In Retraining Troop Talent, Emily King writes to inform employers that as more and more troops return from deployment abroad there is a much greater need to re-train veterans for employment in the civilian job market.  With such an influx of work force King believes that there must be a plan in place to correctly train and support these future employees.

By Emily King

Excerpt Taken Directly Retaining Troop Talent by Emily King

“Two simple aspects of onboarding merit focus. First, you need to do something. Some options follow but are not meant to suggest that an organization must do all of them. In an ideal scenario, the cross-functional group will include someone with insight to performance management and the common pitfalls and success factors unique to your organization. However, absent this information, Field Tested details a generic set of questions based on a decade of hands-on experience with organizations that hire veterans.

The second key to onboarding veterans is timing; do it within the first week or two of employment. An organization that provides new-hire training for veterans a month into their employment is wasting its time and money. Collateral damage will have already occurred through real-time learning during the first month. Of course, this applies to any new hire, not just veterans.

A good rule is to develop your onboarding plan to include intangible, inexplicit aspects of the organization’s culture, such as how feedback is given and received, how conflict is addressed, and how interpersonal style is interpreted.”

Link: http://www.astd.org/Publications/Magazines/The-Public-Manager/Archives/2012/Spring/Retaining-Troop-Talent.aspx