Military Veteran Hiring Increasing But Skills Jargon Still a Barrier

A new poll from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released this week shows that the majority of organizations—64 percent—have hired military veterans during the past 36 months, an increase over the 53 percent that reported the same in 2010.

Though more than six in 10 organizations have hired military veterans during the past three years, the number could hit 10 in 10 if only the civilian and military sectors widely understood the other’s job skills jargon. 

More than four in 10, or 44 percent, of human resource professionals polled said a skills map that translates military job skills into civilian job skills “would help a lot” as they review resumes and job applications. Another 34 percent said a skills map “would help somewhat.”

The 2012 poll revisits the critical workforce issue of military veteran hiring, first examined by SHRM in 2010. The poll focuses of three key questions: Are organizations hiring military veterans?; Do organizations make a specific effort to hire veterans?; and Are organizations aware of effective resources for recruiting military veterans?

“Awareness of resources is the missing piece,” said Mark Schmit, vice president of research at SHRM. “Human resource managers are keen to hire military veterans but they don’t know how to find them and once they find them, they may not understand the military skills jargon on the resume.”

Among the organizations that hired military veterans during the past 36 months, 45 percent made a specific effort to do so.

The SHRM highlighted seven solutions to this problem. READ MORE