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Helping Vets Join Your Workforce

This post is submitted by Joyce Maroney, Executive Director of the Workforce Institute. Here she talks with Joe Arenstein, a former US Marine, about his journey from the military to civilian life - and what strategies organizations can use when helping vets join their workforce.

Joe Arenstein, second Marine to right of flag bearer.

In the 2014 photo above, Joe Arenstein is pictured with 2/5 Golf Company, 3rd Platoon in Korea. The photo to the left is of Joe as he appears today - as a Cloud Service Delivery Manager at Kronos.

As we approach Veteran's Day 2019, I wanted to dig a little more deeply into what it means to thank veterans for their service when it comes to welcoming them back to the workplace, especially when their prior workplace may have been primarily military. Joe is a colleague of mine at Kronos who has made that transition in recent years. I asked him to join me to talk about his experience and to provide insights to our listeners about what works - and what doesn't - when it comes to welcoming former service members into your workplace culture and developing them once they are there. During our interview we discuss:

  • What services are available to military personnel as they approach the end of their service? And how well do they prepare service members for the civilian world?
  • Joe took advantage of a Microsoft technical training program and ultimately made his way to a "returnship" at Kronos. He describes that path and what he wishes he'd know then that he knows now about preparing for a civilian career while still in the Marines.
  • Civilian and military workplace norms are very different. Here how Joe learned some of those the hard way, and what employers might do to speed up that learning curve.
  • What civilian organizations learn from the military when it comes to helping service members relocate to new communities?
  • What strengths do service members bring to a workplace that civilian leaders mightn't think about?

I really enjoyed my conversation with Joe. If you'd like to listen in, you can hear our conversation on the player below. And if you have a story to tell about making the civilian workplace work for veterans, please share your story by commenting on this post.

Interview with Joe Arenstein

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