Attracting and hiring veterans is only one step in the diversity and inclusion process. Once on board, the organization needs to track their challenges, needs and impacts to ensure veterans have every opportunity to succeed.
By Royston Arch

It seems like every discussion today focuses on measurements, metrics, analytics or statistics. For veterans and veterans with disabilities, the measurements are proving to be critical to their success in the civilian workforce.

Past research has shown that organizations were investing sizable amounts of their recruiting budgets to attract veterans and in onboarding of those hired, but once employed, the veterans were stalling in their careers and experiencing high rates of disengagement. Veterans were not utilizing all of their skills, maximizing competencies and capabilities, or realizing their full potential. Failing to fully develop veteran employees’ potential and failing to fully include them in the organization leaves them on the fringes in many ways.

Inclusion is as important as hiring, and measurements can play an important role in addressing veterans’ needs in particular.

Measuring for Veteran Success
One of the challenges that organizations must manage well is the unique differences of groups of people in a diverse workforce. Including people with disabilities, people of color, different genders, and so on requires more than a generic program, generic metrics and analytics. Certain people inevitably end up excluded which means they are not fully utilized for personal and organizational success nor are their skills and competencies maximized.

When organizations hire veterans, Human Resources and managers down the line need a means to ensure veterans’ skills are fully utilized. A lot of effort has been put into translating military experience and skills into civilian equivalents for hiring and onboarding purposes, but once employed the frontline managers are not always as prepared to ensure veteran success. Developing appropriate measurements to ensure inclusion of veterans to the fullest degree possible is one way to pinpoint areas of concern.

Organizational leadership should read "Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce (Center for Talent Innovation)" (11/3/2015, A Vireo Book, Rare Bird Books) to better understand why so many veterans lose their drive and feel underutilized in the civilian workforce. Authors Michael Abrams and Julia Taylor Kennedy conducted interviews and studies of more than 1,000 employed veterans. The results indicate that many feel stuck in their positions and have no aspirations to move ahead.

Studies by Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families and McKinsey found similar results. A majority of veterans feel underutilized and are not using three or more skills, yet they have ambitions and a strong desire to succeed.

Overcoming Fear of Exclusion
There are several reasons for this state of affairs. One is that managers do not understand veterans’ skills and competencies and, thus, do not understand their career potential. Another reason is that many veterans are having difficulty finding meaning in their civilian work compared to the work they did in the military. Also, many veterans experience a low engagement level with managers, coworkers and teams. The last reason is likely due to the same lack of understanding of veterans on the part of coworkers that managers experience.

One of the issues is that many veterans are not self-identifying as veterans because they fear exclusion. Management must know which employees are veterans, or who is still in the military like the National Guard, in order to track their inclusion and progress. Employee engagement surveys should include questions directed at veterans.

Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that include civilians and veterans can normalize relationships. Companies like AT&T and GE leverage these ERGs to reinforce the importance and positive impact of collecting data on veterans. Positive impacts of measurements include management's improved ability to empower, train and develop, and assist with career development. AT&T now requires hiring managers to ask a job candidate, after a job offer is made, if he or she is a veteran.

There are many other reasons to collect data on veteran employees. They include identifying the various skills that are unique to veterans and leveraging those skills in different ways. For example, a business can integrate veterans with particular skills on project teams, assigning them as experts or team leaders, or purposefully have veterans train other employees.

Measurements should also report on the productivity of veterans in order to demonstrate their full value to the organization and the efficacy of investing in veteran-focused programs. Without the information that metrics and analytics deliver, veterans are at risk of languishing in jobs that underutilize their skills.

Organizational Culture Plays a Big Role in Veteran Inclusion
Critical assessments also include measuring the organization's culture of inclusion for veterans and people with disabilities, since many veterans are wounded warriors.

Culture plays a role in veteran acceptance and productivity in several ways. Managers need to understand military culture in order to understand the veteran's perspective. Veterans need to understand the corporate culture for success. Together, managers and veterans need to work on perspective differences. Measuring the organization's culture of inclusion for veterans and veterans with disabilities can lead to improved outcomes.

Developing a career roadmap at the point of onboarding is also important. A roadmap enables the employer to measure career progress. Veterans who do not advance may be experiencing the challenges discussed – cultural exclusion, management's lack of understanding of veterans, etc. Many companies have implemented veteran-specific mentoring and coaching programs which also provide critical information.

Veteran skills and competencies are at danger of not being fully utilized when the organization does not specifically track veterans. Measures should include all the traditional ones, like number hired and number promoted. However, the measurements need a much deeper dive in order to address challenges specific to veterans. Predictive analytics are useful as key predictors for things like veteran turnover.

Veterans have so much to offer as civilian employees, and they deserve every employer effort to help them succeed.