3 Ways You Can Help Veterans Navigate the Job Market

Veterans Day arrives amid a particularly painful time for many former servicemembers who are experiencing economic uncertainty caused by the ongoing pandemic. Data from the Call of Duty Endowment, Activision Blizzard’s foundation that helps veterans find high quality careers, indicates that during the second quarter of 2020 there was a 31% increase in veterans seeking help finding employment, compared to the same period last year. Veterans Day is a time to honor the legacy and extraordinary sacrifices of veterans throughout this country. This year, I hope you will join me in helping the veteran community find employment.

Since founding the Endowment in 2009, we have worked with partner organizations to place 77,265 veterans into jobs that have helped veterans capture over $4.3 billion in first-year salaries. This was achieved at an average cost that’s six more effective than U.S. government efforts. Foundations like the Call of Duty Endowment play a critical role in helping to solve veteran unemployment, but we can all make a difference when it comes to ensuring our workplaces are more open to veterans. Here are three simple ways to start:

First, companies can take steps to truly understand the military experience. Even as the United States remains engaged in military conflict, the military’s headcount is near an historic low. Today, active duty service members make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. population. This lack of representation translates to relatively low knowledge of the military and widespread misconceptions among civilians. Only 27% of American youth can name all military service branches.

It is therefore unsurprising that employers have a difficult time understanding the background of veteran job applicants and therefore do not appropriately value what military experience provides the commercial sector. For example, most single-tour enlisted members exiting the service in their early twenties have held more leadership responsibility than typical corporate employees who are a decade older. Additionally, veterans are 39% more likely than non-veterans to move into a leadership role within their first 3 years of civilian employment.

Employers should train their recruiters to mine this rich vein of talent, and even consider hiring recruiters and HR professionals with military background who understand veterans’ experiences and can apply it to their hiring needs.

Second, employers can help eradicate the stigma veterans face during the hiring process and in the workplace due to persistently unfair stereotypes about mental health. Too many civilians incorrectly associate veterans with PTSD when there are far more non-veterans contending with this challenge. In fact, 62% of Americans think “suffers from PTSD” is an accurate description of a post-9/11 veteran. We should not assume that all veterans suffer mental health challenges, nor should we assume that those who do are incapable of thriving in the workplace. These stigmas can isolate veterans at the very moment when civilian society should be embracing them.

Instead, companies and hiring managers should recognize and widely communicate the unique benefits that veterans provide to the workplace, including delivering higher levels of productivity and retention than non-veterans (1). Veterans have been tested in mind, body, and spirit amid the harshest of environments. They are more than ready to succeed in the modern-day workforce. As former Secretary of Defense Marine General Jim Mattis has said, veterans coming home from combat often go through “post-traumatic growth,” which makes them stronger, more empathetic, and more optimistic.

Finally, American businesses can create the career pathways recently discharged service members need. The Department of Defense mandates that service members exiting the military take part in the Transition Assistance Program; this initiative’s curriculum is 20 years out-of-date and does not address the diverse needs of service members who have vastly different experience and responsibility levels. Private sector employers and veterans serving non-profits can play a valuable role by offering more effective training tailored to today’s job market and the specific needs of exiting service members.

Fortunately, employers have help. Our Call of Duty Endowment identifies and supports the most effective organizations that prepare veterans to earn high-quality jobs at the best companies in the country. Hire Heroes USA is best-in-class at placing transitioning service members into great jobs, while VetJobs is similarly the top non-profit for helping Guardsman and Reservists. These are just two of the 12 partner organizations that the Endowment supports that stand ready to work with companies large and small.

I hope others join me in turning our gratitude for veterans into action this year. Although these three suggestions alone will not solve all the challenges facing our veteran community, quality employment is the single best way to help the vast majority of our veterans as they return to civilian life. Making our companies and workplaces more open to former servicemembers is as crucial as ever, especially as the pandemic continues to impact this community. Just as these former Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen fought for our freedom and prosperity, our nation’s employers owe it to them to ensure that they have every opportunity to succeed.

(1) According to Gartner, veterans contribute, on average, an additional $7,500 to the overall performance of an organization than non-veterans. According to LinkedIn, Veterans remain with the companies that initially employ them 8.3% longer than non-veterans.