6 Transferable Skills That Veterans Bring to Your Company

November 11 is Veterans Day, and TTA wants to recognize and thank the brave women and men who have selflessly served our country!

Professionally, we are attuned to the types of skills that help our clients’ organizations succeed, and veterans can readily contribute to your organization’s success with these transferable skills that they have developed in the military.

Hiring veterans is a smart business for corporations looking for talent with a deep well of various skills, spanning the range from technical to supply chain management, procurement to IT, executive leadership – the list goes on.

All civilian organizations will benefit from:

The Discipline of Veterans
Veterans are used to a “mission critical” mindset and are very disciplined, with an astute focus on quality, safety, and detail. This task-oriented work style, built on a trained maturity and responsibility to solve problems and follow through until the job is done, will benefit any role, whether it is based on hard skills or soft skills.

Veterans are true self-starters that know how to analyze and resolve difficult and complex problems, without constant guidance from supervisors.

The Teamwork of Veterans
Camaraderie is core within the military and is one of the most important soft skills a veteran can bring to an organization. They spend months, if not years, collaborating with and trusting their team members to stay safe and complete important tasks. Regardless of being the team leader or a team member, veterans understand how genuine teamwork grows out of a responsibility to one’s colleagues, and how diverse people can work together towards a goal.

Veterans are good at collaboration, because that’s what they have to do in the field, and often under duress.

The Adaptability of Veterans
Much like the business arena, military campaigns require a great deal of planning. However, what the military keenly emphasizes is adapting to a change of direction on demand and reacting to ever-shifting conditions. Nowhere is adaptability more needed than in the military where soldiers have very little choice but to be flexible.

This “adjust and adapt” flexibility is highly desired in the business world, predominantly in the high-tech industry, where priorities change rapidly. Given the pace of modern life, adaptability should be embraced by all organizations, from start-ups to blue-chip conglomerates.

The Accountability of Veterans
Veterans take ownership of their actions. The military trains people to be accountable and own responsibility for their decision-making, actions, resources, and behavior. This training includes setting an example, giving carefully considered directions, and continually motivating other personnel in the group.

That sort of accountability is increasingly hard for employers to find when bouncing from job to job is more common than ever. There’s no such thing as job-hopping in the military. When you enlist, you sign on the dotted line and agree to commit yourself to the armed forces for a certain length of time. There’s no quitting if issues become uncomfortable or if the unexpected crops up.

The Leadership of Veterans
The military’s emphasis on duty, honor, and responsibility is instantly transferable to leadership roles in the civilian world. Veterans will often lead by example, as well as through direction, delegation, motivation, and inspiration. Veterans are attuned to effectively managing their staff and motivating people to achieve results, even in the most trying circumstances.

Additionally, veterans are trained in a highly team-oriented and hierarchical environment which generates true respect for the dynamics of leadership.

The Organizational Skills of Veterans
Veterans know how policies and procedures enable a business to exist. Most military operations require thorough planning and workload management: carefully considered objectives, strengths, and limitations of other people, resources, schedules, logistics, and other factors are always considered.

The ability to participate, direct, or establish systematic planning is highly valued in business areas such as project management, risk management, logistics, IT, civil engineering, and healthcare.

So, you see, veterans have transferable skills that are indispensable to modern organizations. The next time you are making hiring decisions, please consider veterans through this lens of transferable skills.

And, as ever, we celebrate and thank veterans for their service!