Veterans Make Good Healthcare Hires

A healthcare leader shares the benefits of hiring military veterans: great training, discipline, and commitment.

What's the best way to thank a veteran for their service? Hire them. It will benefit your organization too, says one healthcare leader.

"There are characteristics about healthcare that are similar to the military," says Mac McMillan, CEO and cofounder of CynergisTek Inc., a healthcare privacy, security, and compliance firm headquartered in Austin, TX. "There's a singular focus on missions," he adds, admitting he has "a soft spot" for vets.

McMillan spent 21 years in the Marines, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2000. After transitioning to civilian life, he found the healthcare industry to be a natural fit, and when McMillan began hiring for his organization, he found vets often had in-demand skills in the areas of both technology and healthcare.

In honor of Veteran's Day, which is on Friday, November 11, McMillan took some time to discuss unique strengths vets bring to the table. This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

HLM: Do you seek out veterans to work for you?

McMillan: We don't seek out veterans to the expense of others. I think the better way to put it is that we always try to find the best individuals we can for the openings we have whether they have a military background or not. But, we do particularly recruit from the military ranks, or from former military folks.

And there's a lot of reasons for that. Number one, they get great training in the military, which is something they can put to work immediately when they come to the private sector.

The other things that we look for are people that can operate independently, that are responsible, that we can trust, that we can expect to do the right thing. What we've witnessed with many former military folks is that they bring all those things that they learned in military with them to the private sector. The discipline, organization, the leadership, the commitment.

Having said that, I think my organization is about 40% veterans. The majority of our workforce is not former military. But we look for those same traits in everyone we hire.

HLM: What skills do vets bring to the table that workers from a civilian background might not?

McMillan: In our organization, something we do well is that we take all skills and strengths our workforce brings to the table, and blend it very well. I think our civilian employees learn a lot from their military counterparts, and vice versa.

Every once in a while, you'll see folks who grew up on the civilian side with a resistance to picking up or deploying quickly when needed, as opposed to some of our military folks—if you call a veteran at any hour, day or night, and say, "I need you to be at hospital XYZ by tomorrow morning," they're going to get there. The military breeds that into you.

But sometimes on the civilian side, we have the idea that we're not supposed to bother people on the weekends. But I have to be careful saying that, because our civilian workers rise to the same level. They watch their military counterparts do this, do it themselves, and they don't question it like they did before.

That's one of the great things about having veterans on your team—they bring that commitment to service and to selfless action to the rest of the team that the others might not have experienced before.  

HLM: What's an unexpected benefit of previous military service future employers of soldiers are likely to enjoy?

McMillan: A strong sense of loyalty and camaraderie with other workers.

When first came to the private sector, something I was taken aback by was the lack of loyalty to organizations, or even to one another. Unlike in military where there is intense loyalty all around, I didn't see that in the private sector. I even had people tell me that loyalty is overrated. I fundamentally disagreed with that from day one.

When workers feel committed to something, both personally and from mission perspective, they will go above and beyond.