This week’s guest is Eric Eversole, a vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and president of Hiring Our Heroes.

As the leader of Hiring Our Heroes, Eversole strategically engages the program’s private- and public-sector partners in an effort to connect businesses to the talented men and women transitioning out of the military as well as their spouses.

For nearly two decades, Eversole has shown a strong commitment to the military and the men and women who serve. He first entered military service in 1994 as an enlisted security specialist in the Indiana Air National Guard. Eversole later accepted a commission in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps in 1998 and served on active duty until 2001. At that time, he transferred to the Navy Reserve. Eversole recently retired as a captain.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Hiring Our Heroes is changing its events to meet the needs of today’s transitioning service members

Industry-based training that will be available in 2020

Which employment trends are impacting Hiring Our Heroes’ programming

Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, U.S.A. Inc. is a new venture that will produce vehicles in Huntsville, Alabama, starting in 2021.

The $1.6 billion manufacturing plant is jointly owned by Mazda Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation and is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs. Mazda Toyota Manufacturing is currently ramping up its hiring effort for team members, with a target to start the hands-on assessments in January 2020 and have those first applicants on the job as early as March 2020.

The Mazda Toyota Manufacturing hiring process is a competitive one. Its recruiting managers estimate between 7% and 10% of applicants will make it all the way through the hiring process and receive a job offer.

This week’s guests are Todd Maloney and Tony Walker from Mazda Toyota Manufacturing.

After a 21-year career in the U.S. Air Force, Maloney joined Kelly OCG as a recruiting manager supporting Toyota North America. After two years at Toyota, Maloney was asked to join the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing partnership to assist in leading recruitment and to drive strategic initiatives in support of Mazda Toyota’s joint venture in Huntsville, Alabama.  

Joining Maloney on this Sitrep podcast episode is Tony Walker. After serving 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Walker landed a job as a team member in the quality control department at Toyota. Through the years, Walker has been promoted and now works as the general manager of quality control at Mazda Toyota Manufacturing. Walker says he lives by the motto, "God, Family, Toyota."

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Mazda Toyota Manufacturing’s three-step hiring process identifies job candidates

Mazda Toyota Manufacturing’s veteran hiring goal

How the joint venture’s leadership believes veterans will help Mazda Toyota Manufacturing grow to be one of the great manufacturing companies in the United States

This week’s guest is Bryan Rollins, national director for the Warriors to Work program at the Wounded Warrior Project.

The Warriors to Work program offers free career counseling to help wounded service members and their families find their next careers during their transitions to civilian life. Since its inception in 2009, Warriors to Work has placed more than 15,000 wounded veterans and family support members in careers, with combined first-year salaries greater than $500 million.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

-- Challenges warriors face during their transition out of the military

-- How Warriors to Work helps employers reduce and eliminate those challenges for veterans at their companies

-- Common misconceptions employers have about hiring warriors

In August 2019, Wells Fargo Advisors welcomed 22 fellows. This is the largest group of fellows for a corporation’s first cohort in Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program’s history.

Listen in as Diane Gabriel, head of Next Generation Talent at Wells Fargo Advisors, explains the behind-the-scenes preparation that went into making this fellowship experience a successful one for both Wells Fargo and its fellows.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

-- Details about the fellowship experience at Wells Fargo Advisors

-- Why Wells Fargo plans to hire 20,000 veterans

-- How Wells Fargo supports veterans and military families

The newly launched Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Fellowship Program is a first of its kind initiative that provides military spouses with professional training, networking and hands-on experience in the civilian workforce.

This week’s guests, Crystal Cochran and Laura Schmiegel, discuss the professional development and direct connections to local employers available to military spouses through this program. Cochran is the deputy director of the Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Fellowship Program and Schmiegel is the head of Military and Veteran Affairs at Booz Allen Hamilton.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

-- How this program connects military spouses with meaningful employment

-- What a military spouse can expect to learn during a six-week fellowship

-- Why employers should consider hosting a military spouse fellow

Quinton Ward is an Army veteran and the 2018 winner of Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award campaign sponsored by the Kenworth, FASTPORT and Hiring Our Heroes. 

During his military career, Ward worked as a mechanic, instructor and career counselor before becoming medically retired in 2010. After six years of undergoing medical treatment, Ward began to seek a new career. Utilizing the VA Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Ward graduated with a Commercial Driver’s License and joined Werner Enterprises.

Last December, Ward was named the 2018 Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award winner and presented with keys to a new, fully-loaded Kenworth T680 truck. Today, Ward works as a regional manager and field recruiter at Werner Enterprises.

 In this episode, you’ll learn:

-- The purpose of the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence award campaign

-- Career opportunities for transitioning service members in the trucking industry

-- The voting deadline for the 2019 Transition Trucking campaign

Listen in as Sarah Roberts, head of Military and Veterans Programs at LinkedIn, offers her tips for leveraging LinkedIn Premium and explains why service members should wear a smile -- not their military uniforms -- in their LinkedIn profile pictures.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to leverage LinkedIn in your job search

The most underutilized tool on LinkedIn Premium

Common mistakes transitioning service members make when using LinkedIn

Johnnie Garlington, Senior Manager of Technical Training and T-10 at Toyota Motor North America, and Eric Eversole, president of Hiring Our Heroes and vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce share how the M-TEN program provides career opportunities for transitioning service members, reservists, and veterans as automotive technicians at one of 1,500 Toyota or Lexus dealerships in the United States. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The application process and eligibility requirements for the Military Technician Education Network program

How 480 hours of skills-based training at a Toyota designated training facility coupled with a structured 1,520-hour dealer apprenticeship puts veterans on the pathway to a rewarding career

Why service members with an aptitude and a passion for automotive technology should consider this opportunity

Our employment partners often look for innovative practices to improve their military talent hiring and retention rates.

During their searches, they may find an employer that implemented a program equally beneficial to their company. In this case, the two companies may choose to collaborate through a mutually beneficial partnership. 

On this episode of the Hiring Our Heroes Sitrep podcast, Jim Beamesderfer, Vice President of Veterans Initiatives at Prudential Financial, discusses Prudential’s partnership with Salesforce. Listen in as Beamesderfer explains how companies, like Prudential, struggle to find job candidates with Salesforce training and how military spouses and veterans can connect with the Vetforce Alliance to receive free Salesforce training.

For those of us who have lived on a military installation or for those of us who have worked on one, it's quite possible that you picture a military community as the homes and buildings within the gate. Maybe you consider a military community the family you have curated across many moves, deployments, and duty assignments.

It turns out, concerned citizens and co-workers with no direct affiliation to the military can become just as much a part of your military family as those you served with or lived next door to.

Tim Tarchick, VP at Bank of America Merchant Services wants to share with you how to make that happen. Email him directly (he really wants you to!) at [email protected].