Why Hiring Veterans Makes Good Business Sense

RP Members, Connections, and Friends here is another one of those articles lost out in RallyPoint Land that is still prevalent today, enjoy!

How to attract and retain those with military experience.

Amber McCollum, 28, spent five years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, including nine months stationed in Afghanistan. She’s proud to have served her country.

But when she decided to leave the military in 2015, she worried about her transition to the corporate world. She didn’t want to jump into the first civilian job that came along and realize later that it was the wrong decision.

“I really wanted to settle into something where I could see myself long term,” McCollum says.

Last year, she began her job as a senior consultant in the advisory services practice at EY in New York City. She believes that she has found the long-term career she was after.

McCollum is one of more than 4,000 veterans hired by EY since it created its veterans hiring program in 2012. The tax and consulting company is among hundreds of private and public employers that have collectively hired or trained more than 1.2 million former service members and military spouses in the past five years.

By participating in initiatives such as the Veteran Jobs Mission and the White House Joining Forces, these organizations helped reduce the previously high unemployment rate for post-Sept. 11 members of the military who served in active duty to 5.9 percent in July 2016 from 12.1 percent in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, with as many as 360,000 men and women leaving military service each year, even more companies will need to create programs to recruit veterans, many of whom have the skills needed to help address talent shortages across a range of functions and industries.

“Certainly, it’s just the right thing to do,” says Ken Bouyer, EY Americas director of inclusiveness recruiting, who heads the company’s veterans recruiting program. “But for us, when we look at the skills these veterans bring, their experiences, their insight, their ability to work in a team, their strong work ethic—all these things translate into what we do as a firm as we serve our clients. We’ve benefited immensely from having their perspective and point of view.”

Why Veterans? (Check the Rest of the Article)