Companies Supporting Military Personnel
Which techniques do you use to help identify companies seeking to hire military personnel?
We actually have a few strong networking groups who focus primarily on veterans in the workforce. So, many events attract the top companies looking to hire them. Also, we bring up the question of hiring veterans in advisory board councils, etc. and learn directly from local employers. I also read recently that new hiring guidelines will be enforced in the future, which require companies to hire a certain amount of veterans. We cold take the approach of merely educating local employers about this, not even pushing our graduates on them just. This education aspect could provide to be a good rapport/trust building strategy...and down the road the employers would look to our services for assistance.
I have not heard of the hiring guidelines that you mention above, but many companies are publicly announcing their intention to hire a certain number of veterans or that a certain percentage of their new hires will be veterans. What we have seen is that veterans will remain loyal to where they find consistent, honest assistance. Provide some career path assistance with the idea that you can provide the education to reach that goal. Have you run into the issue where the Corporate HR Managers are not military savvy and need a Military 101 to become effective at hiring veterans?
In Virginia, North and South Carolina, we have not run into many issues of hiring managers and their lack of military savvy. In fact, I would think the region is more military savvy than most considering the amount of bases and government agencies. That is definitely an advantage AND a reason why we are one of the top college choices for veterans.
Our school campuses all have dedicated career services departments that each have a veteran as a team member. The veteran team member is the point person on that team designated to be the " face of the institution " when it comes to dealing with the local community and interacting with businesses and potential employers with regards to veteran specific opportunities and concerns. We have found that having a veteran speak to employers about their thoughts regarding hiring veterans has allowed us to uncover many new opportunties for graduating students that we may otherwise have not been aware of. We also have found that this allows us to develop relationships in the community that help all of our students looking for employment once they graduate, not just our veterans.
In addition, we participate in veteran specific community organizations and activities, such as job fairs. Where there is a base, or active duty post in the community, we also develop working relationships with career service personnel and the command officers if appropriate to introduce ourselves and offer any help or support that they feel could be beneficial for those personnel on the base.
Gil, this sounds like a very comprehensive approach to ferreting out those companies who want to hire veterans. If your institution was approached by a corporation that has a stated objective to hire 1000 veterans, how would you help that corporation link up with your students that would be appropriate candidates to meet their objective? Would this be a networking type of event, or would offer to be a direct intermediary by linking up appropriate resumes with specific job announcements? Or do you have another approach in mind?
As a Career Services Advisor, I find that many companies both large and small are willing to hire veterans because they value their prior military training. Our veteran students are easily identified on our campus because of a specific uniform piece and during our career fairs many recruiters specifically seek out these students for the hiring process. I always encourage our veteran students to list their military experience on applications and resumes.
Sharon,
When I work with veterans during the hiring process, I encourage them to diligently translate their military experience into language that civilian HR Managers can understand. There isn't much of a call for an infantryman in retail, but there is a call for the leadership that he demonstrated while working/leading his squad. I believe that if a potential employee can translate his military experience into the 3M's . . . Men, Material, and Money . . . how many Men/Women did the service member supervise, how much material or equipment did the service member manage, and how much Money did the he/she save or how far he was underbudget . . . the civilian recruiter will better understand how the military experience can help their company.
They are reliable, punctual, respectful hard workers, eager to learn, always ready to share their knowledge with others, they will make great lead person, supervisor ,foremen and managers, once they transferred the military skill to the civilian world.
Networking is a great recruiting tool, I would make a combination of direct intermediary and a network, this will give me a magnificent pool from which I can extract wonderful candidates and match each prospective applicant to a long lasting relationship, another excellent tool Is a word to mouth system of recruiting. Often,despite of the above mentioned tools, the information is not disseminated and a lot of persons are left out, this method offers join people and companies toward a common goal, work, a team player and a happy employer/employee relationship.
EDUARDO,
We may agree that there is little call for an infantryman in corporate America. However, we also may agree that the infantryman has acquired many valuable skills that he can transfer to his civilian employment. Corporate America needs people who can lead teams, who can execute projects under budget and who can take care of high priced equipment. Most veterans are rich in these talents and just need help in translating these military acquired talents into a civilian use. How would you coach a transitioning service member to highlight the skills and talents that the veteran learned in the military?
Garland Williams, Ph.D.
EDUARDO,
It is often found that military members have a tough time networking because they feel that they have little in common with their civilian counterparts. Agreeing that networking is key to landing appropriate civilian employment, how would you coach a transitioning service member on the proper way to network? What kind of an opening statement would you suggest a veteran use to open a networking conversation? And what would you coach the veteran to do after he/she has the networking encounter?
Garland Williams, Ph.D.
We attend Veteran Job Fairs but we place individuals in manufacturing where we really have not problem in placing anyone from military background. Manufacturers love people that have served our country.
Yes, but we find that with any one of our job seekers not just veterans although it is almost like reprogramming veterans from the military life style in selling their skills but we offer a five session workshops on preparing for interviews what to do and not do on their applications and interviews. We teach them how to prove their soft skills and elaborate on how they can contribute to the company with their strengths and abilities.
MariaElena,
The Manufacturers Institute is a great resource to use to help veterans connect with manufacturing jobs. There are a lot of manufacturing jobs that are available, but the companies are having a hard time finding skilled talent to fill their openings. Anything that you can do to connect a veteran's military skills to jobs in manufacturing will come close to ensuring the veteran long term employment. Additionally, many companies are willing to provide more advanced training for those individuals who meet the minimum skill requirements. The bottomline is that manufacturers want to hire veterans for their proven dedication to mission; we just need to do a better job of matching their skills to the available openings. Good luck!
What I have found to be successful is to ensure the veteran emphasize the "3 M's" or as you have so correctly called the soft skills. There is not a large call in corporate America for an infantryman, but there is a large call for those that have experience leading and supervising MEN, who have experience accounting for MATERIAL, and who have experience operating under a budget or saving MONEY for their organization. These three skills translate very well to those companies who are looking for skilled leaders. Again, infantrymen and tankers are not in large demand, but the soft skills that they learned in these trades are the most advanced skills that veterans bring to corporate America.
Hi Eduardo,
I have also noticed those traits as well and must emphasize how respectful these individuals are...a true recipe that's so well needed in today's society and the job world. This is one of the reasons employers are drawn to these resourceful individuals.
Sandra,
I appreciate that you have recognized these valuable traits. What do you think we, as a community, can do better to help others recognize the value that veterans bring to corporate America? In my view, these traits are great untapped resource that if valued on a wide scale would go a long way toward helping America progress. But we need to figure out some way, on a broad scale, that civilians without a military background can fully understand this golden resource.
