The Veteran Employees: Recruitment, Career Development, Engagement, and Job Satisfaction of Veterans Transitioning to the Civilian Workforce

The transitioning of veterans, specifically as mature workers, from the military world to the civilian world, and by extension, the civilian workforce is the ultimate career transition. Despite their motivation and resilience, veterans still encounter a multiplicity of challenges when transitioning to the civilian workforce, which quite often has a rippling impact on their attainment of employment, career development, employee engagement, and job satisfaction within the civilian sector. On this premise, the purpose of this conceptual paper is two-fold: (a) discuss veterans' career transitional challenges as civilian employees, specifically, recruitment, career development, engagement, and job satisfaction, and (b) from a Human Resource Development perspective, provide strategies, interventions, and/or best practices for recruiting, developing, engaging, and satisfying the veteran employee in the civilian workforce.