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All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.

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This is Veterans Radio.

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Welcome to Veterans Radio.

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I am Jim Fossone.

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I'm the officer of the deck today.

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We've got some great programs for you.

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We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook

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site or at the web veteransradio.org where we're on the web 24-7.

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You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.

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We post new ones every Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something

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you didn't know before by going to veteransradio.org.

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And before we get started we want to thank our sponsors.

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Next up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.

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It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses.

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You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.

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We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.

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Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.

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You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com.

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And finally, PuroClean.

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PuroClean is the paramedics of property damage.

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It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation,

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mold removal, biohazard cleanup.

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It also has a focus on veteran franchisees.

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You can learn more about them by going to puroclean.com.

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We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Eric Eversall who is president of Hiring Our

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Heroes, part of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

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Eric is also a Navy vet.

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Eric, welcome to Veterans Radio.

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Well, thank you.

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I'm so glad to be on your show.

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Well we're going to come back and talk a little bit about how a kid who started in the Indiana

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Air National Guard ended up as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps when

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he retired.

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But we'll come back to that.

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There's an interesting story there I suspect.

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But let's start out with what is the US Chamber of Commerce?

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What is the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation?

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And that'll get us to the program Hiring Our Heroes.

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Well, that's great Jim.

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The US Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business association.

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Each and every day the US Chamber of Commerce fights for business interests both at the

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national level as well as the state level.

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And they're quite obviously fighting the hard fights when it comes to legal reform, when

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it comes to legislation that helps propel businesses across the country.

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And within the US Chamber of Commerce there is its foundation which does a lot of the

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charitable work for businesses.

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They're very active in doing things like relief after disasters.

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So they're very active in North Carolina right now.

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But they also have Hiring Our Heroes which is the veteran employment program.

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And when did the foundation start hiring our heroes?

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Well, it was created back in 2011 when there was a national crisis in veteran unemployment

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at the time.

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As you may recall, back after the Great Recession in the 2011 timeframe, we had a lot of young

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men coming back from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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And they were facing a tough job market for veterans under the age of 25 back in 2011.

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And this is really hard to believe, but 2011, just a little over 14 years ago, 13 years

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ago, 30% unemployment for veterans under the age of 25.

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And so the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation created Hiring Our Heroes as a national grassroots

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organization to raise awareness of the challenges that our veterans were facing and to importantly

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leverage all the state and local chambers to do hiring events in local communities where

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unemployed veterans were trying to find employment and connect them with companies that would

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give them a chance.

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And so that's really how we were created.

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It was back in 2011, March of 2011, and it was really in response to that crisis.

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Well, part of this is transitioning for active duty members into back into civilian world

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is difficult because in part they don't have that network.

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If they've spent four years or eight or 12 out in the military service, during that same

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period of time, their peers were developing employer employee networks moving around from

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job to job.

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And that just doesn't exist, making it very difficult for transitioning members to get

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on their first try at the job they want and they often end up underemployed or underutilizing

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their skills.

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Yeah, you know, Jim, it's a great point and it's a complicated challenge that our service

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members face.

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And for us, once we tackled what was at the time veteran unemployment, we really made

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a strategic shift to attack the source of the problem that veterans were facing.

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And that was that transition.

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How do we, to your point, build the networks that service members can connect with companies

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while they're still on active duty?

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Because what we saw was transitioning service members didn't necessarily have the right

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networks, but they also didn't have the right skill sets, nor did they have the kind of

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the broader job market landscape to understand what economic opportunity looked like.

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So back in 2014, we really shifted our focus to the active duty military community, so

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both transitioning service members and military spouses.

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And we really focused on how do we help them understand the opportunities that exist for

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them?

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How do we connect them with companies?

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How do we help give them the skill sets and the resources to be successful?

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And then really not just have them go home, which is what was happening and what led to

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the unemployment, but go home where there may not be any jobs, but actually think strategically

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about what's next so that when they were making that what's next decision after transition,

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they were going to location where there were the best job opportunities.

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And I would tell everybody, think about military transition in a lot of ways like college,

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campus recruiting.

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We all know how many of us know how college campuses recruit places like U of M bring

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in companies from all over the place because they know that their students, some of them

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will stay in Ann Arbor, but many of them will go to locations across the country.

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So you bring in those companies to help recruit your students and find economic opportunities.

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Before hiring our heroes existed, that didn't really happen on military installations.

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We really started to once we started working on bases and we started to bring in this national

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footprint of employers, companies started to recruit on military installations in the

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same way that they recruit college kids.

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And it's really changed the paradigm significantly and created a lot of economic opportunities

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that didn't exist in the past.

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And I think that's the one thing that we've done that's really changed the game.

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To your point, networks are important, but getting those service members before they

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leave connected with employers that have opportunities across the country is really critical to their

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long term success.

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Yeah, why wait till they're in a status that they're unemployed or underemployed?

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Use the time before they get out if you can for them to understand what their skills are

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and what a good next employer might look like.

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One of this, and I think you've probably have seen this, Eric, is that the HR managers

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at big corporations and small have a difficult time understanding what your military skills

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and how that translates over to the civilian world.

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Is that a challenge you've had to tackle?

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It's a, you know, Mary Barr, I actually had a great quote, she called it the frozen middle,

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which is you have a company and an executive at the top who recognizes that there's this

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great talent pool and opportunity.

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You have recruiters at the bottom who are identifying good candidates, and then you get,

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you know, not only the recruiters, but the hiring managers who start to see these candidates

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with backgrounds that are different than what they're used to recruiting.

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And it's a real challenge in this country, not only for service members, but for lots

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of populations that are underrepresented in our business community.

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When their experiences look different than the person trying to hire them, that creates

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a disconnect that is really problematic.

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And when you think about the military population with less than one half of 1% of Americans

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who serve on active duty, it is, you know, you're starting to find that it's harder and

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harder to connect with someone in a company that understands the values and the skill

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sets that military service brings.

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And so it's been a process where we have worked really aggressively with companies for the

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last 14 years to really understand military talent.

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But I will tell you, there has been a very significant shift, especially in the last

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couple of years, where companies understand that, you know, the military hiring, the veteran

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recruiting effort isn't a nice thing to do.

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It's not a charitable cause.

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There's strategic assets that bring a lot of value to companies.

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They really help them think differently about problems, how they solve them.

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The resiliency was incredibly important.

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I mean, after COVID, having people who would actually show up in the workplace and be resilient.

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And look, with AI driven solutions, Jim, you know, as a company migrates with technical

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solutions, having someone that's trainable is becoming increasingly important in the

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world workforce.

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And so military, you know, service members, veterans and military spouses really bring

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that to the forefront.

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And it's really, again, I don't have to convince too many companies anymore that they should

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hire veterans.

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The real work is really on the ground in the trenches where we have to make the connection

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between the skill set that are often those professional skills like leadership and resiliency.

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And how do you help companies see that in a population they're not as familiar with?

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But it's really, we've really seen a lot of change over the last couple of years as companies,

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again, they're hiring veterans.

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It's just, you know, it's just connecting those, disconnect on skill sets.

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One of the things that's really interesting about your shift around a decade ago was,

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again, trying to say, hey, we're going to use a model that we've seen elsewhere in terms

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of internships, and you have a corporate fellows program as part of this skill bridge

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program for hiring our heroes, which I think is really interesting.

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I don't know how you scale it, but talk to us a little bit about this whole idea of

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interning at a host company.

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Well, you're absolutely right, Jim.

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And what's interesting about this, if we go back to the paradigm shift that occurred

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back in 2014, when we started to do our work on bases, at the same time, there was, you

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know, in the national, in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, there were about

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two lines in that act that said that if, if commanders wanted to let their active duty

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service members take up to six months before they leave active duty to go work or do an

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internship for a company, you can approve it.

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And it was, you know, a very small provision in a very large bill, and it has really changed

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the narrative on how companies connect and evaluate military talent.

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And so it's called skill bridge for those of your listeners that are kind of following

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military workforce development.

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It allows service members to take up to six months.

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We run ours for 12 weeks to go do on the job training with the company.

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We run ours.

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Ours is the nation's largest skill bridge program.

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It's called the Fellows Program.

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We recruit active duty service members to participate in the program.

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We connect them with one of 700 companies that review candidates.

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They bring them into their workplace for 12 weeks.

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They're able to evaluate those hard to evaluate skill sets, ones that are hard to evaluate

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on paper, like leadership and resiliency and problem solving.

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And then at the end of 12 weeks, if they're a good fit for the company, they hire them.

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But here's the deal, Jim.

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If I can get a service member working for 12 weeks in a company, the hiring part of

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it's pretty darn easy.

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And last year, we put about 2,500 service members through that program.

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85% of them had a job offer within three months.

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The average salary was $115,000, which is remarkable.

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If you think about that number in the context of what the average college student graduate

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makes, it's significant.

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I mean, it's almost twice as much as what someone with a bachelor's degree makes in

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this country.

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And none of the debt.

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And none of the debt.

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And so it is, I'll tell you, Jim, it is really changing the paradigm.

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I'm a huge believer that as the workforce continues to transform, and I'm not talking

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about just the military, but really across the country, as we work harder to understand

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the skills-based hiring, internships, apprenticeships through the Department of Labor are critically

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important because the skill sets of the 21st century American workforce needs, the resiliency,

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the problem solving, the adaptability are all things that are really hard to evaluate

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on paper.

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But if you can get them into your workplace so you can evaluate it and see it firsthand,

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then the chances for success skyrocket.

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And let me clear this up because the number you just gave is like people are going, wow,

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115 grand salary.

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These aren't all guys with master's degrees and women with PhDs.

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Your 2,500 service members that you help place in a year, give us the breadth of who those

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folks are.

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Well, 60% of them, Jim, are enlisted.

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I mean, it is, it's really quite remarkable.

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Now, the military has done a great job of helping its enlisted service members get degrees.

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And so I think, you know, we've seen good improvement, but we have a lot of service

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members that are, you know, they have technical skill sets.

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They have leadership skill sets.

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You know, we're seeing that a lot of these program participants are often people who've

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spent 10 or more years in the military and they are good people managers, but it's really

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hard to evaluate, you know, how someone's going to manage people if you don't see it

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firsthand.

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And so we're really proud.

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I mean, here's the other thing, Jim, the other, about why this program is so good too and

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why it's so important for any underrepresented population.

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Not the participants also identify themselves as people of color.

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And so you're not only talking about this really incredibly talented population, but

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you're also talking about a population that's incredibly diverse, has a tremendous amount

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of experience, and really making a big difference.

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Now, I will tell you, you asked about scalability.

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And I, you know, the real challenge here and how we're going to have to think and fix this

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in the future is right now when a command decides to let their, you know, their soldier

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or sailor or airman or Marine coastie go off for that 12 weeks, they don't get a replacement.

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So they have to do the same amount of work with one few, you know, one less person.

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And if they got two people, you know, it keeps building up and it's created some pressure

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on who can participate and who can't.

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And we're going to have to fix it.

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We're going to have to think, you know, big picture.

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How do we ensure that anybody who wants to participate in an internship can participate

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as the military struggled with some of its recruiting and retention issues over the last

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couple of years, it's put more pressure on commanders.

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And I tell, when I talk to people at the Pentagon or up on the hill about the program, and they're

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all very excited about it.

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But when I talk to them, we shouldn't put military commanders in a position between

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deciding whether they can meet the mission requirements or let somebody have a future

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pathway to economic opportunity.

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That's an unfair decision for military commanders to be put in.

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And so I think we're going to see a fix to this in the near future that creates opportunities

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for internships that allow people to be replaced when they're doing these internships.

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But it is something that we're going to have to figure out because the program works.

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Same way it works on a college campus.

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And in the folks who leave these programs and take those internships and get that

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great job, they leave with a better taste in their mouth about their military service

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and what they recommend to folks, don't they?

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No doubt about it, Jim.

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And you know, it is, it's all about, and this is the hard part for military commanders.

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And I tell them this.

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You are losing someone for three months, but they're going to go back to their communities

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better off economically and happier and going to be better recruiters for you.

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Our data shows that internally.

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We know that to be the fact.

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And you know, I think what's going to happen here, and I think this is why this conversation

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is important, we're starting to see a pretty significant shift that commanders, senior

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leaders at the Pentagon understand that if we can help provide guaranteed pathways or

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near guaranteed pathways, the economic opportunities, that's going to help the recruiting long game.

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And I will, you know, from my seat, and I was today at the White House for a meeting,

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it is very clear that for a lot of young Americans, military service provides some of the best

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pathways to long term economic opportunity in this country, hands down, whether it's

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ROTC, whether it's, you know, enlisting after high school and then getting your, you know,

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using the GI bill later.

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It is a significant pathway to some great opportunities.

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And when the military makes a shift that it's not just about service, but it's also about,

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you know, realizing your economic dreams, it's going to create a lot more pathways into

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service and help prepare or help propel the next generation of all volunteers.

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I want to point out that this is the US Chamber of Commerce, its foundation.

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But we're talking about an entity that's got big broad shoulders.

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And the US Chamber of Commerce speaks, folks in Washington, D.C. listen, and part of that

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is you've got a tremendous organization of partners and advocates, corporate folks, you

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know, I'll start from Amazon, there must be a Z here somewhere.

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You know, every letter of the alphabet is supporting this effort.

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And that makes a big difference on how seriously it gets taken in the nation's capital.

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Give us the website folks should go through if they want to participate either as a, you

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know, service member on the way out transitioning or an employer, or maybe it's a spouse who's

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going may, and this might be something he ought to look at or she ought to look at.

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Tell us where they go to get more information.

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You bet.

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And Jim, just before I do that, the Z is zebra technology.

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There you go.

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San Diego.

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I couldn't find it fast enough.

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But they can go visit hiringourheroes.org.

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Again, that's hiringourheroes.org to learn more about the program, to learn how we're

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helping the military community.

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And if you're an employer and you want to find out how you can participate in the fellowship

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program and bring on interns, we'd love to have you.

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We have hiring events.

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So it's a program that's really grown significantly.

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And we're serving about 80,000 veterans and military spouses every year now, which is a

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pretty significant population.

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And there is a job board that's just chock full of interesting posted jobs.

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Four hours ago, US Bank and Dublin, Ireland put one up.

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I mean, all over the country, all over the world, if you will.

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So don't, you know, if you're out there and thinking, ah, geez, I don't know where to

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go for resources.

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Here's a resource.

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Go to hiringourheroes.org and go up and look at their job board.

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Yeah.

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And Jim, I tell you, I mean, to your point, you know, that is probably one of the hardest

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things about transition.

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And I know we'll get to my story a little bit later, but, you know, oftentimes when

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these young service members transition, many of them come from, you know, lower and middle

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income families.

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They don't know what's next.

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They don't know, you know, other than, you know, I grew up in the Rust Belt down near

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Fort Wayne.

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You know, it's other than working in a factory, you don't know much about what jobs are out

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there or how you can leverage those skill sets.

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And so part of this transition that's so difficult is having someone to talk to you that can

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help navigate the process.

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And we have a great team of what we call career connectors that can give you advice.

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They can make sure that you have a resume that's ready.

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They can help find resources.

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And, you know, we are, to your point, we have big, broad shoulders.

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We're the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foundation.

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And it's not just about programs we offer.

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I am very happy to offer other programs and resources that are proven to help people get

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jobs.

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There's a great program run by Syracuse University called the Institute for Veterans and Military

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Families.

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Absolutely.

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They do unbelievable upskilling work.

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If you want to be an entrepreneur, their training programs or, or boots to business are fantastic.

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So it's not just, you know, this is about a big tent.

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This is about doing the right thing.

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And you know, our job in this is, is kind of, you know, to provide some level of resources

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to, but also be a scout and, and help that service member transition when we can.

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We're talking to Eric Eversall.

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He's vice president of U.S. Chamber of Commerce and he's the president of Hiring Our Heroes,

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which is a program run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a 501C3.

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Very interesting and go to hiringourheroes.org to get more information.

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But if you have a minute, I'd like to go to your story if we can.

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It's always interesting.

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I like to start with like, how did a nice kid from Indiana end up in the Indiana and

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international garden ultimately in the Navy?

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Well, it's, it's a longer story than that, Jim, but let me just tell you, I grew up,

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neither of my parents graduated from high school and I grew up in this small town in

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Indiana.

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And my dad said, look, Eric, you have one of two ways to get ahead in life.

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You're going to either go to college or you're going to join the military.

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Those are your two options.

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Otherwise, you're here.

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And, and so I went to college first.

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And I went to this great school called Wabash College, great liberal arts school.

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I graduated with honors and I couldn't find a job.

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I couldn't find a job.

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And I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't really understand how to translate,

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you know, my bachelor's and my experience into things that employers would understand.

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And so I ended up back in a factory in Bluffton, making plastic pallets for $9 an hour, trying

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to figure out what's next.

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I applied to law school.

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And, and at the same time, I joined the international garden went off for basic training.

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And it was really an eye-opening experience for me.

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And it was a camaraderie.

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It was a leadership.

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It was a training, even being a, you know, a young senior airman.

360
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It was really a tremendous experience.

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And I then went off to law school.

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And I will tell you, Jim, I went to Indiana.

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So forgive me for that.

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Pretty good football though.

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It is a sure.

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But I went off to, I went off to Indiana law school and I was in the top 5% of my class

367
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and I couldn't get a job.

368
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And I remember this one interview with the big law firm.

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And the person looked at me and then looked at my resume and looked back up at me and

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looked at my resume.

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And she looked at me.

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She goes, were you a carnival worker last year?

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And I said, you bet I was.

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Oh yeah, I was a carnival worker.

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You know, look, when you grow up in a small town in Indiana, you do what pays the best.

376
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And that's, you know, I was making elephant ears and funnel cakes for, you know, a lot

377
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more money than making plastic pallets.

378
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And it was like the music, you know, the interview just stopped.

379
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She had nothing in common with me.

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And in the next question out of her mouth was, she said, well, okay, well, we interview

381
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a lot of people with good grades.

382
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Why should we hire you?

383
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And I didn't have a good response for that.

384
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And ultimately, that's when I joined the Jagd Corps and the Navy and, and, you know, had

385
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a wonderful career as a Navy lawyer.

386
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Really enjoyed it.

387
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But, you know, that experience for me really has helped guided me through the leadership

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at hiring our heroes in large part because it's not that these young service members

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don't want opportunity.

390
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I mean, that's why they join.

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They want something better.

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They want, you know, they want the American dream, but they don't necessarily have the

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background or experience or the family members that can help them navigate it.

394
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My parents, quite honestly, loved them to death.

395
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They were wonderful people, but their ability to help me get a job ended when I went off

396
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the college.

397
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,800
Well, probably ended when you were a carnival worker.

398
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And that's kind of my point that whole networking, there's no family networking.

399
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There's no high school buddy, college buddy, networking fraternity or sorority person who's

400
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:21,960
connecting your job.

401
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:26,120
When you leave the military, you feel like you left all of that behind.

402
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:32,080
And that's why a program such as hiringourheroes.org from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

403
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,120
is so important.

404
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:40,080
But it's one thing to say, well, I'm kind of going into the Jagd Corps, but you must

405
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:47,120
have liked it, you stayed, I mean, you returned, you're retired 24 years later as a Navy captain.

406
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What was it that was like, yeah, this is what I want to do?

407
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You know, it was a camaraderie.

408
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,280
You know, it's the people that you serve with and it's the mission and it's, you know, and

409
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it's making a difference.

410
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:05,920
And I think that's the hardest thing, you know, when you do leave that environment that

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00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,640
those deep personal friendships where you know and trust somebody in it, look, as you

412
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:15,240
know, from your service as well, you know, when you're in that environment where you're

413
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putting absolute trust and faith, it's really hard to replicate that in corporate America.

414
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And that camaraderie and that trust and that belief in your brother and sister beside you

415
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and that faith is really something that's hard to replace.

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If it can be replaced at all.

417
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And so I, you know, I loved it.

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And I think that it gave me some great experience.

419
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It allowed me to make some wonderful friends.

420
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It allowed me to serve for a long period of time.

421
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And I will tell you that, you know, that's the one thing I love the most about hiring

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00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:03,560
our heroes is that, you know, we have a team of mostly military spouses, by the way, 80%

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who are committed to the mission who want to make a difference.

424
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:13,760
And we know that by working together and really creating those pathways that it's going to

425
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make the, you know, it's not only going to help service members, but it's going to help

426
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:22,200
recruit the next generation and keep our country safe.

427
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:30,360
Well, it's important work and, you know, transitioning to good jobs means they're going to speak

428
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,160
well of their time in the service.

429
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:33,960
It'll help with recruiting.

430
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,400
It'll help, quite frankly, recruiting helps with national security.

431
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,680
So it's a much bigger issue.

432
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:45,200
You've got a much bigger challenge that you're working on.

433
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:50,880
And again, the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation and its parent, the US Chamber of Commerce

434
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,520
have broad shoulders to be able to pull this off.

435
00:31:53,520 --> 00:32:01,160
And it sounds like your personal experiences, Eric, have really helped you understand the

436
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:04,760
importance of the work that hiring our heroes is doing.

437
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:05,760
Yes.

438
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:06,760
That's right.

439
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,320
Well, I appreciate the time that you've given us today.

440
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:14,080
We ran a little longer than I promised, but I wanted to get your story in as well.

441
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:15,680
And again, keep up the good work.

442
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:23,400
And if people want to know more, then go to hiringourheroes.org to get involved, individually,

443
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,360
corporate membership, fellowships, all those sorts of things.

444
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,360
Eric, thanks for your time today.

445
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:32,480
Yeah, it was my pleasure.

446
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,480
Thank you.

447
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,560
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.

448
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,040
I am Jim Fawcone.

449
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,400
It's been a pleasure to be your host.

450
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,320
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans.

451
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:53,720
And you can reach us at 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.

452
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,620
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio

453
00:32:58,620 --> 00:33:03,240
shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.

454
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,800
That's veteransradio.org.

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00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:11,440
We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development

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00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:20,240
Council, NVBDC.org, Legal Help for Veterans, a Veterans Disability Law Firm with a national

457
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:27,520
practice before the VA can help you on your claims and your appeals.

458
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:36,280
It can be reached at legalhelpforveterans.com or 1-800-693-4800.

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And PuroClean, a leader in property emergency services.

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It's the paramedics of property damage, providing water damage remediation, flood water removal,

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fire and smoke damage remediation, mold and biohazard cleanups.

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You can reach them at puroclean.com or 800-775-7876.

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We also want to thank our local sponsors.

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This would include the Charles S. Kettles chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

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That's chapter 310, VFW, Graf O'Hara post 423, the American Legion, Erwin Preskin post

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46 in Ann Arbor as well, the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and certainly the National

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Vietnam Veterans of America Association.

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You can be a sponsor by going to veteransradio.org, clicking on the about us and our sponsors,

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and help us out keep this program alive for the 21 and 22 years.

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Keep us going for another 20.

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Thank you.