Guide to Onboarding Veterans Into Your Workforce

The military teaches valuable skills about commitment, hard work, and ethical behavior that can translate well into the everyday workforce. In fact, according to the Center for New American Security, 68% of employers reported that veterans performed better than their peers. Learning hard work and organization in the military can help create skills that can translate successfully into your workforce.

The benefits of hiring a veteran

Hiring veterans for your workforce might be something you have on your mind occasionally. Whatever your reason, you may be considering candidates with military positions in their employment history. Hiring veterans goes beyond giving back. The skills veterans have built can bring a lot of value to your workforce. 

• Teamwork: One of the first skills the military focuses on is teamwork. Veterans tend to be highly task-oriented, reliable, focused on fulfilling commitments, and doing their part to help a team thrive. 
• Organization: Besides being great team players, thanks to military training and standards, helping maintain a consistent, organized, efficient workforce comes naturally.
• Ethics: A military foundation helps veterans translate core values such as honor, respect, honesty, and transparency into the workforce.
• Goal-oriented: Military veterans are highly familiar with being responsible for their actions, individually and as a team, and setting and meeting goals proficiently.
• Leadership: The military teaches strong leadership skills, including managing others and leading by action, making many veterans great leaders. 

"As a Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine) and current Chief Operating Officer at Verified Credentials, I seek out a lot of the same values in our work culture: hard work, accountability, adaptability, and integrity. My time in the Corps has helped guide me and provided unique perspective when tackling business challenges and initiatives. I firmly believe in the importance of hiring veterans and that military skills can translate well into the workforce. It's not just about giving back; it's about recognizing how military experience can bring immense potential and value to the organization." 

 

– Will Uban | U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant – 2x Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veteran and current COO of Verified Credentials

There are also potential financial benefits for hiring veterans as well. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is a possible tax credit available to employers to incentivize diversity and encourage and allow access to employment from groups who have faced barriers in employment, including veterans. Other programs, such as the Veteran Readiness and Employment Program and the Special Employer Incentive Program, can help offset the cost of onboarding veteran employees while assisting them to adjust to their new roles.

Verifications for veterans

While the background check process for candidates with a military background is often like the process for civilians, employment verifications can be pretty different. Employment verifications are not dependent on a database. The process of verifying a federal employee can be overwhelming if you aren't sure where to look first:

1. DD-214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty): Applicants must provide a copy of their DD-214 when claiming Veterans' Preference. This is a primary document used for military verification, and our verifications specialists start here for a employment verification.
2. National Personnel Records (NPRC): NPRC is a database that contains military personnel and health records of discharged and deceased veterans during the 20th century. Using a SF-180 form, Verified Credentials can request this information for experience pertaining to military records.
3. Contacting past employers: Only some employers use a third party to store their employment records, meaning some employers need to be contacted directly to verify employment information. 

Due to the nature of the job, military personnel are also often required to move frequently, both in and sometimes out of the country. To verify past addresses, an SSN verification check or a National criminal database search may help you fill the gaps in any potentially missing records. Veterans with records overseas may also require international screening.

Although background checks and SSN verifications can help verify address history, 70% of the products needed for verifications cannot be placed in a queue for instant results. Since there isn't a one-stop repository for every element you might need for a candidate's background check, agencies hedge technological and strategic relationships with various agencies, courthouses, and other significant sources of essential qualifications and records to verify employment history efficiently.

Veteran verifications made easier

While there are a few differences in comparison to civilian hires, with the help of your background check company and the right resources, verifying military records may not be as complex as it sounds. Verified Credentials leverages our trained verifications team, proprietary technology, and our growing network of partners to get the job done.

• Rapid auto-processing: A combination of automated electronic records and in-house teams help us quickly verify veteran employment history with a high success rate.
• On-going verification attempts: Our team steps in if a machine cannot quickly complete a verification. Our verification specialists are specifically trained to obtain verifications, exhausting all potential contacts.
• Rolodex of certified military contacts: Certified contacts are critical for employment verifications. Verified Credentials leverages our records of branch-specific point persons on file, making verifications of Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy experience as easy as civilian work history checks. 

Hiring veterans has the potential to bring immense value to your workforce. The military training and experience veterans gain can translate into highly valuable skills such as teamwork, organization, ethics, goal-oriented behavior, and leadership. By hiring a veteran, you not only support those who have served our country but can also gain a valuable asset for your organization. If you want to learn more about simplifying your screening and verification processes for veteran hires, feel free to schedule a time to learn more here.