If You Build It, They Will Come: The Best Way to Hire Veterans, Part 5

Nailing down a process for hiring veterans and maintaining it over time takes a concentrated effort and an established plan. In our final article in this series, we explore some factors companies should keep in mind as they architect effective processes to hire and retain military veterans.

###Going All - In###

As we’ve stated regarding a dedicated veteran talent acquisition programs: if you build it, they will come. However, halfhearted attempts will yield halfhearted results. In other words, you can bring the military talent in, but if there are no processes behind hiring and retaining that talent, your military candidates won’t last long, and they won’t thrive, despite their best efforts.

Building processes and practices around how to engage, hire, and retain veterans will create core standards by which the whole company can operate, not just the HR department. You have written policies for maternity leave, holidays, and general hiring processes. Your military hiring efforts should be no different. Create standards around how the program is run, including ATS and HRS changes, military leave of absence, budgeting and executive sponsors. Then, write them down and make them official by incorporating them not your standard HR policies.

###Dedicated Resources###

There’s been a theme in this series: **dedicated resources**. Like anything else in your company or organization, if you aren’t dedicating resources to it, you won’t get a desired result. These days it doesn’t cost a lot of money to get the word out, but you will need a budget for branding items, events (job fairs, summits, on-base events), travel, and social media and networking.

There are many tools out there to help you reach this population, but they require time and effort to make them work effectively. Become involved in veteran communities online, and don’t give up after a few months. It might take some time to see results but giving up before then won’t help you in the long run. Adjust when needed but stick with your plans if you want to make a worthy impact.

###Advisors, Partners, and Outside Help###

Finally, talk to other experts about their successes, failures and best practices. No two veteran hiring programs operate the same way, and the people running these efforts have experienced different successes. Organizations like Bradley-Morris and RecruitMilitary offer a suite of products and [**customized solutions**](https://recruitmilitary.com/employers/solutions#green-zone-elite-online-training) that can connect your organization with job seeking veterans.

Overall, the key to a successful veteran recruitment process is having dedicated staff, efforts, and resources in place. Creating a temporary initiative or riding a wave of inclusion will not yield favorable, long-term results. With tried and true approaches and expert input, your organization can be on the map as a front runner in hiring military veterans.

Build a pipeline of veteran talent to your organization at one of our [120+ events in 2019. ](https://events.recruitmilitary.com/exhibitors/schedule)