(This article originally appeared in Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. Learn more about the magazine here; learn more about joining MOAA here.)

By Maj. Staci Reidinger, USMC (Ret)

You’ve hung up your uniform for a new challenge. Unless you are working for the federal government or a federal contractor, you likely are working for a company with very few, if any, other veterans.

At first, you might be excited to be in a civilian company speaking nothing of DoD. But as weeks pass, and you become more ingrained in your company’s mission, you might realize your coworkers are living their lives without a true understanding of the military and how it supports our nation. And, for a brief period, you too might begin to forget about all those great qualities you acquired while serving. That’s a loss to both you and your company.

Servicemembers step outside of a cultural bubble when they separate or retire. When you served, you were surrounded by others who served and supported service. Civilians often are focused on helping their company succeed. It’s very different. Outside of an academic environment, where most people learn about the military based on major wars and conflicts, many civilians have little exposure to the military community, what servicemembers do, or why they do it.

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It’s up to you to bridge the gap and add value to your company and your country. Here are three ways to build an awareness of and support for military service in your new workplace.

1. Find out who, if anyone, acts as a veteran representative. Set up a time to meet with this person to find out what programs are currently offered to educate employees in the company about military service. Some veteran representatives are focused mostly on recruiting veterans or connecting them with company-related benefits. If your company doesn’t currently offer any programs to build military awareness, find out if there is interest from company leadership, and volunteer to take on this role.

2. Get other veterans involved. One way to get other veterans involved is to ask human resources about setting up a meeting with other veterans. They usually can provide a list of veterans in the company who have self-reported as having military service. From here, hold an informal meeting to find out their level of interest in sharing their experiences. Another benefit of getting together with other veterans is to gauge how the company has done things in the past and how these veterans would like to assist with future educational and outreach engagements. 

3. Develop an outreach plan. After verifying your company leadership’s interest in having a military awareness program and gauging the level of veteran engagement, either develop or enhance a plan to touch on key areas you feel employees would most benefit from knowing.    

Maj. Staci Reidinger, USMC (Ret), is the public relations and social media director at The UPS Store Inc. headquarters in San Diego.