Hire Veterans. It’s good for the country as well as your company

The next year holds one of the greatest opportunities to help our nation and it also happens to be very crucial to our industry.

With the drawdown of our engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have seen tens of thousands veterans returning stateside after more than a decade of military operations. The unemployment rate of Post-9/11 veterans was 6.9% as of December, continuing a trend of lower unemployment rates within this demographic.  However, this group of veterans has consistently experienced unemployment rates higher than the national average, highlighting a significant need for our returning heroes—and an opportunity for us.

In order to intentionally recruit these highly skilled people, the staffing industry must revisit its human resource policies and take a second look at our job requirements to highlight and use their unique and valuable skillsets. We know that if someone has worked in military intelligence, for instance, supporting offensive operations during Operation Enduring Freedom, then certainly they can transition into a highly successful technical recruiter. We can help them to translate their military skills into those required for the civilian workforce.

When David Flores Jr. returned home, he, like many others, found the transition from military culture to civilian life full of challenges. He decided to go back to school, and upon his graduation, was looking for something that required the analytical skills he’d acquired while in the Army. That’s when he saw a Strategic Staffing Solutions ad to learn the staffing industry from the ground up.

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Flores has said that S­­³ allows him to use the tools he has developed in his military career to be as efficient and organized as possible while thriving in S³’s policy of open lines of communication. There are plenty of benefits to hiring our hiring our heroes as they return home. Is your company ready to reap those benefits?

We’re honored to serve our military veterans and their spouses and families, and it’s part of the DNA of our company. If you’d like to hear more about how S³ is actively recruiting veterans, I’ll be participating in a panel discussion called “Building a Successful Veterans’ Program,” from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17 at the Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum in Orlando.

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