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

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.

Speakers

Moderator/Speaker:

Tricia Dwyer-Morgan, Director of Program, BPW Foundation

Speaker:

Irene Trowell-Harris, RN, EdD, Director, Center for Women Veterans

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.

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 veteran’s in existence for research purposes.

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)

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)

What were they looking for?

Confidence-giving (W:60 percent/R:52 percent)– Public sector jobs (government/nonprofit) were 54 percent

more likely to say they received it Challenging ( W:72 percent/R:41 percent)

– Public sector (50 percent more likely) Important (68.9 percent/R:38)

– Public sector (132 percent more likely) Apply knowledge (W:64 percent/R:39 percent)

– Public sector jobs: 82 percent more likely Not necessarily different from what doing in military

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)

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.

Time to Transition/Adjustment

51.7 percent began seeking work after separation--on average 9.3 months after

48.3 percent began searching before separation—on average 5.4 months

7.7 months on after separation to secure work 44.2 still felt not completely adjusted to civilian

workforce—average 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

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

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 resources—61 percent useful Taking classes in job skills—44 percent useful/39

percent not used

Resources Not Used or Not Useful

93 percent did not join a vso, women’s 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 contacts—44.5 percent not used Working with a mentor—62.6 percent not used Hired a head hunter—67 percent not used Job fairs-39 percent not used

What is available to help with transition/adjustment?

What can employers do? What are other groups doing?

Q&A

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

Wrap-Up

October 2007—Release 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

Wrap-Up

September 28th Call: Catching on To RetirementModerator:Pam Krueger, Executive Producer & Co-Anchor of MoneyTrack on PBSSpeakers: Jonathan Pond, Author of You Can Do It!  The Boomer’s Guide to a Great Retirement and Host of 16 primetime public television specials on financial planningJerry McCarthy, licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), Certified Financial Planner Diana Varela, Public Affairs Specialist for Social Security Administration

October 18 Webinar: Workplace Design: Productivity Versus Face-Time Co-sponsored with DOL-WB and DOL-ODEP and MWWLCWhat are new ways to measure employee engagement and productivity being explored within some of today’s cutting-edge employers? Is it always possible to create a results-oriented workplace? What are the benefits and challenges?

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 October…regular downloadable fact sheets from

the survey http://www1.va.gov/womenvet/

– Center for Women Veterans Statistics, Resources, Conferences

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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