Hi everyone; this is Kevin. Today is Tuesday, November 8th. We’re holding ceremonies Thursday in Groton and Quonset Point in honor of Veterans Day, when our nation unites to honor our service members past and present, remember their achievements and thank them for their sacrifice to our great nation. At Electric Boat, many of our employees have served and know the honor of wearing the cloth of our nation.
So today on the podcast I’m joined by Ray Ryan, a veteran and Electric Boat’s Veteran and Military Recruiter. So Ray, thanks for your service and welcome to the podcast. I’d like to talk about the unique contributions veterans bring to our workforce and what EB is doing to find those veterans and convince them to join our team. To get started, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Thanks Kevin, it’s great to be here and it’s great to spotlight veterans on this Veterans Day week. I’m local, from Groton, I joined right out of high school in 2006 the United States Air Force. I was lucky enough to be stationed in England for my four years. Then in 2010 I transitioned over to the Connecticut Air National Guard where I currently still serve as a proud traditional guardsman. I’m in the 103rd Security Forces Squadron at Bradley. I deployed to Qatar in 2007 and to Kuwait in 2017. When I came back, I joined the team here at Electric Boat. I started in mechanical design, and then in the last six months I transitioned to the staffing team where I get to serve as the Military and Veteran Recruiter for the company.
Terrific, and thanks for your service again. Let’s talk about your role and why we have decided as a company to have you solely focus on reaching out to veterans throughout the country.
EB recognizes the value our military service men and women bring to shipbuilding here at EB. They have the unique skill sets; all military people naturally are leaders, they know how to work with diverse groups, they know how to work under pressure. These are things you need to be effective in the shipyard. My role in the company is because EB is dedicated to its veterans. We understand that we need their skills to be successful here at Electric Boat.
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. The skills and the mindset, the leadership that the military teaches, fits well within the boundaries of the shipyard here, and I think works well with shipbuilders as a whole. Recognizing that all of us—veterans and non-veterans alike—are absolutely committed to the mission and the team before themselves. I think our veterans also bring some resiliency and the ability to pivot when a situation evolves, to name just a few of those attributes. Let’s talk about what Electric Boat is doing to recruit these folks.
Electric Boat is dedicated to recruiting our military. Last month we did a partnership with the Army PAYS program, “Army Partners for your Success,” so our guard and reserve soldiers who leave for basic training and AIT (advanced individual training), upon their return, we’re going to guarantee them an interview here at Electric Boat. So it’s going to be a great partnership; we’re really excited. We should see a return on investment within the next six to nine months, so very excited there.
Also, the Veterans Rally Point in Norwich where we do an employment panel. I work with Rebecca Avery, the employment specialist there. Every Monday, from 1-3 p.m., it’s for any veteran in the area who wants some resume writing skills, interviewing skills, and I tell them about the opportunities we have at Electric Boat.
Also very effective are the TAPS (transition assistance program) career fairs located throughout the country. They’re free, I’ve attended them in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Massachusetts; they’re usually held on a military installation. Those are targeting our transitioning service members—they usually do the fair within about a year of getting out.
We do various platforms for virtual career fairs. One of them is the Recruit Military. We do GI Jobs; it’s a platform for just veterans, we do that monthly. Also we work with the local Veteran Affairs and Departments of Labor. We did a nice recruitment event in Hartford dedicated to veterans, and also we did one in Rhode Island last month with the Department of Labor and Training.
We do ClearJobs.net, it’s a program where any applicants at these career fairs are all going to have security clearances, and it’s been very effective. We’ve partnered up with the Rhode Island and Connecticut Army recruiters. I attend their Gold Phase briefings, so when the soldiers return home from AIT, they get briefed on all their benefits, and they also let EB come and do a half-hour pitch on the opportunities we have.
Electric Boat has been boots on the ground in the local community doing things like Military Appreciation Day at Ocean Beach, we did our first 5K run this year, we had over 100 runners, it was really successful. We had the highest-ranking person in Connecticut, Major General Francis J. Evon, Jr., as the keynote speaker for that event. It was really good to be a part of. We have “Vets Rock” this Friday at Mohegan Sun. Electric Boat is the lead sponsor for that; we’re really excited. I think it’s going to be such a great event honoring our veterans.
That’s fantastic. We’re throwing out a pretty wide net to find veterans, explain what we do and help them transition to civilian life. I appreciate having you on the podcast today, and particularly on the HR staff helping us recruit these great people. Right now veterans make up only about 13% of our employee population, but I’m confident that as we start to gain some ground we’re going to raise that percentage even higher. We all benefit as a team by the leadership they can bring to bear.
For those listening, if you have friends or family who are veterans or who may soon be transitioning out of the service, tell them about us and the great work we do for our nation. I know in my own case, the opportunity to have been a veteran and then come to work here building submarines is a great natural fit and it’s something that motivates me every day. When you join our team, you can continue to serve your country by delivering the advantage that protects our sailors, our families and our freedom.
If you see a veteran this Veterans Day, make sure you thank them for their service. It doesn’t cost anything, and it makes everybody feel better.
Happy Veterans Day everybody; we’ll talk again soon.
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