How to Increase Workplace Diversity by Hiring Military Veterans

To prevent falling behind financially and competitively, companies must prioritize diversity initiatives, including hiring underrepresented populations such as veterans. According to a recent LinkedIn report, 75 percent of the top 50 industries hire veterans at a lower rate than non-veterans. 

But this underrepresentation doesn’t just hurt veterans. Employers are missing out on top talent. Research has long shown a correlation between financial success and diverse workplaces. According to McKinsey, 25 percent of diverse organizations are more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies that don’t prioritize diversity. 

By hiring veterans at lower rates, employers overlook potential employees with diverse backgrounds, skills, creativity, and experiences. Keep reading to learn three ways to increase workplace diversity by attracting military veterans.

1. Re-look at Your Hiring Process

Conduct an audit of your recruitment processes to identify where veterans may step out (or are otherwise removed) from the hiring funnel. Here are some points to consider:

• Do your job descriptions keep veterans in mind by focusing on soft skills?
• Do you utilize veteran-specific job boards and social media pages, such as Hire A Veteran or Military Hire?
• Does your company webpage, career listing, job descriptions, and social media highlight your veteran-supported culture? 

Highlight your company’s track record of hiring veterans or how you set veterans up for success through critical transition, upskilling, and reskilling tools.

2. Recruit for Transferable Skills

Many military veterans bring a wealth of transferable skills into the workplace. In particular, many have worked in high-pressure environments that require structure and organization. Furthermore, they have desirable soft skills, such as perseverance, resiliency, critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. 

But, on the surface, these skills may not be apparent. 

One way to identify veterans’ transferable skills is to incorporate pre-hire assessments into your recruiting processes. Through pre-hire assessments, employers can quickly and accurately identify job candidates’ core strengths and areas of needed improvement by grading candidates across multiple roles. 

3. Debunk Myths Around Veteran Hires for Your Team

Misconceptions of underrepresented portions of the U.S. workforce persist, and it’s no different with veterans. 

Let’s debunk a few common myths:

Myth #1: Veterans tend to have higher turnover rates than non-veterans. 

Fact: Data doesn’t support this. In fact, veterans remain with their first civilian job after military service 8.3 percent longer than non-veterans.

Myth #2: Veterans don’t have non-military work experience. A recent LinkedIn study demonstrates this myth in numbers: 70 percent of veterans are more likely to take a “step back in seniority” than their non-veteran counterparts. 

Fact: Veterans with bachelor’s degrees have 2.9 times more work experience when entering private sector jobs than non-veterans with bachelor’s degrees. 

Myth #3: Veterans can’t lead. They can only follow orders.

Fact: Veterans have extensive experience leading others, often while facing numerous unknown variables including high-pressure and high-stakes situations. Because of this, leading in the military requires resourcefulness, critical thinking, and innovation when solving complex issues. Of course, this type of leadership is built on teamwork, individual responsibility, and adaptability. 

How Cangrade Can Help

Train your teams to raise awareness around these myths, helping to identify and prevent biases when hiring veterans. By dispelling these myths and identifying potential biases in your recruiting process, you can better assess veteran job candidates, understanding and appreciating the talent they can bring to your organization.

Now more than ever is the time to focus on diversity and inclusion. When examining your recruitment efforts, consider hiring veterans as part of that equation.  

See how Cangrade can support your veteran hiring efforts with our bias-free hiring solutions. Find out more today.