Read the full article here. Companies interested in hiring military via programs like Amazon’s can contact Bradley-Morris, Inc.

Input from the hiring manager is critical for buy-in on hiring military veterans. Typically, the push back recruiters get from hiring managers is due to a lack of understanding or a stereotypical image of what a “military veteran” is supposed to look like on the job. Breaking down those barriers requires conversations and involvement in your process.

Recruiters please understand what is being laid out in process for you will not take as much time as you think. If you can come to the table with pre-built solutions and answers for the hiring manager, a great deal of time is saved on your end.

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Now, here is an example job post using the above template. The target audience is Active Transitioning Military in the Field of Food Service.

You have probably guessed from this exercise that I don’t mind stretching the creativity model! There is no fear unless you decide to go completely inappropriate and offend everyone who reads your ad! I’m sure that wouldn’t happen, we are part of Human Resources and keeping it between the lines is what we do.  I hope you enjoyed this post and hope that by looking at the military veteran candidate as a person who responds to your message just like anyone else will help you with your hiring manager in making the connection and going after this candidate pool.

Have any questions or comments? Let’s hear em!

Angela Covey

http://www.linkedin.com/in/angelacovey

Many of my clients echo this and by hiring military are capturing their tribal knowledge in the military talent pool of engineering and technical skill sets. While enrollment in trade schools and engineering programs decreases, the pipeline of technical military candidates has never been stronger.

Does your tribe have a strong base of next generation engineers and technicians?

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

Dr. John Sullivan recently posted on ere.net, The War for Talent is Returning; Don’t Get Caught Unprepared providing tips to companies for being more competitive in the new employee-focused market. Also heating up: the competition for military-experienced talent. It has never been more popular to hire military. Many companies are leveraging their media with an all out blitz on the military community (e.g., see the recently released 2012 Most Valuable Employers (MVE) for Military).

As some of the tried and true sources for military get thinned out, employers must begin to expand the breath of their searches, tapping new resources to keep their pipeline full. Companies will use a matrix approach, like the Bradley-Morris, Inc. military talent footprint that sources via a variety of touch points. In this way, they will cover down on formerly less-crucial channels and keep their talent levels high, or at least higher than a less-motivated competitor!

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

“I trace my professional, private sector success directly back to my time at the United States Air Force Academy. My experiences at USAFA provided the foundations for leadership and management I still rely on to lead my $17M/year oilfield services company, Horizon Well Logging, LLC.

It was as an Air Force football team captain where I truly learned the meaning of teamwork and the value of each player, whether starter or backup. After that, it was as Cadet Group Commander I learned how to manage a staff and subordinate managers, while empowering them to lead at their respective levels in the organization. These two experiences, among many others at USAFA, taught me the significance of communicating vision, while also using core values to motivate others and create the desired team culture.

After graduation from USAFA (but before my unexpectedly early discharge in the Air Force’s reduction of 2006), I attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where I learned how to think about, plan for, and act upon large-scale issues.

In my post-Air Force life, my first professional experience was in project management for a global engineering and fabrication company. Through my work there, my family and I enjoyed a fantastic opportunity to live in Shanghai, China. While there, I was promoted to Director of Projects for one of the product lines, and in this capacity I had a group of 30 people (project managers, coordinators, engineers, and designers) reporting to me. Our group was responsible for the global execution of approximately $40M worth of projects each year.

I came to my current job at the beginning of 2012 and immediately put the following core values in place: Integrity First, Positive Attitude, Professionalism, Personal Responsibility, and Performance. These core values have helped us maintain focus during a time of transition in our company, and they have allowed us to create and strengthen our company’s new culture. Furthermore, these core values have created the foundation we needed to put our long-term vision of sustainable, strategic growth into action.

I’ve had the opportunity to hire many former military personnel, and almost without exception they have been very hard-working, incredibly trustworthy, and extremely professional. Whether it’s via an Academy, ROTC, or enlistment, I have no doubt our shared military experiences make us better employees and leaders in the private sector.”

Bryan is available to speak on leadership and strategy.

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

After a recent conversation with a staffing firm owner, it was clear to me that a consistent message continues to emerge all across the U.S. in every business setting: “There are too many people promoting the cause of hiring military and veterans, but without a high level of actual results.” In this (or in any other economic climate), return on investment of time, financial resources and human capital should result in what I label as the V Factor. The V Factor is analogous to a field goal, touchdown, home run, PowerBall ticket and so on. In recruitment and hiring, the V Factor is when a veteran is hired.

How a company measures success in this area is solely based on their own metrics. In the world of sports, it’s a fairly simple concept: develop the winning team, formulate the strategy, execute the play and win the game. Of course there is much more that goes into winning the game and becoming a Super Bowl or World Series champion. I haven’t quite figured out the formula for the Power Ball yet, but am open to getting that win on the books!

How does a corporation determine if they are successful in hiring from the niche group of military veterans? There really is no set standard in determining that success, so a challenge exists when a Veteran looks for a company that provides hard numbers and metrics to support their branding message and mission. Much thought has gone into whether outsourcing that service to a firm is of value to companies. Here is a point that can be validated from years of working in the corporate and private recruitment industry.

Companies that provide a focused and targeted strategy solely dedicated to hiring military veterans with all the support that is required to make that initiative possible can do it, however there are very few out there that understand all the factors needed. The program components should contain training their recruiters, measuring sourcing channels and effectiveness, understanding the non-transitional skills of the veteran, the socio-cultural aspects and the ontological-based hiring aspects, and then, actually implementing a program intuitive enough to provide ROI to the V Factor is rarely seen. Outsourcing this niche and targeted recruitment service is proving that it is ok not be everything for everyone!

When leaders ask corporate recruiters to be masters of everything – sourcing experts, diversity recruiters, military and veteran sourcers, career fair gurus, etc. – we ultimately leave them in the worst place possible:  overloaded and ineffective.

It’s imperative that corporate recruitment look at what they do well and analyze how to implement partnerships with organizations who can supply concrete return for their investment dollar. The partner organization must provide qualified military candidates who will not only fill a job order but will be retained in that company.  Veteran attrition numbers after entering the civilian workforce are not being reported on for a variety of reasons which will be examined at a later date.

However, those reasons ultimately lead the Talent Acquisition Director to the factors of success! If you can’t figure out why military talent leaves your company, how can you ever determine who to hire into the same job that was vacated by a Veteran? Root cause analysis determines the V Factor, that’s how you maintain a successful military hiring program. You constantly assess and reassess if the the pathways you have established to hire the military are really making a difference.  What service will you be to those who have served if you don’t take a critical and methodical look at results, not just effort?

Step 1 for the V Factor

Knowledge

Understand your candidate pool. Know who and how this niche group thinks, and generally speaking, how they approach the transitional period when moving from the military to civilian career space. Do your homework and ask questions of those experts in the recruitment industry who solely focus on this candidate pool. Decide if this will free you up to add value in the places of the talent supply chain where you are the expert.

Cut through the cloud of choices.  Narrow down your resources to partnerships that provide impact and ROI. When determining who and what to rely upon, ask the question:  ”Will this accomplish my goal to hire military? Does this partner understand my company’s needs and the military culture well enough to develop an effective strategy, where as a Corporate Recruiter, I can outsource with confidence?”

Hiring Manger Connection

Provide your hiring manager with real world examples of why they should hire your military candidate. List their goals for the ideal candidate and next to them compare your veteran candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Work with the hiring manager to negotiate any issues of skill and emphasize the tips from the ESGR Toolkit.

Resources

Military Cultural Competence

Why Hire from the Military

Toolkit for Employers – ESGR

If you find this post to be useful send me a note and I will send you a template to start your strategy planning!

Angela Covey

The latter group understands the value of “transferable skills” when hiring technical talent – they bridge the industry skill gap with military experience. This strategy is detailed very well in the G. I. Jobs article, “Tracking Technicians” (featuring three Bradley-Morris, Inc. placements).

When I was learning to sail, I experienced a similar bias. Some skippers focus on sailing’s difficulties while others described it as easy. Learning to sail is not “rocket science” but getting really good at it can consume a lifetime. Somewhere in between, you can build a great race crew and win races.

Technical skills are like riding a bike. Once learned, they are ingrained. It may take a little investment of time to teach someone to master a different bike, but not much.

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

However, being quick to close the deal can lose momentum if your process does not allow for getting the written offer letter out promptly. Some candidates are fine with a verbal offer, but more and more are waiting to see it in writing before closing. The economic challenges of the recent past have exacerbated this trend. Don’t be the company who loses a top candidate because the competition delivered while the candidate was waiting on your offer letter.

Recruiting military candidates can speed up your offer letter process. Most military candidates possess a government security clearance. You should feel comfortable extending an offer “pending background check / drug screen / pre-employment physical”. In the long run, this is also more cost-effective – you will have great talent off the market and talent who is likely to pass your screens – and no money will have been wasted recruiting, screening and waiting on “maybe” candidates.

Hiring talent “on the leading edge” is a much different game than typical recruiting. Don’t forget rule #3, “Speed Kills”. Because if you do, you will not compete well for top talent.

If you’d like a copy of BMI’s Client Best Practices, hit me up on my email or LinkedIn below.

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

However, as anyone who has been involved in any type of in-depth endeavor knows, it is impossible to have all of the answers yourself. You need a network of people to help make you successful.

One of the people I rely on is an expert sail maker. I do this for two reasons:

1. I want to learn his success shortcuts and best practices.
2. I want to avoid the pitfalls that are going to cost time and money.

My sail maker has invested the 10,000 hours it requires to be an expert in his craft  (Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000-Hour Rule”). As his client, I get to share in his expertise, get insight I would never have time to on my own and ultimately, expand my chances of success as a racer.

In my professional life, I get to be the “sail maker” when it comes to military hiring programs. I’ve invested the 10,000 hours required to be a military hiring expert and I really enjoy helping companies learn the ins and outs of my craft.

Half of my clients come to me to learn military hiring “success shortcuts and best practices”. The other half want to avoid the military hiring “pitfalls that are going to cost time and money”.

Either way, I still get a chance expand the sphere of knowledge regarding military hiring, and, if you will excuse the final boating reference, help my clients sail into calm seas.

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse

American industry needs good people, however, if a company doesn’t plan for it, qualified veterans are often missed in the hiring process. With more companies investing time and resources into sourcing and hiring military, many managers are asking how to develop a military hiring plan. Here are seven tips:

1. Include your current military-experienced people in the conversation.They have great insight into the military community and have “been there”.
2. Build a team or council. Too often I hear about companies that hire a “military person” to run their team and then they think they are “done”. It takes a village.
3. Achieve total buy-in. All stakeholders must support the plan. A couple of managers who are not bought in can wreck a program fast. Buy-in and flexibility are key, and are important for managers in assessing transferable skills.
4. Conduct face-to-face interviews. The military has as many acronyms as your industry. Military resumes are not typically keyword focused. Don’t totally rely on the resume – assessments are best face-to-face.
5. Be timely. Military candidates are in transition with an “out date” looming. If they sense a deal is going cold, they will change focus. Make careful decisions but make them. “Maybe” means “no” in this scenario.
6. Establish a career path. Most companies focus on leadership potential when hiring military. Most military-experienced job seekers are career-focused. Have a plan laid out for where they fit in your team long term.
7. Get on board with on-boarding. Military-experienced candidates are accustomed to getting all of the details. Make sure when they show up they are provided with explanations of benefits and organizational charts and are assigned a mentor to help them navigate the organization and focus on getting to work.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or shoot me an email.

Bobby Whitehouse

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse