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Testimony of Major General Matthew P. Caulfield USMC (Ret) CEO Hire Quality and Daniel Caulfield, President Hire Quality, Inc at the Subcommittee on Benefits Oversight Hearing on Veterans’ Employment: Credentialing (Licensure, Certification, Accreditation, and Apprenticeship) Requirements September
9, 1999 Major
General Caulfield’s Statement Congressman
Quinn, members and staff of the Subcommittee on Benefits, thank you
for the opportunity to appear before you to express our views on
Veterans Employment and specifically Credentialing Requirements. We
have prepared written testimony for insertion into the record. It
includes our curriculum vitae. In the next five minutes we would like
to outline briefly our perspectives which we believe offer a unique
view on an issue which has important ramifications for the armed
forces. I will make a
short statement and will be followed by Dan Caulfield, who in addition
to being the President is also the founder of Hire Quality, Inc. Since
my retirement in 1992 I have gained a unique perspective into the
importance of skill certification in today’s environment. My
perspective is derived from starting two subsidiaries of a large
corporation which hired transitioning Servicemembers to more recently
leading, for almost five years, a company which recruits for some of
America’s largest corporations. We register, and talk to over 60,000 transitioning
Servicemembers annually (about thirty percent of the transitioning
population) and I personally have visited over 200 corporations is
search of jobs for former members of the armed forces.
We handle all ranks but our core business is helping the lower
ranks across all skill-sets find good jobs. I am particularly proud
that we help more combat arms personnel than any company or group of
companies in the country. We are completely private, do not receive
government funding and provide our services totally free to members of
our armed forces. The
issue of the problems former military personnel have in transitioning
to the civilian sector has implications for recruiting due to the
increasing negative view held by former military personnel on the
value of military service. Certification of military training is only
one but perhaps the most remedial problems within a larger context
that has implications for our national security. The
absence of any meaningful credentialing program for military service
on part of the government is and extraordinary waste.
What has been frustrating is the government agencies appear to
operate in a vacume without any understanding of what is required in
the real world. There
are organizations that could help. The American Legion does more today
for veterans in the workplace than any other organization in or out of
government. We are extraordinarily proud of our close relationship
with the Legion and operate as true partners with a single goal. The
Legion’s study on credentialing is the only innovative program I
have witnessed in the transitioning arena in five years.
The Clayton State project reflects truly innovative program of
granting certifications designed in partnership with college and
private officials who
deeply care. The project
has not been launched in spite of the support and pleas of Senators
Cloverdale and Cleland. I will provide a description of the project
for the record. Hire
Quality has offered programs to the government which have been
rejected outright. There are numerous private corporations who want to
help but have way of doing so. Key
positions in corporate America are full of former men and women in the
Armed Forces who want to help. Our company would not be in existence
without their help. Labor Unions want to help. The Seafarers
International Union and particularly its president, Michael Sacco
wants to help and has extraordinary training facilities involved in
certification. The congress wants to help or you wouldn’t be
conducting these hearings. In
this regard I have been particularly impressed with your staff
members, willingness to listen and commitment to doing the right thing
for the men and women in our armed forces. What we need sir, is not
more money. What we need
is a single goal: Keeping the Promise made to the men and women at the
time they entered the military. A
promise, which is that military service, does have value in the
civilian sector. As for the certifications for the good jobs in the future, it never ceases to amaze me that Silicone Valley lobbies for more immigrant quotas, at a time when the most trainable group of Americans, the men and women of our armed forces are more than ready to learn and to be certified in these skills. Daniel
Caulfield’s Statement Congressman
Quinn, members and staff of the Subcommittee on Benefits. I would first like to say that it is an honor for me to be
here today. First to be privileged to appear in this chamber and also
to meet you Congressman Quinn. I would also like you to know that it
is a big day for me for another reason.
Since beginning business with my father, five years ago I often
expressed frustration with the unwillingness of government agencies
involved in transition to cope with some real issues.
There seems to be so many opportunities missed because every
agency seems to be going in different directions with any real
understanding of what is needed in the real workplace. I
don’t know if I could ever have faced my Marine platoon knowing what
I know today: how good they were and how badly they would be treated
in the workplace. My Dad
keeps saying they are the most discriminated group of people in the
workforce today, he is understating the problem. I would like to focus
of some of the operational reasons. Former military personnel are difficult to place. The reason why we refer and place more former military personnel that any other placement company or combined group of companies is simple. We developed a way to translate military occupational specialties to occupational requirements in a way, which makes sense to hiring manager. It is difficult to work with military backgrounds, and to translate into civilian requirements. The Military Operational Structure is confusing and complex compared to civilian occupational codes; I know of no existing “key word” search software for military personnel similar to what is used universally today in the placement business and probably most importantly, there is no civilian certifications for training and experience gained in the military. This is especially true for combat arms personnel. And is the reason I am so proud that are core business are in these Military Occupational Specialties. The certification process is essential to successfully utilize military training in the civilian sector. It should be done at the time the Servicemember receives military training, and it should be listed in “civilianese’ on a DD 214. For those in the combat arms and we should redirect resources from the transition program to provide ways to obtain other certifications for the intended job through interactive training for a persons new job. Believe me, it is a lot more important for a truck driver to have a commercial drivers license than a resume. Why then does the transition program focus on assisting Servicemembers prepare a resume but does noting to help with gaining certifications for military training? We
are prepared to answer your questions sir. Background Dan
Caulfield was an U.S. Marine lieutenant in 1994.
During that year four of his best Marines, all scheduled for
discharge came to him for help in finding a civilian job.
All were enlisted men. All
were married and had children. All
were planning to move “back home.”
In trying to assist these young Marines, Dan discovered that
there was no effective formalized network to assist these outstanding
men find a job or get established in their community.
It was difficult to believe that the military community, one of
America’s strongest affinity groups, had so little to offer in
bridging the span between military and civilian life. Six
months prior to leaving the Marine Corps Dan designed, won approval
for, and launched the Marine Corps’ first Preparation for Transition
Unit. The Unit’s
purpose was to help departing service members gain valuable skills by
placing them in resume-enhancing positions prior to their transition
from the military. Through
this experience he realized both the value military experience brings
to the civilian workforce, and the barriers businesses face in
effectively reaching out to people leaving the armed forces. After
serving for four years in the US Marine Corps, Dan founded Hire
Quality in August of 1994, to provide free employment services to
transitioning Servicemembers. His
long term vision was to build a company capable of making a difference
in the military community by offering an extended group of truly
valuable and needed services, and bridging the divide between the
military community and civilian businesses. Dan’s
father, Major General Matt Caulfield, USMC (Ret), was intimately
involved in Department of Defense studies on the downsizing of the
U.S. military immediately preceding his retirement from the Marine’s
in July, 1992. A few
months after retiring, he joined First Winthrop Corporation in Boston.
General Caulfield founded and became the first President and
CEO of a wholly owned subsidiary, which recruited employees
exclusively from the pool of highly qualified personnel departing the
armed forces. General Caulfield joined Hire Quality in early 1995 as
its Chairman and CEO to focus primarily on sales, marketing, and
public relations. Dan’s
entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and experience with
transitioning Servicemembers combined with General Caulfield’s first
hand experience in building a company with former military personnel
was a winning formula. The
Company started in Dan’s back bedroom (which also served as home for
many early employees, almost all of whom were former Marines) and has grown at over 100% per year. The company would not be in existence today without the
assistance of numerous former members of the armed forces in the
private sector. Public Relations successes have followed one after
another. The Company has been featured in a cover story for Inc.
Magazine, a front-page announcement in the Wall Street Journal,
and a series of TV news stories airing on CNN, CNBC, ABC News, and
CLTV. The
paradigm the Company was built on was contrary to almost everything
held sacred in the staffing industry.
Rather than starting with jobs and then searching for
appropriate candidates to fill those jobs, Hire Quality started with
Servicemember candidates and looked for jobs that matched their
skills. Dan’s devotion
to systems and technology allowed the company to recruit Servicemember
candidates and to service corporate clients in high volume from a
centralized location.
Hire Quality was breaking the rules by putting a
non-paying customer, the military Servicemember, at the top of its
customer priority list, and succeeding in the industry.
Thousands of former Servicemembers own their civilian careers
to Hire Quality. Hire
Quality has developed several proprietary software products and
workflow systems that have dramatically increased the operational
productivity of the Company. Foremost
among these were tools that were ported to the Internet.
Using the Web, Hire Quality was able to empower the candidates
and employers the use the tools they needed, without having to deal
with Hire Quality staff members for every activity. In essence the
software mapped Military Occupational Specialties to civilian
occupation skills. The
high volume recruiting system evolved from one dominated by call
center activity to one dominated by Web based activity. The
military community, through word of mouth, started to view Hire
Quality as a powerful online employment resource and Web activities
increased sharply. Recognizing
this trend, management added more tools to help Servicemembers control
their entire job search from the Web, including: an online “Career
Management Center,” free e-mail, chat rooms, personal Web hotlinks,
and links to other recommended military Web sites.
The term “Candidates” was scrapped and replaced by the term
“Member.” Hire
Quality’s Web impressions have dramatically increased every month
without any focused Web marketing effort.
Military Community Online is the fulfillment of the founder’s original
vision: to become a member services company offering an extended group
of truly valuable and needed services, and bridging the divide between
the military community and civilian businesses. The Military Community
needs more services than just career assistance and the web is
enabling these services to be delivered accurately and cost
effectively. We
are currently building the necessary systems for the military
community without any government funds.
The Goal is to raise awareness in the Boardrooms across America
and carry the message to the gatekeepers that Military people have
value. It will attempt to
raise the nation’s conscience and bring Government, Business and
Military leaders together to work on the problem comprehensively.
Although we have offered our services to assist the various
government agencies serving the military we have met with
unexplainable resistance. The common thought is that government can not work with a for
profit business. It is
time to usher in a new era of cooperation between private business and
government. Lessons Learned
Today
the employment problem faced by veterans in the workplace lies in an
environment in which Americans with military experience or direct
knowledge of the military are becoming increasingly rare with
corresponding decline in interest on the part of youths for military
service. We have learned first-hand that The All-Volunteer Force has
created a severe isolation of the armed forces from the civilian
community. The effect in the workplace, where the “rubber hits the
road” is so severe that former members of the armed forces, due to
ignorance of the military, are actually victims of what can accurately
be described as discrimination. Very
few senior managers have had military experience or any knowledge of
the value of military training and experience. At the hiring level, I
have never met one hiring manager with military experience.
The hiring managers are almost without exception, in the 26 to
32 year age group and college graduates.
Almost none have family members in the armed forces and few
even know anyone who serves in the armed forces.
Military training is at best ignored and at worst denigrated.
At the hiring site, Servicemembers unintentionally or not,
suffer the demoralizing effects of discrimination, not the least of
which is a devaluation of their own views on the value of serving in
the armed forces. In
an age of historic low employment and in which business leaders are
crying out for quality workers, Bureau of Labor Statistics employment
survey data show that male veterans aged 20-24 and 35-39 (the ages at
which veterans are most likely to separate or retire) have higher
unemployment rates than non-veteran males in the same age group. In
addition to the waste of government provided training, there are other
inimical effects. To cite
one example the effect on recruiting is devastating. We all know that
a youth’s propensity to enlist is greatly effected by conversations
with veterans. DOD Youth
Attitude Tracking Surveys (YATS) indicate that conversations with
military members and veterans were more frequently mentioned by youth
as more of an influence on joining the armed forces than recruiter
contact and recruiting advertising combined.
In 1998, the YATS indicate that contacts with military members
and veterans are having an adverse effect. Put another way, among the
Army’s most influential recruiter, a satisfied former soldier is no
longer assisting the recruiter. Government
Transition Programs
If
anyone doubts that the transition assistance in the military is
flawed, a reading of the recent Report of the Congressional Commission
on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance should put those
doubts to rest. The major problem is that no one is in charge.
The program consists of the Department of Defense, Department
of Labor and the Department of Veterans Affairs all having a piece of
the action which is jealously guarded by each agency.
In none of these departments is the veteran’s employment
given adequate priority. It
is so confusing and so much of a turf issues that there is no place to
go to even find out how much is expended on the transition program.
Many current programs the government provides are redundant and could
be made more effective if they were combined and delivered via the
web. For example a program does exist to provide interactive training
leading to skill certifications which would be recognized by several
leading corporations. In
essence, successful completion of the training over the internet would
be a guarantee of a job. Certifications
It
is one of the great national wastes that little military training is
certifiable in the civilian community. Certifications include the
entire gamut from commercial driving licenses to FAA certifications. I
stretch credulity but is true that the young Servicemember certified
by the federal government to drive on a state highway while in uniform
is no longer permitted to do so after discharge.
No state reciprocates a commercial driving license.
No mechanic no matter how well qualified can leave service and
work for an airline unless he is in possession of a P&A
certification. Many
certifications include taking the same courses in a civilian
institution as successfully completed in the armed forces It just
doesn’t matter that the training is often superior to anything
offered in the civilian sector. The
person without the certification just doesn’t even get the job
interview. As a
junior college president once described former Navy medical
technicians, “…they come here like homeless people…all of the
military support is terminated…usually married with children…and
it is so heartbreaking to tell them that they have to spend eighteen
months getting a certification for which their Navy training was
superior…all just go off and try to find a job…any job …as long
as it has health benefits. And
to eat, many just take the first job offered…or go on
unemployment”. To
be successful the military will have to simply translate its current
training to meet the standards set by the marketplace. Solutions
We
believe that the solution is not another government program or to
throw money at the problem. There
are probable sufficient funds in the transition programs. Funds could
also be transferred from existing agencies. What is required is to
work smarter with the existing funds, and accept help from private
businesses with shared goals. The
smartest thing could be done is to provide certifications to every
former member of the armed forces. Certifications
could be given at the time training is completed, and during the
transition process. Too
much time is spent on preparing resumes for many jobs, which do not
require a resume than on programs to provide civilian certifications.
No separating Servicemember should depart the armed forces
without meaningful certifications, which are recognized by the
civilian community. In
this regard, the so-called certification process in the armed forces
is meaningless and a waste of time unless recognized by appropriate
civilian agencies. The
individual States should be required to reciprocate licensing and
certifications provided in the military. Companies
involved in computer and similar certifications would provide
equipment assistance to after duty armed forces educational facilities
in a manner similar to providing equipment to high schools. These companies should be encouraged to locate training
facilities in close proximity to military facilities. A
project team made up of Business, Military and Government leaders
should be given oversight of the certification and transition issue
with free reign to combine, cut, or create services that work.
The measurement of the success, should be: 1.
How
many people leaving the military with skills that require civilian
certifications in fact have those certifications.
If
the answer is not 100% we are not “Keeping The Promise” 2.
How
long are people in transition from the military on unemployment and
what part of that time is spent in obtaining civilian certifications
by “retraining” in skills acquired in the military. Implement
the recommendations contained in the Report of the Congressional
Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Assistance. Back to Witness List |