Hiring veterans is not just a socially responsible action. It is a means for accessing skilled employees in a tight labor market. Effective and modernized veteran recruiting and onboarding efforts are key to organizations finding and engaging skilled talent.
By Royston Arch

One of the lessons that organizations have learned is that recruiting and onboarding veterans requires processes that specifically take into account the unique challenges of transitioning from a military to civilian workforce. Valuing all types of talent today is the only way to compete in today's tight labor force. Veterans bring unique and often highly sought after technical skills, a spirit of collaboration, and a desire to succeed.

Over time, as more military members became veterans, organizations have successfully brought veteran unemployment rates down, but challenges like high turnover rates persist. What has been learned is that recruiting and onboarding veterans require a veteran-specific, rather than a general employee, focus. Effective veteran processes are regularly modernized to adapt to changing labor markets.

Recruiting Veterans with Technology
Historically, veterans have been recruited through veteran associations, staffing agencies specializing in helping veterans find jobs and word-of-mouth.

This approach needs updating because recruitment is not that simple in a tight labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in March 2018 the unemployment rate for all veterans fell to 3.7 percent in 2017. That number alone could make employers believe the good work is done – veterans are employed. Everyone is satisfied.

There are two problems with this kind of thinking. One is that veterans are desirable talent because most have some degree of technical training, a critical characteristic in a labor market where organizations are aggressively competing for STEM talent. Second, the turnover rate of veterans remains high in many industries, indicating they are not getting the support and training they need to prove their value and succeed.

In today’s competitive labor market, the veteran recruitment process needs refinement to find veterans who are most likely to stay.

The veteran recruitment process needs updating to ensure the veteran talent attracted to the company are people who have the right kind of skills. Just being a veteran is not enough of a qualification. Organizations want to hire veterans who can help the company close skills gaps, who can feel comfortable in the organization's culture, and who have high potential.

Modernized recruiting initiatives should utilize multiple media platforms today and not rely on one or two sources. Smart companies recruit on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and multiple online recruiting sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Another strategy is to develop a military-specific recruiting webpage and then promote the webpage via social media and marketing materials.

The Right Match
Another important recruiting strategy is to design marketing materials that specifically address the transfer of military skills into a job's civilian responsibilities. Recruitment materials and job descriptions can use the military occupational code or Air Force Specialty Code (or codes) that best correspond to the available position.

In addition, the language used to screen job applicants should not unintentionally screen out qualified veterans. Paychex provided the example of using the word "manager" in the job description and the veteran using the word "commander" in the job application.

Recruiters and interviewers also need to ask questions and not make assumptions. Justin Constantine, retired U.S. Marine Corps and CEO of the Constantine Group, recommends digging deeper to get more in-depth explanations of the veteran's past responsibilities and experience. The example he gives is a veteran who says he drove a truck in the Marines. Further questioning leads to the discovery the job applicant managed 10 people. He may have also managed the maintenance schedules for a fleet of trucks or been responsible for complex logistics.

Onboarding as a Transition Process
The process for onboarding veterans should have all the goals as the onboarding of non-veterans. The caveat is that the veteran onboarding process needs some additional elements because it serves multiple purposes.

Veterans entering the civilian workforce are in need of learning about the organization's mission, values, policies and procedures, benefits, and training and development programs like all employees. However, they also need assistance with transitioning from a military culture to a civilian culture, learning how to effectively utilize military knowledge and skills in the workforce.

One suggestion is to assign a mentor – preferably a veteran with proven organizational success – to new veteran hires. The "buddy system" is a good practice because military members rely on each other for information sharing, teamwork and assignment success. Using this same kind of system in a civilian workforce will help the veteran feel comfortable and immediately evoke a spirit of success.

The onboarding process can also include participation on a veterans resource group led by a veteran or an employee who has familiarity with veteran challenges, like the spouse of a veteran. A top-level manager should be the management representative because it sends a clear message the organization believes in the success of veteran employees and is committing organizational resources to help them succeed and have a fulfilling experience.

The onboarding process should be a roadmap for success. One of the knowledge gaps organizations run into is the widely different promotion processes in the military and a private organization. Onboarding should include a clear explanation of the process, and a manager should work with the new hire to set career goals and a path for reaching those goals.

Create a Veteran–Focused Experience
Recruiting and onboarding initiatives are not entirely separate.

Both recruiters and managers of new hires need to be prepared to understand how to translate military language and the kind of questions to ask a veteran at any point in time. The recruiting process should begin with a strategy to recruit veterans who are the best match, and not with a job posting. Onboarding should give the veteran the tools and support needed to understand and succeed in the civilian workforce.

Develop the right metrics to ensure the recruiting and onboarding processes remain modern and fresh. Bring current veteran employees into the process as resources, develop initiatives that align efforts with organizational goals, and make the effort to fully understand the veteran perspective and skills. This is a recipe for closing skills gaps and retaining some of the most qualified, high-potential employees in the workforce.