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November is Veterans and Military Families Month. And all this month, WorkingNation is taking a look at issues veterans face when looking for work after they have transitioned out of the military.

In this episode, we talk with Jim Lorraine, president and CEO of America’s Warrior Partnership (AWP), and Joshua Wilson, who manages AWP’s corporate relationships. Both are veterans and know firsthand some of the challenges servicemen and women face as they try to navigate the civilian job market.

Lorraine says one of the biggest issues veterans face is trying to find a sense of purpose in their work. “When you’re serving in the military, the accomplishment of the mission is really the purpose. So what I see is veterans who go into the workplace, they’re looking for something bigger than themselves. And a lot of the times it’s just not available.”

Wilson says another big issue is retention. Eighty percent of veterans leave their first civilian job within two years.

“The problem with retention is really a problem with transition/translation. I never really disclosed my veteran status when I originally started looking for work because I didn’t know if it was going to hurt me or not. And I didn’t ask for help on the resume because I thought well if people look at me as a war fighter I’m not about to ask them how to write a single page.”

So how do we address these problems, both as veteran employees and employers? Lorraine and Wilson share some of their ideas.

We hope you enjoy the conversation which took place at AWP’s Warrior Community Integration Symposium in Atlanta.

You can find Work in Progress, a WorkingNation podcast, anywhere you get your podcasts. Search Work in Progress and look for our logo.

Episode 105: Veterans seek a sense of purpose in work
Host: Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation Editor-in-Chief
Producer: Anny Celsi
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch, Melissa Panzer, and Ramona Schindelheim
Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0.

Follow more of our Vets Deserve Good Jobs coverage here.

You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

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.