To sidestep a talent crunch and fill critical skill gaps, one solution for employers is recruiting people transitioning out of the military. These candidates have a breadth of transferable aptitude, skills, and training that could add real value to their business.
Employees with proven records in collaboration, responsibility, loyalty, commitment, punctuality, and acting decisively under pressure? Sign us up! Every company wants these characteristics in their employees, and talent acquisition teams are scrambling to find candidates with these qualities.
Yet many organizations overlook a key pool of top-notch talent: ex-military.
This is a missed opportunity at a time when companies are finding it hard to recruit. Sectors such as healthcare, construction, manufacturing, utilities, hospitality, technology, and transportation operate in crisis mode when filling their job openings. At the same time, almost 200,000 service members transition out of the military every year and become job hunters.
There’s a natural connection here for those companies looking for the next great hire.
Why Your Company Should Want Veterans
When interviewed, experts in the military hiring space mention some very particular themes that explain why they consider military veterans to be a valuable talent pool: words like trained, dedicated, mission-focused, tough, adaptable, resilient, and problem-solving are used consistently.
Steve Janke, Founder of Semper Forward, an organization that helps companies build their military, spouse, and veteran talent pipelines, says, “Let me tell you about the 1% of the population who took an oath, raised their right hand, and completed something for at least four years. Those cats have shown up in a way that most people haven’t. Their mental toughness, their work ethic—the reason companies should hire military talent is because they’ve proven themselves time and time again in a way that most of the population never will.”
Education and training are another bonus, says Chris Miles, Military and Veteran Relations Manager at Sonepar USA. “Veterans, on average, have a higher post-secondary degree rate than their civilian counterparts,” he says, noting that continuous training and skills development are deeply instilled in the military mindset. The prospect of upskilling or reskilling a military hire is usually well-received, and that attitude is a tremendous advantage in the workforce.
An even bigger reason for hiring transitioning military veterans? Relevant work experience.
Where a new graduate enters the job market with minimal work-related experience, people transitioning out of the military have years of it, and their expertise maps well to many of the open positions that employers are trying to fill. Of the 160 Military Occupational Specialties in the US Army alone, employers will find many in-demand job specialties like logistics, operations management, healthcare specialists, information technology, etc. They may have different titles in the military, but the skills gained from these roles are transferable and directly applicable to civilian positions.
In addition, it is almost impossible to make it through active service without learning to self-motivate, be accountable for one’s actions, and work in a team towards a common goal. These skills have been stress-tested in the most challenging of situations. Who wouldn’t want an employee with these qualities on their team?
Military Spouses: An Overlooked Talent Pool
While employers are stepping up to take advantage of the veteran talent group—ex-military have a lower unemployment rate than the civilian population, showing that employers are taking notice of this valuable source pool—the same can’t be said for military spouses.
The civilian spouses of active-duty service members are four times more likely to be unemployed than other adults in the workforce. They face long-term employment challenges because they have to move around with their spouses when they are relocated every two to three years. Employers tend to look warily at resumes that show a pattern of short-term employment, and this alone can be enough to weed out military spouses.
Miles believes that employers are looking at military spouses with the wrong lens and missing a big opportunity by viewing them as a flight risk. He points out that a three-year potential tenure is not dissimilar to the 3.9-year average tenure of the civilian workforce and is higher than the 2.8 years that young (25-34 years old) workers generally stay on a job. The latter is a group on which employers have bet much—though they may not offer the same level of adaptability and motivation as the nation’s one million military spouses.
“The fact that military spouses pick up and move with their family—changing schools, households, homes, everything—every two or three years shows me they’re resilient,” Miles says. The ability to change and adapt quickly is part of the military spouse’s DNA, and employers should pay attention.
Why Build a Military Hiring Program?
While employers will find ample capable candidates among our nation’s ex-military and military spouses, you may need to think outside the typical recruiting box to hire and retain from these talent groups successfully.
Janke says the biggest barrier is that “80% of the United States population has no direct connection to anyone who has served in the United States military. They are not going to have an affinity for military hiring or relate to it.” Unless the talent acquisition professional has a close affiliation with someone who has served, it is highly unlikely they will understand the skills, values, or even the language on ex-military resumes.
Lack of knowledge, Janke says, is “a both-sides problem, not just an organizational entity problem.” His organization helps military candidates understand how their skills translate to the civilian world. “They have to be able to articulate this on a phone screen; otherwise, they can’t get hired,” he says.
The primary purpose of a dedicated military hiring program is to help bridge these gaps. For employers, a well-structured program can turn a military-friendly environment (“We don’t discriminate!”) into a targeted, proven effort to attract and retain the best military talent. Miles calls this a “military-ready” environment, where teams are fully trained on identifying translatable skills, resume screening, interview techniques, and engaging military and military-affiliated candidates from a position of mutual understanding.
“It’s about listening to the candidate as they come through and saying, Oh, now I understand what [your experience] means to me and the value to our organization. So I’m going to give you a little grace when you put in your resume that you’re a platoon sergeant versus a program development leader or some other civilianized term for platoon sergeant,” Janke says.
Good military programs do not start and end with hiring—they support, grow, and promote these employees, too, in the same way they would for any other underrepresented group. Mentoring, career development, and employee resource groups are common components. They can continue building links between military and civilian cultures throughout the employee lifecycle and ensure skill sets are growing, not wasted.
“You have to ensure the training, education, and career goals align with what the service member is looking for. As you build out that program, keep asking, do you have enough support programs and enough supporting partnerships to continue to build that growth inside your organization? That’s where you go from military-friendly to military-ready to career-building,” Miles says.
Ready to begin your military hiring journey? Download our playbook and discover everything you need to know about hiring military-affiliated employees and setting them up for long-term success.
