1. 10 Success Factors for Military Recruitment
By Carl Kutsmode November 6, 2015 ERE
Despite best intentions, many organizations are failing to recruit and retain the nearly three million military
personnel who have made the transition from military to civilian life and employment since 2001. Traditional
resume and job matching strategies simply don’t work for veteran recruitment. Employers — particularly
federal contractors who now must meet an annual OFCCP benchmark of 7 percent for protected veterans – want
to increase their hiring of veterans. The problem is that they don’t know how.
To address this issue and offer pragmatic solutions, Chicago-based Society of Talent Acquisition and
Recruitment (STAR Chicago) recently hosted a discussion and invited me to moderate. The panel included
Erica Jeffries, director of the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs; Gordon Paisley, talent committee chair,
United Airlines; Christine Hendrickson, senior counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and Len Harris, director of
veterans programs at National Able Network.
The audience of over 50 HR and senior recruitment professionals also contributed their best practices for
military recruitment. Many great ideas were shared; the following made our list of “top 10” success factors:
1. Be authentic. Organizations considering a formal military hiring program should do it for the right
reasons; not to fill quotas or for PR value.
2. Commitment needs to start at the top. As with any major initiative, senior level leadership buy-in is
absolutely critical since this type of initiative requires investments in time and resources.
3. Educate and actively involve hiring managers. They need to understand why it makes good business
sense to hire veterans based on the experience they bring to the table.
4. Make hiring managers accountable. Veteran hiring should be part of their performance goals.
5. Articulate and communicate your rationale for the program. Build a business case for investment beyond
compliance or “checking a box.”
6. Dedicate resources. Establish a veteran Employee Resource Group to facilitate recruiting, onboarding,
development, and retention of veterans.
7. Relax the requirements. Rewrite “must have” job requirements in position postings to eliminate industry
specific requirements that may unnecessarily discourage veterans from applying. Instead, focus on
veterans’ transferable skills, competencies, and abilities.
8. Align job openings with veterans’ interests. Rewrite job descriptions to appeal (without over-selling) to a
veteran’s perspective and interests.
9. Approach veteran recruiting like you would marketing: with a focus. Know your target audience,
determine your target roles, and build an outreach strategy that specifically targets veterans possessing the
transferable skills and abilities you desire. This will generate better hiring results and alignment with
OFCCP regulations than national, broad sponsorships, job fairs, and/or online postings.
10. Conduct high touch onboarding. This is critical for retention and needs to start pre-hire and ideally
involve current employees who are also veterans.
If your organization is eager to hire veterans, incorporating these success factors into an overarching, systemic
approach will increase your changes to better attract, hire, and retain veterans. It’s a great way to honor the
commitment these service men and women have made and, at the same time, add great experienced talent to
your workforce.

2. About the Author
Carl is a Partner at TalentRISE, a management consulting firm that helps companies build integrated and
effective recruiting and retention capabilities to support ever-changing business performance goals. He has over
20 years of experience working with employers ranging from startups to global organizations transition from
manual to automated, “high touch” recruiting practices by optimizing their practices, processes, technologies,
and strategies related to talent acquisition, performance management, and retention.
His volunteers with the Staffing Management Association of Chicago and serves as the Chicago Leadership
Advisory Board member and past President for www.UpwardlyGlobal.org helping immigrant professionals
navigate job searches. Carl graduated from Loyola University in Chicago.