How Our Military Employee Resource Group Supports Veterans: Honoring Our People
As I complete my first year with Logicalis, I am proud of many things but I am most proud of our people.
Yes, we partner with industry powerhouses, like Cisco and Microsoft, to provide transformation-enabling technology expertise and award-winning services that help our customers succeed in their businesses. That is what we do. But our success as a company is driven by who we are. And that is directly attributable to our people.
We recognize that our people are critical to our ongoing success, so we strive not only to attract the best talent, we aim to develop and reward them for their leadership and performance.
We are also committed to greater inclusion and diversity by ensuring equal opportunity and treatment for all talented people that are part of our Logicalis community.
To that end, we encourage and support employee resource groups (ERGs) and the value they bring to the Logicalis community. These voluntary, employee-led groups help us foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace. They also help to recruit, develop, and retain our valuable employees, while serving the communities that they live in.
Saluting our military personnel: MPERG
Our largest employee resource group, the Military Personnel Employee Resource Group (MPERG) includes those who currently serve or who have ever served in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Coast Guard (and now Space Force)—whether on Active Duty or in the National Guard or military reserves.
Though MPERG currently consists of more than 30 actively engaged people, they represent some 150 Logicalis U.S. employees who are military personnel, or about 20% of our workforce. They also welcome those interested in supporting career advancement for military personnel.
The mission of our Military Personnel Employee Resource Group (MPERG) is to “tangibly support employment and career advancement opportunities for U.S. military personnel to help Logicalis develop innovative business outcomes and drive customer success.” And my mission is to support them.
Building leaders by being leaders
MPERG is led by inaugural president and founding member Ed Graves, who is Manager of Platform Services at Logicalis US. As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Ed strongly believes in the value of camaraderie and serving a mission that’s bigger than himself. It is that singular quality that makes Ed the ideal leader for this newly formed group. He has given it purpose and structure and was actively involved in developing its charter.
He is also wholly committed to serving veterans and their families and continues to point the way forward by reaching out to and partnering with veterans’ organizations like the VA, Disabled American Veterans (DAV®), USO, and Hiring Our Heroes for fundraising and other activities.
Incoming MPERG president Craig Perry—Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & HRIS—leads his team’s initiative to find people who fit Logicalis’ customer-driven, community-centered culture.
Craig’s Talent Acquisition Team is dedicated to recruiting and retaining our heroes. Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist and MPERG team member Caleb Bellow has done a fantastic job establishing relationships with Hiring Our Heroes, Veterans Affairs, and many more to help prove that Logicalis is a military-friendly company. With the addition of some new HRIS technology, Craig is helping to design a platform that will allow military personnel to match MOS codes obtained in the military with available jobs at Logicalis globally.
Stay tuned: MPERG is on the march
You’ll be hearing more from Ed and Craig in upcoming weeks about MPERG’s recruitment activities as well as their support activities for our veteran communities. In the meantime, they’ve started to collect what I like to call “veterans’ voices.” These videos allow you to hear directly from Ed and other military employees about their service and the value that each of them brings to Logicalis and our respective communities.
Finally, we aim to be an employer of choice. In fact, Logicalis was recognized in FY20 as being a Great Place to Work in four countries within the technology industry. We expect to receive similar recognition this year. The awards are nice, for sure. But it’s more than that: it’s validation that we are doing right by our people—and they are doing right by our customers.
Jon Groves is CEO of Logicalis U.S.