Unlocking the Potential of Australia's Veterans.

This article has been modified from a presentation given to a Department of Veterans Affairs employment program forum in February 2020. The forum included representatives from the States and Territories tasked to developed veterans employment programs.

I served for 21 years in the Australian Army and had the honour, privilege and challenge of leading Australian Soldiers in Timor Leste, Iraq, Afghanistan, and working with our partners throughout South East Asia. While like me many of those soldiers have left our country’s Defence Force, I still have family and friends who serve and are deployed now. My brothers-and sisters-in-arms mean no less to me now because I have left the Army.

And I am speaking out now about veterans employment in the spirit of that service. Not because I am paid to but because I believe strongly that our veterans – your veterans and my veterans – are worthy of the support and programs that we need to put in place. In developing this article I have consulted widely with my industry peers and veterans network. This includes former two-star generals, special forces officers and soldiers, infantryman and logisticians, career soldiers and short-timers, successful businessmen and women across the country, leaders of industry, old veterans and young. I have benefited from their input and expertise. There are many voices in this article from all over the country who know the true benefits of providing employment opportunities for our veterans.

More than a program.

Improving veterans employment in Australia needs to go beyond creating programs out of a sense of obligation or duty to truly recognising the potential in veterans and how they can contribute to the public service and private sector. Unlocking the potential of Australia’s veterans means educating, training and showing veterans how they can succeed, but also educating training and showing public service and private sector leaders how their organisations can benefit from the enormous skills and opportunities provided by our veterans. This economic value is not locked into roles and responsibilities associated with a veteran's service; an all too common mistake made by those of us in ‘civvie world’. Just because a soldier carried a machine-gun in the Army doesn't mean they are only ever good for being a security guard (See Principle 4 below).

In my personal opinion, the success or failure of a transition from the Defence Force lies in the veteran finding their purpose – that thing that makes them fulfilled in life composing of work, community and family outside of the Defence Force - and in finding their new tribe. The purpose part is on the ADF and the veteran to develop, and it is something that both parties need to do better at. I have written previously on finding purpose here. Providing the new tribe, and understanding what that means, is where the public service and private sector can make the difference.

What I will say with confidence, vigour and the hope of driving people to action is that the best inoculation against future mental health challenges is a good job – one that can provide a sense of purpose and belonging - or tribe - to the veteran. Meaningful employment reduces the likelihood of health, financial and social issues.

Principles for unlocking the potential of Australia's veterans.

So here are four basic and proven principles for unlocking the potential of Australia’s veterans. These have been developed from the success of many different businesses, their veteran employers, employees and leaders. They are of course only a starting point for a discussion:

Principle Number 1: Recognise the primacy of purpose and belonging in new career streams.

Talk not of veterans employment programs for the sake of it – it sounds like a chore or an obligation; speak instead of how we can unlock the potential of Australia’s veterans. This means developing pathways that recognise the primacy of purpose and belonging in a veteran’s new career, regardless of what sector it is in. A veterans employment program needs less focus on job descriptions and more on the culture, values and lived behaviours of the work tribe. Job descriptions might tell you what you will do day to day, but they are not the thing that will attract, recruit and retain veteran talent. As veterans need to understand what their purpose and goals are outside of the military, any veteran employment program must show them they are joining more than just another organisation.

Principle Number 2: Training and education are necessary investments.

A study of New South Wales veterans working in state government a few years ago showed that only 28% had secured a job prior to leaving Defence – crazy that approximately three quarters of the uniform workforce discharge before finding their next job. Nearly 75% of veterans from the same survey did not feel confident writing their CV or translating their skills and experience to employers - perhaps these are related statistics? These issues can be fixed relatively easily but require some education and training. What is also needed is education in the formal sense through certified institutions or government provided opportunities. Veterans will not come pre-packaged with every skill you need or degree you require, but given the opportunity they will qualify for these beyond the scope of what any previous education outcome may have suggested, and return the investment with significant interest. The cost of this training and education would be substantially less to a government than the cost of a growing unemployed veteran workforce requiring significant intervention to assist.

Organisations also need to train and educate their current leaders on the benefits of employing veterans. Two anecdotes: A Deputy-Secretary of a State department asked a peer if veterans had skills that were actually relevant to public sector jobs. In another instance an SES Band 2 in the Australian Public Service in Canberra said that Commonwealth Departments don’t like hiring veterans because ex-defence people don’t make good public servants. This last comment was made in late January 2020 to a serving Defence Force Officer; these stereotypes exist and are harming veterans employment opportunities now. These opinions are ill-educated at best. They certainly speak to a need for wider education at all levels on the potential provided by Australia's veterans.

Organisations also need to be smarter on how they recruit veterans and provide guidance to those involved. Based on the above anecdotes they may well require a session on recruiting veterans and the benefits veterans bring as part of annual mandatory training. We have these on supporting other at-risk or diverse workforce sectors – why not veterans? Are recruiters trained to recognise the potential in a veteran's CV beyond what may be a poorly constructed format trying to describe the nature of service in two to four pages? Do they reach out to other veterans for help in ‘translating’ those CVs?

Training and education are necessary for all of us if we are to unlock the potential of Australia’s veterans.

Principle Number 3: Be innovative in program options; partnerships between public service and private sector are key.

If Australia develops eight State and Territory veteran employment programs that look and sound the same we have failed. Our country is diverse, our industries plentiful, the options for unlocking veteran potential boundless. A state-based program that provides options in the public service or the private sector should reflect the major industry options available (And yes, not exclude others who make up smaller segments of the economy but you have to start somewhere). Think of tourism in Queensland, financial services in Melbourne, forestry and aquaculture in Tasmania – the programs should not be the same. They must differentiate between states and they should partner with local industries. If you want to see the private sector incentivised to employ veterans that are linked to a public sector program the solution is simple: remove payroll tax for the veteran for the initial 12 months of employment.

Principle Number 4: Veterans can do it.

Employers, public sector or otherwise, generally do not understand military service let alone how veterans can contribute to their organisation in a way that provides them with a economic advantage. Australia’s taxpayers have already invested significantly in veterans. It makes good business sense to leverage off this investment for the benefit of an organisation. Veterans are trainable, adaptable, purpose driven and task focused. You don’t need to teach a veteran how to learn – it is inbuilt in their DNA after years of courses, training and practice. Veterans are not locked to their service trade. My infantry soldiers have, or are, working as recruiters in Singapore, elk farmers in Scandinavia, lawyers in Melbourne, as artists, as police officers, consultants, construction engineers and even, despite the opinions mentioned earlier, as public servants.

Veterans are not all mad, bad or sad.

The dominant narrative in the media is that veterans are all somehow damaged from our service. This narrative is incorrect and this makes employment that bit more difficult. If we raise the profile of all veterans it will benefit all, including those who are suffering mentally or physically from their service. 75% of veterans are not wounded but the vast majority of policies and funding focuses on wounded veterans - certainly any policy that supports the injured, ill or incapacitated is to be supported to the fullest, but this is not the largest veteran group. Not all policies will have a direct cost to government either. We need to think about setting policy platforms that generate the right behaviours in the marketplace and encourage and support veteran business, veteran entrepreneurs and veteran employment. You can look at the success of companies such as Noetic Group, SimCentric Technologies, Conscia, AGIS and even my own crew at BCT Solutions to see what we are capable of.

Partner together for success.

Industry and government need to work together. There is a ready-made cohort of businessmen and women who recognise the potential of Australia’s veterans. We had a motto in Bravo Company, 5th Battalion – Lead Me, Follow Me, or Get Out of My Way. We want the governments of our country to lead us in this endeavour. The private sector will gladly support and follow those who do. But if we do not see action now we will, mostly politely, insist people get out of our way because we will be doing whatever we can to support our veterans and unlock their potential.

Time to act.

This is 2020. Our Defence Force has been on sustained operations for 21 years. All of us should have sorted this out a long, long time ago. So no more talk of the problem please, nor more working groups or forums observing the issue– let's work together. Let’s get this done. Let's unlock the potential of Australia’s veterans.