veteran and military spouse employees.
Top Takeaways from “Veteran Hiring Is Not the Field of Dreams”
1. You don’t have to be a veteran to understand the value that veterans can bring to your organization.
“The thing we learned early and I think it was our biggest success is that we called for a pause probably after our second or third [hiring] event. We realized that we needed to educate our hiring managers. We needed to tell them what’s important about a vet…and, of course, educate them on how to read a resume.” – Jonathan Rosenberg, Manager of Talent Planning and Acquisition at Phillips 66
2. Know the difference between waving the flag and actually being veteran-ready.
“You can wave the flag and not be veteran ready, but you can’t be veteran ready and not wave the flag.” – Dakota Meyer, Hiring Our Heroes and Toyota Personal Branding Ambassador
3. Veteran hiring is not the like the field of dreams.
“We thought you post a job and they will come and it’ll be that easy. It’s not the field of dreams.” – Jonathan Rosenberg, Manager of Talent Planning and Acquisition at Phillips 66
4. You don’t have to know everything about veteran hiring , but you have to be willing to admit it and reach out to veterans within your company to help you address gaps in your knowledge.
“Our VetNet employee resources group helps us out a lot when it comes to really understanding and training us how to even read [veteran] resumes.” – Kevin Blasco, Director of Talent Acquisition Programs at Phillips 66