The military spouse community is a tight-knit tribe filled with qualified, diverse, and eager-to-work candidates. Did you know there are almost 600,000 active duty spouses and over 300,000 Guard and Reserve spouses across the audience? Whether you’re an employer, school, or franchise, this is one talent pool that should pique your interest.
Here are 7 Best Practices for Recruiting Military Spouses
1) Expand Your Brand Awareness
While this might seem obvious, effectively marketing your brand to your target audience will help to familiarize the spouse community with your brand, start to build trust, and allow you to highlight your available opportunities, offerings, and programs in an impactful way.
2) Highlight Benefits That Are Attractive to Military Spouses
It’s no secret that effective marketing campaigns are tailored to an organization’s target audience, that’s why it’s so important to highlight the benefits of your position, school, or franchise that may be particularly attractive to military spouses, such as flexible scheduling, remote work options, or relocation assistance.
3) Customize Your Marketing Message
Use language in job postings and marketing materials that shows an understanding of the unique challenges military spouses face, such as frequent moves and deployments. A better understanding of the unique military spouse niche will allow you to craft a stronger message and put your best foot forward.
4) Partnerships
Partnering with established brands in the military space lets schools, employers, and franchises leverage the name-recognition, trust, and first-party data these organizations bring and reach a larger audience of qualified candidates.
5) Leverage Military Hiring Events
Connect with potential candidates one-on-one, screen candidates, and add prospects to your pipeline all from the comfort of your computer. Not only does leveraging military hiring events help expand your brand awareness, but it allows you to meet active-job seekers in real-time and provide information about your opportunities.
6) Offer Training and Development Opportunities
Offering military spouse-specific training and development opportunities isn’t only a huge draw for potential employers or students, but it allows them to build their skills, advance their careers, and help you retain talent.
7) Foster a Culture of Inclusivity
Fostering a culture of inclusivity and understanding that recognizes the sacrifices and unique challenges faced by military spouses is attractive to prospects, and provides support and flexibility to help them succeed. When individuals feel known and respected, organizations thrive.
With a large pool of skilled and talented individuals, military spouses are a valuable demographic that should not be overlooked. They bring adaptability, resilience, leadership, cross-cultural competency, transferable skills, and strong problem-solving skills to the table, making them ideal candidates for a variety of roles. By offering them opportunities and support, companies and schools can tap into a large and untapped pool of talent that can bring value to their organizations.
If your interested in learning more about the military spouse audience or learning how you can start targeting and attracting qualified candidates, fill out the form below and one of our military recruitment experts will reach out to you with more information.
