RRD supports veterans with dedicated hiring initiative

RRD has long recognized that its innovation is driven by extraordinary people. Founded by Richard Robert Donnelley in 1864, RRD began as a local print operation in Chicago and has since grown to serve 18,000 clients, including 92 percent of the Fortune 100.

As the company celebrates its 160^th anniversary, it reflects on a legacy of innovation and excellence, with a mission to transform customer touchpoints into meaningful moments of impact.

‘The word “excellence” is found in both our anniversary celebration tagline and our refreshed company values,’ says Deb Steiner, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at RRD. ‘To us at RRD, we strive for excellence in order to be a vital partner to our clients, and we’re fostering a culture and attracting talent with that shared value in mind. Through recruitment efforts and partnering with veteran organizations, we see firsthand the immense value veterans bring to an organization.’

In 2023, facing a global shortage of skilled workforce affecting the printing and packaging industries, RRD’s human resources team began brainstorming ways to attract new talent, with an emphasis on military veterans.

‘RRD values the strong work ethic, diligence and structure veterans bring to an environment and we wanted to present more opportunities for them to transition into - and succeed in - the civilian workforce,’ notes Mark Brothers, senior vice president of human resources. ‘RRD recognizes the challenge veterans face when trying to identify how their military experience and skills translate into civilian jobs. Thus came the idea to associate military job codes with every open, hourly job role at RRD.’

Military job codes, often referred to as Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) in the US Army and Marine Corps, Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC) in the Air Force, and Ratings or Navy Enlisted Classifications (NEC) in the Navy, are alphanumeric codes used to identify specific job roles and duties within the military.

Each job is assigned a specific code, which may include a combination of numbers and letters. For example, a 68W in the Army is a Health Care Specialist (Combat Medic).

Melissa Bourdage, regional human resources manager at RRD and US Marine veteran, led the manual process of assigning applicable military codes to each open role in RRD’s recruiting database. As far as RRD knows, there is no database to source this type of information from, so having a veteran familiar with the codes was critical to kickstart this initiative. The military job codes have been live on RRD’s hourly job postings since January 2024.

This intensive process for RRD’s HR team has received support from veterans around the company, including Lisa Pruett, RRD president for the packaging and labels segment and US Army veteran.

“Through recruitment efforts and partnering with veteran organizations, we see firsthand the immense value veterans bring to an organization”

‘I have to brag about the HR team at RR Donnelley. As a company, we are hyper-focused on hiring veterans. But it can be tough for transitioning veterans to translate what they did in the military to the civilian world. Even the words used to describe the same thing can be different,’ comments Pruett. ‘For every posted job opening, they have listed the closest match military job codes to help bridge this gap. So, for instance, a 91X transitioning from the Army will know that our maintenance mechanic job is aligned with their military occupation. The amount of work to get this done was a heavy lift. But think about the results! We now have a common language.’

Pruett took her excitement to LinkedIn, where her post garnered significant interest and appreciation from veterans themselves.

‘This is game-changing for so many veterans. As a Navy cook, it was easier to translate my experience to civilian life, but many [jobs] don’t translate so easily. I’m proud to work for a company that’s willing to go the extra mile in this regard,’ writes Paul Lochner, events manager at RRD.

The campaign has also garnered interest from other HR professionals who seek to implement similar job coding in their own recruitment efforts.

The recruitment campaign is still in its infancy, but RRD hopes to expand it further by incorporating military job codes into all salaried positions. This effort highlights RRD’s commitment to leveraging the unique skills and experiences of veterans, helping them find their place in the civilian workforce while driving the company’s mission of innovation and excellence forward.

As RRD continues to celebrate its 160^th anniversary, it looks to the future with the same commitment to excellence that has defined its past, supported by the people who make it all possible.