DE Talk | Skilled, Vetted & Ready: DEIA at the Heart of Veteran & Military Spouse Hiring

Season 4 • Episode 7

Conversations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion remain a focus in 2023 – but where do veterans fall into these plans, and how can employers keep them included in these discussions? Tune in as DirectEmployers Kim Lott and Denise Lewis of VetJobs get down to the heart of veteran diversity, and share how these men and women who bravely served our country represent one of the most diverse hiring groups spanning culture, race, gender, disability, sexuality, age, nationality and more.

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About DE Talk

For DirectEmployers, it’s all about valuable connections and meaningful conversations. This monthly podcast features honest and open dialogue between powerhouse industry experts on a variety of HR topics ranging from OFCCP compliance advice to emerging recruitment marketing trends, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and insightful solutions that help infuse new life into your HR strategies.

Hosted by Candee Chambers, Executive Director of DirectEmployers Association.

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Episode Guest

Episode Transcript

Candee Chambers:

Get ready. The DE Talk podcast starts now, insightful conversations and dialogue helping you put the human factor back in HR.

Kim Lott:

Conversations surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion remain the focus in 2023. But where do veterans fall into these plans? And how can employers keep them included in these discussions?

We’ll get down to the heart of veteran diversity and share how these men and women who bravely served our country represent one of the most diverse hiring groups, spanning culture, race, gender, disability, sexuality, age, nationality, and more.

Hi, everyone. Kim Lott here stepping into the podcast to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion and how it relates to veterans. DEI initiatives are typically geared toward groups based on classifications such as culture, age, gender, sexuality, disability, race, and nationality, however, diversity encompasses so much more than the classes predicted under federal laws. Diversity is also about individuals contributing their unique experiences, backgrounds, and ideas, individuals like the men and women who serve in the United States military. So joining me in this discussion is Ms. Denise Lewis, the director of DEIA Initiatives at Vet Jobs. Welcome, Ms. Denise.

Denise Lewis:

Hi, I’m so excited to be speaking with you today.

I want to give a shout out to Shannon who is a bit under the weather, but Kim, you’re also delight, so I’m really looking forward to this.

Kim Lott:

Well thank you for that. I’m glad that you were okay with me stepping in today. I know that you were probably looking forward to having an awesome conversation with Shannon. He’s the bomb. But I’ll tell you, I was very excited, because I don’t know if he has shared with you, but also I’m a Navy veteran, and reading through your bio I can see that you are an Army brat, as it states, and an Army spouse, and my oldest son is a lieutenant in the army. So obviously, I have a lot of love for military spouses, veterans, and those that do the work that you do. So very excited to be speaking with you.

Denise Lewis:

Awesome. And I know on Army/Navy game day, sorry, but I’m going to have a give a shout out right now, go Army, beat Navy.

Kim Lott:

Okay. You’re right, it is very divided. We have a lot of fun with it. A lot of text messages that go around, so absolutely. So listen, DE has been connected with VetJobs and Military Spouse Jobs, formerly Corporate America Supports You and Military Spouse Jobs, since 2010.

So now, when I speak to Shannon, he says that we were the first, if not one of the first, funders, and he has a lot of pride in that. So if you could just share with us a little bit about your personal background, and then what brought you to that job.

Denise Lewis:

One, I was born and literally raised at West Point, New York, so again, go Army, beat Navy. Sorry, Admiral Kloeppel. He’s one of our Navy veterans, but my dad was the enlisted aid for several core vet superintendents, for over 15 years at West Point, which is unheard of, to be able to be at one place for such a long time. And then I later married a grad, and then spent 32 years living all over the country in Europe and Asia.

Kim Lott:

Phenomenal. What an experience.

Denise Lewis:

It really was a unique experience. So then circle back years later, a friend of mine that many of you know, Maria McConville, wife of the Chief of Staff of the Army. And she also sits on our Army council for Military Spouse Jobs. And one of the things that she’s known for many years, she’s known by struggle with employment, but she knew I was looking for a remote opportunity, and Military Spouse Jobs just happened to have a position open. So I applied. And the original job was for a career specialist in the Norfolk area. And I had an interview, and then I didn’t hear anything back, so I got a little nervous. And then I got a call from the President of Military Spouse Jobs, Deb, and she said that I would be a better fit to be the outreach person for the Army Outreach campaign.

Kim Lott:

Wow.

Denise Lewis:

So I said yes. And the rest is history.

Kim Lott:

And the rest is history. It’s so important to have those connections. It sounds like in this instance you were able to leverage that, and able to get into something. And I am a little bit familiar with your background, so I know that it wasn’t always that easy, was it? I know there were periods where there was underemployment, and then difficulties getting into positions, which is inherent with being a military spouse.

And I know we’re going to get into a little bit of that later, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but just that is awesome for you that you were able to get into that.

Denise Lewis:

You’re right that it’s a sister/brotherhood. Even if you’re not the veteran soldier, on the spouse side it is those interconnections that you make, and you never know what opportunities present themselves from those relationships.

Kim Lott:

Yeah. And I’m sure your organization fills that gap for people who don’t have those relationships.

Denise Lewis:

Yes.

Kim Lott:

You know they can pull on.

Denise Lewis:

Yes. They really, really do, because now that we’re in a world that we don’t really make those in-personal connections, they’re more technological, so we are a great resource to those individuals.

Kim Lott:

Wonderful. Now, I knew you grew up in a military family. As I stated, even an Army retired spouse, very safe to say, you’re a life long Army supporter, and have experienced challenges with employment that I alluded to. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Denise Lewis:

As a child, I really didn’t know what it meant to be a spouse who was a supporter of their soldier. For me, personally, my mom had a lot of medical issues, and she was a bit of an introvert, so I didn’t really know what that dynamic was, so I had to figure that out on my own. But I was totally blessed to have had that experience and opportunity, as I feel, to serve in a volunteer capacity.

But education-wise, training and employment, I’ve got a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with strangely, a concentration in equine management. I did have horses back in the day, but my body just doesn’t heal like it used to.

And then I have a master’s in management and leadership. I am a trained, I’m not longer certified, phlebotomist. And then I also have 30 hours at the National Defense University of Leadership and International Relations.

And even though I have those, I always thought it was important to either be busy, or find ways to fill gaps as best as I could, as you know, for a lot of military spouses. So I would say my one dream job was a business manager at an equine facility, federal equine facility at Fort Campbell, and it matched my passion and my degree. Go figure.

And then unfortunately, because my commitment to my soldier, I had the job for a year, and I had to move. Then I’ve done things like substitute teaching, retail stocking, hotel desk clerk, drug rehab case manager, higher education administrator. I’ve kind of done the gamut. But I will give a shout out to Northern Virginia Community College, because I was with them for two years, had to move, moved back into the area, and they actually hired me back, so I was grateful to them for that.

Kim Lott:

You pivoted like a pro.

Denise Lewis:

That’s what Army wives do. We jump right in there, we figure out … I’m sorry. I’m not being diverse, and I’m not being as inclusive to the other branches, but it’s what I know. And I know that all other spouses do the same thing.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely.

Denise Lewis:

But I will say that my students at NVC did encourage me to go back to get my master’s, because I did love being in the higher education environment, and I thought by getting my master’s in teaching, would give me that transferable opportunity. So I was always trying to at least be as strategic as I could, when I was trying to pick employment opportunities.

And then for, as you know, Kim, many of us, we volunteer as spouses in the military.

Kim Lott:

Right.

Denise Lewis:

And some spouses don’t take what they’ve learned or those skillsets and then take them and go to an organization like mine to translate those volunteer experiences into work experiences.

Kim Lott:

Yeah, you make a good point. And not only because maybe you can’t find paid employment, volunteering is good in any capacity, even when you’re working, but the ability to get in some place, serve your fellow military spouses, and the community, and to leverage what you’re learning into paid opportunity is a smart way to look at things, a smart way to go about it.

Especially when you know, three years from now, you’re going some place else.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly. So what you’re doing when you’re volunteering at these organizations is that you’re getting a reference, so somebody can give you a reference based off of your work. I volunteered as a senior lead, emergency grief manager. I was a mentor. I was a counselor. I was an event planner for 500 plus attendees, especially when it was the balls. You have to figure all of that out. Team lead. Guest speaker for 200 plus. That goes outside of the scope of a lot of times what a volunteer would do just at one organization. So I definitely say, find that organization, like ours, that can help you translate that experience, because it really is experience.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. And what safe places to practice those skills and become really efficient in using them. A guest speaker for 200 plus, that’s a phenomenal place to try that skill out and to become really proficient.

I looked at your moves, Miss Denise, and I was blown away by how many transitions you have, and just thinking about how difficult it had to be to navigate all of that, especially when you’re looking for employment. Can you share some of the challenges that you’ve personally experienced as a military spouse when it came to finding employment?

Denise Lewis:

Yeah. 32 years that my husband served in the military, and 22 moves, and sometimes they were after six months, maybe after a year. And so what that created was several years of gaps in employment. And they were not just because of the frequent moves, but remote duty stations, OCONUS, being stationed overseas, and then because of the SOFA agreement and the inability work while you’re overseas.

And actually, that’s primarily, especially for Army spouses, that’s why the Arm-Me Up campaign was created in military spouse jobs. Amy Rossi and Deb Kloeppel understood what was happening.

And I know sometimes we think about other branches and why not us? But the Army branch is one of the largest branches, and because of those spouses being most affected by breaks in employment, is why.

And so sometimes people think, when we talk diversity, each of the branches of the service in the military are a diverse group, because they all have unique needs. And so that’s a part of our uniqueness in this organization, is recognizing the challenges and the inequities, even inside of the branches.

Kim Lott:

Right. My father-in-law retired from the Army, and my mother-in-law obviously, Army spouse and she worked [inaudible 00:15:33]. And that really afforded her an opportunity to move with a job, but those jobs are few and far between. It’s not going to be an opportunity for most people, and maybe it’s not what everyone wants to do. Really being able to get into a job is important, even for the branches to retain their military member. Those spouses have to have work.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly. And the whole thing is is that what makes us, as spouses, have those inequities is that we transition too much. We have lack of prolonged experience in a job, employment history. I wish I knew about military spouse jobs, but unfortunately, there are a lot of organizations that are out there to help spouses, but I think that the space has become too clouded.

Kim Lott:

Okay.

Denise Lewis:

And so that’s why I’m really glad to be able to talk about our organization, because our organization, we’ve been around since 2004. We have a holistic one-on-one, 360 degree approach to career development and employment services. And the other thing is, we have a job board that is not the job board that, okay, you’re looking for a job, and it no longer exists.

Kim Lott:

It goes away. Right.

Denise Lewis:

Right.

Kim Lott:

Right.

Denise Lewis:

Or it hasn’t even existed for eight months, and it’s still on the job board. We have two job boards. One job board, we have over four million jobs on there. But the fortunate thing about our job board is each job that is filled drops off after 24 hours. That is a huge service that we offer to our candidates.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely.

Denise Lewis:

And I was one that I would put in 10 applications a week. The result was, although you’re qualified, you don’t meet the requirements. Job is already filled. No feedback. And then the overall impact is I felt defeated, unworthy, not deserving. And some of the opportunities that I did have, they were underpaid, no promotions, not vested, no retirement.

Kim Lott:

Exactly. And not being able to get that feedback. My goodness. Like you’re saying, you put in all these applications in a week, and you want to know, how can I succeed? What can I be doing better? But not to get that is demoralizing. Absolutely.

Now, DEIA. Tell us, what does it mean? Break that down for us.

Denise Lewis:

All right. There’s two references. It’s a newer trend. We know diversity, equity, and inclusion. But what is A? One, it’s access, and that means, one, accessibility. What is that accessibility? And then access can be like physical.

On June 24, 2021 President Biden signed the executive order on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce to further advance equity within the federal government. This executive order allows federal agencies like ours to prioritize existing efforts in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space with the added and important dimension of accessibility.

And so it is why we use accessibility and not just access, because access relates more to physical. With our military members, it’s not just physical. It can be post-traumatic related. It can be mental illness. It can be hearing loss, visibility. That’s why we chose to align more with accessibility.

Kim Lott:

Wonderful. Thank you for breaking that out for us. Now, when I’m seeing these roles in organizations, I also see belonging included in that. Did y’all consider including that or…

Denise Lewis:

For us, because we’re-

Kim Lott:

What are your thoughts?

Denise Lewis:

… we’re different in terms of how we operate. We have a candidacy. And so there’s two sides. One, for our organization, we’re all independent contractors. And so we don’t really have a structure building under one roof. And then the belonging side also, as it relates to our candidates, because they don’t come to work with us, we try to instill that to our employers that our candidates would go to.

Kim Lott:

Got you. Okay. Tell us about your role as director of DEIA Initiatives.

Denise Lewis:

Well, I have to say, there were some unconscious biases I experienced even amongst my colleagues and some outside of the organization, questioning why was I selected for this position? Is it because I’m Black? Is it because I’m a woman? We really need to dismantle biases and stereotypes in businesses and generally in life.

But for me personally, I’m just so incredibly honored to work for an organization where the Kloeppels and our board of directors recognize my professionalism, experience, and dedication to ensuring that we are equitable and inclusive in our outreach.

Primarily, what my day looks like, I always work to align with the organization. Well, traditionally in an organization, directors of diversity initiatives are aligned with an organization’s HR to embed equity and inclusion into processes, policies, and practices, which are aimed at improving, attracting, recruitment, retention, development, and the advancement of diverse workforces.

But our organization is unique in that, again, like I was saying earlier, we don’t have an HR department because we are independent contractors. But we do also have equitable and inclusive processes, and we do practice them in improving ways to attract diverse independent contractors and our military affiliated candidates.

Kim Lott:

Awesome. And what a great irony, not that I didn’t expect it, that you would face those unconscious biases. I’m a biracial woman myself, so friend, I’ve received it as well. It can be demoralizing in terms of your experiences and your abilities, to have that questioned.

Denise Lewis:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kim Lott:

But good on you that you’re just charging ahead and doing the good work, I’ll tell you.

Denise Lewis:

Well, and so that’s why I’m so passionate about what I do. And primarily, externally, when we talk about the military community, it’s not just about race and sex, which often, when we think about diversity, that’s all it’s about. In the military community, the White House considers the veterans as a diverse community. And then within those communities, there’s all these sub-communities within our active and veteran community.

My job is to identify those military affiliated communities that are underserved and are seeking career and employment opportunities. And then some of those underserved groups are minority veterans, Asian, Native American, Alaskan, our minority veteran women, survivors, divorcees, caregivers, homeless veterans, and formerly incarcerated veterans.

And it’s unfortunately, because most of these diverse groups fall in the category of a term called ALICE, and ALICE is an acronym for asset limited income constrained employed. And these are households with incomes above the federal poverty level but below the basic cost of living.

And that’s what makes me get up every morning so that I can make sure that we are doing outreach, networking, being on top of diversity trends that affect military members as they look for career services and employment.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely.

Denise Lewis:

… and employment.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. Yeah, there’s a lot of intersectionality there in terms of the military population. Just like you said, Army is not the same as Navy; Navy not the same as Air Force. And then within all those branches and the different people, you throw in race, gender, all kinds of things that just make it extremely different and diverse. It’s a wonderful thing that your organization is doing to help.

Denise Lewis:

Thank you.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. Now, there are tons of organizations, nonprofit, for-profit alike, that are in this space. Tell us a little bit more about what sets your organization apart from other veteran employment organizations.

Denise Lewis:

Oh my gosh, is this my moment to gloat?

Kim Lott:

All right. Go ahead, please.

Denise Lewis:

Okay, so again, we are a wholistic, again, a 360-degrees of one-on-one. That’s the one thing that we do that a lot of organizations do not do, is we provide one-on-one career and employment services at no cost. Some people think, “Oh, no cost? That must not be a worthwhile organization.” No, we are just so grateful for the support of our partners who believe in our mission, and they help support our mission.

But we’re a one-stop shop to career development and employment. We’ve been around since 2004. We are metric based. We are one of the few organizations that we collect data on all of our candidates and where they’re going. We started tracking numbers though. We didn’t start doing that until 2010. And we just went over, and I think we’re almost at another threshold, 85,000 hires since 2010.

Kim Lott:

My goodness.

Denise Lewis:

Yeah. I mean, that’s a pretty significant number. And weekly, we get anywhere from five to 700 resumes a week, and we still, even with that many resumes, we still manage to communicate with every new candidate within 24 to 48 hours.

The other thing is, is we only … 96 cents of every dollar we receive from our supporters goes back to the mission and our candidates. So yeah, if you could see me now, I’m brushing our shoulders off.

Kim Lott:

Yeah. I mean, 96 of ever dollar, that really gives confidence to the work that you’re doing. And I’ll tell you, when I looked at your website and all the stats, the fact that you receive 700 resumes a week and you still manage to communicate with all those candidates, that is what really stuck out to me. That’s phenomenal that you can reach out to them within 24 to 48 hours. How many people do you have working towards that effort?

Denise Lewis:

We only have approximately 120 people that do a phenomenal, a phenomenal job. And I think the reason why they do such a great job is that they understand the importance of the mission and why they’ve got to turn a response in 24 to 48 hours. And that’s primarily because they know that a lot, especially during this time, a lot of veterans and spouses are in crisis because they are falling within ALICE.

Kim Lott:

That’s correct, yep.

Denise Lewis:

And so they know that they’ve got to help an individual put food on the table. And that’s why our … When I talk about later, a team of teams, this is truly a team of teams.

And then just real quickly, we’re broken down into a couple of divisions. We have our career specialists that offer the one-on-one career services. They help write targeted resumes, which are really critical. I wish I knew that … career assessments, LinkedIn optimization and interviewing practice. Then our training, we have a tiered training platforms. We have tier one, which is just for job readiness and employment training. Tier two is our IBM skills building Coursera which is a certification platform. And then there’s tier three which is our industry skills training, certifications, and technical training with our employer partners.

And then our wonderful Recruiter Connect Specialists, so that’s when I talk about the wholistic, like from the start to the end. And we meet you wherever you are in your career journey. But the amazing thing about our Recruiter Connect Specialists, so we have the two job boards. We have the four million job board that is open really to anyone. But then we also have our Recruiter Connect job board. What that job board is, that you have to be registered, but you have an inside to some really wonderful jobs with our employer partners.

Our Recruiter Connect Specialists work directly with those employer recruiters. So we offer you a middle person. So once that resume is vetted through the career specialist, they hand it off and match that job with the Recruiter Connect Specialist. And then the Recruiter Connect Specialist talks directly to that recruiter. And maybe if you didn’t get the job, they will be able to help you with some insight as to maybe what happened.

Kim Lott:

Wow. [inaudible 00:32:39].

Denise Lewis:

And then [inaudible 00:32:40] opportunity.

Kim Lott:

That’s very needed and beneficial in order to best position yourself for the next opportunity. And it’s so unique that that job will drop off the board within 24 hours, that also gives confidence to people that it’s a good product. You know, it’s something they can trust in? They’re not stale jobs that are there.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly. And the cool thing with our organization is maybe a job didn’t work out six months later. We’re still there with you. And although there’s wonderful organizations out there, there’s a lot of organizations that only, especially for our military spouses, only work with active spouses. We help everyone, whether you served in the military for one day, whether you served with that soldier, he was a spouse, and that soldier only served one day, but you ended up getting divorced. We’re still here to help you with your employment journey.

Kim Lott:

Thank you for sharing that. I know a lot of organizations, they have very stringent criteria on who they can help in terms of a veteran. You know, I have to have served so much time, for instance, 180 days, or have to have a specific discharge. But if I’m hearing you correctly, you’re not beholden to those same standard?

Denise Lewis:

Exactly. And that was very important to the admiral and Deb as to why sometimes we don’t expect federal funding because there are regulations of who you can provide services to.

Kim Lott:

That’s phenomenal information to be able to share with people. Very inclusive, you know?

Denise Lewis:

Exactly.

Kim Lott:

How do you support employers seeking veteran candidates? Tell us about that.

Denise Lewis:

The one thing that we have is we do have an employer team. One, employers can always go to our website and check out our services. But if we have an employer that needs that additional assistance, we do have an employer team and our recruiters who our employers can talk to directly.

But the one other thing that we offer to employers is that we have one of the largest and most diverse candidate pool. And this is really vital to federal contractors who have to meet a certain diversity quota. So our candidates are skilled, vetted, and ready.

And oftentimes, employers are paying thousands of dollars for positions for military recruiters and liaisons. And for us, at a minimal, and sometimes not even an any fees, we’re able to help employers, especially organizations that are smaller organizations. We’re really set up to really help those employers.

Kim Lott:

Nice. Now, since 2020, there has been a greater push in the employment scene for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforces. How has VetJobs been working with employers to help promote those efforts through hiring veterans?

Denise Lewis:

Well, it’s mostly not about diversity. It really is the skills that all veterans bring into an organization. And that is character traits, not just veterans, but military spouses, and those who are loyal, duty, respect, [inaudible 00:36:52] service, honor, integrity, personal courage, resilience, and longevity. And that’s what employers are getting when they hire military-affiliated veterans and spouses.

Again, we work with employers to ensure that they are offering equitable employment opportunities, salary and promotion opportunities. We just don’t accept any employer.

We do have a conversation with them to make sure that, “Hey, this is who our candidate base is. Are you meeting our criteria as an employer?” especially as we talk about inclusivity.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. There needs to be some reciprocity there.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly.

Kim Lott:

They’re getting some great candidates, like you said, and the ones that can pivot.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly.

Kim Lott:

They can roll with the punches and go with the change you know? So any employer can benefit from that on their team. So share with us the work you’re doing at VetJobs to position veterans going into the civilian workforce as part of diversity and inclusion hiring programs.

Denise Lewis:

So I mean, simply for us … Our diversity candidate numbers align with the Department of Defense. Sometimes we might be a little bit more, they might be a little bit more. But we are so fortunate that as these amazing veterans who have served or are still serving, whether they’re Reservists, National Guard, the Department of Defense already has initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion. And so for us to kind of marry off the DOD and the amazing soldiers who have served to come into our organization when we’re already aligned with those numbers, but to be able to reap the benefits of those who have served is definitely a win-win for us and the employer.

Kim Lott:

Sure. Ms. Denise, many of our members at DirectEmployers are federal contractors, and veteran hiring programs are at the core of their hiring programs. Now, for those members looking to expand their efforts to illustrate their programs and inclusive culture, what would you recommend to them?

Denise Lewis:

So I would definitely say creating a corporate culture of inclusivity and diversity. This has to be included in hiring practices, performance reviews, promotions and benefits. And I think the results that companies will get from that is increased opportunities for creativity and problem solving, a proven increase in profits and productivity, and then reduced rates for employer turnover.

Kim Lott:

Nice. So then how could employers make veterans feel welcomed and accepted? This goes back to our kind of belonging question. What could they do?

Denise Lewis:

Well, I kind of stolen one from a military.com article, but it really is true. Give them the tools. Veterans leave the military with highly trained skills. They have extensive training and resources to be effective. So employers need to continue that and often forget to offer that type of training, not, of course, military standards, but relevant to their organization, but offer adequate training and resources.

And then include the family. As you know, Kim, when we have those opportunities to meet other people that our loved one is working with in those company events … And then definitely consideration if there is a transfer and the needs of the family. And then I would definitely say let them think. Veteran employees and spouses are trained to think. And organizations will flourish when there’s those increased opportunities for creativity and problem solving.

Kim Lott:

I love that you added that. Say that again Ms. Denise. Say that last line again.

Denise Lewis:

Let them think.

Kim Lott:

Amen. Let them have some autonomy. Because you’re right. They have a lot to offer. We have a lot to offer.

Denise Lewis:

Exactly.

Kim Lott:

As a job seeker, one of the first steps in evaluating an employer is to review their career site. What do you suggest that employers provide on their site to stand out to potential veteran candidates?

Denise Lewis:

Well, I mean, again, when we talk about accessibility, accessibility isn’t necessarily visual. Many of our veterans have hidden accessibility constraints that can affect how they perform in the workplace. So oftentimes, our veterans won’t disclose that they have either mental health, hearing, seeing, PTSD. So I think how employers can help and how they can promote accessibility and inclusivity, by in their job descriptions they can say, “Quiet zones, mobility not required, offering assistive listening devices, or visibility,” using those types of words that creates an inclusivity before they even take the job.

Kim Lott:

Yeah.

Denise Lewis:

You know? And I would also say, too … And it’s kind of hard but I just would say the mindset sometimes of employers and who they’re hiring, because I do like to talk just quickly about veterans who are 60 and older and have a longer living community. And this is a diverse community. But a lot of those individuals are falling into ALICE because now they have to go back to work after retirement.

And I’d definitely say is that our employers need to be inclusive to … And I don’t want to call them senior community because I’m about to be one of those people. But I mean, I still have a lot to give.

Kim Lott:

Yeah. And you say inclusive market … The imagery in that marketing, it helps to inform what that veteran population looks like. I think the average age for a military veteran in southern Florida where I’m at is in the 40s, like mid 40s, average age. But employers typically have this idea that it’s a young, strapping male veteran. So it really will be important, that imagery is going to be important, to be inclusive to veterans. And it also informs employers what that veteran population looks like.

I still see a lot of imagery appealing to veterans, and they’re in uniform. Well, I’m a veteran. That doesn’t really … It doesn’t appeal to me.

Denise Lewis:

What are you portraying on your website that makes me feel that I belong? And I think that that’s really, really important on what companies need to do. And that doesn’t actually have to be on the … or a job description. It could be how do I make myself feel like I belong in your organization. That is simply through marketing and imagery.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. Okay. So now we’ve gotten to the fun, rapid fire question time. I’m going to go through a series of short, fun questions before ending today’s conversation. All you have to do is say the very first thing that comes to your mind, Ms. Denise.

Denise Lewis:

Okay.

Kim Lott:

Number one, most memorable life experience?

Denise Lewis:

Bar none, having my children, even though it was painful, but having my children.

Kim Lott:

Yeah. I can relate. Okay. Number two, best career advice you ever received?

Denise Lewis:

Team and teams, it’s not one person. You’ve got to work together.

Kim Lott:

Absolutely. No I in team. Okay. Number three, favorite city you lived in while growing up?

Denise Lewis:

Well, that was at least one place the whole time, so I would say West Point.

Kim Lott:

West Point. All right. Next, how do you start your day?

Denise Lewis:

All right, so Admiral McCravens, if you’ve ever had an opportunity to listen to his talks, he said, “Always start off by making your bed, because if you make your bed every morning, you will at least have one thing you accomplished.” Going to make my bed.

Kim Lott:

Okay, wonderful. All right. Who is your inspiration and why?

Denise Lewis:

Well, personally my parents and my children. But professionally, Deb Klepel. I mean, she is tiny, but she is mighty. And her passion and commitment to this organization and those we serve is so admirable. I don’t know if she ever sleeps. She thinks outside of the box. And at this time, I’ve known her, she’s done all of this while dealing with her own health issues. And she is incredible. [inaudible 00:47:17] because she knows that she’s got a mission to do. So she truly is inspiring.

Kim Lott:

Wow. And I’m sure she’s giving you tools and including your family and letting you think, isn’t she Ms. Denise.

Denise Lewis:

Yeah. Work-life balance.

Kim Lott:

There you go. I’m so grateful to speak with you today. Your insight, your expertise, experiences, I know that it’s going to benefit many people that are going to listen to this conversation, both veterans, spouses, active duty and the like. And there’s no arguing that veterans are a crucial element of your diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. My goodness. And they bring unique skills, viewpoints, and perspectives to the table. I so want to thank you again, Ms. Denise, for joining the DE Talk podcast, and all of the resources VetJobs offers. I highly encourage our listeners to get in touch with the teams at VetJobs and Military Spouse Jobs and utilize these services y’all. If our listeners want to get in touch with you, Ms. Denise, how would they do that?

Denise Lewis:

Yes. I’m so glad that you mentioned that because I’m always happy to talk to employers as they’re working through their decisions and diversity initiatives. You can definitely reach out to me through my email at dlewis@militaryspousejobs.org. Or they can call me at 252-621-3690.

Kim Lott:

Wonderful. You’re on LinkedIn, as well?

Denise Lewis:

Oh, yes mm-hmm.

Kim Lott:

They can find you on LinkedIn, as well.

Denise Lewis:

Yes.

Kim Lott:

I’ll share this on my LinkedIn. Your image will be on there, so they’ll be able to easily find you. You may get a lot of connection requests.

Denise Lewis:

Perfect. Perfect. Well, a shout out again to Shannon. Get well soon. We miss you. But this was a wonderful experience and so great to tele-meet you.

Kim Lott:

Yeah, same. Same. Thank you so much.

Candee Chambers:

Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the DE Talk Podcast. Stay connected with DirectEmployers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and subscribe to our emails by visiting DirectEmployers.org/subscribe to receive notifications of new episodes, webinars, events, and more.