Prudential Financial has partnered with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in an effort to provide veterans, transitioning servicemembers and their families with access to financial wellness resources to improve their economic well-being and help them reach financial stability.
As part of the partnership,
“Now more than ever, our military families are looking to make smart financial decisions that will positively impact their future,” Robert Wilkie, veterans affairs secretary, said in a statement. “Financial wellness education tools and solutions are important to achieving future success.”
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Transitioning back to civilian life can be a daunting task for many service members, says Jim Beamesderfer, vice president of the Veteran’s Initiative at Prudential. They may experience culture shock when they go from the systems and structures of the military, to working a regular job and having to navigate a complex corporate network.
“There's a lot of things that they don't necessarily know or understand about civilian life,” Beamesderfer says. “There’s a lot of different employee compensation models, benefits, bonus structures, the way
In a recent interview, Beamesderfer discussed Prudential’s partnership with the Department of Veteran Affairs and the ways in which organizations and HR can better support former service members and their families through their programs and benefits.
Why did Prudential partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs?
Our goal at Prudential is to help our customers achieve financial prosperity and peace of mind. In 2010 when we created our office of veteran initiatives, we built employment programs to help transitioning service members and veterans find gainful employment. As that progressed, we asked ourselves, what’s the next thing?
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I and a few other colleagues remembered back to our time in the military and realized that a lot of men and women don't really know some of the basic fundamentals of creating and maintaining a budget, expense management and how to really plan. So we said, well it'd be great to partner with the VA, because they can implement our services as part of their natural programming.
How can HR teams and benefits better meet the financial needs of transitioning veterans?
Take the time to get to know them and understand where they’re coming from. Help them be fully productive by explaining things like how compensation works, how paid time off works, how career progression works. Explain the
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One of the things we find with a lot of veterans is they're very dedicated and very motivated, but they are often slow to seek help. Somebody coming from such a different cultural environment has to unlearn certain things and then learn the new [things], as opposed to just a new civilian hire, who is learning afresh.
The more we can do to explain, the better. We have all kinds of employee assistant programs and we just make sure they understand that we'll push them to use them.
How can employers help military spouses?
Unemployment for military spouses is worse than their peers. But when they do get a job, they're often underemployed because the military moves every two to four years. That creates these red flags on their resumes that make it more difficult for them to find meaningful employment. Career development opportunities would be great to focus on with military spouse employees.
Another big thing to focus on is child care. This is something they’ve had to deal with during their spouse’s time on active duty. That may be an issue because of where they're located. Family bases are in the middle of nowhere, and they don't have a lot of the benefits and resources available like child care facilities. So on site child care workers or a credit towards child care would be huge for military spouses.
