Local companies are targeting unemployed veterans

Local companies large and small are hiring unemployed veterans wherever they can – some in new efforts and others through established programs.
Chem-Dry, a national carpet-cleaning firm, and Apollo Safety Inc., a veteran-owned, Fall River-based company specializing in safety products and services, have both recently targeted Rhode Island vets. Yet, companies like General Dynamics Electric Boat in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, CVS Caremark Corp. in Woonsocket and the Cintas Corp., with offices in Cumberland, and headquarters in Cincinnati, have longstanding practices targeting veterans, and in EB’s case, a relatively new internship program aimed at training and hiring veterans.
According to James White, veterans’ coordinator with the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, 1,436 veterans received staff assistance or used online services for the most recent period available, from April 1, 2013, to March 31 of this year. While that number may not seem particularly large, White says it is the tip of the iceberg. Erik Wallin, executive director of Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, a nonprofit that helps homeless and low-income veterans, confirmed that, as did Andrew Careau, the Cintas general manager in Cumberland.
“For those companies that have open positions, the hope is that they do have active veteran outreach and genuine interest in hiring them, because if you look at [the veterans’] demographic, they have a higher unemployment rate – veterans exiting the military – than anybody else,” Careau said.
Veterans have transferable skills in everything from leadership, integrity and a strong work ethic to logistics and management, spokespersons at all of these companies said.
At EB, the submarine builder, Jason Vlaun, manager of human resources, said, “We find that there’s a lot of transferrable skills with former military.”
EB partners with DLT and the Governor’s Workforce Board to offer internships, a program that yields dividends for both the participants and the company, Vlaun said.
In the summer of 2013, 10 veterans participated in a 12-week internship program for ship-fitting and machining, with EB hiring nine and the other person finding work elsewhere, Vlaun said. In the fall, another eight veterans trained in ship-fitting and welding and EB hired them all. This summer, the company hopes to train up to 13 more veterans and could offer them work, he said. Chem-Dry has franchises in every state but Rhode Island and is actively soliciting veterans to start some here, said D’Wayne Tanner, senior vice president of franchise sales for Chem-Dry, based in Nashville, Tenn.
In the other 49 states, “25 percent of recent franchisees” have been veterans, he said. “They are fantastic technicians.”
Chem-Dry sees Providence as a potential $12 million market for its services, Tanner said. The firm also cites 2012 statistics from the Joint Economic Committee Democratic staff based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that show an unemployment rate of 15.7 percent for post-9/11 Rhode Island veterans, which is more than double the national unemployment rate for veterans of 6.7 percent.
Chem-Dry has targeted 11 other markets nationwide and believes veterans in these markets have the aptitude to run its franchises.
“They just come with a different set of skills than most others out there,” Tanner said. “Most have come with very strong leadership skills, and they also believe in systems. For me, it’s believing and following that system; they don’t need to re-create the wheel.”
At Apollo Safety, a veteran-owned firm, President John V. Carvalho III, a U.S. Army veteran, is looking for participants for a new internship program he’s developed that may lead to work at the company. The 90-day internship, styled like an apprenticeship, could result in a veteran’s hiring as an entry-level, gas-monitor technician, said Myra Klingler, director of marketing/public relations.
Another company with a history of hiring veterans is CVS Caremark. David Casey, vice president, workforce strategies, and chief diversity officer, could not provide data on how many veterans the company has hired over the years, but said the firm supports veterans with job fairs and other activities.
“A good portion of our new hires will be military: in logistics and distribution-center networks,” he said.
At Operation Stand Down, Julie Frisone, a veteran employment and training program specialist, says the organization has helped 157 veterans and helped place 68 so far with a $300,000 U.S. Department of Labor Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program grant.
Operation Stand Down works with CVS, Cintas, Lowe’s, Home Depot and other businesses to help veterans seeking work find employment, she said.
“We translate and transfer the skills such as leadership and help them communicate it,” Frisone said. •

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