Why should you recruit IWDs and Veterans? Most employers are looking for the best talent to make their organizations successful. This usually means jobs are being posted everywhere possible—job boards, state job service websites, career pages, and social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter). Some organizations are paying third parties to handle the heavy lifting of posting, interviewing, and making recommendations on who to select. Regardless of the methods, your company is out there looking for and competing with other companies for talent.
If you are a federal contractor or subcontractor, one of the primary reasons to engage IWDs and Veterans in your quest for talent is because it shows good faith toward fulfilling your obligations under the AAP regulations. There are other reasons as well: there is a large pool of qualified workers out there who are disabled and/or Veterans, it is good for your public image, there may be tax breaks, and it is good business.
There are a consistent set of skills most employers believe Veterans bring to the civilian workplace. Each of these translates to a desirable quality or skill that business leaders are looking for in employees:
- Leadership
- Teamwork
- Diversity
- Core values
- Self-direction
- Ability to meet deadlines and handle stress
- Time management
- Planning and organizing
- Ability to conform to rules and structure
- Strong organizational commitment
- Ability to accomplish a mission with very little supervision
- Adept at skills transfer from one task/project to another
- Work harder, longer, and do not take as many sick days as non-Veterans
- Resourcefulness
- Resilience
- Commitment means that the 99% of Americans who never served in the military must find more ways now to match the contribution that the uniformed 1% have made. Businesses can do this by hiring veterans. Starbucks and other companies have announced plans to hire thousands of veterans over the next few years. Citizens can do it by building more programs to help veterans apply their remarkable skill set—leadership, grace under pressure, teamwork under the most complex circumstances—to civic life.
Learn more about recruitment, hiring, and retention of Veterans by starting with the CareerOneStop Business Center, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Or, download a publication from Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) entitled Support from Behind the Lines: 10 Steps to Becoming a Military-Ready Employer.
Companies are motivated to recruit and hire IWDs for similar reasons as cited above for recruiting and hiring Veterans. Additionally, there are studies that suggest there may be a link to increased revenue potential for employing IWDs. Here are two statistics from the National Survey of Consumer Attitudes towards Companies that Hire People with Disabilities:
- 92% of the respondents felt more favorable toward companies that hire IWDs
- 87% agreed they would prefer to give their business to a company that hires IWDs
- Product improvement
- Technology and service innovations
- Increased access to buildings, parking, and public areas
- Expanded products and services
- Tax incentives
- Enhance shareholder value
- Access to new markets
SunTrust Banks’ Mid-Atlantic Chairman, President and CEO CT Hill is quoted on the Employer Assistance and Resource website (EARN):
- Hiring individuals with disabilities is, in fact, good for business. The return on investment to SunTrust can be measured in several ways. One, it helps our diversity initiatives, building a strong workforce; two, it helps us to develop products and services, expanding our customer base; and three, it enables us to reach out to our entire community. It’s good for shareholders and it’s good for business.
Berkshire Associates understands the importance of recruiting, hiring, and retaining IWDs and Veterans. To learn more about these efforts, read the following article, “Top Talent Requirements are Met When You Hire a Vet!”