Engaging Military Friendly in Organizations: An Empirical-based Definition

Abstract

Employers interested in hiring military veterans are increasingly using the "military friendly" or "veteran-friendly" labels to promote their organizations to job-seeking veterans. The terms, while inviting to veterans, lack definition and consistency across organizations, leading to ambiguity about what it means to be military or veteran friendly. This research sought to understand how the labels are being supported through corresponding initiatives and, more generally, identify commonalities across employers. A thematic analysis of programs and services used by 31 employers-recognized as being military or veteran friendly by an external agency-revealed four themes. The themes suggested an emphasis on early career transitions for veterans entering the job market. Combined, these findings offer a starting point for understanding how organizations demonstrate their friendliness toward military veterans. Employers interested in formalizing or advancing their support of veteran hires can look to the study's findings as a reference for currently-recognized military friendly organizations. This paper offers an introduction into veteran transition issues, explores foundational descriptions of military friendly, outlines the study's methodology and findings, and provides a series of implications. Additionally, based on the findings, the authors provide a model and working definition of military friendly organizations.

Fostering Infantry Veterans’ Civilian Cultural Adaptation for Employment

“…While the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020) reports the post‐9/11 veteran unemployment rate of 4.4% in January 2020, it still sits higher than the civilian rate of 3.1% for civilian non‐veterans for that same period. Employers seeking to promote a veteran‐friendly organizational profile have offered employment to many veterans who want civilian employment, but many low‐wage entry positions available are more suited to those without any work experience than veterans who have proven their capabilities in military service (Kirchner & Minnis, 2018). What has not been described by employers or probed significantly in research is the way in which veterans integrate culturally to the organizations hiring them.…”

The Business Case for Hiring Military Veterans/Reservists: Stock Price Performance of Military Friendly Firms

“…Second, the results provide a strong response to the call for more empirical research (Batka & Hall, 2016;Haynie, 2016;Kirchner & Minnis, 2018; Society for Human Resource Management, 2017) documenting the impact of veterans in civilian organizations and a powerful argument supporting the business case for hiring veterans. As Batka and Hall (2016, p. 3) noted: "While efforts [to employ veterans] motivated by patriotism or charity may wane over time, those motivated by what is good for business are more likely to endure.…”

“…Government agencies and universities are excluded from this competition. The evaluation consists of a more than 100-item survey addressing the following weighted categories (weights listed below are based on the 2015 survey): 2019The methodological rigor and validity of the GI Jobs procedure for determining military friendly organizations was confirmed by Kirchner and Minnis (2018). They reviewed six potential military friendly lists in their empirical study to identify common themes found in military friendly organizations.…”

The Veteran Employees: Recruitment, Career Development, Engagement, and Job Satisfaction of Veterans Transitioning to the Civilian Workforce

“…Within recent years, there have been a vast amount of organizations striving for the “veteran friendly” designation (Kirchner & Minnis, 2018). According to Ferraro (2016), a veteran friendly organization is one that demonstrates support of veterans in a myriad of capacities, which includes support at the executive level, hiring process, community outreach, shared beliefs, and value of veterans at an organizational level.…”