Veteran Employment (#70)
Wednesday, November 11th is Veterans Day 2020. President Woodrow Wilson created Veterans Day in 1919 to commemorate the end of World War I which had ended at 11:00 AM on the 11th day of the 11th month the previous year. In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt made Veterans Day an official federal holiday to recognize veterans of all wars.
Bill Donovan, 165th Infantry Regiment, World War I. Later founded the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA.
Since 9/11 there has been a significant effort by companies to hire and employ veterans. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 200,000 veterans enter the civilian workforce each year. Companies have found that veterans bring leadership experience, discipline, teamwork, diversity of thought, and performance under pressure to their new corporate team. FedEx, Home Depot, Amazon, AECOM, and Deloitte are all known for the veteran hiring practices and veteran friendly environment. There has been a lot written about how veterans need to adapt to the corporate environment. Not as much has been written about how corporate groups need to adapt to better utilize their veteran talent. There is always room for improvement from both sides to improve veteran hiring, employment, and retention.
The Military Times recently published an article on 144 companies that are great for veterans. You can read the article here, as well as dig into the list to see how your company or similar companies in your industry do with veterans. From TFCG’s work, we see three areas where companies can improve: tracking their veteran statistics, hiring the right type of veteran for their company, and ensuring leaders receive training on how to lead their veteran cohort better.
The first place to start is checking your veteran statistics. Some Human Resource departments do not track this group as a separate demographic. Understanding your veteran cohort starts with getting your arms around the veteran statistics.
During the hiring process, companies need to decide what type of veteran will fit in their existing corporate structure and culture. All veterans are not the same. I see five distinct groups of veterans that companies can hire. These are gross generalizations, but it is a useful framework to consider. If your company hires or is interested in hiring veterans, ensure your hiring team knows which type of veteran to target and where to look for them. Here are some ideas:
Enlisted service members
Description: Typically, enlisted out of high school, serve 3 to 4 years, usually doesn’t have a college degree. May elect to attend college on the Post 9/11 GI Bill after their service.
Strengths: Discipline, team players, perform well under pressure, may have a technical skill
Weaknesses: Limited leadership experience
Where they can be hired: Base or post job fairs, VetJobs, and Vets2Industry
National Guard and Reservists
Description: The service members serve at least a weekend a month and two weeks a year in the National Guard or Reserve while working in your company. Could be enlisted, Non-Commissioned Officers, or Officers. You may not realize some of your group is currently in the National Guard or Reserve.
Strengths: Discipline, team players, perform well under pressure, leadership, planning
Weaknesses: Limited knowledge of the executive branch of the federal or state government
Where they can be hired: National Guard Employment Network. Employers can learn about available dual-career service members by contacting their respective state Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) office here and/or their state veteran employment services.
Important question to ask: Do my corporate policies support their service?
Junior Military Officers
Description: Typically, after completing college, these service members served as junior leaders of groups as large as 150 people. They have had leadership training, multiple leadership opportunities, and sometimes a technical skill.
Strengths: Leadership, problem solving
Weaknesses: Limited knowledge of the executive branch of the federal government
Where they can be hired: Many choose to use junior military recruiting firms like Orion, Lucas Group, etc.
Mid-Career Non-Commissioned Officers
Description: Usually, served 20 to 30 years with multiple leadership opportunities at a variety of levels or technical skills. Most will have college degrees.
Strengths: Leadership, problem solving
Weaknesses: Institutionalized
Where they can be hired: Hiring Our Heroes, HireMilitary, Special Operations Transition Foundation, The Honor Foundation, SOF Transition Group
Mid-Career Officers
Description: Generally, served 20 to 30 years with multiple leadership opportunities at a variety of levels. Most will have bachelors and masters degrees.
Strengths: Leadership, planning
Weaknesses: Institutionalized
Where they can be hired: Hiring Our Heroes, HireMilitary, Special Operations Transition Foundation, The Honor Foundation, SOF Transition Group
Finally, many managers struggle with leading people with more experience or that are older than them. Or, there may be things that your corporate culture does not provide that might make the veteran more effective in the work place. To help close this gap, your managers may need additional training on leading their veteran cohort.
How are you doing with the veterans in your company? If you are struggling with veteran hiring, your veteran employment, or your veteran retention, TFCG’s business consulting team can dig into your company, examine the veteran environment, understand your leaders’ perspectives on veterans serving in the organization, and develop a plan for you to take a more deliberate approach to hiring the right group of veterans for your culture and structure. We can also help you build a veteran on-boarding program and programs for your management team to lead the veteran cohort better. Contact TFCG here to have a strategy call about developing a plan to improve your veteran hiring or retention issues.
Go on the offense and leverage veteran leadership experience to help take your company to the next level in 2021.