How to better match veterans’ talents with civilian opportunities
How to better match veterans’ talents with civilian opportunities
In honor of Veterans Day this month, “Marketplace Morning Report” has been looking at economic realities for those who have served in the armed forces.
This time, we’re delving into a brand-new report from the consulting firm McKinsey about how to ease veterans’ transition to the civilian workforce. It’s about matching the skills of veterans, which sometimes go unrecognized, with the needs of employers, many of which are still struggling to hire enough workers.
Scott Blackburn is a senior partner at McKinsey and co-author of the report, “From the military to the workforce: How to leverage veterans’ skills.” He spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour.
The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Sabri Ben-Achour: Obviously, all veterans are not the same. They’re not a monolith. But, overall, how do veterans do in the job market compared to the rest of the population?
Scott Blackburn: Overall, veterans actually do quite well. When you take a look at them, I think most employers understand the value that many veterans bring, right? Great teamwork, they work hard. I think where the problem starts is when you start segmenting the veterans. But I think, overall, veterans actually do quite well.
Ben-Achour: Sliding into a new job can be difficult if you do not have a college degree. And 61% of all veterans do not have one. How does that factor into how things go for them in the job market?
Blackburn: It can be really tough. And I think the employers want to hire veterans, but they don’t really understand what their skills necessarily translate to. There’s often not a one-to-one direct job transfer. And also, most jobs have some kind of degree requirement. I think approximately 80% of jobs in the U.S.
Ben-Achour: You mentioned that many veterans carry a specific skill set. Let’s talk about that for a second. I presume discipline, organization — there are a lot of other traits that probably come out of military service.
Blackburn: Discipline, showing up on time, things like that. Everybody thinks of, you know, great teamwork. But what people don’t necessarily realize, if you take the traditional infantryman, for example, they are operating some extremely high-tech equipment. And they have to become masters of those high-tech pieces of equipment. So they tend to be very tech-savvy.
Ben-Achour: So what is it about the traditional hiring process that you think needs to change in order for employers to recognize the potential and the skills that come with military service?
Blackburn: So I think it comes in two steps. I think No. 1 is more and more employers, and I think now north of 15 or 16 states, are going and removing degree-based hiring and attempting to replace that with skill-based hiring. I think the second step is then translating those skills. Some jobs are direct correlations — it could be pilots or aircraft mechanics. But there are other things, like the example I mentioned before, where somebody has other skills that they’ve developed over the course of the military, and how do you kind of capture that? How do you credential that?
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