Essay Sample on the Issue of Recruitment of American Veterans in the Workplace

The Population: The primary population, in this case, is the American veterans in a workplace environment.

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The Intervention: Recruitment of these veterans is the main intervention of the research

Comparison/ Control: The American veterans are compared to the non-military veterans

The Outcome: How to overcome biases in hiring, for instance how the veterans manage post-traumatic Stress disorders (PTSD).

Context: There are many sources of benefits.

Recruitment of American Veterans in the Workplace

In the United States, a veteran is any person who served honorably and undertook an active duty in the United States armed forces. In this regard, a descriptive representation of the veteran population is essential owing to the fact that their demographic variables such as their age, race, and gender, among others, can have a significant impact on the individual's employment status. While most of the veterans are highly regarded in the society one of the most significant challenges that most of them face is finding formal employment after leaving the military. For a majority of the veterans, who are deemed as transitioning service members, employment is the critical factor that allows them to reintegrate into civilian society. Over the recent past, the United States has seen an influx of the military veterans who have returned home after serving the nation for years. One commonality that these veterans have is the search for employment, and for this reason, many career development professionals have increasingly focused on assisting the veterans in their transition into civilian careers.

The current HRD research increasingly focuses on the experiences of those veterans who are transitioning from their military service into the civilian workforce. This research has proved to be overly essential since it helps fill the knowledge gap in better understanding the actual things that happen to those service members who are exiting the military service and joining the civilian employment landscape. In the same vein, further research that is being conducted serves as a means of informing HRD practitioners' development of the new models of support that can be used to assist the career transitioning veterans within civilian organizations. Additionally, this increased knowledge is needed to understand how unique veteran populations, such as women veterans and veterans with disabilities, are faring in obtaining gainful employment (Davis & Minnis, 2016). For military service members who are either preparing to transition, those who are in the process of transitioning or those who have already transitioned out of the service can provide critical insight into their preparation resources and needs for assistance along with their mental and emotional concerns about exiting the military service. Drawing from this conceptual base, veterans who are already in the workplace can be used as information sources to inform researchers about their experiences as they engaged in the job search process, their challenges and also with reference to their feelings related to moving into civilian employment and leaving the military experiences behind

Intervention: Recruitment

Recruitment of the veterans in workplaces is the primary intervention in this regard. More specifically, military veterans suffer higher rates of unemployment owing to the fact that a majority of the civilian hiring managers often have little or no knowledge regarding the numerous roles as well as the expertise that military veterans draw from their military service. Besides, numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings plague both the military veterans as well as the civilian employers when it comes to recruiting the ex-military personnel. Dillon, (2007) points out that the work performed by veterans as well as the skills needed for one to succeed in the military work environments are highly unknown to a majority of the civilians. Besides, what a majority of the employers do not understand is that some of the military positions in which service members' work have similar corresponding positions as those in the civilian employment sector.

In the modern day today, a majority of the veterans in the United States, suffer PTSD and depression but they are expected to build a civilian life for themselves or even find a viable profession (Zatzick et al., 2014). This being said, as these veterans leave the military and reintegrate to regular civilian lives, finding employment becomes the number one priority for a majority of them (Rausch, 2014). Therefore, drawing from this conceptual base, the general point of interest in this regard is how PTSD and depression impact the employment prospects of veterans. Besides, it is important to understand how readmission due to recurrent and adverse episodes of PTSD affects how the veterans' effectiveness in their job sectors, possibly after successfully joining the civilian workforce. Menna (2012) contends that among the numerous areas that are affected by the prevalence of PTSD, one of the many areas that the disorder affects is the place of employment. This, in essence, is mainly identified when the newly employed veterans are readmitted continuously due to recurrent PTSD and depression episodes. Also, an increasingly growing research scope substantiates that veterans facing PTSD and depression are at higher risks of experience challenges in various phases of their lives especially after transitioning from military service into the civilian workforce (Sayer et al. 2010). For this reason, immediate and vital steps need to be taken to avert instances of recurrence of PTSD and depression.

In relation to the recruitment process or the job search process, scholars contend that veterans have unique considerations that can essentially affect their ability to navigate the recruitment and the job search difficulties successfully. Despite the fact that military personnel often benefit from gaining numerous skills that can later be used efficiently in the civilian workforce, problems relating to their recruitment often arise when they are not able to accurately describe their military skills and experiences to the usual civilian employers. To a broader extent, a majority of the veterans face challenges when it comes to translating their unique language and acronyms that they are often accustomed to during their military services. They usually have difficulties translating these military jargons into a language that is easily understood by their civilian counterparts.

Comparison

Today in America, Veterans continue to experience high rates of unemployment at a rate higher than that compared to their civilian counterparts. Despite the fact that many employers acknowledge the fact that recruiting and offering employment to veterans is an overly patriotic move, many companies are still hesitant when it comes to hiring veterans. In particular, a majority of the companies are usually only able to hire veterans when they are aiming at a business-related motivation. Besides, Dillon (2007) contends that, despite the fact that many veterans are employed, those veterans who served after September 11, 2001, suffer higher employment problems as compared to those other veterans from prior wars or even compared to their civilian peers. As facts would have it, the unemployment rate among the veterans post 9/11 is typically at least one entire percentage point higher than the non-veterans.

Besides, American veterans have opportunities to learn new skills and also acquire technical training throughout their military training that may be useful after leaving the task force. Nonetheless, for many veterans, the need and the desire to acquire new employment knowledge and skills for civilian employment is something they consider mandatory. Thus, in this regard, a successful transition from the armed forces and into the civilian workforce can significantly impact the viability and potential of the veterans as potential candidates in their job searches. When compared to their civilian peers, Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals help the veterans during their job search by providing career development, organizational education as well as hiring support to create a vast understanding of the veteran transition into the civilian workplace. Besides, this also helps in easing the transition process for the veterans.

In a 2016 study done by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was found that in the modern day, veterans actually have lower unemployment rates at 3.6% lower than the overall Americans, who faced an overall rate of about 5% (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015). This, according to various modern-day studies, reflected the ongoing efforts to train members of the American armed forces with valuable job skills before they can eventually join the workforce, alongside new initiatives by business and non-profits to get veterans jobs as well as the changing attitudes among day to day Americans with regard to the value that the veterans bring to the civilian workforce.

Besides, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics points out that the unemployment rate for veterans who had an active duty while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces as from September 2001, or the veteran group that was commonly referred to as a Gulf War-era II veterans, has significantly edged down to an average of 4.5% in the previous year, 2017. Based on this context, reports substantiate that the jobless rate among all veterans declined from 4.3% to about 3.7% in 2017. Also, approximately 41% of the Gulf War-era II veterans showed a service-connected disability in August 2017, as compared to all the United States veterans in total (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018).

The Outcome

According to scholars, American Veterans, especially those who served after 9/11 and also those who served most recently in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, are in many occasions, vulnerable to numerous behavioural health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorders (SUD), and depressive disorders, among the various other most common diagnoses found among a majority of the veterans. In particular, PTSD is the most common disorder experienced by many veterans. The National Institute of Mental Health contends that despite the fact that PTSD can affect anyone regardless of their gender, occupation, or even age, veterans are most vulnerable to suffering the disorder due to their experiences living through dangerous events. Besides, while fear is a normal reaction to perceived danger, veterans with PTSD often feel stressed, depressed or frightened, even when they are no longer exposed to such kind of dangers. This, in essence, has significant impacts on the recruitment of the American veterans in workplaces.

Statistically, PTSD prevalence rates among service members who have recently joined the civilian workforce are estimated by various scholars but overly vary widely. With reference to a major study done on 60, 000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, 13.5% of both the deployed and non-deployed veterans tested positive for PTSD. Similarly, more than 500, 000 United States troops who served in the Iraq-Afghanistan wars over the past 13 years have been, or are currently diagnosed with PTSD (Rausch, 2014).

How Veterans Manage Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD)

A majority of the veterans are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression related disorders mostly after their deployment (Zatzick et al., 2014). In most cases, this disorder ranges from mild to severe regarding both the effects and the symptom. Despite the fact that the effects and the symptoms of depression can be treated through psycholo...