8 Best Practices To Recruit and Retain Military Talent
Each year, more than 200,000 servicemen and women separate from active duty in the U.S. military. These highly-trained individuals are a rich source of diversity and leadership as they enter the civilian workforce, and are a great asset to the companies they join following their service. To better recruit and retain military talent, keep these eight best practices in mind when forming your talent acquisition strategies.
Look internally.
It's critical to identify the veterans already working for your company and engaging them in the process of attracting, assessing, selecting, and retaining military hires. This may take some social media and internal communication skills, since your self-id rates could be low. Knowing who is/was enlisted vs officer, Guard, Reserves, and Retired is critical. If they carry a DoD ID, then they can go on/off military installations and represent your program. It's also important to know so you can pair candidates and new hires with the right internal mentor.
Hire or identify a military talent representative.
Your program will take flight if you park an internal or external hire into the HR/Talent Acquisition team with real goals and numbers to achieve. Know your hiring needs and get the right representation, ie; if you hire technicians across the country, select a Senior Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) who can get on and off bases at will to engage with the correct NEC/MOS's. If you hire consultants or technical PM's, then you may want a previous Junior Military Officer (JMO) for their networking ability within the alumni associations and websites.
Ensure there’s executive buy-in and sponsorship.
It's very difficult for the hiring of veterans to flourish without someone in the exec ranks helping you create the buy-in and the demand for the talent. It also helps to recognize that Military Talent programs should not be singularly focused on transitioning vets, but should have percentage goals up and down the chain of command. It would not make any sense to flood an organization with military hires if you didn't have vets in the Dir, VP, SVP/EVP ranks to help mentor and support.
Invest in systems for support and success.
With challenges that stem from transitioning back into civilian life, retaining military hires isn’t always easy. But similar to Early Career talent, you need to plan and invest in support systems and career development structures to retain military talent over time. Mentorship, rigorous on-boarding, career path design, and continuous feedback all have to be in place – read more about effective initiatives from top companies here.
Review your recruitment marketing and employer branding materials.
Screaming eagles, red/white/blue imagery, and stock photos of military which are clearly are not U.S. military at all sends all the wrong messages. Instead of trying to recruit military talent with surface-level imagery, highlight the skill sets, values, and success stories from within. Don't try to entice vets to your organization with the flag waving...entice them with world class value propositions of why your company is the right fit for them.
Don’t get hung up on resumes or unfamiliar skill sets.
Too many recruiters and hiring managers, new to hiring veterans, get stuck on the resumes and translating skill-sets. Stick to open-ended behavioral questions or prove-your-craft exercises, and listen carefully to the answers in order to shape the competency. If you're a data-driven culture, then listen for the proper answers laced with analytic thought process and data. You don't have to understand the language 100%. A competency is a competency, and a value is a value in both the military and the corporate world.
Track your progress.
Hundreds of companies are now hiring veterans and doing a good job at it. When you begin internally tracking your own numbers for hiring and retaining military talent, you can get a sense of how you compare to others in the industry. Grab a GI Jobs Magazine, US Veterans Magazine, or look at the companies attending SACC and Military MOJO to reach out and do some benchmarking.
Be selective and intentional when selecting partnerships.
At last count, there are over 4,000 organizations that "help vets with jobs." Know your talent needs, geographies, and be careful in selecting your partners. Also realize that you don't need a huge budget to grow a program – there are several amazing programs that will feed your funnel, including PaYS, ESGR, MSEP, Veteran Jobs Mission, SFL-TAP events, and Hiring Our Heroes. Do your research to ensure that the partners you select can serve your talent needs, and that you can serve as a valuable partner to these organizations as well.
As one of the largest pools of refreshed talent out there, it’s essential to invest in recruiting and retaining military talent in your organization. Follow these eight tips not only to increase your access to great talent, but also to support our nation’s heroes.
Philip Dana is a former enlisted member of the Navy who later graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He is a data-driven HR leader with experience building teams for companies such as Intuit, NuVasive, Amazon, and Sears, and now as VP, Talent Acquisition & HR Ops for Zovio. Follow him on LinkedIn here, and on Twitter here.
This article was adapted with permission from its original version, What: Start hiring veterans or hire more...here are some ideas on the How, published on LinkedIn.
Lead Image Credit: Official U.S. Navy Page
