3 Ways to Start Recruiting Military Veterans This Year
| By Jessica Miller-Merrell | HR
Our military go to incredible lengths to protect our country serving tours overseas and training in some of the most treacherous and dangerous environments in the world. Given the challenges they faced protecting our great nation, one would think that finding civilian employment would be a piece of cake in comparison. While job searching our military veterans aren’t in physical harms way, they are facing a challenge that is more difficult to understand. Vets are challenged in finding employment and being hired after their tours of military duty.
3 Ways to Start Recruiting Military Veterans This Year
Finding the right job fit for military veterans at your company is equally challenging for the recruiter. Work skills translation between military and civilian is extremely complex making it a time consuming task for recruiters to understand. This extra work is often unwelcomed as the average recruiter spends less than 6 seconds viewing a resume. It is by far the most challenging and critical for the future success of your military recruitment strategy.
Develop an Understanding of Military Skills & Abilities
Seventy-two percent of hiring managers admit it is difficult to ascertain the skill sets by evaluating a resume of a job candidate who is prior military. One great way to get a better understanding of the skills and qualifications of a candidate who is veteran military is to use a military job and sill translation tool. There are a number of tools recruiters can use to gain a better understanding of the skills obtained and navigate the complex military speak. One such tool I recommend is One Net Online’s Military Crosswalk Tool. If a candidate applies for a job, and their MOS was a 13 Bravo, this tool will help you better understand their military area of expertise and types of skills and responsibilities they did every day. One Net’s resource is great for military veteran job seekers as well as recruiters and hiring managers who are trying to understand specific skills, qualifications and abilities as a result of their time in service with the military.
Start by talking to your employee population and find out who his a military veteran. Bring them in as your subject matter expert. Have them meet with your recruiters, answer questions and work to understand some of the challenges they faced in gaining employment after they transitioned from military to civilian. Use these resources as a starting point in planning, building and implementing your military recruiting campaign.
Provide Job Seeker Resources of Military Veterans & Their Family
Content, information and resources are crucial to reach and attract military job seekers using a combination of talent networks, social media channels and company career pages to engage the military community. A number of companies also offer military translation tools for job seekers and job search aids as part of their own corporate military recruiting efforts and career pages. Here are a few of my favorite examples of how companies are targeting military.
Additionally, companies can create resources and information for the spouses of active military or veterans who are job seeking. Doing so positions your company as a family organization that resonates with spouses, job seekers and speaks to your unique value proposition for everybody.
Build Skills Profiles to Target Transitioning Military
Research, strategy and preparation are the keys to great hiring regardless of the position, job role or responsibility. Skills profiles provide a way to build a database of skills, qualifications and experiences a specific MOS might have for the role you are recruiting for. The Department of Labor’s Career OneStop provides an invaluable Skills Profiler in your research efforts allowing you to develop a great understanding of the military role. By developing individual skills profile by specific MOS, you can quickly identify and target veteran candidates you want to consider at your company.
Recruiting and hiring post separation military can be extremely rewarding. By planning and building a strategy to hire and recruit military efforts, your organization will reap benefits that also positively impact our military’s currently recruiting efforts. By ensuring that we provide our veterans with careers after they serve, we are improving the quality and number of recruits who sign up to protect our great country.
Skill translation is not enough. What you also need is the ability to build a relationship with the Veterans who are interested in your company and whom are interest to you. You also should be building an employment branding, messaging and resource strategy that provides information, resources and showcases your company’s interest in hiring veterans at your company.
