NMSN 2023 White Paper Recommendations

Recommendation 1:

Compile and streamline access to critical career information needed by military spouses. Doing so will enable spouses to make informed career decisions as they relocate from one duty station to the next. Research and compile critical information and consistent messaging around data points such as the employment eligibility of OCONUS spouses to work within host nations, the permissibility of military spouse entrepreneurs to continue their businesses at their new duty stations (on or off the military installation) and local cost of living data to aid in developing realistic salary expectations.

Recommendation 2:

Modernize military spouse employment programs, resources and delivery systems for today’s military spouses. Better integrate installation employment assistance and transition services to the network of off-installation providers, leveraging local expertise. In that vein, also work to collect larger amounts of data including more broad military spouse demographics, work attitudes and preferences to effectively inform this modernization.

Recommendation 3:

Increase the number of military spouses working in the federal government. Increased representation in the federal workforce would both fill existing federal recruitment and representation gaps with talented employees, while also improving military spouse career portability, longevity, and long-term upward mobility. These opportunities should not be exclusively linked to military orders or the service member’s separation from active duty. Additionally, this should go hand in hand with expanding the Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas (DETO) to better facilitate career longevity and portability when spouses are forced to move overseas.

Recommendation 4:

Expand military spouse access to employment assistance support services from one year to three years after the service member’s transition from the military. Military spouses who transition out of military life now have one year of access to virtual and on-installation employment and transition support services. Extend this access to three years after the service member transitions from active-duty life. Also, enable wider public access to employment-related content featured on DoD-funded websites.

Recommendation 5:

Create congressional career pathways for military spouses through fellowship or internship programs. Create a new pilot program or adapt an existing internship or fellowship program allowing military spouses the rich opportunity to explore political, public policy or social sciences-based careers by working and learning alongside House and Senate leadership and select Member committees.

Recommendation 6:

Develop a shared lexicon between the service branches, facilitating clearer communication within communities as well as among service providers, advocates and lawmakers. Clearer communication between stakeholders is needed and a basic online dictionary featuring definitions and context of vocabulary words commonly used in the military spouse employment space would be useful across industries. A shared lexicon could eliminate confusion and help bridge the oft-lamented military-civilian divide.

Recommendation 7:

Remove barriers to public and private partnerships. Military spouse employment challenges could be more effectively addressed among key stakeholders if public and private partnerships could occur more organically. Technological and community support services exist that can aid the DoD, from the installation level up, but accessing them is not always easy due to outdated or limiting rules, regulations and policies, fears of showing commercial favoritism and/or archaic notions of intellectual or service branch ownership. Read