Watco Formalizes Military Outreach and Hiring

Watco has always been a friend of the military, conducting an annual T-shirt sale benefitting a military organization, donating other funds to military groups, and hiring many veterans or reservists as team members. The company now has an official Military Outreach & Hire (MOH) program, with 31year U.S. Army veteran Ken Killingsworth heading up the effort to support service members making the transition to civilian employment.

Killingsworth, a talent acquisition program manager, has been with Watco about six months. In that time, he has been visiting military installations to build relationships and connect their transition assistance personnel to Watco recruiters.

He’s finding that Watco is capturing audience interest. “I think that the on-the-job training and career advancement opportunities at Watco are attractive to someone transitioning from the military,” he said. “So is the fact that we operate in so many locations.”

Killingsworth has attended a dozen hiring events in person or virtually and plans to participate in six more before the year is out. He conducted the first military transition hiring event April 13, and since that time, the MOH Program has enabled the company to hire 39 known veterans or reservists who revealed their military affiliation in their job application. These new team members are working primarily in field operations as equipment operators, track laborers, and similar roles but also are in office-based roles.

Besides helping to line up these direct-hires, Killingsworth is helping to develop internships. Later this month, an individual transitioning from the Army will join the Greens Port team as an intern for two months to learn the conductor role alongside a peer trainer. Another conductor intern, also from the Army, will start in October with the Austin Western Railroad.

In a related development, Watco has recently partnered with Veterans Ascend (www.veteransascend.com). The organization uses artificial intelligence to match the skills of veterans and their spouses to career opportunities.