Colonel Shiv Choudhary (Retd)
Approximately 50,000 soldiers comprising officers, junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and other ranks (OR) from Indian army and a lesser number from navy and air force retire every year and become military veterans. A veteran is a person who is no longer serving in army. Or become veterans between 36-43 years of age, JCOs at about 46 years and officers up to Colonel Rank at 54. In comparison all the CAPFs personnel retire at the age of 60 years as per the Government order of Aug 2019.
There are around 20 lakh veterans of whom nearly 18 lakh are wounded, incapacitated, medically invalidated and normal retirees and 2 lakh war widows/ widows in the age group of 20 to 80. These 18 lakh people are trained, disciplined, loyal and experienced and battled hardened. They have served under temperatures ranging from minus 30 degree to plus 50 degree obtaining in all conceivable terrains and relocated practically every two years. They also have the acumen and experience in dealing with any situation and location and emergency at varied levels.
The soldiers due to the service conditions and need to maintain a young age profile are driven to become veterans at comparatively young age by the national security needs of keeping the army young. This is the age when personal responsibilities are overwhelming and salary cuts to half. Pension or retirement accruals are no substitutes for much needed second career to utilize their available potential. Moreover, at best not more than 20 percent veterans would be seeking a second career.
Military veterans are treated differently by different countries due to the service they render and sacrifices they make. In the UK, “Remembrance Day” is held on 11th Nov. In Russia, newly married couples would visit a military cemetery on their wedding day. In France, those wounded in war are given the first claim on any seat on public transit. India has its 14th Jan as its veterans day. In fact most countries have a holiday such as Veterans Day to honor their veterans, along with the war dead.
Every year the Indian corporate sector looks for the best and brightest persons coming out of business schools but it ignores an available group of well tested and experienced veterans. It seems that nothing really is being done to assist veterans in their transition back into civilian life. These former soldiers get dismayed looking back at the accolades they received while they were in uniform and totally indifferent treatment on turning veterans. What perhaps hurts and shocks them the most is the attitude of the government, policy makers and corporate world in not using this national resource which had inherent capability, capacity, competence and adaptability to withstand any challenge.
Corporate houses may not regularly come into contact with veterans. When they are looking to hire new employees, those with military experience are often not top-of-mind. They are ignorant on how the military trains its men and women to be flexible, collaborative and perform under pressure. It has also been seen that corporate employers are a little bit hesitant to accept veterans but don’t want the veterans taken on board to leave them. There are enough success stories too borne out of training, people skills, screening, and interview and selection process of soldiers.
There is a need to examine the benefits of military leavers’ experience and training to private industry with an aim to aid and encourage productive employment relationships. May be the veterans need to start a ‘Veterans Connect House’ about their large number and rich experiences to assist industry in finding suitable second career. Imagine having years of experi-ence and no takers.
The bigger question is; what is so special and valuable about veterans to be taken for a second career. Unfortunately, neither have we compulsory few years for all in army for recruiting positions, nor do we have head hunters with military experience. Similarly, neither the understanding of military attributes can be assumed, nor military veterans are apt to present their experience to corporate HR staff. Unknowingly posting of Records of Services by veterans as CV does not make much sense to the business world. There is a need to have a structured induction programme based on own veterans data and needs like USA Home Depot, Subject Matter Experts and General Motors of USA have to recruit military veterans. There are lessons for corporate business and decision makers to learn from veterans in recruitment and retaining millennials, constant upgrading and task orientation.
Another intriguing question is what do the veterans bring to the table? They bring an enviable passion into the workplace. The veterans are goal oriented, focused, adapt at changing situations and rational decision makers. They don’t become “yes men” or shy away from accepting failures and flagging mistakes. They are best at embracing new organization and leg up on all competitions. Some have overseas experience, language skills and intimate knowledge of large professional business markets, health and safety protocols and maintaining a drug free work place. Veterans exercise strict financial control, meet timelines, chase goals and are not lone wolves.
Another basket of big traits of veterans includes their ability to handle pressure and complex situations, cross functional, wearing multiple hats like operations, administration, communications, analysts and mission orientation. Their aptness at effective intelligence, organizing, quick reaction time, integrity and dependability make every HR manager envious. Veterans are technology savvy too in engineering, communication, GIS, electronics, aviation, IT, project management, SCM, e- commerce, e-tendering, cyber security and risk management.
The question then is if service members tend to be highly trainable, responsible, selfless, and good at taking criticism, why do many of them have trouble attracting the attention of hiring managers? Firstly, many veterans don’t view their experience as being unique or impressive-making it difficult to sell themselves in market. Another hurdle is that hiring managers unfamiliar with the military structure, level of responsibilities handled and rank equivalence, often struggles to understand these correctly. They perhaps need to refer to the Directory of Equation of Service Trades with Civil Trades created by the Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) for smooth induction into parallel civil jobs.
Veterans need to appreciate that transitioning from a military career to the civilian world is a lot harder than one can imagine. The problem gets further compounded when seeking a career around 40-50 years of age. This is why senior officers though having tremendous top level experience in multiple domains, take time to find suitable jobs in non-military job market. The problem gets further compounded for non- technical JCOs and OR due to their inherent mismatching skills.
Some efforts are on but sadly those are not sufficient. Gen SF Rodrigus had started a practice of deputing senior army officers to go to various chambers of commerce and industry to apprise their captains on capabilities of service officers to promote their employment prospects. Going by the training standard, reputation, leadership and deeply embedded Indian Military Academy Credo of ‘nation first’, Amazon has launched a veteran’s programme with 15000 veterans currently on its role globally for phenomenally breathtaking results.
Skilling programmes is going on under the ambit of NSDC since 2016 through its training partners under the model of technical training partners with focus to empower, orient, counsel and enable veteran. A separate Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) has been created for logging on any issue. The DGR, an apex body at the MoD level is empowering veterans but it has own limitations, mired in internal management issues and procedural hazards. Army Welfare Placement Organization , has pan India out-reach to numerous Army Welfare Placement Nodes and almost 50 Army Welfare Placement Satellite Nodes and is providing jobs to veterans and veer naries.
Military to Corporate (M2C) is another initiative taken by a group of veteran officers and senior corporate professions to help military friendly companies in tapping veterans. The veterans need to be responsible enough to upgrade their skills to shed perception of being ideal only for security, gate keeping and administrative roles. They must become Subject Matter Experts instead of generalists with a working attitude in a non-military environment.
The society certainly needs to utilize the tremendous experience of veterans in their 40s and 50s for gainful employment. They can make very valuable contribution in the nation building. Nevertheless we must appreciate that the military experience and record of performance in service, however impressive, does not automatically make useful contribution in the business world. Veterans have to add value to them by acquiring knowledge of business management practices, which fortunately is not difficult. Veterans need to acquire needed education and be job fit. Businesses are after all a stylized form of warfare and the principles of war are equally applicable in business world.
USA President, Abraham Lincoln in 1865, called for good treatment of veterans: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan”. The world’s best business schools require their students to read Sun Tsu’s book on “Art of War” and in our own case Kautilyas Arthshastra. By the same token, military veterans should learn and equip themselves as much about businesses as they can with business related knowledge, they become more readily employable. There is also an immediate need to project the image of veterans and their potential properly and widely by the DGR, army media and soldiers turned corporate captains. We cannot forget the veterans. It is time for government and corporate sectors to look at them as a readily available trained national resource. The employable must be employed. I end quoting George Washington: “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
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