The right PEO makes attracting great employees to your organization easy. When you’re recruiting and selecting employees, you may well be lucky enough to get applications from military veterans. If you are asking yourself why you should hire a military veteran, it may not be immediately clear. While your first thought may be that these men and women lack experience in your field, most veterans make great employees. Here’s what EasyPEO has discovered through our experience and through feedback from our clients.
These people have risked their lives for your country and that alone is reason enough as to you why you should hire a military veteran. However, if you want to look at it in terms of what they can do for you, there are SO many others that make doing so a great move.
1. To Veterans, “Mission Accomplished” is the Ultimate Goal
From the day they begin their training, military recruits know have a purpose and that fulfilling that purpose is all-important. Bring this determination and perseverance into your organization when you choose a military veteran. For sheer never-give-up attitude, there’s no beating a vet.
This type of behavior permeates into your entire company. Younger, less experienced employees begin to emulate these characteristics. This trait makes military veterans good candidates to be mentors in your organization.
2. Leadership Ability and Respect for Authority
There’s no room for anarchists and dead-weight lack of ambition in the armed forces. Promising recruits soon become non-commissioned officers, giving them experience of leadership at a very young age.
Veterans understand that hard work pays off and are willing to work their way up the corporate ladder. They also understand why it pays off – because it makes you more valuable to the organization and therefore retaining such an individual should be a priority.
Military veterans also understand how to escalate issue due to their understanding of the chain of command. You won’t find a new hire going to the CEO with their issues but rather they will bring them to their direct supervisor. This allows your company to run more smoothly. It also minimizes resentment among their fellow employees.
At the same time, these young people learn to respect authority and carry out instructions to the letter. Thus, military vets are great as potential future leaders and as members of the organizational hierarchy.
4. Alertness and Rapid Decision-Making Skills
In the armed forces, young men and women learn to be responsible and to take responsibility seriously. In a military situation, there can be very serious consequences if someone is careless or makes a bad decision. This dedication to duty is an asset to any organization.
Few careers that require as agile thinking as the military. Lives can depend on being observant and able to make the right choices in the moment. Military training equips recruits with these skills, and once again, they are transferable to ordinary work situations in civilian life.
This is not just a great quality for jobs like first responders and law enforcement. In the information technology and financial services spaces, there is often quite a bit on the
line during an unpredictable situation. Putting the ball in the hands of someone that is formally trained to make the smartest decision as quickly as possible is a good thing.
5. Get Honest Opinions Unbiased Reports
Because teamwork is so important in the armed forces, recruits soon learn to give their honest opinions on anything that may affect a mission’s success. They’ll carry this through into their new careers, and they won’t turn a blind eye to any problems that they spot.
Veterans understand that getting requirements done correctly the first time can save substantial time and energy down the line. People with military experience will not sugarcoat their thoughts. They will be direct and to the point to maximize the chances of getting things done quickly and efficiently. While some civilians may not always enjoy such a quality, those same individuals will certainly enjoy reaping the benefits of such honesty when it pays dividends.
6. Vets Know How to See the Big Picture
This is one of the most sought after qualities in ANY employee. In military situations, each person’s task contributes to a bigger aim. That’s true of your business, too. If they believe in what you are doing, they will exert their ability to see the big picture even when allocated tiresome tasks. That’s why some of the biggest and most successful organizations say they give preference to vets when recruiting.
In the military, seeing the big picture isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s a requirement. every recruit is conditioned to think about how their actions affect those in their unit and their entire company. Because your employees are your day-to-day boots on the ground, the small actions they take every day have a cumulative effect on your business over the course of months and years. Employees who are continually thinking Big Picture contribute to today and tomorrow’s bottom line.
7. When they Know What Must be Done and How to Do It, They Get on With It
Self-discipline and a willingness to tackle tasks are ingrained in the military. Give your vet a comprehensive job description and the necessary training, and you won’t need to supervise him or her much.
Another important aspect to this characteristic is that they are often able to make great remote employees. Military veterans are ideal as field reps and single person satellite offices. Companies wanting to expand are well served when they have a veteran starting up a small new office far away from corporate headquarters. They are very hands on and have the ability to make day-to-day decisions regarding items not necessarily in their original job description. Simply put, you can trust their judgement.
Many military veterans have traveled to other places because of their time in the service. They can more easily acclimate to a new environment and get comfortable – and productive – fast.
8. They Have Entrepreneurial Spirit
Military veterans are more likely to start their own businesses than any other group within the population. They often do this because there are not enough corporate environments out there that will allow them to be intrepreneurial. Allowing them to run their department as its own little company inside your company can have big benefits. Grouping your employees into “teams” can improve company performance. This entrepreneurial, independent spirit will help to make your businesses stronger than ever.
9. Hard Work Is Not a Problem
Being in the military is tough. Those who have seen service will also be used to long hours, no days off, and some rough conditions. By comparison, the tasks required in civilian life seem like a walk in the park. You won’t hear your veteran complaining about having to work hard.
A strong work ethic is not something everyone who joins the military has. It is however something that they have when they leave. Depending on the assignment they had been given, the demands on military veterans could range from ‘hard’ to ‘I never thought I would work this hard”. There are very few private sector jobs that can compare with the mental, emotional, and physical requirements that the military demands. When you hire a military veteran, you are not getting a fragile employee. You are getting a well-trained, well-seasoned, well-traveled team member who understands the value of hard work and the sense of accomplishment of a job done well.
Qualities like these are not easy to come by in today’s market. You can teach an employee any number of skills that are specific to your firm. Frankly, you are going to do that with any new hire. How many can you teach a work ethic?
10. Vets Often Get Free Higher Education
If a promising candidate is a veteran but needs more education, you may not have to pay for it and nor will they. There are a number of government programs tailored to veterans at little or no cost. More often than not, they’ll be eager to take on a job that requires some extra learning and that offers plenty of room for personal growth and development.
Military veterans are used to being trained and retrained. They understand that the world is constantly changing and they need to keep up. Very few things that will give someone this mindset. If your business involves technology of any sort – and it most likely does – your employees will have a different skill set a few years from the day you hire them. Are you prepared to have an employee who has no interest in learning something new? Or would you rather have one that has already anticipated that his will happen and has already prepared for it?
