Developing a veteran employment strategy

Whether you are venturing into veteran employment for the first time or you are an experienced veteran employer looking to strengthen your commitment, a Veteran Employment Strategy will ensure that your organisation’s efforts are coordinated, purposeful and effective. It also ensures that responsibility for your veteran employment initiatives is shared across the organisation. This promotes the sustainability of your initiatives and limits being overly reliant on one person to drive your veteran employment agenda. A Veteran Employment Strategy also demonstrates that your organisation has made a long-term commitment to veteran employment.

Understand the process

There are certain steps involved in developing a Veteran Employment Strategy. It is important that your Strategy aligns with your organisation’s broader mission and culture. Careful planning and extensive consultation before writing and launching the Strategy will help make it more robust and sustainable.

Depending on the size and structure of your organisation, the process for developing your Strategy might involve:

Designing a Veteran Employment Strategy

A Veteran Employment Strategy document could include the following sections.

Purpose statement

A purpose statement explains why the Veteran Employment Strategy is important to your organisation. Remember to link this statement to your organisation’s broader mission, vision and values.

Goals

Goals support your purpose statement. They outline what your organisation would like to achieve through the Strategy.

Objectives

Objectives describe the steps required to achieve the goals. They are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound (SMART).

Activities plan

The activities plan outlines actions, delineates responsibilities, establishes timelines and allocates necessary resources.

Strategy evaluation

Evaluation provides information about how the activities detailed in the implementation section will be measured against the stated objectives. 

This may include:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will ensure progress is being achieved 
• method of data collection
• reporting frequency
• process for reviewing the Strategy.

To enhance your Strategy document, you might consider including additional sections, such as a:

• foreword from your organisation’s CEO
• message from an Executive Sponsor or Veteran Employee Champion

• summary of your organisations business case.