Lisa Taylor

The Canadian Guide to Hiring Veterans: Designed for Small Teams Lisa Taylor

Veterans form one of Canada's most adaptable, versatile, and hidden talent pools. They're also looking for work by the thousands. This is a vital opportunity that can help employers of all stripes meet their organizational needs in today's challenging and changing world of work.

The Canadian Guide to Hiring Veterans is designed to help organizations that have limited human resources and recruitment capacity build strong, resilient teams that include Veterans who are skilled and ready to fill labour or skills shortages. This easy-to-use resource offers: 1) practical, reusable tools for finding, hiring, and retaining Veterans (including a hiring checklist, interview guide, onboarding framework, and more); 2) myth-busting research about Veterans in the civilian workforce; and, 3) additional resources compiled in one convenient place for connecting with Veterans, job services, and other human resources tools.

The second important purpose of this Guide is to help destigmatize Veterans both in and outside the workplace, and to clarify exactly why they make such a valuable yet hidden talent pool and recruitment source in Canada. Drawing on Challenge Factory's ground-breaking national research about employer hiring biases and the unique working style of Veterans, this Guide explores perceptions about Veterans in the civilian workforce, why employers in need of talent and Veteran jobseekers are missing each other, and lessons that can be learned from existing Veteran hiring programs.