Soldiers to Software Engineers: How One Company Transitioned Heroes Into Corporate America

With that in mind, I challenged my leaders in HR to launch our “Hiring Heroes” program. Designed to encourage the recruitment and hiring of U.S. military veterans, including both wounded and active-duty personnel transitioning to the civilian workforce, the program was launched in April with a stated goal of hiring 100 veterans in 12 months. We have already surpassed that target, resulting in several success stories with new hires in diverse roles, such as sales and training, professional services and software engineering.

Many people have asked me about the reason for this program—am I a veteran? Do I have sons or daughters in the service? The answer to both of these questions is “no.” I am, however, an individual who is eternally grateful for what our vets have done. I do believe they deserve an opportunity and I also believe that corporate America has a right and a responsibility to help improve our society.

However, there’s another reason I introduced this program: I see investing in our veterans as having a great payoff. You see, I believe hiring veterans isn’t charity; it’s equal to a competitive advantage. Soldiers are known for their commitment and loyalty to their branch, their unit, and their commanding officer; this loyalty transfers with them, making them dedicated employees who are committed to the corporate cause. They are punctual, adaptable, versatile and trained to “keep calm and carry on no matter what.” And with 90% of ex-military transitioning into the commercial workforce being 35 or under, veterans represent an exciting new talent pool with high potential.

For Epicor, the practice of hiring veterans also resonates with our small to mid-sized customers—many of whom are based in the Midwest and in the distribution and manufacturing industries. As Epicor has grown substantially over the past few years to nearly a $1 billion global organization today, it’s only natural that some have wondered, is Epicor getting too big—too detached? Our commitment to hiring veterans is, in part, an answer to that; it underscores the fact that our focus on people and values is behind everything we do.

While many companies have programs and commitments for hiring veterans, Epicor’s program extends to our customers. We know our customers want to hire veterans, but in many cases, they don’t know how to get started or lack the internal resources to support a program of this nature. So we are empowering them with the tools to do so, including assistance, coaching and access to our veteran talent pool. By combining forces with our customers, we can collaborate to front-line the talents of veterans to Main Street USA.

For a veteran hiring program to be successful, there are a number of challenges that must be addressed. Some of it is changing the corporate mindset; HR managers are sometimes hesitant to hire a veteran with no direct experience for a specific job in favor of a “safe” candidate with years of corporate experience in a targeted field.

We anticipate extensive training requirements both for our HR managers and for veterans themselves. Since military training is often done in a group setting, we envision that a “boot-camp” type of training scenario may be more effective than individual, self-paced training. Obviously, adaptations must be made to address the unique physical requirements of wounded vets.

However, we see these accommodations as worthwhile to enable us to tap into the wealth of experience in the veteran community. Talent optimization is key to business success; we must recognize that veterans’ skills and talents can extend well beyond the military front lines to help corporate America’s bottom line.