How Employers Can Bridge the Gap to Hire and Retain Military Spouses

The spouses of military service members experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment, largely due to the frequent relocations inherent in military life.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, a conservative estimate of the unemployment rate for military spouses is 21%. These individuals often report being underpaid, having to work outside their career field, and lacking opportunities for career advancement.

With each move, military spouses—92% of whom are women—must often start again, securing new employment, reliable child care, and a new support network. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Military spouses are an untapped source of valuable talent for organizations struggling to attract and retain skilled employees in today’s competitive job market.

One problem is that very few employers tailor recruitment and retention strategies to military spouses. According to research conducted earlier this year by SHRM and the SHRM Foundation and sponsored by USAA, nearly 3 in 4 organizations have not implemented any strategies to recruit and hire military spouses, and nearly 2 in 3 have not implemented strategies to retain them. Less than half of the 1,076 HR professionals SHRM surveyed agreed that their organization understands the unique challenges that military spouses face.  

“This research demonstrates the essential role HR can play in addressing the military spouse employment crisis,” said Wendi Safstrom, president of the SHRM Foundation. “It is clear there is a gap in understanding that is creating barriers. HR professionals are critical to change that reality by increasing awareness and implementing targeted strategies so [that] military spouses can be recognized as the highly skilled and resilient talent pool they are.”

Most organizations (77%) that SHRM surveyed expressed interest in employing military spouses, yet only 13% agreed their organization succeeds in hiring from this group. This disparity can be explained in part by the fact that only 16%of organizations have a program in place for hiring and retaining military spouses.

“Formal programs not only ensure that a company is prioritizing military spouse employment, but it also is an opportunity for organizations to create best practices, set goals, and ensure proper education and training for talent acquisition and leadership teams,” said Marcus Ohlenforst, military and diversity workforce strategist at USAA. “There are incredible resources available through organizations like Hiring Our Heroes that can help companies take the first steps [toward] formalizing their focus on military spouse employment.”

Many employers have dedicated programs for military veterans, but military spouses need their own, said Allison Chamberlayne, director of operations at Hiring our Heroes, an initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to help veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses find meaningful employment.

“There are unique challenges faced by military spouses, and we’ve developed a lot of programming targeted specifically to that population,” said Chamberlayne, a former military spouse herself. “Programs for veterans are not a cookie-cutter fit for a military spouse.”

Navigating Hurdles

Military spouses have long faced employment barriers.

“More spouses than I can count have told me that they were denied jobs or had offers rescinded when the employer learned that the person was a military spouse,” said Alice Riethman, SHRM-CP, an employment attorney and consultant at Kilborn Riethman Consulting in Spokane, Wash., and the spouse of a U.S. Air Force pilot.

“Employers think, ‘They’re just going to leave,’ ” she said.

Riethman listed additional obstacles to employment, including the lack of a local network, limited access to child care, gaps in employment, foreign relocations where sometimes working is legally prohibited, and licensing and certification issues across states.

“Military spouses are missing that piece of the American Dream to have two incomes to support their family,” Chamberlayne said. “Military spouses want to grow in their careers just like any other person. They want the chance for promotions and additional responsibilities and additional pay. But employers must understand they’re not doing charity here. By hiring a military spouse, you’re not lowering your standards for the job or doing community service. You’re going to get a win with that hire.”

Military spouses are generally well-educated and have a growth mindset. Approximately 34% of them have a bachelor’s degree and 15% have an advanced degree—slightly higher than the national averages. They also tend to be open to upskilling and reskilling, often having to seek additional training and education.

Ohlenforst added that military spouses have a variety of valuable soft skills. “They are extremely flexible, resilient, and creative problem-solvers thanks to the unique challenges of military life,” he said.

Recruiting Challenges and Solutions

According to SHRM, the top challenges that HR professionals identified when recruiting military spouses include:

*Not knowing that military spouses have applied because there typically isn’t a way to self-identify.

*A lack of awareness about programs or partnerships that could help them better recruit or hire military spouses and where to post jobs to attract military spouses as applicants.

*The inability to offer military spouses flexible or remote schedules.

Employers can consider changing resume-screening practices to include a way to self-identify, so as not to filter out this group of applicants.

“In HR, we are taught to review resumes looking for gaps in employment and frequent job moves as a sign of unreliability or an indication that someone may be trying to hide something,” Riethman said. “The reality for many military spouses is that a gap in employment is often inevitable when the family relocates due to the active-duty member’s service.”

She encouraged employers to provide a box to check to allow an applicant to indicate that they are a military spouse: “This will allow the person doing the review to better contextualize gaps in employment, more frequent job changes, and/or inconsistent career progression.”

Riethman added that if employers do provide a way for military spouses to self-identify, it should be accompanied with a clear message of support for military spouses, or else the assumption might be that the acknowledgement will be used as a reason for the employer to remove them from consideration.

Another tactic is to include a military spouse already in an organization’s ranks to sit on the interview panel for every position for which there is another military spouse being considered.

“Having a second military spouse in the room can help offset bias and encourage the panel to consider the factors of military life,” Riethman said.

Adding a military spouse section to your careers page is another effective strategy.

HR professionals should also proactively build connections with local community-based organizations that support military spouses and work with specialized job boards to find applicants from this group, said Kerri Nelson, director of mission research at SHRM.

Riethman added that the family support services office at nearby military installations “are a goldmine” of military spouse talent, and national programs such as the Military Spouse Employment Partnership and Hiring Our Heroes are fantastic resources.

Many jobs can be adapted to fit the unique needs of military spouses. “While not every organization will be able to offer military spouses flexible or remote schedules, it is important to examine how much flexibility can be offered in each open position and to separate out management preferences from actual job requirements,” Nelson said. “When possible, offer remote positions, advertise existing remote or flexible roles during recruitment efforts, and be open to modifying positions to allow for remote work arrangements.”

Retention Challenges and Solutions

The majority of HR professionals at organizations that have employed military spouses find it more challenging to retain them than other employees, primarily due to frequent relocations.

But it’s important to recognize that military spouses are not more likely to leave their jobs compared to other employees in the same demographic, said Casey Sword, senior specialist for enterprise research solutions at SHRM and a lead on SHRM’s research on the topic. Usually, a military spouse’s stay at a duty station ranges from two to four years—longer than the median employment tenure for all similarly aged women in the U.S., which is between one and three years, she said.

“It’s still important for organizations to encourage military spouses to share information about potential life changes as soon as they arise,” Sword said. “This allows ample time to explore alternative solutions to potential employment disruptions and helps employers and military spouses plan to make transitions as smooth as possible.”

SHRM found that the top strategies organizations can implement to retain military spouses are providing flexible scheduling or remote options, maintaining military spouse-specific employee resource groups, and offering child care support.

“Flexibility and portability are so important to military spouse households,” Chamberlayne said. “In this particular work dynamic, where the service member is on call a majority of the time, the caretaking in the family falls upon the military spouse,” she said.

Riethman said that employers should consider granting time off and flexibility for military moves and the service member’s deployment when the spouse is left alone or as a caregiver to children. “Frequent unplanned and last-minute changes for service members may mean the employee needs added flexibility when urgencies and emergencies arise, like when a child is sick,” she said.

A lot of what employers are already doing is applicable to military spouses, Chamberlayne said: “You don’t have to design an entirely new dedicated program just for military spouses—paid time off for relocations, child care benefits, or health savings accounts are good for all workers.”

Employers should understand and comply with Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) military leave provisions and consider offering additional support, such as permanent change of station leave and deployment leave.

“Train managers on FMLA military leave provisions,” Riethman said. “As we know, oftentimes, an uninformed manager can deny an employee’s request before it ever reaches HR.”