Why hire people who have served in our armed forces?

Easy…because they have served our country.

I could finish this blog here.

Myself and Macstaff are proud to promote the recruitment of armed forces personnel, including veterans, for lots of reasons. Some logical, some emotional, some practical, some patriotic.  

I have listed 10 reasons below to get the conversation started. I am sure there are many more and I would love to hear from you with your suggestions too. 

1. They served our country
2. Society benefit from effective re-settlement
3. Excellent qualifications 
4. Diverse work experience
5. Character traits like drive, commitment and perseverance
6. Soft skills like communication, teamwork and leadership
7. Typically fit and well with good energy levels
8. Reasonable salary expectations
9. Training grants and vouchers
10. They served our country!

Armed forces

We are not talking ‘charity’ here, we’re talking sense.

But seeing this sense, may take a change in perspective, thinking out the box if you will, or just taking a wider view on talent acquisition.

At first glance, or depending on the hiring criteria you set, especially in terms of specific work experience, armed forces military leavers may not exactly fit the bill.

However, if you hire for skills, potential, talent or to be future oriented, I think you’ll discover or rediscover a rich talent pool from the forces.

I feel it’s important to add a caveat in here. There can be philosophical and practical issues with positive discrimination and meeting quotas, which I’m the first to raise as appropriate, however that’s not what we’re talking about here. Plus, even if I was recommending positive discrimination, I think any negatives with this would be far outweighed by the positives of this win-win scenario.  

At time of writing we are in a situation where our employment and labour market is dynamic.  There are more job vacancies than qualified applicants and there has been for some time.

Defence budgets

The skills shortage is acute and present in most regions and industries. Some companies are shaking the trees and turning over every stone in the war for talent. Some however, are relying on their previous hiring criteria, methods and process and are disappointed that  “there’s no good people out there”. 

Running parallel to this, defence budgets are being cut, there is a net exit from military organisations, and there is a valuable talent pipeline to be tapped into. 

Macstaff have successfully placed first-class candidates out of the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force and we are representing many more high calibre individuals with military backgrounds.  

So, in order to benefit from this pool or pipeline, do reach out to services resettlement teams directly, social enterprises such as BFRS, specific armed forces recruitment agencies such as FRS, and likeminded recruitment consultancies such as Macstaff. 

And finally, even if you don’t put formal changes, or new partnerships in place, I encourage you to be open-minded when you review CV’s of ex-military personnel. They will bring a great deal to the table. 

Personally, I think it’s tough to find the same level of tenacity and teamwork anywhere else.

At ease!

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