STATEMENT

of

BRADLEY-MORRIS, INC.

on

SEAMLESS TRANSITION

before the

SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

June 13, 2007

Presented by

Shaun Bradley and Sandra Morris, Co-CEOs

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee, we would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak with you today.  We are honored to be included in the discussion of seamless transition for our military.

Our company, Bradley-Morris, Inc., often referred to as "BMI," was created in 1991. For the majority of our history, we've operated as a typical contingency placement firm, and according to Staffing Industry Analysts, we rank in the top 1% of contingency placement firms nationwide. 

The reason we are here today is because of our candidate focus, that is, the job seekers we screen and present to Fortune 500 and emerging companies that help fill their job openings.

We focus on the ex-military talent pool, one of the most highly-trained and most diverse groups of job seekers in existence. Over our company's history, we've placed more than 15,000 vets into jobs in corporate America. These positions have included management, engineers, technicians and sales people to name a few. Twenty-nine percent of these placements have been diversity, that is, minority and women.

As a matter of fact, we think so highly of this talent pool that more than 60% of our own employees are ex-military. Thus, they are personally familiar with transition challenges, and are keenly aware of the great training members of the military community receive while they are serving.

And because we subscribe to the contingency model, our services are free to military-experienced job seekers - that is, our client companies pay the fees for our services.

A new opportunity presented itself to us approximately three years ago, based on specific feedback we received from employers. They told us they would like to expand the ways they source military job seekers.

As a result, we created CivilianJobs.com, which offers employers and jobs seekers three ways to connect: Via the web, via job fairs on or near military bases, and via a print newspaper on military bases.

Whereas the Bradley-Morris model delivers specific jobs for specific candidates, CivilianJobs.com offers something for everyone - any former member of the military may use these services (not just those transitioning).  CivilianJobs.com provides employers with the most efficient and cost-effective ways to access the veteran talent pool.  Again, these services are all free to military-experienced job seekers.

As you might expect, it's been incredibly rewarding to be able to place the men and women who have honorably served in our armed forces into great careers in corporate America.

We find the demand high, and our business is strong.

And, we believe there are even more opportunities to assist ex-military by strengthening our public / private partnership.

As part of our service to military men and women, we visit many bases around the world. We bring our job assistance services to them, whether we are conducting group career counseling, putting on job fairs, or distributing job seeker advice via our base newspaper.

We work in close partnership with both the ACAP and TAP transition offices of each service branch to get notice of these events out to veterans, as well as notice of our client companies' job opportunities.

As with any endeavor, some audiences are more receptive and enthusiastic to our message than others. Over our history, there have been some instances where a lack of enthusiasm as to notifying vets and transitioning military personnel of our opportunities has been attributed to BMI being a "for profit" company. This is despite the fact that, again, our job seeker services are free to military personnel.

Over time, we have found the "less-than-enthusiastic" to be a small percentage of the whole. However, as we were asked to discuss the "seamless transition" topic, having a clear mandate that it is OK for military bases, branches of service, military affinity groups, etc. to support companies like ours - companies that provide free job services to veterans, whether they are a "for profit" company or not - would help us provide a more "seamless transition" to more veterans, that is, help more veterans get jobs.

We also support two pieces of legislation recently introduced:  S. 1272, the "Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program Act of 2007", focusing on seamless transition for our National Guard troops, introduced by Senators Isakson and Chambliss; as well as HR 2330, the "Veterans' Employment Transition Support Act of 2007," introduced by Representative McCotter.  Both of these proposed initiatives help strengthen the cause of veteran job seekers and will help us assist more ex-military personnel in their job search.

In summation, we look forward to supporting the committee's work on Seamless Transition and will be glad to be of assistance and provide additional information as needed to further illuminate this important issue.

Thank you for your time.