Military Staffing Series Part 1

Why hire Military/Veterans And How to understand them!! 

“God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood has long been the anthem for are armed forces and for Veterans. Over the years many other songs have come out reminding us to give thanks to those who risk their lives so we can live free. Over the next several blog posting I will go over why you should hire Military/Veterans, Understanding Military/Veterans, Research/Sourcing Military/Veterans and Lastly Sites for finding Military/Veterans. 

First why you should hire Military/Veterans:

1). You can get between 2400-4800 in Tax Credits for hiring a Military/Veteran.

The link will take you to the US Dept of Labor, specifically were the WOTC (Work Opportunity Tax Credit) page is and explains further about the credit for hiring a veteran as well as other guidelines. http://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/eligible.cfm

2). Over 200,000 service members leave the military every year.

30. Over 80% of military jobs have a civilian counterpart, meaning of the 200,000 getting out, over 160,000 will come out with skills and experience directly relevant to civilian jobs all you have to do is find and hire them.

3). Military/Veterans live by a code of Ethics, they are proven learners, they are proven to be able to work in teams, they are loyal, committed and some much more.

4). Special guideline for Military/Veterans in the USSERA - Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

The link goes to the US Dept of Labor page referencing USERRA and explains about USERRA, employer and Vet Rights on USERRA and much more. There is a USERRA Advisor which is a program designed to help employers and employees understand their right under USERRA. http://www.dol.gov/elaws/userra.htm

5). Government sponsored education benefits, allowing a military/veteran to get additional education/training. The link provided take you to the GI Bill page. This page explains the education benefits available to Veterans. These benefits can also be used to make a veteran employable, meaning if a company needs an employee who is a veteran to get training this program can help pay for it. In the case were the GI bill is not an option Chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation and employment program can provide the same education benefits. http://gibill.va.gov/ And http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/vre/ 

In order to recruit/hire a Military/Veteran you need to understand Military/Veteran. What I mean by understand them is understand the terminology, and understand the jobs they had. 

First in thinking about the military you need to remember, the military is not just the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy. The military also includes the Reserves, National Guard and Coast Guard. http://www.todaysmilitary.com/service-branches 

Within the military there are 3 levels of military personnel:

• Enlisted think of as hands on workers or day to day operations
• Warrant Officers think of as highly technical and specialized a bridge between enlisted and Officer
• Officer the guys in charge, the high level managers

When talking to a military person and asking them what rank they were, you may get one of 2 answers. 1 will be a letter and number designation this is really their pay grade, for example E3. The other will be their rank, for example PFC (an E3). For people in the military these are often used interchangeably. For a listing of ranks see link: http://www.military-quotes.com/military-rank.htm. 

Every person in the military has an MOC (Military Occupational Classification), basically their job. AS I stated earlier 80% of those have a civilian counterpart. The link here will allow you to take a military persons MOC and see what it means, and what the civilian counterpart is. http://www.careerinfonet.org/moc/default.aspx?audience=WP 

When talking with military personnel you will hear about a DD214, this form describes a veterans type of discharge, some of their awards as well as some of the training they have taken and more. Every veteran leaving service gets one. 

Another document you will hear about is PQR (PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION RECORD), this is a listing of all their training, awards, places they have serves, ranks and much more. 

Lastly you will hear about an ACE transcript, this is a document done by the American Council on Education, and will list all the training a military person has gotten, both civilian and military while on active duty and show what that training would be worth towards a degree. 

I know that’s a lot and trust me there is a lot more, but this gives you good foundation about why you should hire a veteran and how to understand them.