Nearly 250,000 servicemembers transition out of the armed services every year. And, this talented pool of job seekers looks for military-friendly companies that will put their hard-earned skills to good use.
Veterans have much to offer the civilian workforce — many are educated, disciplined, professional, self-starters, detail oriented and have a very strong work ethic. It only makes sense for companies to tout themselves as military friendly to attract these highly qualified people.
Many large corporations — such as Halliburton, Wal-Mart, and Best-Buy, to name few — compete to attract veterans, but the ones that promote themselves as military friendly are the ones that veterans gravitate towards. So how do you make your company stand out against all the other military-friendly companies?
Here are five recruiting practices that will help your company draw in veterans:
- Develop a winning military recruiting strategy. This recruitment strategy can include attending job fairs on military installations, or posting open positions on military job boards, such as Military.com's Careers Channel. American Electric Power, a provider of electricity to more than 5 million customers, improved their veteran recruitment practices by attending veteran career fairs, in addition to posting AEP jobs on the website. Since listing AEP's job openings on Military.com's job board, the company garnered more veteran job candidates and solidified its reputation as a military-friendly employer.
- Leverage networks and your existing team members. Ask your workforce, especially those that are former military, if they can refer any unit buddies or other veterans for open positions in your company. Additionally, Military.com's Veterans Career Network is a great resource to find qualified future employees.
- Market your organization as an employer of choice. In order to do this you must build your company's brand in the military community. You can highlight veterans that work in your organization and talk about all of the good work they do. In addition, you can create military-specific collateral — brochures, hats, buttons — for your company.
- Utilize existing government and private initiatives. Websites such as Military.com, HireVetsFirst.gov, TurboTap.org, HelmetstoHardhats.org and USAJobs.gov, are great resources for recruiting top veteran applicants. What's more, most of these resources will let you post open position free of charge.
- Know how to translate military jargon into civilian skills. Use veterans in your organization as mentors for new recruits. The mentors can help prospective employees translate military skills into skills that civilian employers will understand. Military.com offers a skills translator that can translate these military skills.
