When companies like General Dynamics and government agencies like the FBI need good people with in-demand skills, they have at least one company on speed dial: ManpowerGroup.
Every day, ManpowerGroup puts an estimated 600,000 people in meaningful positions worldwide across a variety of industries and sectors. It does this by training people in the specific skills companies need so when they reach their job, they're fully capable of fulfilling that critical role.
ManpowerGroup and Rockwell Automation have been recruiting and training vets with technical skills since 2017. Now, ManpowerGroup is teaming with Military Hire and Operation: Job Ready Veterans to put its proven model to work for American veterans, free of charge and with a job waiting for them at the end of the training program.
Ron Needham, ManpowerGroup's senior vice president of North American sales and marketing, served in the U.S. Army infantry between 1983 and 1985. When he left the military, Needham walked into a ManpowerGroup office while attending Penn State University. The company put him in a temporary job that turned out to be permanent.
He says the same perspective that helped him succeed in his first post-military job is one that veterans today still have.
"I discovered myself that the advantages I had in corporate America, like the discipline and the preparation to be a leader in a moment's notice, were all transferable skills to the corporate world," Needham told Military.com. "All these things you sort of learn that you don't necessarily translate to the business world at the moment, but really are right there. They're really powerful."
When Needham went to work for ManpowerGroup years later, he looked at veteran employment and saw a need. There were others out there trying to address the problem, but he didn't see anyone doing it particularly well. He put ManpowerGroup to work for veterans and spouses.
The process is simple: The company's clients approach ManpowerGroup with a critical skills need and a demand for people. The company recruits veterans interested in joining that field and creates an upskilling program for that skill. If the veteran needs to train on equipment in person, ManpowerGroup covers the cost of relocation and housing. If the program is technology-based, veterans can take the training at home through its Academy of Advanced Manufacturing (AAM).
Once the training regimen is completed, the newly upskilled veteran takes their place in a job with the original company.
"Stakeholder capitalism is our core value here," Needham says. "There are four constituents, and your employee is number one. If your employee feels engaged and likes working with your company, they take care of the second constituent, the customer. If you take care of the customer, they will take care of your shareholders by doing more business with you. When the shareholder is taken care of, that gives us the right to invest in the community. The value in upskilling is taking care of the first of those four constituents."
Veterans coming into ManpowerGroup's upskilling program can go to work for all kinds of companies in many different sectors. Rockwell Automation, General Dynamics and other long-standing, valuable companies are just the beginning.
"Walk around and think about all the brands you're seeing, from the shoes on your feet to the trucks driving around," Needham says. "You'd be amazed at the work we do that people don't know about. Those are all opportunities for our associates."
To learn more about ManpowerGroup, the Academy of Advanced Manufacturing or to jump right in and apply, visit the AAM website. Classes begin regularly throughout the year.
-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.
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