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How great would it be if you could do something that helped support our military AND was good for your business?

Well that is exactly the fortunate position that ATR has found itself in!

Recruiting is all about finding people, and to be a truly successful staffing firm you need to find people that others cannot – to tap into talent sources that aren’t obvious or that others haven’t thought of. It’s what we do for our clients every day. And, although we spend most of our time finding people to work for our clients, we are also looking for talented people to work for us. And we are always thinking of new ways to find good people.

That effort to find overlooked talent pools led us to the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) program. The MSEP provides employment resources for Family members through a corporate partnership initiative. Operated through Army Community Service centers in concert with the Employment Readiness Program, MSEP helps all Army Spouses gain the competitive edge needed for employment by providing corporate and Federal partners willing to hire military personnel.

This employable population faces a big challenge in that they move frequently, and sometimes on short notice. This can make finding a job extra challenging since many employers don’t want to hire and invest in an employee that is pretty much guaranteed to move on. When a spouse is deployed, the other spouse become a de facto single parent, shouldering the load of all the work while their loved one is off on duty, which also makes having a career a challenging prospect. This is really a lost opportunity for everyone – these are people who are eminently employable, possessing skills that employers need and fantastic work ethics and commitment.

This program aims to find employers for whom this volatility isn’t a problem. In general this means two things – they are companies that have locations across the U.S. that need the same position filled in many locations or they have work that can be done remotely so that geographic location doesn’t matter. These kinds of jobs can move with the employee.

In our business, as with so many others, the available technology means that your physical location really doesn’t affect your ability to do the work. In particular, our sourcer positions can be easily and successfully performed remotely.

You don’t just start posting jobs and calling people up. You have to apply to the program, be vetted, and be chosen to join. We thought that we would be a good fit with this program and we were thrilled to be chosen to participate. Last month I attended a reception to celebrate our induction into the program, along with the other new companies. This year’s class of 50 inductees is the largest since the program’s inception 5 years ago. Dr. Jill Biden, who helped found the program in 2011, spoke at the event.

“I believe that we owe those who wear our uniform and their families a debt of gratitude. Military spouses are among the most skilled and dedicated members of America’s workforce. Since we launched, more than 100,000 military spouses have been hired — and that is truly remarkable,” Biden said in welcoming us into the program. “Our veterans, service members and their families deserve the very best efforts of each of us, to show them how much we appreciate their service to our country.”

We couldn’t agree more. As a firm, and personally as a family, we try to find ways to give back to our community and be a responsible corporate citizen. This is just a great opportunity to continue those efforts. I am thrilled that ATR is a part of this program: we have already hired our first two military spouses!

So, on this Veterans Day, on behalf of everyone at ATR, I say thank you to all our military personnel, active and separated, for the tremendous job they do. And in addition to our heartfelt thanks, we are now also helping to give deserving military family members the stability and satisfaction of having a job, while they also care for their family.

As I said at the start, doing something good for others that is also good for business, how great is that?

Happy Veterans Day!