[TRANSCRIPT]
0:00:00 - (Doug Jenkins): Coming up next on Chamber Amplified, what.
0:00:02 - (Nichole Coleman): A lot of the local businesses do with those resource groups is also invite non veterans to be a part of that group so that they can help communicate, kind of like between the culture gap.
0:00:19 - (Doug Jenkins): Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. On each episode of Chamber Amplified, we're examining issues impacting the local business community from employee recruitment and retention, marketing, it issues.
0:00:31 - (C): It's really anything that can be impacting your business. Our goal is to give our members.
0:00:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Tips each week on at least one way they can improve operations and thrive in the current business environment. Well, when we talk to chamber members.
0:00:43 - (C): One topic that continually comes up is workforce development, especially when it comes to.
0:00:47 - (Doug Jenkins): Hiring and keeping good employees. Over the past couple of years, we've looked at that topic from a variety of different angles here on the podcast, including helping veterans enter the workforce. We're delving back into that topic again today as we're joined by Nicole Coleman of Hancock County Veteran Services. Nicole will help outline their ambitious goals for 2024 and talk about how your business can successfully integrate people just coming out of the military into your workplace culture.
0:01:11 - (Doug Jenkins): Thanks again for tuning in. Remember, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can rate and review the show.
0:01:16 - (C): It really does help spread the word.
0:01:17 - (Doug Jenkins): Now let's get into it.
0:01:20 - (C): Always a lot of things happening in your office and a lot of good things happening in your office. Excited to talk about our veterans are stories, and I don't want to call it a campaign, but sort of the mission for 2024, a lot happening here. Let's start off with education for employers about bringing veterans into the workforce. I think we've talked to a lot of people about that through the chamber here on the podcast. We've had Bill Kiefer on to talk about that as it's just, it's something that is an ever present issue. So what's happening on that end right now?
0:01:53 - (Nichole Coleman): Yeah. So Bill is an amazing veteran, and his book is really good. So if employers and or veterans are out there looking for information, that's a great book to check out. So one of our goals this year really is to, like you said, educate and empower the local employers, giving them tips on how to find, hire and then retain the veterans and the military families who live in our community. And the reason why we include the military families in that is because oftentimes those family members, whether it be spouses or maybe young adults, have moved around with their family members. So they may not have been able to develop what might look like a normal career for someone at their stage of life, but they have incredible skills that can be put to use in lots of different ways.
0:02:52 - (Nichole Coleman): So that's why we include the military families in this. And then for the veteran perspective of it. I think most people know that veterans have those soft skills. We know how to show up to work on time, quite frankly, usually early. We know how to do what we're told. We understand the chain of command. We understand mission vision, focus all of those things and really understand the point of or the purpose of working well with a team.
0:03:27 - (Nichole Coleman): And so one of the things that usually is the biggest struggle, though, for veterans is finding that team that they connect with. The work atmosphere in the civilian world is not always quite as team oriented as the military life is. A lot of people just want to go to work, do their job, and go home, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I will tell you, if you want to retain those military veterans who work for you, you really want to look at having a veteran resource group or an employee resource group that is going to connect the veterans and military families who work in your business.
0:04:10 - (Nichole Coleman): And there are a few really good ones in Hancock county. We can help connect you with those to get some tips.
0:04:16 - (C): That's a really interesting point. I think a lot of times when we think about veterans coming into the workforce, I know a lot of, I think you and I have talked about this and others that I've talked to a lot of times. It's about trying to find, you have your designations in the military and your different codes and how does that transfer to whatever business you're going to want to go to, and how do you dress that up in your resume and everything?
0:04:36 - (C): I've never really thought about the team aspect of it. When you come into a private business from the military, the culture is going to be different, and I have to imagine that that's quite the big step to take sometimes.
0:04:52 - (Nichole Coleman): It is, and I will give you one of my personal examples. So when I probably had been out of the service less than six months, went to work at a local factory, and in the military, you really are looking for who are the leaders, where are the things that are working really well, and where are the things that need some improvement, and then take recommendations to the leadership about those recommendations.
0:05:20 - (Nichole Coleman): So I thought that's what it meant to be a good employee. So I did that, and then I was very quickly shunned by my coworkers because I looked like a brown noser right. I looked like I was trying to kiss up to the boss and I wasn't. That's what I thought I was supposed to be doing. And it just very quickly created a very uncomfortable work environment for me and made me really question, why did I get out of the military? Like, where I used to work with people who had my back and now I don't know how I fit.
0:05:54 - (Nichole Coleman): And had I known who the other veterans were who worked there, who had been out of the military for a while, they would have been able to help me understand the difference. Like, here's what it was like in the military. Here's what it's like in the civilian world. Here's how you tone it down so that you can fit in.
0:06:10 - (C): Right. That's interesting from that standpoint. But do you work with employers on how to have their employees understand where you're coming from? Because I feel like Hancock county is a pretty veteran friendly community. But at the same time, when you're coming from active duty military into the workplace, certainly those cultures are going to clash to a degree. But knowing that we're a little bit more veteran friendly, can it be something that's just a simple conversation with your existing staff when you have a veteran coming in to work for you?
0:06:38 - (Nichole Coleman): I think that it can we, Findlay Area Human Resources association has, they've had me come in and talk several different times. I think Bill has spoken to them before, and I am hoping to speak to them again in the next year about these initiatives. And we have found some more training programs that we think might help them understand how to roll out some of those employee resource groups that help those veterans connect to one another.
0:07:07 - (Nichole Coleman): And what a lot of the local businesses do with those resource groups is also invite non veterans to be a part of that group so that they can help communicate kind of like between the culture gap. So going back to the non veterans and saying, here's what some of our veterans are experiencing, or here's some of the great ideas they have. How can we all work together as a team? And we have found that to be really successful with the businesses that we know that have these really strong groups.
0:07:41 - (C): That's great to hear. Another part of the program is working on identifying and helping out veteran owned businesses. Why is that important?
0:07:52 - (Nichole Coleman): Well, one reason is because you've asked me for this information for the last three years, Doug.
0:07:58 - (C): It's very important to me. It would help me as well, but for the owners themselves, yes.
0:08:04 - (Nichole Coleman): So we do occasionally have people who call us and say, hey, you know, I need to have some work done on my furnace or on my car or I need new flooring or whatever. And I'm just wondering, who are the local businesses that are owned by veterans that provide that service? And up to this point, honestly, we haven't had time to try to take on something else. But we're really in a good position now where we have a really strong platform on our website.
0:08:32 - (Nichole Coleman): It's going to be very easy for us to integrate this information into our website. And so it's going to be the first thing that we're going to be rolling out here in the next probably two or three weeks where you'll start seeing social media content and requests for those businesses that are owned by veterans in the Hancock county area to just simply send us an email, go to our website, fill out the form.
0:08:58 - (Nichole Coleman): I will receive an email with the information. We will add it to our website. And one of the things that we do, one of the services we offer is making a state veterans id card. And anytime that we make that id card, we give them a list of all the local businesses that offer veteran discounts. So what we will be adding to that list is also the local veteran owned businesses.
0:09:23 - (C): Yeah. And I want to be clear, I'm not going to start hitting up every veteran owned business to join the chamber or anything like that. I'd be more than happy to have every veteran owned business join the chamber. But a lot of times, grants and different opportunities for women, minority and veteran owned businesses come across our table. And so being able to have that accurate list, I'm sure you're reaching out to them about the same thing, but making sure that we're able to get those resources out to the community is very important for the business community. So I appreciate your effort on that, just from my standpoint.
0:09:53 - (Nichole Coleman): Well, and it's good for our community as a whole, because if they can get those federal or state grants, that's extra federal and state money that's in our community, that's helping strengthening the businesses that we have here. So I agree wholeheartedly. I'm excited that you were persistent in asking the question, so I didn't forget to do it.
0:10:13 - (C): I can be annoying like that. Just ask my wife.
0:10:16 - (Nichole Coleman): Pleasantly persistent.
0:10:19 - (C): One of the things I'm really interested in is the welcome home signs that help point people to services and what you're going to be doing with that. And obviously, this is an audio podcast, but you were showing me a sign that you're working on putting out to area businesses. What's happening with that.
0:10:36 - (Nichole Coleman): Yeah. So the idea came to us. We were actually in a veteran suicide prevention coalition meeting. We have one of those here in Hancock county, and we were talking about what are all of the different ways that we can find veterans and reach them. And honestly, that's how we came up with these four different components of how we're trying to reach veterans this year. And what we recognized was that when we go to businesses who have a veteran parking spot, there are at least five or six that I'm aware of in Hancock county.
0:11:18 - (Nichole Coleman): If I see a car parked there and it's a car that I don't recognize, because we are small enough community that oftentimes over recognize if I don't recognize it, I put my business card in their windshield. And so then we started thinking, okay, so there's already a poll there for a sign. Could we create something to then ask those businesses? Could we add our sign to your poll? And it just simply says, welcome home, veterans has a beautiful yellow ribbon on it, has a QR code to a landing page on our website that says welcome home, and we'll change the information.
0:11:57 - (Nichole Coleman): But we have all different kinds of information right now. It says, a safe home is a welcome home. So how should you store your medication? How should you store your weapons? What can you do to make sure that rugs aren't a tripping hazard in your house? Those types of things. But really just looking for a way to get those veterans to connect with our website and see the services that.
0:12:21 - (C): We offer, I think that's a great idea. I know a lot of times, maybe not a lot of times, but sometimes veterans don't want that recognition or don't necessarily want to stand out. So even if they're not using the parking space just to walk by and see the QR code, well, that's not something that makes you stand out. If you just scan a QR code real quick, I think that's a really good way to get people to look into these services further.
0:12:47 - (Nichole Coleman): Right. And the other thing that I have identified, I've been in this job for twelve years, and over the entire twelve years, I've heard many people say, I don't need anything. So that's why I'm not your office. And I'm like, well, that's fine, but there's a lot that you might not know about, and there's a lot of things that could benefit your family. Maybe there's not anything that you personally need, but maybe something that you're entitled to might help strengthen your family or might help strengthen our community as a whole.
0:13:27 - (Nichole Coleman): And so if you just take 1 hour, come and meet with one of our county veteran service officers so that we can review your discharge papers, review what you might be eligible for, then you get to make a decision on if you want to take advantage of those or not. You don't have to, but then you're educated.
0:13:46 - (C): Well, not only that, but like you said, strengthening the community. Let's say by chance you don't need anything and your family is taken care of and everything like that, but just having more veterans know about the services that are available, when they talk to other veterans who may need those services and they can talk knowledgeably about it, I feel like that's kind of the ripple effect of having programs like that.
0:14:07 - (Nichole Coleman): Exactly. And it goes back to the whole unit mindset of being concerned with your fellow brothers and sisters having their back. Well, if you don't know the information for yourself, you surely aren't going to know how to help your brothers and sisters.
0:14:24 - (C): I like that. That's, I think, well put. So thank you for that. The veterans discount, you mentioned those a little bit, but you want to help kind of get those all put in one place. What does that look like?
0:14:35 - (Nichole Coleman): So we have a very extensive list already on our website. We've been gathering this information for probably ten years, and it needs a little bit of updating right now. But we are looking for all of those local businesses who offer a discount to veterans, and what we are going to be doing this year is reaching out to them. We have some pretty little four x six. You can either get a sticker or a window cling, and if you offer a discount, we're going to come to you. We're going to have that sticker and window cling with us, ask you to if you would consider displaying that somewhere.
0:15:14 - (Nichole Coleman): Our hope is that it will start a conversation, one, it will remind veterans to ask for the discount when they're there, and then hopefully it's going to encourage whoever is giving them that discount at the checkout station or whatever to thank them for their service. And maybe that will initiate a conversation with someone behind them in line or you just never know. So our hope is that it's going to, if nothing else, initiate conversation between the person who's taking their money and the veteran who is paying for whatever it is they're getting from that business.
0:15:52 - (Nichole Coleman): So those are the things we're going to be working on this year to really just look for. How can we find the veterans who we aren't serving. We are serving probably close to half of the veterans. Like, we've had contact with about half of the veterans in Hancock county. That means the other half we haven't touched. We don't know who they are, what they're eligible for. And in 2022 alone, we brought in $31 million in federal dollars that were deposited directly into the bank accounts of veterans who live in Hancock county or surviving spouses of veterans.
0:16:40 - (Nichole Coleman): So if you're listening to this podcast and, you know a veteran, maybe they're independently wealthy and they don't need a piece of that $31 million, but we would love to talk to them and make sure that they're getting everything that they've earned.
0:16:56 - (C): Most definitely. Nicole, again, thank you for your time today. If people want to get in touch with you so they can maybe get engaged in one of these programs, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
0:17:05 - (Nichole Coleman): They can go to our website, which is hancockveterins.com, or they can call our office, 419-424-7036 Jenna is our office manager, and she can get them with the right person.
0:17:18 - (C): Can I just say how much I appreciate you don't have one of those long government website addresses that's so much easier for people to get access to when you have a normal web address.
0:17:29 - (Nichole Coleman): That was one of the first things that I changed because our website used to be like, I can't even say.
0:17:41 - (C): That that was a pretty good rundown of what it probably was. So that's immensely helpful. So, Nicole, again, thank you for your time today. Thank you for everything that you and your crew there do for Hancock county veterans. We really do appreciate it.
0:17:55 - (Nichole Coleman): Thank you so much.
0:18:00 - (Doug Jenkins): Thanks again to Nicole for joining us. Certainly sounds like they have a lot.
0:18:03 - (C): On their plate for the year. But again, like she said, they have.
0:18:06 - (Doug Jenkins): A great team in place to help complete their mission for 2024. Just a reminder, Chamber Amplified is a free podcast for the community thanks to the investment of members from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. Because of our robust membership, we're able to focus on providing timely information to the Findlay and Hancock county business community, run leadership programs for adults and teenagers, be an advocate for the area while.
0:18:26 - (C): Also providing tools to help local businesses succeed.
0:18:29 - (Doug Jenkins): If that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, just let me know and we can talk about how an investment in the chamber helps strengthen the community. That will do it for this week's episode. A note for next week. It'll actually be episode number 100. And we have a special guest lined.
0:18:42 - (C): Up for you for that.
0:18:43 - (Doug Jenkins): If you have any ideas for topics we should cover on future episodes, just send me an email. Djenkins@Findlayhancockchamber.com remember, if you're listening on our website, that's a great start, but make this easy on yourself. Get a podcast player on your phone.
0:18:57 - (C): And subscribe to Chamber amplified.
0:18:58 - (Doug Jenkins): You'll have every episode delivered straight to your phone every Friday. You just need to search for Chamber amplified in your favorite podcast player. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time on Chamber amplified from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.