Posted on: 22/07/2025

Thought Leadership

Veterans possess unique leadership, crisis management, and project delivery skills developed in high-pressure military environments, yet public sector recruitment often fails to recognise these transferable capabilities. With over half of employed veterans reporting underemployment, the sector is missing a strategic opportunity. Veterans bring a deep public service ethos, operational excellence, and the calm needed in complex situations, making them ideal for today's public sector challenges.

By Rachael Simpson FCIPD, Principal Consultant HR

In my role supporting various public sector organisations, I'm often struck by a recurring theme: we're constantly searching for individuals with exceptional leadership abilities, crisis management expertise, and unwavering dedication to public service. Yet each year, thousands of armed forces veterans leave military life with exactly these skills, often overlooked in civilian recruitment. This isn’t just a missed opportunity. It’s a workforce challenge we can solve.

The hidden talent pool

Think about what military service truly entails. Beyond the uniforms and hierarchy lies an intensive development programme that shapes individuals into resilient leaders, meticulous planners, and committed team players. Yet their skills often go unrecognised in recruitment processes that prioritise sector-specific experience over capability and mindset.

The UK Government’s Veterans' Survey 2022 found that 29.7% of working veterans are in the public sector, yet over half reported being underemployed. The reason? A consistent theme: employers fail to recognise military-acquired transferable skills. And while 85.4% believe they bring these skills, many are still not being matched to the roles where they could thrive. With 52.5% of veterans citing that "employers did not recognise their transferable military skills" as a key reason.

What are we missing when we overlook this talent pool? And what could public sector organisations gain by better harnessing these capabilities?

Transferable Skills: The military advantage

Let's consider what veterans actually bring to the table. Far from the stereotypical image some might hold, modern military experience develops a sophisticated set of capabilities that align remarkably well with public sector needs.

Leadership that inspires through challengeIn the military, you learn to lead people through genuinely difficult situations, not just manage them in comfortable ones. This distinction matters.

Veterans develop leadership capabilities at all levels of service, often much earlier than their civilian counterparts. They learn to make decisions with limited information and clear accountability, motivate diverse teams toward common goals, and maintain composure when plans inevitably change.

What public sector department couldn't benefit from these qualities? From managing social care teams facing complex caseloads to coordinating environmental health responses, this brand of leadership—tested under pressure—offers exactly what our public services need.

Crisis Management: Keeping calm when others can't

Few civilian careers provide the level of crisis management experience that military service offers. We're not talking about handling a tricky stakeholder meeting or managing a budget shortfall—though veterans excel at these too. We're talking about developing the capacity to function effectively when systems are failing, information is incomplete, and decisions carry serious consequences.

Veterans can bring an unflappable quality to emergency situations. They assess problems methodically, implement solutions decisively, and maintain a steadying presence that spreads to colleagues. This translates powerfully into roles in emergency planning, healthcare crisis response, and public safety coordination.

Project Delivery: Mission-focused implementation

Military operations are essentially complex projects executed under challenging conditions with limited resources—sound familiar to anyone working in today's public sector?

Veterans bring a refreshing implementation focus. They're trained to plan meticulously while remaining adaptable, coordinate across different teams and functions, and maintaining both attention to detail and strategic awareness. Most importantly, they bring a relentless focus on delivering results rather than just activities.

Communication that cuts through complexity

Clear, concise communication can sometimes be frustrating in public services, where complex challenges and multiple stakeholders can lead to ambiguity. Veterans excel at distilling complex information into actionable points, briefing effectively at different organisational levels, and documenting key information systematically.

This translates well to roles involving policy development, service design, public communication, and internal reporting—areas where clarity and structure matter enormously.

The Public Service Ethos: More than just a job

Perhaps the most significant alignment between military experience and public service lies in shared values. Both are fundamentally about serving something larger than oneself.

Veterans bring a strong sense of duty, commitment to professional standards, and experience balancing individual needs with collective goals. They understand that public service isn't just about technical delivery—it's about upholding standards and values even when that's difficult or inconvenient.

This alignment makes veterans naturally suited to public sector culture in ways that transcend specific technical skills. They "get" what public service is about at a fundamental level, because they’ve lived it.

And if the public sector is serious about building a workforce rooted in service, resilience and shared purpose, then recognising veteran talent isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a strategic imperative. The question now is whether our recruitment systems are ready to see what’s already in front of us.

Source: UK: Veterans' Survey 2022. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employment-analysis-of-uk-armed-forces-veterans/employment-skills-and-volunteering-uk-armed-forces-veterans-uk-veterans-survey-2022

In Part 2, we’ll explore why public sector recruitment often overlooks veterans—and what practical changes HR teams can make to fix it.