{"id":31482,"date":"2015-06-08T08:36:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/?p=31482"},"modified":"2017-10-17T13:20:03","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T20:20:03","slug":"why-companies-need-to-take-a-second-look-at-hiring-military-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/why-companies-need-to-take-a-second-look-at-hiring-military-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Companies Need To Take A Second Look At Hiring Military Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of companies boast about their military hiring initiatives, but when it comes right down to it, few companies really do a good job of it. Despite their good intentions, companies often find that military experience isn\u2019t easily translated into civilian jobs so they skip over them in favor of someone with the formal degree or certification on their resume. That\u2019s why unemployment rates for military veterans remain higher than for the civilian population.<\/p>\n

The need is great. Each year the U.S. military separates between 240,000 and 360,000 service members, and between the drawdown from the war in Afghanistan and a shrinking Pentagon budget,\u00a0about a million service members are expected to leave the military over the next few years. Most of them, of course, will need jobs.<\/p>\n

One company that\u2019s doing it right is the Walt Disney Company, whose \u201cHeroes Work Here\u201d initiative has resulted in the hiring of\u00a0more than 5,000 former servicemen and women since 2012. Through its Disney Veterans Institute workshops, it has helped other companies hired an additional 5,000 veterans.<\/p>\n

On Friday,\u00a0General Motors, Disney and USAA, the insurance and financial giant, teamed up to bring the Disney Veterans Institute program to Detroit, a city on the comeback where automakers and other companies complain they often can\u2019t find the talent they need to fill their technical and skilled trades jobs. The daylong workshop was sponsored\u00a0in cooperation with the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA).<\/p>\n

I spoke recently about this very topic with Cynthia Pasky<\/a>, the founder and chief executive of Strategic Staffing Solutions<\/a>, the Detroit-based IT and business services company, which has a strong record of hiring military veterans, including a dedicated website<\/a> to support them. About 40 percent of S3\u2032s overhead team in Detroit is comprised of ex-military members or their spouses. Just over 20 percent of the contract workers they place at other companies are ex-military. The goal is to boost that to 30 percent this year. \u201cWe\u2019re really serious about this,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n

I asked Pasky\u00a0why so many\u00a0companies complain of a talent shortage, yet veterans\u00a0can\u2019t seem to get hired.<\/p>\n

The problem, she said, isn\u2019t the veterans; it\u2019s usually the companies, whose myopic\u00a0hiring\u00a0practices\u00a0often prevent them from seeing a great candidate right under their nose.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, the resume might not match exactly what they\u2019re looking for, but they never know they rejected a military veteran because the process is often very automated,\u201d she said. \u201cIn some instances, it does take extra steps,\u201d she said, \u201cbut corporations are like, \u2018I need to fill the job now, let\u2019s go\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a little extra diligence, Pasky said, companies can hire more veterans and retrain them \u2014 and still save a bundle of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about soft skills they have \u2013 work ethic, discipline, respect, a desire to learn, an ability to handle any\u00a0environment. Then there are the tactical skills. Think about what it takes to be in any branch of service: logistics, computers, communication. It\u2019s a whole different world. So no matter what role they fill, they have to have all those skills to be successful. If they\u2019re deployed in combat, think of all the tools they are using. They have a level of automation, communications and planning. Then layer on top of that, transportation, IT, maybe they\u2019re a pilot or have another specialty. It\u2019s an amazing set of skills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hiring a military veteran can also be less expensive than hiring a civilian, she said. For one thing, military pay lags the corporate world, so\u00a0even a low salary is a welcome\u00a0raise for an ex-service member. According to the Census Bureau\u2019s 2010 American Community Survey, the median income for veterans in the private sector ranges from $31,000 \u2013 $36,000 per year. A 2009 Pew Research study placed the median income of a college graduate with a 4-year degree at $46,000 per year.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government pays for a soldier\u2019s \u201clast move\u201d \u2014 which means companies don\u2019t have to pay moving expenses when they hire veterans, either. They can take the savings on salary and moving expenses and put it into intensive training, she said \u2014 the corporate version of boot camp.<\/p>\n

S3 has a dedicated military recruiting team led by retired Air Force Colonel Ken Huxley and staffed by other professionals from every branch of the military. They visit military bases to find potential job candidates. \u201cWhen you find them, you often have to add a step to their screening process,\u201d Pasky explained. \u201cYou need to have an in-depth conversation with them. That\u2019s why we have military talking to military: to understand their temperament and their background, what they did before, what they learned, and what they think they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team can recognize if a person has the background, for example, to be a product manager and will help them structure their resume in a way that highlights those skills. Even so, S3 often has to follow up personally to\u00a0get companies to pay attention to ex-military candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be very intentional about it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll submit somebody but then we\u2019ll call and say, \u2018We want to talk about them before you rule them out.\u2019 If we just went through the normal process \u2026\u00a0we wouldn\u2019t have the success rate we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was written by Joann Muller from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.\u00a0SmartRecruiters is the\u00a0hiring success\u00a0platform<\/a>\u00a0to find and hire great people.<\/p>\n

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Why Companies Need To Take A Second Look At Hiring Military Veterans<\/a><\/blockquote>