Military Hiring – Removing Barriers and Adding Talent

On Veteran’s day, our country’s collective consciousness turns to our brave military. As an Air Force veteran and talent acquisition professional, I believe it is important for employers to think about military hiring every day of the year, not just during patriotic holidays. An important step for any organization developing or enhancing a military hiring program is to identify barriers to success and the solutions needed to overcome them…

Barrier: Developing and maintain a program that continuously hires and retains military personnel. 
Solution: The most important thing that companies can do to ensure that veteran hiring is a priority is to identify a recruiting champion who can direct the initiative forward. This champion, whether they are a veteran or not, will lead the effort, reinforce its importance and ensure goals are met. 

Barrier: Identifying candidates with military experience.
Solution: Organization can find qualified candidates by aligning with the Department of Veteran Affairs and military organizations including the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the Wounded Warrior Project and HireVeterans.com. By partnering with these organizations, companies maximize their ability to recruit from this extremely qualified talent pool. These groups are dedicated to putting our nation’s military personnel to work, and can help employers and veterans alike.

Barrier: Some talent acquisition professionals have difficulty interpreting the military jargon and translating that skill-set into the positions they are recruiting for. 
Solution: By referring to a military skills translator that defines common military terms, recruitment professionals can learn to qualify and quantify military language. Transition Assistance Online offers a translator tool to convert MOS code to a civilian occupation. In addition, a “military to civilian 101” document can be developed and shared that offers insight how the specific roles and responsibilities of veterans, reservists and guardsmen translate to civilian positions. 

By removing barriers such as these, organizations can quickly move toward a more robust talent pool that is beneficial to their mission, and beneficial to our nation’s heroes. 

About the Author
Kevin Washer was the Director of Strategic Recruiting for Allied Universal until July 2016. He worked with our military and service organization partners on a national and local level to bring diverse candidates to our recruiting process.