Supporting Women Veterans

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Supporting Women Veterans

• What can employers do to support women veterans
  as they transition into their workplaces? BPW
  Foundation recently conducted a survey of women
  veterans to understand what their experiences
  were as they claimed their place in the civilian
  workplace. Hear early results from the survey and
  discuss their implications for employers and
  others wanting to support women veterans.

Webinar Co-sponsored by BPW Foundation, Center
for Women Veterans and BPW/USA
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Opening Perspective

• Women make up about 7 percent of the veteran
  population and 15 percent of active military.
• In the next five years, approximately 150,000
  women veterans will transition from the military
  into the civilian workforce.

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Speakers

• Moderator/Speaker
• Tricia Dwyer-Morgan, Director of Program, BPW
  Foundation
• Speaker
• Irene Trowell-Harris, RN, EdD, Director, Center
  for Women Veterans

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Survey Sponsors

• BPW Foundation sponsored the WWSOII Women
  Veterans in Transition survey in partnership with
  Harley-Davidson Foundation, Inc. and Disabled
  American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust.

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Survey Participants

• BPW Foundation invited women veterans to
  participate in this online survey via e-mail
  invitations, newsletters and web postings through
  veteran recruiting services (RecruitMilitary,
  Corporate Gray, Bradley-Morris, Inc.) and service
  organizations (BPW/USA-Women Joining Forces,
  Women In Military Service For America Memorial,
  AMVETS, National Association of State Women
  Veterans Coordinators, National Association of
  State Directors of Veterans Affairs) with access
  to a spectrum of women veterans across age
  ranges, conflicts and services. Currently, there
  is no nationally representative database of women
  veterans in existence for research purposes.

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Why is it important that we pay attention to the
career transition of women veterans?

• Skills of women veterans
• Women veterans were asked about their confidence
  in their skill sets using examples of skills
  identified by employers as the foundation for
  employability in the Secretaries Commission on
  Achieving Necessary Skills report SCANS Report
  for America 2000)
• 73 percent felt well-prepared for the civilian
  workforce (in terms of skill sets)

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What Women Veterans Bring to the Workplace

• Skills/Attributes

• Honesty integrity (82.6 percent)
• Ability to work well on team (76.6 percent)
• Work with people of diverse backgrounds (81.2
  percent)
• Exercise leadership appropriately (68.4 percent)
• Think creatively (62.3 percent)
• Possessed decision-making abilities (64.6
  percent)
• Possessed a sense of responsibility (72.6
  percent)
• Possessed good social skills (67.2 percent)
• Ability to work under pressure (71 percent)

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What were they looking for?

• Confidence-giving (W60 percent/R52 percent)
• Public sector jobs (government/nonprofit) were 54
  percent more likely to say they received it
• Challenging ( W72 percent/R41 percent)
• Public sector (50 percent more likely)
• Important (68.9 percent/R38)
• Public sector (132 percent more likely)
• Apply knowledge (W64 percent/R39 percent)
• Public sector jobs 82 percent more likely
• Not necessarily different from what doing in
  military

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What was important in new job?

• Fair compensation with male counterparts
• 72 percent marked as very important to receive
• 50 percent said they received it
• Flexible work schedule
• 41 percent vi/60 percent I
• 47 percent received
• Paid vacations (59.9/75.5)
• Retirement plan (53.7/62.4)
• Family leave (44.9 vi/60i/48.4r)
• Opportunities for advancement (63.9/51.5)
• Training professional development (55.7/54.5)

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Where did they find work?

• The first-post military job of 47.3 percent of
  respondents (who had secured work since leaving
  the military) was in the for-profit sector
• 19.8 percent secured work in the government
  sector,
• 9.3 in the military as civilians,
• 8.1 percent in the nonprofit sector and
• 1.8 percent were self-employed
• with 13.7 indicating work in other areas.

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Time to Transition/Adjustment

• 51.7 percent began seeking work after
  separation--on average 9.3 months after
• 48.3 percent began searching before separationon
  average 5.4 months
• 7.7 months on after separation to secure work
• 44.2 still felt not completely adjusted to
  civilian workforceaverage time out 7 years w/62
  percent out 5 years or less
• 27.6 percent felt adjusted after being on job
• 21.4 percent after securing job

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Time to Transition/Adjustment

• About half had problems with workplace culture
• 2/3 had easy time communicating with colleagues
• Public sector 1.6 times as likely to say
  co-workers appreciated military background

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Resources Used/Useful

• Transition Assistance Program (61 percent
  useful/17.1 percent not used)
• Veteran focused recruiting service 22 percent
  useful/32 percent not used)
• Personal networks of friends (58 percent
  useful/19 percent not used)
• Civilian contacts made during service (28
  percent)
• Online resources61 percent useful
• Taking classes in job skills44 percent useful/39
  percent not used

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Resources Not Used or Not Useful

• 93 percent did not join a vso, womens org or
  professional association to find a job
• Women-focused job search services-59 percent not
  used
• VSO Job search services-44.9 percent not used
• Pre-military civilian contacts44.5 percent not
  used
• Working with a mentor62.6 percent not used
• Hired a head hunter67 percent not used
• Job fairs-39 percent not used

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• What is available to help with transition/adjustme
  nt?
• What can employers do?
• What are other groups doing?

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QA
Moderator/Speaker Tricia Dwyer-Morgan, Director
of Program, BPW Foundation Speaker Irene
Trowell-Harris, RN, EdD, Director, Center for
Women Veterans
On the Top Left of Your Webinar Screen Click the
Hand to be called upon to ask a question Click
the Chat Bubble to submit a question in writing
for the moderator to answer
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Wrap-Up
October 2007Release of Report on Initial Results
of Survey Regular reports/fact sheets to follow
starting in October Share the link to the
recording and transcript of this call with your
co-workers and women veterans you know Watch for
the October edition of PA Times, an official
publication of the American Society for Public
Administration, to learn more about how the
public sector meets the needs of women veterans
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Wrap-Up
September 28th Call Catching on To
Retirement Moderator Pam Krueger, Executive
Producer Co-Anchor of MoneyTrack on
PBS Speakers Jonathan Pond, Author of You Can
Do It!  The Boomers Guide to a Great Retirement
and Host of 16 primetime public television
specials on financial planning Jerry McCarthy,
licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA),
Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), Certified
Financial Planner Diana Varela, Public Affairs
Specialist for Social Security Administration Octo
ber 18 Webinar Workplace Design Productivity
Versus Face-Time Co-sponsored with DOL-WB and
DOL-ODEP and MWWLC What are new ways to measure
employee engagement and productivity being
explored within some of todays cutting-edge
employers? Is it always possible to create a
results-oriented workplace? What are the benefits
and challenges?
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Resources

• www.womenjoiningforces.org
• Connect A Vet
• Career Center w/women and vet friendly ratings
• WJF ID
• www.bpwfoundation.org
• Recordings of calls and PowerPoints
• Starting in Octoberregular downloadable fact
  sheets from the survey
• http//www1.va.gov/womenvet/
• Center for Women Veterans
• Statistics, Resources, Conferences

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Disclaimer

• Data for this study comes from an internet-based
  opt-in survey of women veterans with known e-mail
  addresses obtained from various non-governmental
  sources. The researchers were unable to obtain
  permission to use an exhaustive list of women
  veterans, and it is therefore impossible to
  estimate the extent to which the survey base is
  like or dislike the actual population under
  study. For this reason, the researchers are
  extremely cautious in making claims of
  differences between study groups, but this
  caution may not suffice to alleviate this
  sampling problem. Therefore, the researchers
  caution readers to consider the extent to which
  the full population of women veterans might be
  different from those invited to participate in
  this study as they form opinions about the
  conclusions to which the researchers came.

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Technical Difficulties?

• If we experience technical difficulties in the
  call or webinar portion, do not worry. Simply log
  back in to the phone and/or webinar site and the
  even will continue where it left off.
• Log into the webinar site at http//www.mmstartvis
  uals.com/. Input your information into the Join
  option. The participant ID is 1012343. Log into
  the audio portion by calling 1-888-790-8390
  Passcode WISE UP. Ensure you put your name in
  the appropriate space. Well use that to chat and
  ask questions.