It’s no secret one of the top issues military spouses face today is that of unemployment and underemployment. A major pharmaceutical retailer acknowledges the problem, sees the potential of hiring these individuals and hopes to make a difference.
David A. Lee, director of military programs at CVS Health, served in the military himself. “Military spouses bring a unique set of skills,” he observes. “From personal experience as an Army battalion commander, I saw first-hand the challenges of a military spouse. There are a lot of things the spouse is responsible for, such as running the household, supporting other spouses who are separated from family and friends, and sometimes doing this in a foreign country. That develops a lot of skills that work well with opportunities we have here.”
With more than 150 stores within 20 miles of a military base, CVS Health recognizes it has the bandwidth to have a positive impact on military spouse employment.
“Those numbers are just near a military base,” Lee points out. “When you look at communities with a high veteran population and the opportunities for spouses to serve the veteran community, the number of stores and opportunities goes up from there.”
Lee shares the majority of military spouses CVS Health employs are in the retail or pharmacy space. Within retail, some employees start at the ground level as a cashier or in the photo lab, working their way up from there. On the pharmaceutical side, some spouses may start as pharmacy technicians, which Lee says does not require a college education, and advance to a lead technician.
