Many civilian employers are often unsure about the idea of hiring military veterans. In most cases that stems from the fact there are a lot of misconceptions about the skills that veterans pick up while in military service, and their relevance to civilian jobs.
On top of that employers often feel that there is no reason to risk hiring military veterans, when there are civilian candidates with more familiar qualifications.
Leaving aside the fact that employing veterans provides tangible incentives to businesses, it may surprise you to know hiring veterans is actually good for business. That is true for a few reasons in particular:
The teamwork present in military service is second to none, and all veterans are exposed to difficult challenges and problems that they need to solve while working together. Not only are they trained to do what is best for the team, but they are able to put aside personal gain in favor of strengthening their team.
To be perfectly honest few civilians have the same level of teamwork that veterans do, and including them in your team will definitely enhance it.
A big part of the military culture that is ingrained in veterans is to focus on objectives. The military training they undergo shapes them to focus on the mission objectives and find ways to achieve them.
That objective-oriented culture is what helps veterans contribute significantly to companies that hire them. If you give them a goal, they will do everything in their power to make it happen.
Military veterans respect the chain of command, and know what it takes to be a good follower. At the same time they are also trained to take on leadership responsibilities and rise to the occasion if it is required.
Due to their military training you can expect veterans to have many leadership skills, including communication, motivation, commitment, creativity, and flexibility. Some may even have actual experience leading a team and accomplishing complex objectives in high-pressure situations.
Part of the military culture is that its members are expected to continuously develop themselves. Aside from initial training, most veterans will likely have constantly returned to training of various types throughout their career – and had a variety of training in the field too.
Part of that training focuses on learning how to adapt to ever-changing circumstances where improvisation is key. In short you can expect veterans to have the ability to not only learn new skills when required, but adapt to business processes on the fly.
Starting to see some of the ways that veterans can contribute to your business? To be honest all this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are lots of other reasons that you should seriously consider hiring them as well.
Although it is true that military service is very different from civilian jobs, the skills that veterans have learned, trained, and applied during their experiences are universal. On your part all you need to do is integrate them into your company, and you’ll be able to benefit from them in turn.
The good news is that it isn’t difficult to look into how to hire veterans and start to bring them into the fold. Seeing as the loyalty of veterans is second to none, you could very well end up recruiting core employees that your company is able to depend on for years to come.
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