Want To Reach Veteran Talent? Build a Veteran Recruiting Strategy

In an incredibly competitive hiring and talent acquisition market, it pays to be strategic — especially when recruiting veterans transitioning into civilian roles. While many companies talk about hiring veterans, very few put their words into action with strategies that actually work. 

Want to step up your military talent search and hire skilled and loyal workers? Follow the tips in this blog to get started. 

Why Build a Veteran Recruiting Program?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17.9 million men and women are currently veterans, making up about 7% of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 18 and older. Of that amount, about 9.6 million are within working age. That’s a lot of individuals with technical expertise and experience who would be valuable assets to any company. 

To attract these skilled workers, you need a veteran recruiting program, an organized initiative designed by a company to recruit, hire, and support military veterans transitioning into civilian careers. Creating a veteran recruitment program is a way to tap into a highly skilled and disciplined talent pool. Additionally, these programs can enhance corporate social responsibility, improve brand reputation, and may even allow you to enjoy financial benefits through tax breaks.  

But for this program to be a success, you need careful planning. While any organization can say they’re actively looking to recruit veterans, it takes intentionality and a strategic approach to make an impression on the right person — it won’t happen by accident. 

Here are just a few reasons you need a veteran hiring strategy:

• Cultural insight and integration: The military community has a unique lexicon and culture; to attract this talent, organizations need to understand the military experience and how to highlight the cultural and objective similarities within their own organization and marketing efforts. Just understanding how veterans can integrate won’t attract veterans. Having this knowledge and thought process can also help with onboarding and integration. 
• Helping veterans find their fit: Many veterans have only known military service. While their backgrounds are valuable across all major industries, they may not fully understand where they fit into the civilian workforce. Companies that effectively communicate their roles and opportunities to veterans can significantly influence their next career path.
• Faster career advancement: Veterans often advance faster than their non-veteran peers, quickly becoming high-impact contributors who drive organizational success. Maximizing these organizational catalysts can be further achieved with intentional support from leadership and programs dedicated to growth. 
• Supporting National Guard and reserve service members: National Guard and reserve members face additional challenges in civilian jobs, including managing Title 10 orders, training, and other responsibilities that may temporarily pull them away from work. Organizations that establish support systems for these employees are better positioned to retain top military talent.

How To Build a Veteran-Focused Recruiting Strategy

Veterans possess valuable experience in teamwork, leadership, discipline, problem-solving, and more, all honed through military service. However, it can be difficult for employers to see those skills and translate them into civilian terms without a trained eye. Craft a targeted recruiting strategy to help ensure the military community feels seen with these six helpful tips: 

Have Specific Goals in Place

Don’t just say you’re pro-military and hope to hire more transitioning veterans; have SMART goals in place to help you measure the success of your military recruiting efforts — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound metrics that will give you actionable insights. 

Some helpful military hiring KPIs to build out as SMART goals for your organization include:

• Offer acceptance rate
• Time to hire
• Quality of hire
• New hire turnover rate
• Sourcing channel effectiveness
• Retention rate
• Application completion rate

Once you’ve identified and established your KPIs, use the following tips to start achieving your organization’s goals. 

Be Teachable

While those involved in the hiring process should aim to be knowledgeable of the unique qualities of the military community, there are hundreds of military specialties. If you’re unfamiliar with a military background, ask clarifying questions and be prepared to listen for transferable skill sets.

Make the Application Process and Career Path Clear From the Start

Take the guesswork out of the job posting and detail the necessary procedures to apply so military candidates feel comfortable completing the application process. And because veterans are used to a two- to three-year growth cycle, show them their advancement opportunities early on to assure them they’ll have opportunities to grow. 

Be as Inclusive as Possible

Help veterans picture themselves at your organization by speaking to all branches of the military and having dedicated content that highlights how you can support them in various aspects of work and life. Veterans come from diverse backgrounds and experiences across different military branches, each with its own distinct culture and values. Recognize and celebrate these differences in your messaging to ensure all veterans feel seen and valued. Because military families can play a significant role in career decisions, including information and resources available to family members can be a powerful way to attract and retain qualified talent. 

Show How You’ll Improve Their Quality of Life

Transitioning out of the military can be a major adjustment, with many veterans seeking stable jobs that provide a strong work-life balance, opportunities for skill development, and long-term career growth. Highlight core attractors like pay, working hours, advanced training, and other distinguishing benefits that will entice them. Showing a commitment to enhancing their quality of life sends a clear message that your organization is a place where veterans can not only succeed, but truly thrive.

Establish a Mentorship and Employee Resource Group

Help link veterans in your workforce by creating a sense of community through mentorship and employee resource groups. This can help them feel like they belong and connect them with people who share similar experiences. These groups can also give the military community a platform and voice to advocate for themselves — especially reserve and National Guardsmen who still have military obligations but lose pay to fulfill them. 

Ready To Start Hiring?

Veterans are a rich well of talent you can tap into — but only if you use the right approach. RecruitMilitary knows the military community, what they desire from an employer, and how to best reach them. By partnering with our team, your company gains over 30 years of combined experience in the veteran recruiting space, offering you a unique look into reaching military members like never before. 

Through RecruitMilitary Service Solution (RMS²) — our enterprise-level program — we’ll pair you with a Client Strategist who can help you determine what tools are most necessary for your specific recruiting needs and build a hiring strategy that fills the missing gaps with talented workers. 

No matter where you’re at in building your veteran recruiting strategy, RMS² can help you at every stage of the journey, providing tool training, community education, goals assessments, and more. Your Client Strategist can also help you communicate with military members in a way that resonates with them, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to speak effectively to veteran job seekers.

With the help of our client strategy team, RMS² embeds tools like resume databases,  job postings, veteran job fairs, branding, and communication into your organization’s hiring strategy to achieve your unique goals.

Contact us to see how RMS² may fit into your enterprise hiring goals.