AGC Participates in White House Conference on Veterans Hiring in Transportation

Last week, AGC President Al Landes participated in the “Joining Forces Veterans Transportation Employment Forum” at the White House, which focused on issues related to hiring veterans in various transportation sectors. President Landes was part of a panel moderated by the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary, to highlight and promote best practices across the Transportation Industry. Landes was able to discuss the issue from the perspective of his own company, Herzog Contracting Corp., and with an overall construction industry perspective as well. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx participated in the meeting as well. Hiring veterans has been one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s priority projects and it seems that the administration has maintained that focus. Landes pointed out that AGC members have committed to hiring at least 100,000 veterans within five years.  To achieve this, AGC entered into a partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program. He pointed out that construction firms already hire a significant number of veterans, noting that veterans are more likely to be hired in construction than non-veterans, according to federal employment data.  But he added that many firms report having a hard time figuring out how to identify soldiers, sailors and airmen that are about to leave active duty and enter the private-sector workforce. As a result of the partnership with Hiring Our Heroes, AGC member firms now have access to webinars about how to identify and recruit veterans and can participate in the many veterans’ career fairs the group organizes.  They also have access to Hiring our Heroes’ extensive database of veterans resumes to make it easier to identify, recruit and hire qualified veterans. In addition, AGC firms and chapters can now take advantage of the extremely knowledgeable team of professionals at Hiring our Heroes to help them expand and improve their veterans outreach efforts.  The AGC of Kentucky and the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania have connected with Hiring Our Heroes staff so they can help get their members more involved.