Leaving the Military to pursue a Civilian Job

Every day, we see people leaving the military to pursue a civilian role. These people come with a very niche skillset and based on that, will be worried that the transition to a civilian role is going to be a challenging start. Here is how you’re going to stand out from the crowd.

REMEMBER YOUR WORTH

There are still companies who are keen on the look-out for people who have served the country for awhile. Good starting point would be finding the list of companies who are on the lookout for you.  There are still companies who value military veterans for your service, as well as your long-standing career in the military.

In the process, you should consider your value. Consider what are the skills you have learnt in the military and how these skills would be required in the civilian roles. For instance, if you have been serving in the police force for quite a while, you should be the most suitable candidate for any positions or managerial positions in the security industry. The skills down here do not just refer to technical skills, but also your soft skills as well.

SEEK HELP

If you are having challenges securing an employment, you can always consider getting a mentor. The best person would likely be someone whom have walked your path before and is having a successful civilian career now. Alternatively, you can also get someone whom you are reporting to in your military to write you a very good reference letter. A good reference letter most definitely will not hurt in your pursuit of seeking a role elsewhere.

BE RECEPTIVE

It is important to continuously equip new skills, and show to your future employers you are taking the initiative to learn and progress individually. This would help you land a better impression to your future employers who might have a concern that you may not adapt well to the civilian lifestyle. In addition, be ready to negotiate and start from scratch in the civilian workforce, like the rest to have more exposure.

Creating a learning culture

As the Chinese proverb states, "Learn till old, live till old", no matter how old one is, there is always more learning or studying left to do.

Corporate Executives are empathizing on the ability an employee is to adapt in the rapid development in the current workforce. Employees on the other hand, are continuously trying to learn and grow while being on a job. The opportunity for training and development has become one of the most popular benefits that candidates are looking at when looking for a job.

Research shows that as technology advances, approximately half of the jobs available in the market will be automated, thus emphasizing the importance of employee's learning to keep up with the advancement. 

Even though organizations understand the concept of encouraging constant learning, but it's often the execution part that is tedious. In order for companies to create an effective learning environment, one can consider taking these few steps below.

Skills VS Conduct

Skill is usually teachable to individuals be it online or offline and could be assessed later. This can be done by conducting lessons or workshops to teach employees with the skill required and conducting a test after to measure their level of understanding.

Whereas conduct which means how one should react when faced a situation, which is difficult to be taught as it everyone already have different approach when dealing with different situations. Instead of commanding your employees to behave in a certain manner, one can emphasis on the importance of why the behavior should be implemented.

It's about the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSAs)

In order for learning to positively influence the culture, organizations should encourage employees to improve on their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

Different individuals take different duration to adapt to absorb the new skill that they are impart with, it will definitely take some time to put the skill to action. After employees managed to incorporate the skills they learnt, it will eventually become their habit to act in the way that was being taught.

Be encouraging

Managers should take lead and show others that they understand how the learning culture operates and why it is being implemented. Top executive should make sure that the objectives of learning are synced with the business goals and encourage employees not to be afraid when faced with failure as it would just be a part of learning and growing with the company.

Communicate

Each individual in the company should be reassured that the value of learning is not only beneficial to the organization but also to themselves as well.

By putting up posters or sending notices to employees might not be the best way to convey the message to them, HR department should actively engage employees to share about the philosophy about learning and encourage more opportunities to grow.

Customize your platforms

Currently there are many learning materials available that can be bought off-the-shelf to be used for in-house training. They might be good enough for a basic training but there is no such thing as one size fits all, in order to make sure that it is suitable for your organization, they can be customized to meet your company's needs.

Take time for feedback

Feedback might be deemed as tedious, but it not only determines the effect of training held, it also provides information of how you can keep the management up-to-date. In the long run, such feedback would allow you to be able to measure the amount of impact of different aspects of the business on top of just the knowledge and performance.

Experiment with what you have

If the turn up rate of a certain workshop is not what you expected, review to check if the topics are relevant or take a different approach.

If the approach of doing the workshop offsite is not showing results, try doing an in-house workshop. Let your employees choose a way that fits them best.

Organizations need to deduce on the most effective way to convey the new knowledge. There must always be a balance to learning as well, do not flood all the workshops at once, take your time and enjoy the journey while trying to change the culture.

Explaining things to someone who do not get it?

There will come a time, when you will get to meet a new colleague. The new colleague is willing to learn, expressed strong interest in staying long in the company and is determined to prove their performance in the company. You have been assigned to be a mentor, and are accountable for her to adjust to the new environment.

However, repeated questions keep coming and you suddenly feel that the new entrant might not be the most suitable for the role. You really want to help her, but you remain clueless how.

Here’s How.

Understanding the root of the problem

Different people come in with different learning capacity. Some people have a preference over a learning style over the other. It is important that you understand that fact and respect the fact as well. If you feel that your training is not effective, you might want to understand further with regards on how else the person can be more receptive to it. You can instead ask “I understand that you are still experiencing some difficulties with regards to learning. Is there any other way I am able to better help you with?”

Sometimes, the problem could be you. You could have been a terrible person to instruct, or you do not explain to them the rationale of why things are done in a certain manner. If you are a terrible trainer, you could get someone else to do the coaching and guiding.

Training Evaluation

It is always a good idea to evaluate your employee’s training to understand which of the parts of training did your employee understand the best, and which one is not the best. Through understanding that, then you could cater your subsequent training to emphasize on the one that the employee might not be unsure of.

Encourage Questions

The worst thing you would want to do is to discourage an employee from asking questions. If employees are unsure, it would be good for them to clarify by asking questions. If your culture discourages questions, employees would deem what they deem fit which could result in operational errors. With operational errors, you would then encounter all the difficulties to rectify the errors over the long run.

Engaging Your Older Workers

If this is seen as a problem to you, it could be seen as an opportunity to your competitors. If you have thought that older workers are not able to value-add to your companies – you might want to reconsider.

Job redesign and salary reduction should be the least priority when they hit the age of re-employment. Instead, you should change your perspective and understand how they can value add.

• Older workers can demonstrate ability to support the companies with their industry with their business knowledges and experiences over the accumulated years of service.
• These workers can also serve as advisor and mentor to the younger workers so that the knowledge can be carried forward which also helps to close any information gaps.

If you are still not convinced, let me share this with you. The ageing population in Singapore is targeted to grow to a large number of 900,000 in the year 2030.

Companies will need to invest efforts to constantly motivate and engage them to value add to your companies.

It is a win-win as senior individuals are constantly looking to work beyond their retirement age to stay socially engaged and mentally active.

These are just ways to engage them:

Re-training/ Skills Upgrade

• Certain technical or hard skills may have been improved due to advanced technology. Giving the older workers the opportunities in training will ensure that they feel level with the younger workers.
• Recognize the effort of older workers sharing the knowledge, skills and competencies is important to the continuous improvement of the companies. 

Appropriate Work Environment

• Ensure that work safety is well taken care of for all ages, e.g. work-at-height limits 
• Offer wider ranges of work flexibility – work hours, job sharing, work-from-home 
• Ensure that hiring and employee engagement activities are suitable for all ages 
• Promote health and well-being activities to keep them engaged

Plan ahead and engage the workers today! This effort on your end is an investment for the group of people who are ever ready to continuously contribute to your company’s growth with your
employment opportunity you have provided for them.

Reference:
http://population.sg/key-challenges/#.V3-CVrh95Ag