Key 5 - Identify and Prioritize Your Talent Needs

Much like the business case Key, this Key focuses on creating something concrete from a potentially massive data set. If your company has thousands of employees, operates in multiple countries, or has hundreds of open requisitions at one time, this Key is imperative. If you work in a smaller company with fewer requisitions open at one time, this Key is still relevant; the difference is sheer volume.

A problem many of our clients have encountered when starting or running a military hiring effort is that they bite off way more than they can chew. For example, if you have a very large workforce – think 65,000 people across the United States in many major geographic areas – trying to hire Military Talent into 1000 different positions is way too difficult and can be incredibly convoluted because recruiting and hiring processes are most likely lacking standardization.

There’s a fix for this challenge, though. Identifying and prioritizing your key talent needs and starting smart, small, and fast.

Identifying and prioritizing your key talent needs allows you and your team to narrow your focus from very broad to very specific. We highly recommend starting smart and small and identifying your top 3-5 immediate hiring needs within your span of control (or in the span of control of an executive sponsor or very passionate hiring manager). This allows you to pluck at the low hanging fruit first. If these 3-5 open requisitions are jobs that veterans currently fill, it would be wise to interview these current employees to learn about their backgrounds, their education, and their career progression. During this conversation, the question “Do you have any friends or colleagues with a military background that you would recommend for a position like this?” should be asked. This is an easy way for your company to expand military recruiting efforts.

Because you have already identified veterans and military spouses in your organization (if you are following the 10 Keys in order), it should be relatively easy for you to identify where veterans, military spouses, or members of the National Guard and Reserves are already succeeding. When you do this, you start to create a roadmap of success and will begin seeing patterns within your workforce. If you have 100 jobs available, you may be able to narrow down your focus area to ten jobs and from there, you can select the best three to target first.

One thing we want to note is that you should try your best not to pigeon hole veterans or military spouses into certain roles, even if you are noticing a high degree of success. Just because someone may have served in the infantry in the Army doesn’t mean that this individual only will fit into a certain type of job category at your company. Take time to learn about each candidate before either recommending them for a certain position or before you say “no” because he or she doesn’t fit the profile of someone who has already succeeded in a role.

It’s imperative that you start smart, start small, and start fast. Remember, success begets success. Create a plan, start with low hanging fruit, and start now.

If you have questions or comments relating to this article or any other articles we have published, please do not hesitate to reach out! We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.