It’s Veteran’s Day in the United States, which is a day to honor Americans who have served in the military. However, for many men and women who dedicate years of their lives to their country, they find themselves practically unemployable when they leave the military.
The problem of transitioning from military service to the business world is one that many people are trying to solve. One of those people is Lisa Rosser, CEO and Founder of The Value of a Veteran, which teaches organizations how to recruit and retain military veterans. Since 2007, The Value Of a Veteran’s client list has included corporations, government agencies, higher education institutions, and franchise operators.
While attention is often paid to what military members must do to prepare for civilian employment, Lisa saw the problem differently. A 22-year Army veteran and 16-year human resources professional, Lisa believes that employers must meet the veteran halfway in the transition from military to civilian life. Companies must educate themselves on military culture, recognize the intensive training and skills available through the military, and understand the challenges of culture change. The Value Of a Veteran offers training products and consulting services that educate and enable organizations to improve recruitment, retention and support of veterans as they transition to employment, education or entrepreneurship after the military.
To help companies in their military recruiting efforts, The Value of a Veteran offers a wide variety of resources, including free online Ask the Military Recruiting Expert Sessions, a Guide to Developing a Military Recruitment and Retention Program, and a Veteran Recruiting Conference. Follow the link above to learn more about each of these resources.
A military career can give a person a strong work ethic that trumps many other forms of education and experience. Prospective employees can learn theories, technologies, tasks, and more, but understanding how to be an effective member of a team and how to always get the job done isn’t as easy to learn. We should be snatching up veterans and training them to excel, not passing them over because they don’t have a degree in their hands or their resume uses different language than hiring managers understand.
In other words, rather than veterans having to convince employers that their skills are transferable, the onus should be on companies to learn how to recognize the skills and experience that veterans have and how those skills can be applied to corporate roles. It starts with educating your employees with hiring authority to ensure they give veteran applicants a fair chance.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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