It’s Military Families Month, including veterans day, so for this episode of the Security Clearance Careers podcast we discuss a portion of our audience within the defense community: reservists. The term “military” refers to the military community, defined as the individuals serving as active duty, reserve, guard, veterans, or military spouses. Military friendly employers have a commitment, effort, and success in creating sustainable benefits or employment options for the military community.
Some of the biggest military friendly employers are Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, Naval Nuclear Laboratory, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, to name a few. But reservists are unique in their own way. And our guest today is hoping employers take it a bit further and become not only military friendly, but really reservist friendly.
10 years ago, D.C. native U.S. Army Reserve Captain Eric Evans enlisted in the Army National Guard, a decision that would change the course of his life and inspire a remarkable journey of support for fellow National Guard and Reserve Soldiers. Being in the Guard, Evans saw big obstacles, especially when it came time to tell his employer of his commitment to attend Army Basic Combat Training. Evans was then strategically forced out of work with this employer – as deployments, drills, and other training required time off from his civilian job, informing them of training led to his dismissal.
But this negative experience isn’t the overarching theme of this story.
A Network of Employers with the Best Reserve Friendly Benefits
Using his leadership skills gained from the reserves, Evans built a network of military-friendly employers and resources for service members called “Friendly Forces.” This initiative empowers reservists to identify companies aligning with their specific requirements concerning deployments, orders, and training while balancing full-time civilian jobs.
Evans joins ClearanceJobs to bust the myth on the veteran community at large, why reservists get lumped in, why should they not, and how to sift through conversations with recruiters who may be giving you inaccurate reservist paid time off benefits.
It is critical for companies to not only be veteran friendly, but reserve friendly too. Mainly as a staffing / retention tactic in any industry. So, HR professionals and recruiters: engage with your leadership and make sure you are not causing your employee reservists to pay to serve. Reservists: Check out friendlyforces.com to find employers who are friendly to your reserve duty, and for more on military news you can visit news.clearancejobs.com.
This podcast is brought to you by the National Security hiring team at Booz Allen. Threats to national security are accelerating—from expanding attack surfaces to global adversaries. We work with leaders across the intelligence community to solve critical challenges today while innovating solutions for tomorrow. Accelerate mission impact and explore careers at boozallen.com/IntelCareers.
