“As a business leader, or as a business, recognize that they [veterans] have unique skills and unique value to add not only to our society but back into your business.” – Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company.
Following the recent election, the national conversation on jobs has been focused mostly on manufacturing workers and finding ways to save jobs and bring them back to the U.S., but there is one group that has been consistently left behind in the workforce — veterans.
In 2014, there were more than 2.5 million post-9/11 veterans in the U.S. and their unemployment rate was above the national average. Over the next few years, more than one million servicemen and women will be transitioning out of the military. The irony is that there are currently 5.5 million jobs available in this country that companies can’t fill.
“This is a time that as business leaders examine their level of job openings and job postings, I would hope that they would recognize that the job description may not fit exactly to the veteran’s core experience but … that the veteran coming into civilian life has the qualities, skills base and experience to do the job,” says Schultz.
To set an example, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Schultz have joined forces to tackle this issue.
Starbucks has committed itself to hire 10,000 veterans by the end of 2018, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. has hired 7,800 veterans and is a founding member of the 100,000 Jobs Mission.
“Our national commitment must be to make sure that every veteran, every military spouse, has the opportunity to build a meaningful career,” says Dimon.
Note: This article was originally published on April 17, 2017.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
