Military veterans and employers are invited to participate in a 30-minute confidential online assessment as part of a CERIC-funded project that will bridge the career interests of recently released veterans and the staffing needs of Canadian businesses. If you work with any of these groups, please share this link and ask them to complete the assessment by July 21: http://www.challengefactory.ca/veteranhiring.

The research project is being led by Challenge Factory and has the support of the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada among others. In its work with Canadian corporations, Challenge Factory has identified a leadership candidate pipeline gap specifically for first- and second-level managers. At the same time, veteran candidates often struggle to find the right fit in civilian employment. In the words of one veteran: “Being in the military is like being an elite athlete, except that all of your games are away-games. When you come home you are unknown and have to learn to play on a new field.”

In many cases, successful hiring all comes down to style and fit and, while there are many stories about transferable skills, leadership acumen and benefits of hiring veterans or supporting them as entrepreneurs, there is a lack of specific, quantifiable data to inform programs focusing on improving aspects of cultural transition and “fit” in a civilian environment.

By assisting in distribution of this assessment, you will contribute to gathering of data for one of the first quantitative studies of veteran career transition and to the development of solutions you can use in career development work with current and former military members. Findings will be available this fall in time for the 2017 Invictus Games.