Dive Brief:
- Military veterans often face barriers to employment because this can be a difficult transition to civilian life, according to SHRM. However, all it takes is some mentoring and coaching to make this happen.
- Eddie Dunn, director of military and veterans affairs at professional services firm Marsh & McLennan told SHRM that recruiters must first find an executive that believes in hiring veterans. Jo Weech, chief people officer for software engineering firm Anthem Engineering, advised SHRM that military veterans bring a lot of outstanding qualities to civilian companies and these qualities are generally "exactly what companies look for in candidates."
- Understanding the mindset and goals of military veterans helps them bring their maximum value to the workplace. Recruiters should try to relate to the military culture to reduce internal biases, be ready by providing relevant job opportunities that honor military skill sets and make sure veterans feel included and welcomed in civilian work environments.
Dive Insight:
HR Dive spoke with multiple experts and military veterans at the end of 2016 about what recruitment pros can do to reduce barriers to successful civilian employment. Many of these same points came up. One of the biggest frustrations expressed by military veterans was that they had difficulty translating their military skills and experience to civilian career types. Oftentimes, just communicating the value of their previous military career aspects was impossible.
However, when there were veterans already in place acting as representatives and mentoring new vet hires, the success rates of military veteran recruitment efforts went up significantly. Each company needs a point of contact for vets to help them through the recruitment and onboarding process. Having a greater understanding of the military culture can help recruiters find more success when approaching vets for work opportunities.
