Each year, veteran-focused organizations publicly acknowledge the companies that have successfully implemented innovative best practices in veteran talent management processes. Innovative approaches at these companies set the benchmark for all industries.
By Royston Arch

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation offers a number of online webinars addressing best practices related to recruiting, hiring and engaging veterans in the civilian workforce. Many of the best practices are well-recognized, like learning to translate a veteran's skills on a resume or understanding the description of military experience that is couched in unfamiliar technical terms.

There are businesses that have moved well beyond these basic organizational recruitment and hiring activities by developing innovative best practices that are focused on helping veterans succeed in their civilian jobs while also providing clear career paths. These new approaches take the effort focused on veterans up several notches with successful results.

Beyond Hiring to Empowering Veterans
It is tempting to believe the employment of veterans has reached a point where it is no longer necessary to give the challenge continued strong focus. Nothing could be further from the truth.

More than 1 million military members have left the military over the last couple of years, and millions are projected to leave or retire each year over the next few years. It is well recognized that many veterans face numerous challenges to successfully transitioning into the workforce. They include a variety of disabilities, a lack of employer knowledge of military technical language and skills, and even age.

Military men and women can retire after 20 years of service, but many still need supplemental employment income. The challenges of older veterans may also include overcoming age discrimination since they are in their 40s or older.

Businesses are crucial to the success of America's heroes in the workforce. The Chamber of Commerce (COC) webinar on employer best practices for veterans and military spouses focuses especially on empowerment of veterans. Empowerment is the step after recruitment and hiring, and it concerns retaining veterans once they are on board.

One best practice is recognizing the tangible value that veterans bring to organizations. This is not "pity hiring." In fact, the COC found during a survey of 800 executives that veterans are better than their civilian coworkers at teamwork, maintaining work ethics, living by a code of integrity and adaptability.

Small Businesses and Military Spouses Join the Effort
Veterans can bring high value to any organization when empowered. They also bring value to every size of business.

One innovation that has emerged is small businesses joining the effort to integrate veterans. To date, people have looked to big corporations to take the lead, but according to the Small Business Administration, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all U.S. firms and create 64 percent of new private-sector jobs. If small business are not veteran friendly, a major portion of the economy will exclude them.

Another innovation is engaging military spouses and people in the company in the process. The idea is to find those who deeply understand the challenges that veterans face, so they can share their insights. Some of the things business representatives have done to reach spouses and knowledgeable local people is attending community military events and holding informal breakfast or lunch meetings.

Internally, Human Resources professionals and managers can talk to people in the company who have friends or family who have military experience. Coworkers with military experience should also be given networking opportunities so they have an in-house support system.

Make Veterans Stand Out
Other suggestions include creating a military-friendly website or portal for veterans that includes jobs determined to be good fits for veterans. This requires companies to do in-depth research on military jobs that are likely to translate into positions in the corporate setting. This is a step toward empowerment because it means the veterans hired by this process have a lower risk of job incompatibility. Innovative empowerment strategies include training civilian staff to overcome the myths about veterans, i.e. all veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) are dangerous. The training can be included as a separate training segment of more general diversity and disability training programs.

Celebrate veterans, too, as a separate group, so they get the special attention they deserve as people who served their country. When a business includes veterans as people within a larger group of diverse people, they are not given the unique attention they need and deserve. Starbucks employees who are veterans wear a green apron with an American flag.

Veterans are people used to having specific knowledge of positions and career progression. Military personnel know exactly what it takes to move up the ranks. That process is relatively vague in the corporate world.

One of the innovative best practices Safeway instituted was creating an accelerated leadership training program for noncommissioned officers and junior military officers. The advantages of this approach are the participants get the right training and have a clear idea of the path to becoming a corporate leader.

Businesses are doing great things to help veterans succeed. Booz Allen Hamilton hosts a military spouse forum. Lockheed Martin implemented the first social media platform called "Lockheed Martin's Military Connect" that promotes discussion between veteran employees, veteran job candidates and non-veteran employees. BAE Systems developed an onboarding, mentoring and career development program called the "Warrior Integration Program" that is focused on combat-wounded veterans. These are just a few examples of the efforts companies are making to enable veterans to succeed and deliver their maximum value to the businesses.

Take Advantage of the Resources Available
There are many resources available today that provide a wealth of information.

The "Hiring Our Heroes Employer Webinars" that are offered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation cover a variety of veteran-related topics and provide numerous examples of innovative company programs. Business leaders can also learn from the best of the best military–friendly companies, adopting and adapting what works best within their businesses.

It has become clear that hiring veterans is important, but it is also only one step. Hiring a veteran does not mean the veteran will succeed, and failure is discouraging or worse as America's heroes struggle to adapt and care for their families.