4 Reasons to Consider Hiring Veteran Candidates

4 Reasons to Consider Hiring Veteran Candidates4 Reasons to Consider Hiring Veteran CandidatesWhen youre making hiring decisions, you can never be quite sure which skills will provide the most value.Critical thinking.Communication.Active listening.Camouflage?Its that time of year when companies observe Veterans Day in the workplace. But some companies are more excited about Veterans Day than others. These companies are not only celebrating those who dedicate their lives to protecting our freedom, they also have discovered the unique value of veterans in the workforce.Whos hiring veterans and why?Did you know that ten Fortune 500 companies currently have CEOs with military experience as officers? Thats no coincidence. Hiring and working with veterans is not only good for veterans, but its good for your company. Veterans represent a demographic of employees that embrace values of hard work, high personal ethics and teamwork.Heres what these companies knowEnterprise companies hire vets. In the most recent Simply Hired data, we counted more than 923 veteran-friendly employers using our services. These companies have shown hiring practices that cater specifically to veterans and were tagged as vetfriendly.While this number represents .09 percent of companies advertising jobs on Simply Hired, most of these enterprise businesses with national reach, so they account for a larger cross-section of jobs. The companies accounted for over two million veteran-friendly job listings at the time of this writing, creating an incredible amount of competition for these worthy job candidates.Veterans have incredibly flexible career capabilities.Veteran-friendly jobs sortiment across all industries and skills, indicating the flexible and talented nature of our countrys heroes. According to the data, heres a sampling of the top occupations and job titles that fall under the vetfriendly tagRegistered NursesSoftware and Applications DevelopersIndustrial Machinery MechanicsHuman Resource s SpecialistsNetwork and Computer Systems AdministratorsMedical and Health Services ManagersLogisticiansChild, Family and School Social WorkersIf youre in the process of hiring a new team, consider interviewing multiple veteran candidates. If you can identify qualified candidates with a veteran background, youll be able to build a team that is already trained in the fundamentals of teamwork and interdisciplinary communication.Veterans have a wide variety of transferable skills.Beyond the wide scope of career capabilities, veterans are also appealing because of their many transferable skills. Heres a look at the top skills veterans use during their military careers that can be applied in the civilian workforceCritical ThinkingMonitoring/AssessingJudgment and Decision-MakingActive ListeningSpeakingComplex Problem-SolvingSocial PerceptivenessTroubleshootingEach of these skills is incredibly desirable and become even more valuable when combined with the others, translating into an incre dibly well-rounded, committed team player.Veterans make up an active workforce.The veteran workforce is actively seeking employment. Over the course of one month over 170,000 applicants sought work using special searches that took into account their veteran status. This data points to an incredibly active demographic. When youre having trouble finding interested applicants for certain job postings, consider expanding your search to entice veteran candidates.If youre wondering if there could be a match between your hiring needs and the local swimming-pool of veteran talent, theres no time to find out like the present.Read Related ArticlesEvaluating Transferable Skills in the Job Seekers MarketBalancing Act Ethical Interviewing That WorksThe Dos and Donts of Evaluating Veteran CandidatesLooking for Something Different? The Military Has a Job for YouJob Search and Career Development Resources For Veterans