4 tips for attracting and hiring veterans to your company

Members of the military make countless sacrifices to keep this country safe. But when they are back home, transitioning into civilian life can often be difficult.

This is especially true when it comes to finding employment. Many veterans may not know how to properly translate their skill sets or may feel that their skill sets do not translate easily into civilian jobs.

However, many veterans are uniquely qualified to work in the light industrial space and other industries, including maintenance, machine operations and logistics, but may not realize it. They also have leadership skills that make them valuable in supervisory and management roles. With some recruiting tweaks and the right resources in place, you can provide veterans with new job opportunities. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Use the correct language

Veterans often have very applicable skills for the industrial space, but often the language used in military settings is different in civilian ones. It would be helpful to get a working understanding of Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) codes.

These codes are used to describe job qualifications in the military. While there is some variability among branches of the military, they can help give you a general idea of who to look for. A good resource for this is O*Net, which can help you search through MOS codes that might be applicable to your operation for driving or support roles.

2. Understand military culture

A key to attracting veterans or family members of veterans to your company is understanding basic military culture. This includes structure, policies, beliefs and values. This can differ from each branch of the military, but many are universal.

In order to connect with veterans and build a strong relationship, it would be helpful to have a veteran on staff to help recruit with veteran candidates. They can provide unique insight into how to word job descriptions and interview veterans to attract the best candidates.

3. Provide support when necessary

Transitioning back into the workforce is a major change. So, it’s not unreasonable to think that there may be a few challenges with hired veterans along the way. Outline ways to show support and provide help with anyone who may be struggling.

You want to be able to help them overcome obstacles and answer questions or access resources. A good place to start would be a veteran employee resource group where they can connect and have veteran mentors to help them transition into your company.

4. Work with local military organizations and transition programs

If you have a military veteran on staff, they can be a great resource to help walk you through recruiting them into truck driving. If you don’t or want to expand your reach, there are many community veterans organizations that may be able to help. These include your local Veterans Service Organization, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post, American Legion post or USO. Programs like Troops to Transportation are job-specific programs that help veterans transition into transportation and trucking jobs.

Another great program to utilize is the DoD SkillBridge program.This program pairs military members in the last 180 days of service with civilian workplaces as apprentices or interns. At the end of the program, the company can hire any service member who was a great fit. Programs like these can allow your company to access top veteran talent and help transition them more easily into your company.

There are also a variety of non-profits and outreach programs that work to transition and employee veterans. It may be worth creating a partnership with these organizations to help them create a place for qualified military drivers to transition easily.

At Staff Management | SMX and SIMOS Solutions, we pride ourselves on helping veterans transition to the civilian workforce and finding them meaningful jobs. Our RPS team is unique qualified to find a perfect fit for veterans in whatever role your company needs.

Learn more about our RPS solution here or get in touch with our team below.  

About the Author

Ken Schoonover is the Senior Program Manager for Recruitment Placement Solutions (RPS). He served for 20 years in the United States Marine Corps and was deployed 5 times. He has 7 years of recruitment experience in the Marine Corps and another year of experience managing eCommerce operations. He joined the RPS team in 2021.

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