Hiring Military – The Right Thing for Business
Anyone who volunteers for military service, from the tip of the spear to the rear with the gear, has earned the title Patriot and my esteem. The recent trend towards hiring patriots is refreshing because it is the right thing to do. But being from the “I was a military recruiter before military recruiting was cool” crowd, I must point out another great reason to hire veterans, and that is increased business performance.
The military is a community like any other representing all points on the bell curve. However, because the military sets a higher standard (UCMJ), more focus is placed on character. Companies like Bradley-Morris, Inc. have a team of recruiters representing many spaces within the military communities. I know about submarine service but have no personal experience regarding how the fighter jet community advances their top performers. The person who works beside me does though, and along with the rest of our team we differentiate and match individuals based on desired performance attributes so our clients hire the best “military-experienced talent”.
The back end is really interesting as we experience a strong consistency in performance across service branches, job segments and industry sectors. Checking in with placed candidates and their hiring managers is an eye opener. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive and often over the top amazing. It is not uncommon for a candidate we place to advance 3 or 4 steps within a short time with the company. The fastest track I have seen is 2 steps in 90 days.
This particular candidate was a graduate of West Point who excelled as an Army leader. I placed him in the food manufacturing industry with a Fortune 500 company as a production supervisor. Within 90 days he skipped through maintenance supervisor and was put in charge of their process improvement team. After that facility became the best in efficiency, he was advanced to lead process improvement for the entire division becoming their quality guru.
There are countless examples of the positive contributions of military-experienced talent. The people who excel in the military are hard charging go getters and these qualities fit well in corporate America too. Hire military. It is good for business.