Some of the most dedicated and hardest working people that you’ll ever encounter are U.S. military veterans. They’ve typically got a great work ethic, and they’re more than willing to go the extra mile. As for teamwork, they’ve got that in spades. But even with all of that going for them, hiring vets can be a challenge. Technology makes a difference, though. With that working in your favor, you’re much more likely to find a great fit.
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Technology can help you and the vet get on the same page. And that’s not always an easy thing to do. While it can’t make a great company fit where it doesn’t exist, it can save you and any potential veteran candidate time and hard feelings.
Vets and Civilians Don’t Always Speak the Same Language
You know what you’re looking for, and your job ad is probably clear about that. But a vet’s skills might be more difficult to pin down and label. What he’s gained through military service might even have an entirely different name from what you’d use. If you don’t speak the same language, you might miss some incredibly bright and promising job candidates.
Real-time candidate matching eliminates a lot of the confusion with qualifications. Just because a vet writes a list of skills that don’t match yours verbatim doesn’t mean he’s not a match at all. The RealMatch algorithm works to “decode” what he writes and compares it to what you have written. Our technology can find a match where you might not have spotted it.
Vets Look for Qualities That Resemble the Military
Vets have devoted years to the military, and now they’re looking for a next career, not just a job. They want to belong to an organization that’s as devoted to teamwork as they, and they probably won’t feel comfortable working for a company that doesn’t share the same outlook on work life. Recruiter Matt Brogden for ERE Media says vets look for companies with a team-like atmosphere where everyone has each other’s back.
Advancement is also important, even if it doesn’t come quickly, says Brogden. As in the military, vets are accustomed to opportunities to move their career forward. Training and other skill-honing opportunities, such as conferences, are another major plus.
They Typically Want to Fit In
Getting on the same page and working as a team sound like great things for any candidate to aspire to. But if fitting in is genuinely work, he might be a bad cultural fit for the company. That’s what happened to Brogdan when he made a bad hire based on inaccurate evaluation. His hire was let go after 4 months because no matter how well she interviewed, underlying issues made fitting in long term impossible. Many vets are accustomed to taking any situation and making it work, so you might not see straightaway that there’s a problem.
When you use candidate matching technology, a lot of the potential cultural fit issues are headed off early. If a vet isn’t a good fit, then he probably won’t filter through and make it to the interview stage. Candidate matching doesn’t just help job candidates and employers find each other based on a skills and needs assessment, it also considered many layers of cultural compatibility. That means fewer bad hires for the company and less wasted time for the candidate.
U.S. military vets move into the civilian workforce with a bit of a disadvantage. It’s not about skills, because they usually have those in spades. It’s not about experience either, nor is it about work ethic. The problem is that vets and civilians don’t always use the same language to describe the very same thing. So without a secret decoder ring, you and your ideal candidate might never meet. Or, even worse, you might hire a candidate who won’t work out in the long run.