There are hundreds of thousands of skilled and qualified veterans in need of a job and one industry that hasn’t tapped into the potential is the agricultural industry. But this can change according to Lisa Rosser, a 16-yeat human resources (HR) professional and a military veteran who spent 22 years in the active Army and Army Reserve.
Rosser founded the company “The Value of a Veteran” because she wants to help companies understand what military veterans have to offer an organization. She also helps companies translate military skills into civilian positions. In addition, she works with companies in all varied industries on how to market and source military talent. Rosser did just this during the AgCareers.com HR & Food Roundtable.
According to Rosser, the military has over 7,000 job positions across more than 100 plus functional areas and 81 percent of these jobs have a direct civilian equivalent. The challenge is helping companies understand the parallel between job skills and experience and how to apply them to the jobs they are looking for. With a shortage in skilled talent in the agriculture industry, Rosser says veterans and ag are a perfect fit.
During her presentation, Rosser walked HR professionals through a “cheat-sheet” per se of the language veterans use versus the jobs they need to fill. She also laid out a “map” to help companies hire veterans. I asked Rosser for a industry challenge when it comes to hiring veterans.
“For me it’s always understand why this might be a good business case for you to do this. What talent problems do you have to solve and could veterans potentially be part of the solution? So with many industries its a changing industry, maybe they have a graying workforce and they don’t know how they are going to replace all these skilled workers,” said Rosser. “That is where military can be part of the solution because we have very young, very talented, very skilled adaptable learners, who with a little bit of training, a little bit of on the job experience could be a really good fit….If you’re willing to make the investment at home, veterans can be a really good asset to you.”
Listen to my interview with Lisa Rosser: The Value of a Veteran
Visit the AgCareers.com Ag & Food HR Roundtable photo album.