Washington Business Winter 2019 | Washington Business | Page 26

what’s working
“Washington was the first state to say, `Forget making a
zone, our whole state is going to participate.’ Washington
is a huge champion for us,” said Beth Conlin, formerly of
ServingTalent, a full-service placement agency that places
this underserved population directly with employers.
Conlin, now with Blue Star Families, is a military spouse
currently stationed in Washington, D.C. Years ago she was
on the fast track at work. She married a military officer and
over the years has changed homes, and jobs, many times.
that provide an intangible set of skills that will exponentially
improve your workforce,” Conlin said.
In addition to the Hiring Our Heroes campaign, other
public awareness includes a recent report from the White
House Council of Economic Advisers.
Frequent moves, unpredictable hours, rural base assignments
and deployments all take a toll on the labor market outcomes
of military spouses, the report stated. “Our estimates suggest
that military spouses earn more than $12,000 per year less than
other workers, resulting in losses of nearly $190,000
over a 20-year military career,” it said.
celebrate service
“I wasn’t prepared to give up my career to follow the
military,” she said.
Over the last decade Conlin and her husband have moved
to Colorado, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Germany, South Korea
and Virginia.
Her jobs have been diverse as well: Sales and account
management, business development, marketing. Her work
with ServingTalent was about creating a better understanding
of who military spouses are, and what they offer to America’s
private sector.
“Our mission since day one has been to introduce the military
spouse population to the civilian workforce,” Conlin said.
ServingTalent has a pool of about 1,200 candidates. Of
those, 80 percent have a bachelor’s degree and of that group,
43 percent have an advanced degree. Twenty three percent
of the candidates speak multiple languages and 13 percent
have some kind of security clearance.
“We have a talent pool of literally thousands of not only
educated folks, but folks that have real world life experiences
26 association of washington business
Good intentions aside, both Conlin and Reeves said
spouses sometimes hide the fact that their family is
serving our country.
“Spouses will take off their wedding ring when they
go in for an interview,” Conlin said. Some spouses
stop using their base address on their resumes, and
use a post office box instead, Reeves said.
Reeves, who has several veterans in her own
family, stressed the importance of reaching service
members early in their transition process from
the military to civilian worlds. She highlighted the “VOW
(Veterans Opportunity to Work) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011,”
a measure that required job search training and created
new career pathways, and was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash.
Reeves also underscored the importance of enhancing the
transition program and allowing community partners and
company recruiters to come on post and start connecting
with people who are beginning to reenter the civilian world.
Hadley said the state’s defense industry makes it a logical
place to connect with retiring soldiers and sailors, but veterans
come from all over the country and it’s not guaranteed they
will settle here.
That’s why it’s important that employers connect during
the transition process.
“Washington state’s quality of life is awesome, the schools
are good, the economy is good, so it’s attractive for people,”
Hadley said. “Reaching them to show them what the
opportunities are — that’s the trick.”