Veteran’s and Workforce Opportunities

November 11th is Veterans Day, officially recognized in honor of all veterans as a federal holiday in 1954 when Congressman Ed Rees, of Emporia, KS (my hometown) proposed renaming Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor all service members. As you take time today to reflect on the importance and service of our veterans, I hope you also consider the great addition that a veteran makes to our business organizations as team members.

Military.com offers some great insights and observations on the benefits of hiring veterans in their post 10 Reasons to Hire Vets. Two from the list stood out to me.

Veterans Assume High Levels of Trust.
Research shows trust is a significant predictor of high-performing teams, both in and out of the military. Integrity is a value instilled in service members from the start. Veterans are not only trustworthy to co-workers and managers; the trust they build between themselves, co-workers and managers also spreads between teams and into the whole organization. The result is a high-performance culture.

Veterans Have and Leverage Cross-Cultural Experiences.
Increased globalization in world economies means that individual employees in world-class businesses and corporations need to accept and operate in multicultural areas and transcend international boundaries. Studies show military members and veterans have had experience in three important multicultural areas, compared to non-veterans in their peer groups:

· Veterans have more international experience.
· Vets speak more languages, more fluently.
· Veterans have a higher understanding of cultural sensitivity.

To business owners and employers, when you are searching for that next key hire, think about the positive additions a veteran can make.

For all the veterans out there, thank you for your service!