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Thank you for your service

November 7, 2019 Category: FeaturedPurposeShort

Disclosures

This is a guest column by Pete Freudenberger, an Army veteran and licensed clinical social worker at the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania
Thank you for your service! This is something veterans hear regularly.

Slowly but surely, employers are learning that veterans and their families make fantastic employees.

Veterans have undergone extensive character and leadership training; instilling the virtues of honor, duty, and selfless service. I am certain that many HR professionals wish they could put similar vetting methods into practice for prospective employees.

Our military personnel have also endured trying employment conditions and have performed at incredibly efficient levels.

Many employers feel like making an effort to hire veterans will be cumbersome. Others indicate they are unsure how they would handle working with a veteran.

Hollywood has done an excellent job of portraying people who serve in the Armed Forces as unhinged, traumatized, and unable to control themselves when things get difficult. These depictions cannot be further from the truth.

According to a recent report titled Challenges on the Homefront: Underemployment Hits Veterans Hard, “Veterans are rated as strong performers. About 59% of employers reported that veterans perform ‘better than’ or ‘much better than’ their non-veteran peers, with 37.5% saying they perform ‘about the same’ as their non-veteran peers.”

HR professionals should be aware that making a conscious decision to hire veterans comes with a responsibility. Veterans are looking for a place where we can learn, apply, and succeed.

It is important that companies know that military and veteran families can also be great assets. For any single parent reading this, you intimately know the challenges of holding down a household without a partner. The resilience and can-do attitude of these families will pay dividends for your organization.

Offering flexible employment options can be a great way to attract military-connected and veteran talent. Companies can also place a note in their online postings indicating that: ”Military families are encouraged to apply.” Knowing this upfront will encourage these prospective employees to apply for your openings.

From our Partners

If you are interested in further information and support to give your veteran-friendly hiring practices a boost, SHRM can guide you through the rationale, design, and implementation. Learn more here: https://www.shrm.org/mlp/pages/veterans.aspx

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