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How To Hire and Retain Quality Veteran Employees in 2022

Companies of all sizes are eager to hire veteran talent, but many aren't sure where to start. Join us as we discuss best practices with Mallory Lepkowski of Associated Bank, a company that does it the right way!

From associatedbank.com/veterans:

We have a wide range of veteran-focused initiatives to help support our customers, colleagues and communities.

  • Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, which are flexible mortgage options that tend to be more affordable than other loans and includes assistance with closing costs.
  • A veteran hiring initiative that proactively recruits military candidates for career opportunities at Associated Bank through several partnerships including Hiring Our Heroes and Mission Wisconsin.
  • For active-duty colleagues, we offer continuation of pay for up to six months per deployment and during annual required training and retention of benefits for up to 24 months.
  • Reimbursement for colleagues traveling to a site from which an immediate family member will be deployed for military duty.
  • Our Veterans Colleague Resource Group offers our military colleagues networking and professional development opportunities in addition to supporting military service members, veterans, military family members, and veteran organizations in our communities.
  • A mentorship program for newly hired veterans and active-duty military colleagues.

Listen to our conversation via the Wisconsin Veterans Forward Podcast (in 3 parts), or watch the full video below:

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

VIDEO:

Full Interview Transcript:

Ep 135-137, April 2022:

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward veteran employment is a hot topic. Everybody talks about veteran employment issues. And so many companies are, are talking about how they are or want to be veteran friendly. We wanna hire more veterans. But a lot of them, they say that they don't necessarily know what that means or where to start. I, we work with people all the time in this area. And a common theme is they say, we wanna hire more veterans. How do we hire more veterans? And our first question is why do you wanna hire more veterans? And then they're lie tells us a lot about where they're at. Are they, are they looking to acquire and support and retain veteran talent because that is a quality source of talent or are they looking for, you know, what they think could be a high performing labor way age employee, which we all know is not really a good fit for veterans who are transitioning out.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Cause they have experience they're coming from a salaried position and you know, I, I could go on and on and on. There are a lot of companies out there that do a it wrong, unfortunately, and there are some companies out there that, that do it right, that do it right. And not only do it right as in in, in regards to hiring, but also supporting and retain veteran talent and military spouse talent. Nobody's looking for special treatment here, but traditionally underrepresented groups of people, underrepresented demographics of which veterans are included have some barriers to entry between them long term substantive employment. That just need a little bit of special consideration. And if you wanna, if you really wanna leverage the incredible power of having a diverse team that is supported the right way you can't treat them all the same.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And when you have are represented groups of people, which you need, if you want to have a truly diverse workforce there are some special considerations, right? Nobody's asking for special treatment. Every time I talk about this on TikTok, everyone's like, you just want handouts. No, <laugh> now they're just some special considerations for all of your employees. Anyways. One of the companies that does this right is associated bank and we're good friends with them and good friends of theirs for a long time. We love 'em over there. And our friend Mallory is here to talk to us from associated bank to talk to us about what they do to engage, attract, hire, support, retain, and El veteran and military spouse town. So we're gonna get into that right after this, you are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran friendly businesses. Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce at wiveteranschamber.org. Excellent. And here we are Mallory you're here.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yes. Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You betcha. How are things going? Sorry about the delay. Oh

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

No. That's all right. Things are going good. I mean, I think like everybody, the recruit space is busy, busy right now, but that's a good thing, right? <Laugh>

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Absolutely. Well, let's start there. I mean, so, so, so what is your role with associated bank? It, it sounds like you are in, in the recruiting and hiring you're in the talent management area. Yeah. What is the, what is the ecosystem? What is the climate local in your discipline? In your field?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. Yep, absolutely. So I am one of our senior talent acquisition consultants here at associated bank. So I do work as part of our recruiting or talent acquisition team. And I would say the climate is probably along the lines of what you've been hearing in the news. Of course this is a big topic for everybody right now. I mean, quite frankly, the labor market that we're in right now is unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it. I know people who have been in the recruiting space significantly longer than I have that have also said the same thing that in the 20, 30 years they've been recruiting, they've never seen a market like this. On either side coming outta the pandemic, a lot of companies are going through a lot of growth. They're hiring at an extremely accelerated rate to what we may have seen even five years ago. But then there's also this interesting dynamic in the labor pool where there are significantly more than there are candidates that are looking. The unemployment rate is even lower than it was pre pandemic, which none of us thought could happen, but it did. And so there's just this interesting dynamic of companies trying to grow and find the talent to grow with in a market where there's not talent to be had that employed or not employed somewhere today.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

It sounds like there's, it almost sounds like it's a buyer's market and a seller's market at the exact same time.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

A hundred percent. Yep. A hundred percent. I would agree.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

<Laugh> so we have, we have a lot of talent out there who is looking for other opportunities yet being very, very picky. Absolutely. I think there's, there has been a wave of a, a shift, which I think has been really important putting the power back in the employees and, and getting them to a lot of employees are, are saying, look, this is what I wanna do. This is what I don't wanna do. This is what I want. This is what I don't want. And if you can't provide that to me, there's a million other employers out there. Yep. But, but at the same time, there are employers who have opportunities that legit need to be filled <affirmative> but have better opportunities than the people next to them. So it's like mm-hmm <affirmative> buyers and op and, and sellers at the, at the same time, what it's like, they're standing on two edges of a Gorge. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> with a big gap in between. What, how, how do you build a bridge between the two of them? Where's the disconnect.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, I mean, I think it's forced a lot of change in not only the way that companies look for talent, but also in the way that candidates search for jobs. Like you said, I mean, there are some things, and I think particularly from a work life balance perspective that have come out of the pandemic that companies need to adjust to that candidates are looking for. Cuz like you said, it's, it's definitely a very interesting dynamic in that. Candidates have a lot of opportunities to choose from. There's a lot that's out there so they can definitely afford to be picky. But at the same point employers can also in a sense kind of to be picky as well because there's a lot of people that are taking advantage of the job market that we have today that are open to having that conversation that two or three years ago, if a recruiter had reached out to them, they would've said no, no thank you.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

And no, I'm not looking. More people are being open to having that conversation. So both sides and afford to be picky. And so I think like you said, where that bridge comes from is, and what I really encourage candidates to do is I talk to people who might be looking at competing offers or multiple companies is at the end of the day. It's not always so much about the job. But the values what is important to you? Is it work life balance? Is it compensation? Is it growth opportunity? What's important to you and find a company that aligns with that and that's where that bridge is gonna come from for each of those candidates and companies. Because while everybody would love to take on a promotional opportunity or get paid more those are kind of givens. Sometimes it's worth taking a lateral mover in some cases, even a step back. If you're gonna find a company that aligns with what you're looking for in terms of values or possibly even growth that you may have to take a step back to take a step forward.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And what are you seeing now? I mean, obviously you've been doing this for quite some time. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> as, as a, as a senior talent manager, you've you have experienced, you've done it. You've seen it. Yeah. What's different now than, than before there was the buyer plus seller market thing going on. Are you, are you, is it just this wide variety of things that matter to people? Are you seeing some trends, you know, like, okay, employers need to offer work from home or, you know, for example, or employers need, or employees just want more compensation or they want more autonomy or they want, you know more clearly defined advancement opportunities. Like what, what are those things that you're noticing that are different now?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think some of those common things never go away. They're always gonna be there, but I think for a lot of people, the focus has really been on values. I think the pandemic in part brought out a lot about companies and the way that they operate and there's no one right way to do it or one wrong way to do it. Every company operates differently and I'll even say that between roles they operate very differently, like from a work work from home perspective, we have some positions that they physically will never ver be able to work from home. Like if they're in a business to business sales position, they're always gonna have to be out getting in front of clients. That's never gonna change. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So work from home may not be as important to that group as it may be to some others.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

But holistically, I think people are looking at the way their company reacted to the pandemic and the way that their company is coming out of the pandemic. The pandemic, I mean not only for people personally, but within the economic space, really disrupted everything. And the way that companies are responding is gonna become increasingly important. So again, I think it'll vary a little bit, depending on the role as to what people are gonna be looking for. I think at the end of the day, it does come down to that company's values that company's path for success. We're seeing a lot of people and I would say across the board that the reason they're open to having that conversation is because of one of those two things in some capacity whether it's, they're forcing them to come back to the office and they don't want to, they wanna work remote or maybe they're if in like a sales position, maybe their company completely changed and restructured their commission structure in order to save money that made it less advantageous to the employee where now they're looking for somewhere that maybe has an untapped commission plan those types of things and the way the company is deciding to operate people are leveraging that this candidate market to their advantage to able to find something that more closely aligns with what they're looking for.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, so I wanna back up just a little bit when yeah. When you were saying that we were talking about the buyer seller market and yeah. How employment seekers are being more picky, but employers job offerers are able to be more picky too. Are you seeing as a result of that and kind of a higher rate of great opportu, are you seeing more great jobs go to great people at great companies? Are you seeing more of those high level quality employment connections as a result of this? Or do they kind of cancel each other out? And it's just more of the same just with a different same Christmas tree, different star on top of it sort of thing.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. I mean, I think it depends on the situation, but I mean, I definitely think this environment creates the opportunity for that. Because, and it's not necessarily anyone's fault. But there are times where at a company you may have a high performer that you don't have that next step for them, whether it's at the company's too small and that step doesn't exist. Or maybe there's somebody already in that spot today. That's not planning on leaving anytime soon that this environment definitely kind of creates that opportunity for employers who are looking to fill tho that next level role mm-hmm <affirmative> to be able to connect with those people. That again, they're probably not actively looking. They're probably not out there submitting applications and actively looking to the, to leave their role. They're not unsatisfied, they're not disengaged. But if somebody were to reach out with that next step that they're looking for, that they could have that opportunity now, instead of waiting five years for it they would be silly not to at least listen to it and not to at least hear what that company has to offer.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

So I think we are seeing a lot of that where maybe other companies are able to provide that next step for somebody quicker that we're seeing those high performing high potential individuals that again were not disengaged or were not looking to leave that are deciding to make that change, go to another employer, take that next step into a performing role where then you are seeing that match of those great people and those great companies and those great roles kind of coming together because of the market environment and the opportunity it created

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, so let's talk about veterans specifically then. What's sort of, do you notice you know, are, do veterans have, and I think I know the answer. Do they have special considerations in a, you know, as coming from a recruiter from a talent manager, mm-hmm <affirmative> what special considerations do you give veteran talent, military spouses that people in that system, what what's different there and what things do you need to keep in mind?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind, which I'm probably harping an old tune, but I mean, especially which I think is not dissimilar to others that are out there, especially in an industry like banking. I it's really easy to get caught up in looking for extremely technical skills of somebody who is already alone underwriter or already working with this certain product or service. And so really what we try to do in talent acquisition as we are reviewing applications as the gatekeepers, so to speak as well as educating our hiring managers is that, I mean, diversity is good. We've really been trying to educate our managers lately on the concept of cultural contribution and not looking for a fit to their team, somebody who fits exactly into the mold and the experience that they have today, but somebody with a different background or a different perspective that can add value that coming in without that experience is probably a good thing mm-hmm <affirmative> that they can bring in a new perspective to the table that somebody who is already an underwriter for another organization may not have today.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

So we really try to focus on that knowing, I mean, as everybody thing to this podcast would agree with, I mean, veterans have some really amazing skill sets and experiences a lot of times higher education that you may see in the traditional civilian workforce, that if you just give them an opportunity and be willing to teach them the technical industry specific side of it, they'll do great and they'll Excel. And so sometimes it's looking beyond that resume of what their job title and what their responsibilities were, but really looking at what skills did they need to use, what competencies developed and how does that align with the skills and competencies needed for this role?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That is that, that is, I just wanna like make a quote out of what you just said and make a billboard or a poster out of it. <Laugh> cause, cause it is absolutely spot on you know, the, the, the buzz phrase, translating skills. Yeah. We hear it all the time, but a lot of people don't really understand exactly what goes into translating. They think like, well you may have a couple acronyms here and there, some military speak, but other than that, we need line by line skill matchup, but that's not translation, right? That's, <laugh> translating skills is seeing the level of responsibility, the level of capability and the level of success at those high levels. And seeing if they can with a little tweak here and there fit in mm-hmm <affirmative> and, and, and a lot of those certifications that people get in the middle military is in depth high level, but doesn't necessarily translate to the civilian world, right?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

A combat medic, for example, who has combat experience mm-hmm <affirmative> could probably do a pretty darn good job in an ER setting mm-hmm <affirmative> in a civilian, ER, our setting, but, but without, you know, a laundry list of certifications, which they wouldn't have necessarily gotten from the military they wouldn't be able to be employed. Right. So being able to see those potential fits, closing those gaps in certification and, you know, check marks where, where necessary is super important. So, so it's great for companies like yours to see that like, yes, certain line by line items may not fit, but bigger picture, is it, can they figure that out,

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Right?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah. Are the bigger skills there that is skills, translation. So that is like, yeah, I wanna make a, I wanna make a poster out that that's really important. So if, if you have transitioning military members, you have veterans mm-hmm <affirmative>, you have maybe guard reserve service members in the area who are looking for a job, a post service job, a new job or a new career, rather I should use the word career, not job. Yeah. we're we're thinking longer term here. What advice would you have for them? You know, some of, some of them, golly, some transitioning military members, their resumes look like garbage and they don't necessarily know how to talk to a recruiter mm-hmm <affirmative> or a talent manager or what, so what, what have you seen and what advice would you give to people who are on the employment seeking end of things?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah, I mean, I would say, I mean, probably the biggest piece of advice that I can offer is find out what your resources are. I mean, as I've worked in recruiting over the last couple years, as I've gotten continually more involved in the veteran recruiting space, there are so many resources out there of people who want to help, not only at the state level, which I know sometimes can potentially get a little bit backlogged. But there's private organizations. There are individuals even on LinkedIn that are just like, Hey, I'm open to helping people advance their career. I'm a career coach that will do it absolutely free. I mean their job, their goal is just to help people and help them find that job. And I mean, one thing that I've seen which little bit of a stereotype, but I think it's a stereotype that's true.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Is veterans tend to be very self-sufficient. They don't want to have to ask for help. They wait until things get so dire or so frustrating. And then that's when they ask for help. And it doesn't have to be that way. There's a lot of organizations like I know here, right at the chamber, there's a lot of resources. There's people who are not even necessarily career coaches or do this for a living that are just passionate about this, that would be willing to help somebody to edit their resume or translate their experience or even other organizations. Like I know one of the partners that we have from an employer standpoint is mission Wisconsin with Steve Yaki. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> that I know you guys are familiar with. Yep.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah. You got it. It's great.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. And he works with all of those veterans, their spouses, sometimes even their kids completely free from their perspective. Absolutely. To help them with that transition. So I guess that's the, the biggest thing that I would say is look and see what your resources are and don't wait until you are so incredibly frustrated that you don't know what else to do to look for them.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right? Yeah. Your, your career search is like, it's like having a pet or a child. Like you don't just feed it when it's starving and on the brink of death, you gotta kind of nurture the thing and, and cont yeah. Keep it alive. And, you know, I just came up with that analogy right now. I'm gonna write that down. I think <laugh> so from the employer end, so if somebody is watching and they're like, I wanna hire more veterans, what would you say to them? What do they need to get? Right. Especially if they're, you know, we're trying to hire veterans, but we can't find any, what, what are the things that set an employer part and make them attractive to veteran talent?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. So, I mean, I would say probably I would come at from two different angles. So, I mean, I first, I, I think when you started this podcast, I think you hit it on the head that you have to be doing it for the right reasons. And you have to have an internal culture that supports that. If you're talking to a veteran, they are gonna know right away. If you're doing this because you feel like you have to, or if, because you actually care and you actually want veterans to come into your organization. So a lot of times it's not actually starting at let's hire more veterans. A lot of times it's taking a step back and looking at your internal culture first mm-hmm <affirmative>. Are you offering things like an employee resource group? Are you offering benefits? For like, for somebody that's currently still in the garter reserve, do you offer any sort of continuation of pay or benefits should they get deployed or while they're on training?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Those types of things matter and even for a veteran who may not currently be in the garter reserve, if they see that you offer those things, those are gonna be easy ways to demonstrate that you do care and you do want them here and you do value what you're bringing to the table. But once you get to that point of having a good culture set up that can really support and retain that talent that you bring in. Every, every company is a little bit different, I guess, in the way that you want to approach. But the veterans network in the military community is truly a community. You need to have networks, relationships, partnerships in order to tap into that, cuz it's not possible for every organization. Like even an organization of our size. We can't travel to transition centers and bases all over the country to recruit talent. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, it's just not possible. We don't have the budget for that. Right. And most organizations don't, unless you're like a fortune 1000 company, maybe, well,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Plus there's a million or not a million, a quarter million enlisted transitioners every year. How would you, how would you have the resources or the, or the, the, the people power to, to, to get to all of them?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Exactly. It's impossible. So you really, yeah. Have to have those networks, those connections and find ways to get in front of talent without physically getting in front of talent. And some of that does come from your partnerships, being involved in the chamber of commerce, leveraging ex external sources, like mission, Wisconsin, hiring our heroes any of those types of programs that are gonna help connect you. And that is, is really the best starting point because veterans in the military community, they talk to each other. If you get a reputation as being an employer that is truly veteran friendly and or veteran ready, they're gonna tell their other, their friends, their friends, spouses about associated bank mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that you should go, look here, you should apply here. But you have to do the front work in order to build that and get that word of mouth.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah. And I think education is a huge part of it for the employers. Getting employers who may not have experience with military folks, mm-hmm <affirmative> because there's, there's such a low percentage of people who are currently veterans in, in the eighties, it was 17 and 18%. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> now it's down to 7% of our total population. You know, so people are less of us are veterans and less of us know a veteran, right? Mm-Hmm <affirmative> so people that don't have personal experience with veterans may have stereotypes or preconceived notions or ideas about who we are and what we can do. And, and, and getting employers to understand that the veteran community is very, very, very diverse. There are people who have four years of job experience and 40 people who have, you know, an associate's degree or a master's or a doctorate mm-hmm, <affirmative> a stunning statistic is that people who finish one enlistment veterans, even with just one enlistment have higher education at a higher rate than non-veteran Americans mm-hmm <affirmative> have a have higher education at a higher rate.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

They have degrees at a higher rate right. You know, so people have that, that idea in the back of their head that, that maybe they're less educated. Maybe they're just, you know, to somebody who doesn't know all veterans are infantry, how could their skills possibly translate? So they, a lot of employers say like, I wanna hire more veterans. And in their mind, they're picturing entry level, labor wage, hourly work with no benefits. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And when you said veterans can sniff out whether or not they're doing it for the right reasons from a mile away, that is a, that's a sign mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, they're going from a position. Like I was a staff Sergeant, I was making $65,000 a year. My family had benefits and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this guy's like, I appreciate veterans. I want you on this team.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You're gonna work on the assembly line for $11 an hour and no benefits. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> Theves no, thank you. <Laugh> yeah. I mean, I, I could be the shop manager. I could be the, you know, I could be your, your, your program, man. I could be all these other things, but you know, obviously there's nothing wrong with working a labor wage, hourly job. No. And some people are, are well suited to that, but generally speaking, most of your veterans are gonna have at least three, four years of experience and progressive leadership experience and progressive skill-based experience. So a lower, hourly wage thing. It just doesn't make sense. Right. And the second they hear that and they hear that you don't have opportunities in mind, up and down the chain. They're like, you don't care about hiring veterans. You just wanna take advantage of me. You get tax benefits for hiring me.

 

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

What did we leave out? What is some essential knowledge for either party when it comes to bridging that gap, building the bridge over the Gorge between those two ends between veterans talents and employers?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. I don't know if it's necessarily anything that we left out, but I mean, I guess I would definitely just reinforce that point of looking internally before you look externally. Cuz I think as I've talked to Oregon or if I would've even looked at associated bank 10 years ago and said, what are we doing wrong? It would be trying to push that hiring externally or even for a veteran as well, trying to force into an opportunity that you haven't maybe taken a step back and prepare yourself for mm-hmm <affirmative> that on both sides, like you said, you have to really look internally and see what are you doing? That's maybe turning people away on the job seeker side. Right? Is it that you haven't done any work to your resume and try to put it in civilian terms to tell them what your skills competencies are?

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Is it even sometimes as well, all job seekers do it every once in a while veteran or not. Are you pursuing jobs that you don't have any skills or experience or training for that it bites out really cool. And it might sound really exciting, but you can't jump right into that role. And so is it educating that, how do you get there? Are there other roles that you can do to get to that dream job that do leverage the skills and experience that you have today? On the employer's side, right? Are we trying to hire veterans, but we have no support system. We don't actually value veterans in their experience or have anything in place to help them. And I guess from that employer perspective as well, I would say also that it doesn't always have to be financial.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

I mean, is it great to be able to offer benefits like continuation of pay or benefits? Yes, but that does come outta cost for the organization. And sometimes especially for smaller companies that may not be possible. There may not be the resources or the budget to do that. And that's okay. But even some of those other things like some of those free partnerships like hiring our heroes, having an employee, employee resource group, some of those things that cost you, absolutely no money are still gonna make an impact and ultimately help you to not only make that case to hire more veterans and get to the goal of what you want. But also then help that translate into retention. Cuz that's the biggest thing about the hiring spaces. And I even say as a recruit, my job is to fill jobs, not retain people <laugh> quite frankly but if I'm not hiring people that are gonna stay, that makes more work for me, I need to find people that are quality hires that are gonna stay. And any company wants to do that. And that's what any job seeker wants as well, no job seeker. There are very few, if any, that enjoy switching jobs that want to hop from job to job and not find a place to land everybody has the same goal. And so you just kind of have to look at yourself and what you're bringing to the table to make it attractive, whether you're a job seeker or a, an employer.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, so what is associated, thank you then, you know, you mentioned all these things like let's, let's talk about associated. Yeah. ERG continuation, continuation of pay is super rare. So I'm, I'm, I'm not saying like, is that so like that it's expected, but is it something you do mm-hmm <affirmative> what do you specifically do to attract, to engage mm-hmm <affirmative> and to, to get people interested and hired vet veteran talent, interested and hired to show them that you're serious about supporting them in the right ways.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. Yep, absolutely. So I'll talk a little bit about some of the specifics, but the first thing that I'll start with is as you build all of this out, it's all about communication and branding. So you'll notice I have my nice little sweatshirt on here today. That we've created branding. We have a page on our associated bank website. That's dedicated to our military communities and what we do both internally and externally to support the military communities. So once you have it all in place, you have to talk about it. You have to tell people that it's there. I mean, it's great that you have it, but if people don't know it's not gonna help you at all. So some of the things that we have built out and that you'll see out and some of that branding and in some of those pages is so internally, right? Some of the things that we offer to attract and or retain is right. We do offer some financial and benefits that are attractive specifically for our military community. So for individuals that are currently still serving in the garter reserves they do of course get regular, they continue their regular pay during any annual training mm-hmm <affirmative> they have six months of regular pay per deployment that will continue to pay them their normal paychecks for six months.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's that is amazing. Yeah.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

It's, it's great. We've had a, a lot of colleagues who have used it actually over the last two years with a lot of national guard units and reserve units getting deployed as a result of COVID mm-hmm <affirmative> they also get, can retain their health benefits for up to 24 months. Excellent. and then on the military spouse or military family side we do offer up to $2,500 of reimbursement for them to travel to where an immediate family member may be getting deployed from. If they do get that notification that a son or a daughter or even a parent is getting deployed and they don't live where they're stationed they can get reimbursed for are some of that travel cost to go out there and see them before they go. As well as then, right. We do offer an employee resource group.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

So it is large it's throughout our entire footprint. We do a lot in terms of not only internal support, we have a mentorship program for new hires that come into the organization to just help get them acclimated not only to associated bank but to banking if they're new to banking and have somebody that is part of that military community to connect with. But we also do a lot of education as well. We talk about issues or things that the military community might be facing. Like for example when we pulled out of Afghanistan last year, we know that was a huge triggering moment for a lot of our service members. So providing opportunities to talk about that or share resources that we might have in the organization, such as our EAP, reminding people that it's there. If they are having a hard time a decision that was made a lot of those things to help provide some of that infrastructure.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

As we talked out before we do a lot of training within our talent acquisition team and for our hiring managers we have a webinar course that we've created that specifically talks about hiring veterans, some of the differences you might see, even in the way that they talk about their experience and being more team oriented than personal accomplishment oriented and helping them to differentiate between some of those things in conversations that they might be having in order to promote hiring managers, making decisions that are in aligned with our values. But then, I mean, lastly, I would say again, those partnerships we can't do it alone. We're not the experts. We try to know as much as we can and learn as much as we can. But I mean, having being a part of the chamber being part of hiring our heroes, using partnerships like mission Wisconsin, mm-hmm, <affirmative> working with the department of workforce development all of those connection points help us to not only continue to evolve what we're offering internally but also provide us opportunities to connect with make hires and promote what we're doing to attract talent.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

And the last thing that I'll mention is kind of indirectly. It's not always about exactly what you're offering from an employment perspective, but just showing that you care. So we do do a lot in the community. We're involved with a lot of our American Legion post or other local organizations. We offer VA loans as a bank from a product and service perspective to help support veterans buying homes and being established in our communities. So there's a lot of things that we just try to do from that perspective as well, that isn't necessarily directly to actively recruiting talent. But again just shows our commitment to that community and hopefully encourages them that even if they don't know anything about any of those benefits or anything that we offer as an organization if they see associated bank with our green shirts at a ruck March or something like that that maybe it'll kind prompt that associated bank is a great place to bank or maybe somewhere that I'd like to work.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Mm-Hmm <affirmative> man, that, that was all just a lot of <laugh>. No, that was great. It was golden information right there. <Laugh> I, I gotta go to the beginning though. You mentioned the branding and the, the quarter zips. Yeah. Are, are those available for veterans chamber members? Cuz those things are slick.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

I could probably get you one they're on our company store right now. So it's not available necessarily for ordering externally, but I could definitely order one

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

For you. You hook up your, your friendly neighborhood veterans chamber staff member.

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Absolutely. Yeah. You guys just send me what you want and I'll order for you. <Laugh>

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

How can somebody get in touch or learn more about associated bank and, and what they're doing? You said there was a specific veteran landing page mm-hmm <affirmative>

Mallory Lepkowski - Associated Bank:

Yeah. Yep. So if you go to associated bank.com/veterans you will get directed to the landing page that holistically talks about everything that we do at associated bank, both internally for our colleagues, as well as in our communities. As well as, I mean, if somebody is looking for something, particularly from a either job seeker or employer connection standpoint they can always reach out to us@careersatassociatedbank.com. And we're always more than happy to connect or point you in the right direction of the right person to talk to

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You. Betcha. And I got it scrolling across the bottom. There is that right? Okay. Excellent. Well Mallory, thank you so, so much for your time. That was all very, very cool, very informative stuff. Ask you to just hang on the line for just a minute. I'll I'll touch base with you here at the end. Folks that was awesome. Really, really cool stuff. That is a company that does it, right. And you could tell by all the programs and processes that they have in place. Now one thing that she mentioned that I wanna bring attention to is smaller companies or less established companies that may not have the bra or the resources or the tenure that an associated bank would have probably may not have the ability to do something like six months of con pay continuation if you get deployed, which is just incredible.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That that is if you have the ability to do that, it's an incredibly attractive thing. Cuz talk about, you know, somebody getting activated, they're getting their activated pay, but that may be less than they were making when they were working in the civilian world. So knowing that your family's taking care of while you are not there to provide that in person support it's, it's monumental. If you're able to do that huge. So like it's awesome that they do that, but you may not be able to do that with your business. So what are those, those other things that you're able to do after looking internally and seeing what are the reasons behind, why do you wanna acquire veteran talent, actually talk to veterans and see if you are in the right ballpark, but things like having a resource group training, training, and education for your managers on you know, things to know things, to say things, to not say ways to support ways to not support, you know education.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's not gonna cost you a lot. It'll cost you your time and your effort, but veterans can tell if you are not putting in the time and making an effort to support them appropriately. So if you actually want to do this thing, right, you're gonna have to put in a little bit of elbow grease and you don't have to break the bank necessarily to do it. You just have to make sure that you spend the time to look inward and to educate yourself, to educate your, your next level managers be genuine about that support all the things that she said that associated does right now. That should be like as a gold standard. You, you, your job, if you want to actually acquire diverse workforce, that includes veteran talent. Like that should be what you strive to do. Go listen to what she said again. That was, that was all gold. I appreciate everybody tuning in here. Check 'em out associated bank.com/veterans. Hey, if you're looking for a gig, I tell you what vets and military spouses out there, it's a company doing it the right way. I've heard nothing but good. Thanks. Appreciate y'all and we will see you next. Thank you for listening to Wisconsin veterans forward brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us at wiveteranschamber.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.

 

 

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