Meet The Experts Yost

Jeremy Yost

Asst. National Employment Director Disabled American Veterans jobs.dav.org

Assisting more than one million former members of America’s Armed Forces annually, DAV helps veterans by hosting job fairs, securing health benefits, providing emergency grants and more.

We define “innovation” as providing something new to a group of individuals to help veterans and spouses attain meaningful employment and educate growing businesses of the numerous benefits that come with hiring veterans. A perfect example of this is “The Veteran Advantage: DAV Guide to Hiring & Retaining Veterans with Disabilities.” This hiring guide, the first of its kind within the Veteran Service Organization (VSO) realm, assists companies with navigating the often-unclear terrain of recruiting, hiring and retaining veterans with disabilities.

Alecia WebbEdgington President & CEO Life Learning Center lifelearningcenter.us

Located in Covington, Life Learning Center helps individuals “secure and sustain a better way of living through gainful employment” by addressing five domains of life: Emotional, financial, physical, spiritual and relational.

Chris Cook

Partner TKOR Holdings, LLC crucuttersllc.com arlinghauselectric.com beaumontbuildinggroup.com landwxllc.com kramerpools.com

The parent organization under which several Northern Kentucky-based companies exist – Arlinghaus Electric, Beaumont Building Group, BBG Concrete, Cru Cutters Landscape Services, Landworx Excavation and Kramer Pools – TKOR Holdings employs approximately 175 across a variety of industries.

Our National Employment Department also conducts a multitude of webinars, in-person discussions and panel interviews with companies large and small from all over the country to educate and help them become thought leaders in the veteran employment space.

We are innovative by working with marginalized groups of individuals; we supporting them through dual continuums of education and care. Our care continuum offers everything from mental health resources to eyeglasses, steel-toe boots, dental care, and anything in between through our relationships with over 130 other nonprofits.

The word “innovation” is really the ability and willingness to try new things and look for creative solutions to push the envelope on what the norm of the market provides. We're constantly willing to test market and try new ideas. We really challenge our employees to help us provide feedback that gives us the ability to stand out compared to our competitors.

You constantly must be looking at what kind of package you provide to give you an advantage against your competition. In our industry, that probably means offering one of the most inclusive benefits packages … We are family-owned and we carry that through our culture from an employee’s first day through what we see as a long career with us.

To be successful in employing marginalized individuals, companies need to remember their barriers and work with them, not against them. Many individuals that suffer from substance use disorder or criminal convictions, need some additional support to traverse their career opportunities.

One of my board members, Nehemiah Manufacturing Founder, President and CEO Dan Meyer, would tell you this as well: If companies would just continue to provide those morsels of support, it will cut down on their churn and burn, because the team members understand that they are part of the family of the company. Once individuals have that sense of belonging, we cut down ostracism. These individuals are so incredibly loyal because they appreciate having an opportunity, in what I like to call “transformational employment” versus “second chance employment” because who amongst us has not needed more than two chances?

What is the employee really looking for? What excites them?

If you can get employees to where they love their job and are happy with where they're working, they're a lot less likely to leave.

If you’re paying within what the market is driving and you still lack high retention, there could be a cultural issue. The only way you're going to find that out is by speaking to your current employees about what's going on, what motivates them and building relationships around them unique to each situation.

On a regular basis when conducting webinars with organizations looking to expand their veteran hiring initiative, DAV’s National Employment Department will ask key questions to top level leaders to help pinpoint where/why they are falling short. This includes asking questions like “Do you have a veteran-led employee resource group?” “Do you have upward mobility opportunities for your veteran employees?” and “What is your level of community involvement?” among others.

It’s almost natural and it makes sense that there are certain job positions that eventually have a cap as far as pay goes. We try to take down those barriers by cross-training and opening other opportunities. Somebody may start in a grass mowing position for Cru Cutters but may aspire to be a heavy equipment operator at our excavation company and we can help create that path. That gives them the ability to not just be successful at a job but successful and with a long-term career.

We’re also growing our partnership with the Enzweiler Institute (Builders Industry Association Trade School) in Boone County Schools for our intern program. About 80% of the interns have been offered a job after graduation, so that has been good for us and young professionals trying to get into the industry.

A final good piece of advice is to implement a formal onboarding process that involves a senior veteran leader within your Human Resources Department. This veteran hiring liaison will assist in capturing and translating key military schools and jobs held by the respective employee that can be easily transferable to your organization.

One of the most important things we consistently recommend to companies looking to attract and/or retain a veteran-led workforce is to partner with an organization who knows the ins and outs of the veteran employment space … When veterans see that their company cares so much for them that they are seeking out assistance from a prolific veteran service organization like DAV, it will speak volumes.

Here at DAV, the amount of paid time off available is based on our length of service and may be used for vacation, illness or other purposes … However, there is more than just PTO that makes DAV attractive to work for, including a generous parental leave policy for employees welcoming a new child, a tuition reimbursement program and a robust 401(k) plan among others.

It's important that companies do a risk assessment with their employees … ‘Let's talk about housing,’ for example, or ‘Let's talk about transportation, food, clothing, safety, security and your own personal health.’

We had an initiative inside the Kentucky State Police called “Look beyond the ticket.” If there was a traffic stop for speeding, for example, we were encouraged to investigate other potential factors causing that behavior … Was it substance use? Were they speeding to make it to work on time so they weren’t fired? By “looking beyond” and assessing risk factors that may inhibit someone from being the best employee that they could be, employers can interrupt the negative cycle before it begins. When an employee starts coming in late, talk to them and ask why. If you're dealing with somebody that’s couch surfing or doesn’t have stabilized housing, that's a risk factor that may negatively impact their ability to get to work on time. If they don't have support in transportation, that’s another barrier. Maybe they don't feel safe and secure in their own surroundings because they're a victim of domestic violence … You just need to ask the right questions and meet them where they are. NKY