Why Your Company Should Earmark Certain Jobs for Military Vets

If your company has a goal to hire military veterans, one way to achieve this objective is to earmark certain jobs for military vets. Doing this will enable you to focus your recruitment activities on filling those positions from the ranks of available veterans, helping you to avoid compromising your principles in times when it’s difficult to find the right workers. Here are some ways to do this effectively. 

1. Look for a professional HR veteran. This makes sense because if you want to reach out to the veteran community in terms they will respond favorably to, it’s helpful to have an HR person who knows the lingo. HR managers with first-hand experience in veteran recruitment processes can make the world of difference to your results. What’s more, a 2016report from Carlsbad, Calif.-based CareerCast.com shows HR is one of the top eight positions for people transitioning from a military career to a civilian one.
2. Earmark specific jobs for military vets, which will make filling the positions significantly simpler. The types of work most suited to veterans include professional services, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that business and finance account for 17.4% of the all veteran employment, while service industries account for 14.1%. Other positions popular with military veterans include:
   • Financial advisor. This is a position that’s in high demand, and filling it with a former service member provides a veteran the chance to help others.
   • Information security analyst or network/systems administrators.Qualified people with strong IT security skills are needed across every industry.
   • Interpreter or translator. Any veteran with foreign in-country experience can usually adapt to this positions.
   • Physical therapist or nurse. Medical training or experience gained in active duty can count towards certification for similar positions in the civilian environment.
3. Catering is a great environment in which former active duty personnel can apply skills gained in the military to a civilian workforce.

Management roles of any description in a veteran-friendly company are well suited to military veterans with officer experience, because they have usually had the opportunity to gain people skills along with strategic understanding. Many states actually have laws defining a number of points assigned for active duty and a higher number for disability gained in service or a military commendation.

The Risk of Discrimination

Setting aside positions specifically for the purpose of targeting veterans isn’t discriminatory, and federal government guidelines support giving preference to veteran candidates. You don’t need to guarantee a job will only go to a veteran, but you can add extra points for service if you use a scoring system. As long as you don’t hire a veteran to the detriment of another candidate, you’ll be on the right side of the law in this regard. Hiring becomes discriminatory, for example, when you choose a veteran candidate over a more qualified applicant who happens to be a member of an ethnic minority, a woman, or an older person.

For more information about identifying jobs for military vets or to list your vacant positions on our job board, please contact us.