How Hiring Military Veterans Helps Your Company Save Money – Part 1: No-cost Relocation to Where the Job Is
Did you know that service members separating from active military duty (due to retirement or end of their contracted service commitment) receive a one-time, government paid relocation to any where in the U.S? This means you can interview a service member at a military job fair in San Diego, California and offer him a position based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The government is going to pay to move him (and his family) to Pittsburgh. It is the very definition of a “Win-Win”: Your company gets skilled labor in a location where it’s needed and saves on relocation costs, and the service member gets a civilian job and a free move on Uncle Sam.
The veteran has up to one year from the date of separation to take advantage of this benefit. So, I encourage my clients to search for military members with the right skill sets where ever they may be and then ask them if they would be willing to utilize their final move benefit to relocate to where the job is. Roughly half of the over 225,000 veterans separating from military service each year are coming off of active duty tours, so that is a tremendous source of talent that can be relocated and utilized anywhere in the US.
Author, blogger, speaker, and guru of online marketing strategy David Dalka quoted me and this military relocation idea in his recent ERE.net article entitled How To Hire True Diversity and Get Beyond Hiring Only Local Candidates. In the article he offers five unique ideas for recruiters to find the talent they need without artificially limiting themselves to local candidates.
Do you want to know another veteran hiring secret? Some really fantastic military talent is “hiding” overseas. We have active duty service members stationed in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa, and a good percentage of them are within one year of separating from the military and are planning their transition from active duty AT THIS VERY MINUTE. They would love to hear about your company and how their skills could be a great fit. This overseas-stationed sub-population within the military gets ignored, mostly because companies and recruiters either haven’t figured out (1) they exist, and/or (2) how to reach them. And, now that you know Uncle Sam will foot the bill for relocation back to the good ole U-S-of-A, there really is no excuse not to pitch your positions to this group.
If you want additional ideas on how to build your company brand with the military job hunter, I encourage you to sign up for my web seminar “Marketing to Attract the Military Applicant”.
Posted by Lisa Rosser, Author of and Speaker/Workshop Leader on The Value Of a Veteran(TM): The Guide for Human Resource Professionals to Regarding, Recruiting, and Retaining Military Veterans