There are few individuals who are arguably more deserving of being offered excellent employment opportunities, such as in contact centers, than those who have honorably served their country and were wounded in doing so. The rewards for employers are having employees who are skilled, disciplined and who are determined to succeed.
There is an opportunity to do just that and to learn more about hiring and working with these fine brave individuals. Project HIRED is holding its second annual Wounded Warrior Workforce Conference and Career/Resource Fair Feb.11, at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters from 8am to 5pm. The conference is focused on helping veterans with disabilities successfully transition to the civilian workforce.
The Wounded Warrior Workforce Program, started by Project HIRED with a generous grant from Google in January 2010, offers general customer service and computer skills, literacy education and job-seeking training such as writing resumes and cover letters in civilian language, and placement, including via career fairs.
Yahoo and Google, along with Cisco, Hitachi, Lockheed (who will be exhibiting at ITEXPO East), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, NASA Ames and the Department of Rehabilitation are among the employers that have successfully hired and supported those who have gone through the program. For example disabled veterans comprise 40 percent of the 55 contact center agents who are working at five VA contact centers that are co-located at its Fresno, Livermore, Palo Alto, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif. hospitals. They handle a wide range of calls from missed doctors’ appointments to suicide and code blues.
The Wounded Warrior Workforce program also trains managers how to hire and retain those with disabilities. For example there is an unfortunate perception that all wounded vets suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome and other ailments, reports Project HIRED executive director Gwen Ford when only few of them do, and no more than the civilian disabled workforce.
The program requires veterans’ treating physicians’ and therapists’ approvals before being accepted for it. Very few have “washed out” says Ford, and they can return when they need additional help or are ready to be retrained.
"Disabled veterans need to be handled like any other employee who has had difficulty," said Ford. "While they must have their needs accommodated by law they must and are expected to perform well at their jobs like any other employee."
With the Iraq and Afghanistan wars there are more candidate veterans than there are positions, hence the career fairs. Showing though the same initiative as their individual clients Project HIRED will be starting up its own outsourced contact center with equipment donated by LiveOps.
The Project HIRED executive has found that on the contact center side alone the wounded veterans are up to every task that they are asked to take on.
“It is very hard to rattle the veterans, which isn’t surprising considering what they have been through,” said Ford. “They are very professional and focused: which is why the VA hires them away from us once they are rehabilitated and retrained.”
To find out more about Lockheed Martin Corporation, visit the company at ITEXPO East 2011. To be held Feb. 2-4 in Miami, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit Lockheed Martin Corporation in booth No. 323. Don’t wait. Register now.