Over 200,000+ military men and women transition out of the service each year. When they leave the military, most bring skills with them that are highly transferable to and desirable in a business’s environment.

If you’re a small business (or any organization) needing to make a new hire, have you considered hiring one of our country’s veterans? Many already possess “the right stuff,” including:

1. Loyalty – Veterans understand what loyalty is all about. They’ve served our country and have believed in, and lived out, allegiance, devotion and faithfulness while serving in the military. This can transfer well to loyalty to business, customers, and fellow workers. Loyalty helps bring cohesiveness to a team and contributes to a healthy business and staff culture.
2. Trustworthiness – Because of the inherent challenges faced by small business owners, they especially rely on their smaller team of employees to be honest, dependable, reliable and responsible. And they need to be able to count on each person on their team to get the job done. In military service, veterans are trained in a culture where trustworthiness could mean life or death in many situations. You can’t get much more principled than that.
3. Self-motivation– As part of highly skilled and functioning teams, each veteran has had the responsibility to be self-motivating to best serve their purpose and team members. Each was trained to be a driving force in executing their responsibilities precisely, every day. Lives were dependent on each service member performing their duties without indecision and without hesitation. Most businesses would benefit greatly from that type of focused action and self-discipline.
4. Communication– No team can function well without solid communication amongst team members and with those in leadership positions above them. Service members are required to communicate well with their peers, subordinates, and superiors to help keep all team members on the same page and accomplishing the goals and targets set for them. Accomplishing business goals with this same communication intentionality is a highly beneficial skill every business should take advantage of.
5. Goals-Focused – To find and maintain success as a small business (or any organization), takes hard work and a willingness to get the job done regardless of the obstacles faced. While in military service, veterans are given any number of difficult goals they are expected to accomplish on a regular basis, whether fitness goals, leadership goals, combat goals, project goals, or survival goals. They are trained to do whatever it takes to accomplish the objectives set before them. This commitment to hard work and effort is also crucial to success in business and entrepreneurship.

The Right Stuff
Businesses need team members who are mature, responsible, have leadership experience, and are used to often chaotic, ambiguous, fast-paced environments. Those possessing such traits can be challenging to find, yet many veterans already possess these skills.

For your next hire, consider sourcing from a pool of job seekers who have sacrificially served our country, which has included serving you. Hire a veteran and you both might end up with the right stuff.