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With Veterans Day tomorrow, I wanted to share some tips on how employers and hiring teams can look to relate military experiences to civilian jobs. This can help not only veterans who are looking for civilian jobs, but employers as well to create more inclusive job postings for candidates.

Look to Include the Military Occupational Codes in the Job Description

Military occupational codes in the job description can help the employers and veterans better understand the skills necessary for the job. The Department of Labor and the Employment and Training Administration created O*Net Online a free database of information on occupations in the labor market. O*Net has mapped out the positions in the military to positions in the private sector that utilize the same skills and work experience while providing the military occupational codes that you can use in your job descriptions.

The Crosswalk Search allows you to look up the civilian occupation equivalent for Airforce, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. If you look at the Aviation Inspectors job in the Airforce you can see tasks of the job, technology skills, knowledge, work activities, potential education, work styles, and related occupations. This data helps job seekers find the training and jobs they need and provides employers with the information necessary to find skilled workers and veterans.

create a Veteran Inclusive Job Posting

Evaluate Your Job Description Language and Responsibilities

When creating your job description make sure that you are using relatable language that appeals to a veteran, this includes moving away from unnecessary corporate speak or jargon especially acronyms. Also, make sure your job requirements and responsibilities are must-haves and spelled out in detail of what the job entails, how performance is evaluated and what procedures are in place, so candidates know what to expect from the job. This especially helps for recently separated service members who may not be as familiar with civilian jobs to provide them with a clearer position overview.

Expanding Your Reach to Veterans

Once you have worked to create a more inclusive job description you will want to make sure you’re your jobs reach veterans. The first place you can start when looking to reach out to veterans is through your Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives (LVERs) and Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) Specialists at the workforce offices located in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. LVERs can not only help to recommend veterans for your position but can also help with showing equivalent jobs in the military and showcase where veterans can fit into your workplace.

If you are looking to reach even more veterans in your location or across the United States Circa can help you connect to over 4,600 Veteran Organizations through our Outreach Management System. Circa’s Outreach Management System provides you with access to a vast network of 15,500 diverse community partners, so that you can help build up a more diverse culture to engage employees, builds market trust, reduces costs, and raises your organization’s profile.

Veterans are a unique and capable workforce and companies who recognize their value are quick to find and hire veterans. The above tips especially with changing up language and responsibilities can help to attract qualified candidates especially diverse ones, particularly military veterans.

Also, check out our other blogs Taking a New Approach with Veteran Recruitment and Targeting Veterans for Hire and 5 Tips for Veteran Outreach infographic to help with your Veteran recruitment process.

Author

Katie Coleman
Product Marketing Manager
Circa
Katie Coleman is a Product Marketing Manager at Circa. Based on her conversations and research, Katie produces webinars and writes articles on diversity and other employment-related topics to guide employers, employees and job seekers in their professional endeavors.

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