Employers in all industries should take a look at recruiting veterans into their organizations. They are trained to be capable, flexible, and goal oriented and can fit well into any many different roles and levels withing an organization. With the current force reductions and cutbacks to our military, many are entering the job market looking for their first civilian jobs. As a veteran, I have experienced firsthand some of the challenges of the transition from the professional military to the corporate work environment. There are many compatible and complementary organizational skills a veteran brings to the table but there are also differences that needs to be understood. Here are some valuable skills and perspectives that veterans bring to your organization along with some considerations: They are used to hierarchy and structure. They assign importance to rank and title and may need encouragement to freely contribute their thoughts and ideas during discussions with their managers. They enjoy forming close bonds with their team. This involves spending time talking and getting to know others. Through socialization and forming personal relationships, they are better able to gauge the culture of the organization and how to adjust to the environment. They are taught to focus on achieving objectives. Veterans have the ability and experience to accomplish tasks assigned to them with minimal supervision. Take the time to provide them with clear communications up front on what needs to be done as well as the manner in which to carry out the assignment. They seek to develop situational awareness. This may involve over-communicating as a standard practice to ensure that no details are missed. At times this may be considered an annoyance or misinterpreted as something else. Managers should communicate early on what the expected level and type of communications there are. These considerations are not only beneficial for working with veterans (of course) and are good general advice for all managers. Taking these factors into considerations will help ensure a smooth transition for both the organizations and the veterans that become employees.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 01:45:27 +0000
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