The Mission Continues: Being a Military-friendly Company

KBR has a long history of supporting active-duty soldiers and veterans and their families, not just through the solutions we deliver the U.S. and allied governments around the world, but also through the opportunities we provide to build engaging civilian careers. KBR military transition talent acquisition experts, Matt Majoros and Luke Bistor, joined us just prior to Veterans Day 2024 to talk about what it means to be a military-friendly company, the strategy behind recruiting former service members, and why it’s crucial for the Team Behind the Mission®  to appeal to talent with a mission mindset.

Transcript

IN ORBIT: A KBR PODCAST

Season 4, Episode 12

The Mission Continues: Being a Military-friendly Company

INTRODUCTION

John Arnold

Hello, I'm John, and this is In Orbit. Welcome to the podcast everyone. Whether you're a longtime listener or discovering us for the first time, we're just glad you're with us and staying in our orbit. We've got a great episode for you and timely. Just a few days ago in the United States, we honored all those who've served in the military on Veterans Day, and it was also Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. If you've listened to the podcast before, you might be familiar with how KBR has a long history of working side by side with governments and militaries around the world to help bolster national security and defense on the ground, in the air, at sea and even in space. KBR also proudly supports active-duty soldiers, veterans, and their families in a lot of different ways, but importantly that includes providing opportunities for veterans to continue serving their country while forging fulfilling civilian careers.

So as we're just off the heels of observing Veterans Day and Remembrance Day, what better time to talk about what it means to be a military-friendly employer? And we're thrilled to have two guests joining us today to talk about it. Matt Majoros is a talent acquisition manager working specifically with KBR's Defense Systems Engineering business, and Luke Bistor is a talent acquisition expert who specializes in military transition recruiting and is also a veteran of the United States Air Force. Luke, thank you for your service and welcome both of you to the podcast.

Matt Majoros

Thanks for having us.

Luke Bistor

Thank you. Thanks for having us, yeah.

John Arnold

Absolutely. We're very excited to have you both here talking about this topic. Before we dive in though, I wonder if you'd both just tell us a little bit about yourselves, your careers, and how you landed at KBR? Luke, you want to go first on this one?

Luke Bistor

Sure. Yeah. My name's Luke. I'm born and raised in the state of Ohio, currently living in Dayton, Ohio, right outside of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Grew up, my dad was a state trooper, so we bounced around the state quite a bit, but when I turned 18, I joined the Air Force out of the Zanesville, Ohio Air Force Recruiting Office, if anybody's familiar. Went to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany for a couple years. Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, home of the B-2 Bomber, if anybody's familiar. And then I got stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio.

Three deployments sprinkled in there, a lot of TDYs. And then I found recruiting for the Air Force, and I got a chance to go and recruit a lot of young men and women up in Cleveland, Ohio on the west side in a town called Avon. And then left there and went to an unexpected assignment in Maine, which was really interesting for three years. And finished up back at Dayton, Ohio as a senior trainer here. When it was my time to retire, I did find a SkillBridge opportunity, which I'll touch on more in the interview, but I partnered with KBR for SkillBridge. I've been here almost three years if you count my internship, and I couldn't be happier.

John Arnold

Fantastic. How about you, Matt?

Matt Majoros

Yeah, so my story's not as cool as Luke's, that's for sure. But lifelong Maryland resident. And so I was born and raised in the Baltimore Annapolis area where I still live with my wife Katie and daughter Anna, six-year-old daughter, and then my son, who's three and a half years old. So they keep us pretty busy. But my background, and it's funny, this time of year, I'm always taking some time to reflect on that too, so it's perfect time, perfect question. But I've been doing this for close to 20 years now within the recruiting, staffing, and talent acquisition industry.

And I look back and I wonder what's helped with that longevity. And I think really what it comes down to is I take pride in building relationships with our internal and external customers, our coworkers, and especially our candidates. And working to really provide top-notch customer service and the enjoyment of building teams, I have the opportunity to do that, that really operate with a high level of urgency and love to win. Those are the things that I think about when I'm thinking about how I've been in the staffing world and recruitment world for almost 20 years, but really it's a pretty special opportunity and being able to watch relationships grow both again internally, externally with your coworkers. And we get to do that here from the recruiting world. So it's been great.

John Arnold

That's awesome. Thanks so much for sharing both of you about your backgrounds. For people that do not know, KBR has built quite a reputation for being a veteran-friendly company. And I wonder if both of you could walk us through why it's important for a company like KBR to appeal to former service people? And give us some examples of the ways that they've exhibited that commitment to former military and veteran community. And I'll let you guys decide who wants to go first.

Matt Majoros

Yeah, I can jump in. So the veteran community is just a natural fit with our business. We provide opportunities for those who serve the ability to continue their mission through KBR, supporting the war fighter. We've recently been recognized as a military-friendly employer, achieving gold status for companies over 5 billion in revenue. And this further demonstrates our commitment to both the veteran community and their families. Finally, our [KBR] CEO Stuart Bradie has signed a statement of support and commitment to the military community ensuring that KBR provides global opportunities for those who served.

One of the quotes from that letter is, and I hope you don't mind I'll read this.

John Arnold

Absolutely.

Matt Majoros

"We aim to honor their service and invest in their continued professional development through mentoring, knowledge sharing and empathy." So globally, we're on a mission to live and breathe our one KBR values. We value our people, deliver on our promises, operate with integrity, empower our employees, and we are a team of teams. We feel strongly that these values align with the military and veteran community.

John Arnold

That's awesome. Luke, do you have anything to add to that?

Luke Bistor

It's hard to follow that. Matt crushed it.

John Arnold

All right. Well, we'll move right along because we're going to have more opportunity to hear from you about what it means exactly to be a part of a company like KBR. So we'll move to the next question. What is KBR's recruitment strategy as it pertains to being an appealing option for service people? Matt, you were saying so eloquently that it's about giving an opportunity to continue the mission. So what's the recruitment strategy?

Matt Majoros

First and foremost, it's hiring people like Luke, so that's an easy thing for us to do. But from a recruitment strategy perspective, there are certainly areas that we go into. We want to get out and do our digital outreach through various means, social media. We've got military focused employer events. We do community outreach events. We want to build a robust referral network, which again, Luke takes the lead with that type of efforts. And additionally, we're just providing wealth of employee benefits to everyone here at KBR, but we want to make this a long-term home, a destination for the veteran community and their families to come work with KBR.

John Arnold

Awesome. Luke, anything to add on that one?

Luke Bistor

Sure. Yeah. I talk to transitioning service members pretty much every day. And a lot of them know KBR from being down range, right when we were deployed. And, "Hey, they ran the chow hall type stuff." I think it's real important to, yes, obviously we did a lot of that stuff, but to get in front of these transitioning service members at hiring events to let them know that there's so many different opportunities all across the country and overseas here within KBR, because even myself, when I was getting recruited by KBR, I was like, "Oh, wait, I think I know them from the desert. What do they do?" And then I go to the website and I start doing my own research. And I'm like, "Wow, they got a lot of really awesome jobs."

So for me, I try to get in front of as many people to share with them, KBR, let them look at it, do their own research, and then hopefully we can find a partnership and we can bring them in, whether it's for the SkillBridge program or for just direct hire.

John Arnold

Outstanding.

Matt Majoros

And I think we hear that a lot. When people were initially thinking about KBR, it's not what it used to be. We've grown, we've evolved. We're very much now a technology company, and that's where we spend most of our time. So there is an education portion to our jobs where we need to make sure that we're spreading word. And again, to Luke's point, we're not just the chow lines. We're a technology company and we've made great strides and we've got really good partnerships and customers out there.

John Arnold

Yeah, it sounds like it coincides closely with what's going on with KBR writ large in trying to educate people and get the word out that this is not your granddad's KBR. This is the KBR of the future is happening right now. One of the things that we have talked a little bit about on the podcast before is KBR's push to really also show people how much it has become or has been a people company. And that includes reaching out to people from all walks of life and letting them come to work at KBR where they can be themselves. So how does KBR's recruitment strategy for veterans, former service people coincide with the company's inclusion and diversity efforts?

Matt Majoros

So I think it starts with really good leadership and making sure that's part of the way we operate. But we want to represent the communities that we serve. So by representing the community we serve, we continue to bring in a diverse community that ultimately positions KBR's and our customers to benefit from the absolute best talent available. The inclusive culture provides opportunities for the long-term career growth and success. So again, I think it's just making sure that we're out there really engaging with people that fit into the business that we're in, and then once we get them here, making sure that they understand and feel the culture that has been built to make sure that everyone has a long-term home here.

John Arnold

Luke, what has that meant to you? How have you seen that play out since you've been with KBR over the past three years?

Luke Bistor

Well, I've seen firsthand them really invest in the DOD SkillBridge program. And put their money where their mouth is, if you will, and really see the buy-in from all the sourcing recruiters, the hiring managers, the directors across all the business units to where we're trying to include transitioning service members in our recruiting efforts. Whether it's through hiring events or getting out and visiting military installations, but the service members bring such a diverse background from all over all walks of life, that kind of thing. So to be able to see them invest in what I typically focus on, it's been from the top down. And that's where we are having success because everybody's pulling the same way.

John Arnold

Right. Well, in addition to talking about solutions and technology on the podcast, we also like to, as I was saying, to spotlight the work that KBR does for its people. And what you gentlemen were just talking about, we've highlighted many of KBR's employee resource groups but haven't yet talked about the Armed Forces Community or AFC. So this is a great opportunity, especially with Veterans Day, just around the corner, we'll celebrate that on Monday here in the U.S. And I know that the poppies are already being sold in the U.K. right now for Remembrance. So I wonder if you guys would tell our listeners about the AFC and its mission and why that's a valuable resource for both recruiting and retaining military talent?

Luke Bistor

Yeah, I can jump in on this one. So our Armed Forces Community, ERG, it basically, our mission is to respect and honor the sacrifices of our military community while also raising awareness for issues and events related to the Armed Forces. There's a lot of things that we've done here in the Dayton, Ohio, I'm actually the point of contact for the Dayton office. But we also have point of contacts in Huntsville, Alabama, Charleston, South Carolina and Pax River. So a lot of us get together, share ideas. But a couple of things that we've done here in Dayton is we went to the Air Force Museum, and it's actually pretty cool because they have a scavenger hunt already created to where you can go and do a scavenger hunt. And just share some stories, hang out with some people who are interested in the Armed Forces, and provide them with an opportunity for fellowship.

The next event we got together and went for a three-mile hike, and Matt's heard me tell this story a couple of times. We actually ran into Dave Chappelle, which was pretty unique. Because we were in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where Dave Chappelle and one of the guys that was with us was a big Dave Chappelle fan. So it was pretty cool. We got the chance to talk to him and meet him. So yeah, so we've done a lot of Armed Forces community events here in the Dayton area, and I know they do a lot more across some of our other locations.

John Arnold:

What's the response been when you're out in the community and engaging with veterans and their families? What's the response like at some of these events?

Luke Bistor:

Well, typically they're pretty good. They're excited to see us getting together. A lot of times, if you're wearing a, I was Air Force, so if you have an Air Force T-shirt on or something, they're going to share a story about when they were in or their kids were in or maybe their brother or sister served. So it's always good because to be honest, when you do go do stuff like that, you want to wear some type of military shirt or polo or whatnot, so that you can encourage those conversations to have. Because especially if you're at the Air Force Museum, there's a lot of older individuals there that are volunteering that love to share stories and tell you what it was like when they served. So yeah, so especially in the Dayton area, there's a big military community here right alongside with KBR in the right outside of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

John Arnold

That's awesome. Matt, do you have anything to add for that one?

Matt Majoros

I just think it's just a special thing that we do. We allow, it's a tool to have the service members keep that connection there. And you come to work, you do your day job, but you also are able to keep those connections. And it makes what you're doing that much more meaningful. And I think that's really a special thing that KBR can offer to all their employees, but specifically to the former service members.

John Arnold

Yeah, that's awesome. And it sounds like a really, really special group. Across the company, KBR has partnered with different organizations to enhance the efforts around inclusion and diversity. That includes groups that specifically help companies connect with differently abled folks, help companies develop strategies for parity for women in the workplace. So I wonder if you would tell our listeners about some of the partnerships and initiatives that have been specifically developed to appeal to former service people at KBR?

Luke Bistor

Sure. Yeah. I can jump in on this one as well. One of our big partnerships is with Hiring our Heroes. They're a nonprofit organization through the Chamber of Commerce. That's actually who I partnered with when I retired from the Air Force. But what they do is they run about three different cohorts a year with about a thousand transitioning service members in each cohort. And really what they do is they do a really nice job getting the service member ready for the transition, whether it's resume work, LinkedIn work, mock interviews. And they get these individuals in front of people like KBR so that we can recruit them, share our opportunities with them. Some of the other nonprofit organizations that we have a really good working relationship with is, like, NextOp. Allegiant Vets, they're great. That's a little bit different. That's like, "Hey, you can come through and get some certificates." But they also share candidates, and we've been able to work with them a little bit recently and get some really good candidates.

Career One Stops. Those are state to state. We actually have an event this afternoon with the North Dakota Career One Stop Office, so looking forward to that. And then the last one I would touch on is the Military Spouse Employment Partnership is basically a database and organization that if you're a spouse of a military member, you can put your stuff in the system and companies can recruit you, because I know firsthand I got a really talented spouse that I've made her move all across the country. "Hey, put your dreams and your job and your career on the back burner." So the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, I'm in there all the time because I know there's a lot of really talented spouses out there that have unfortunately just had to put their goals or their dreams on the back burner while the service member is serving. So yeah, that's a couple that I definitely would touch on.

John Arnold

Those sound awesome. Matt, go ahead.

Matt Majoros

Yeah, again, agree with on the spouse program, that's a newer relationship. And they do a lot for the spouse community, not just help them with jobs, there's training. They do a lot for the families overall. So great organization, really excited to be partnered with them. And then we also just tap into our current employees. They have various networks, relationships, communities that they work with, whether it's professionally or even personally sometimes. But we always try to do the best we can to really take advantage of that and make sure that we are spreading the word about various opportunities through the people that we hire. We know that the number one resource for us, for good hiring, for good recruitment is the people that we have here, and we're very happy about that.

John Arnold

Yeah, that's tremendous. That's quite a resource to have those internal networks and to make use of that. That's excellent. But also, thanks so much for sharing about these other initiatives and opportunities. It's awesome that there are resources available to help prepare for the next phase, whether that be through resume prep and interview prep. So yeah, it sounds like there are a lot of really helpful resources available to these folks, and that's excellent. A question for both of you, Matt, and you talked about this at the beginning. Why did you gravitate to this particular area of recruitment and what does it mean to you to be part of that effort now?

Matt Majoros

Yes. I think there's two parts to this question. Number one, more from a recruitment strategy perspective. So when it's a mission-focused company, no matter what the mission may be, it aligns to the service members. They have that mindset. Prior to my time with KBR, I did a lot of work within the healthcare industry, and we had a similar type of moment where we realized that because of the work that we were doing, and it was a lot of different type of work, we found a good partnership with MSAP and Hiring our Heroes. But we all understood that the veteran community would be a great community to reach out to and make sure that we're spreading the word about the opportunities out there.

Fast forward to KBR, same thought. So we're looking to bring on the best, the brightest people out there. And to me, it's just a no-brainer to build a really good relationship with the military veteran community out there and their families. So that's the strategic part to it. The second part to it, more on a personal level, it's I get to surround myself with really good people, and that's cool. So I get to work with Luke and I get to work with Shemeika Meadows is here. She's not on this call because she's supporting a project that's out in Iraq, so she wasn't able to join us today. But I get a chance to work with them, and I get a chance to help do a little bit of a small part, helping those who have really sacrificed a lot. So there's definitely the personal fulfillment side to it as well. And any little bit helps, but it's enjoyable. I like it.

John Arnold

Awesome. Luke, how about you?

Luke Bistor

Sure. Yeah. So it's being a part of KBR, it's something that as I was transitioning out of the Air Force, there's so much unknown. And I was like, "Man, I just want to get in a company that I can grow. I can learn. I can still be in the game as far as supporting the war fighter, but I'm not overseas anymore." So I definitely take a lot of pride because it's turned into where I'm almost like a talent advisor because I get a chance to connect with so many service members, but I can also share like, "Hey, when I retired, you might want to check this out." But I'm also, I have 10, 12 years of recruiting experience, so I had that recruiting piece too, but also being here almost three years, I know a lot more about KBR than when I first started.

So I'm able to really just be the recruiter that I wanted somebody to be for me when I was retiring. And grab me and say, "Luke, your LinkedIn looks like you haven't done it. You need to show some love to your LinkedIn." Or, "Hey, Luke, work on your resume." So I say talent advisor, because even if we can't place somebody here at KBR, we don't just say, "Hey, good luck to you." We try to point them to maybe one of the nonprofit organizations that we work with, or maybe I get them in touch with. I'll tell you, Matt had a conversation with my old boss who's retiring, like, "Hey, I think you guys would be a, I feel like you guys have a lot in common. You guys should connect." And he was able to help my buddy Ryan Smith out. So you don't just look at a candidate and say, "Hey, what can you do for KBR?" Sometimes it's more than that to where you take the extra time to send them down a different path, even if it's not going to benefit KBR.

John Arnold

Outstanding.

Matt Majoros

Luke and I had this conversation. I think all of us in this world of recruitment and town advisors, it's just making sure that you follow up and be a resource. Even if we don't have something right now, let's make sure that we're providing any help we can, because ultimately, again, maybe it's not a right now thing, but maybe it's in the future type of thing. And we just want to be a good support mechanism to anyone out there looking for jobs. Of course, we want to hire them, but take some time to provide that really good candidate experience and do what you can to help out.

John Arnold

Excellent. Well, guys, this conversation has been awesome. But before I let you go, I just want to give you an opportunity to add anything, any shout-outs, calls to action, whatever you guys want to leave us with here.

Matt Majoros

Sure. Luke, you want to go ahead?

Luke Bistor

Sure. Yeah. So really if anybody wants to learn more about KBR and our SkillBridge program or just any of our jobs in general, I'd be happy to connect with anybody on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn, Luke Bistor, or they can send me an email and I can respond with a link to set up a meeting and get this whole thing started. But I can be reached at lukas.bistor@us.kbr.com, and I'd be happy to connect with any service member, spouse, or civilian, and share KBR with you.

John Arnold

Awesome. And that's B-I-S-T-O-R. Don't be fooled by the schwa E there. How about you, Matt?

Matt Majoros

Yeah, definitely check out the KBR career site as well. But I think we're just very excited about the recent recognition from, again, the military friendly employer obtaining the gold status there. So we're excited about that. To Luke's point, acting as an advisor. So our KBR talent acquisition team here is built specifically to work with the military vet community. We have former service members that can really help people make that transition, their experience, they understand what it's like. So we're excited about that and we feel that's a value add for anyone out there looking.

Last but not least, thank you to all of those who have served. As we reflect on Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, it's important for all of us to honor those who have served and remember their families as well. So we just want to say thank you, and obviously thank you for your service and all you've done. The last thing, I'll end with just another quote from Stuart and our commitment to the military community.

“At KBR, we're proud to call ourselves a military friendly company, we'll continue to create pathways to meaningful employment, provide unique experiences for our team members and foster strong community partnerships. Together, we pledged to honor our teammates, legacies of service, and help open doors of opportunity for the military community.”

John Arnold

Well said. Well, gentlemen, thank you both so much. Thank you for the work that you're doing to provide space and to tap into the expertise of former military service people. And we'll look forward to hearing more about how those efforts are going in the near future. Thanks again so much for being with us today.

Matt Majoros

Thank you.

Luke Bistor

Thank you.

CONCLUSION

John Arnold

When you're the team behind the mission, it's critical to bring people on board who had that mission mindset. It was a pleasure and honor to have Matt Majoros and Luke Bistor with us to talk about this important topic in the life of KBR. And again, we want to thank Luke for his service. And all of you veterans if you're listening, thank you for your service. If you want to know more about the opportunities at KBR for former service people, please check out careers.kbr.com and find the former military tab in the working at KBR drop down menu. Or you can look for our two guests on LinkedIn or try to email them at KBR.

If you liked what you heard today and want to let us know, or if you have an idea for a future episode, please do not hesitate to let us hear about it by emailing InOrbit@kbr.com. And finally, as always, we want to thank you, our listeners. In the words of Yusuf Islam or Kat Stevens, if you'd rather baby, it's a wild world. We know there's a lot going on and there's a lot competing for your time. Please know that we're so grateful to you for spending some of that time with us and for keeping us in your orbit. Take care.