How Workday's Military Skills Mapper can Reduce Hiring Bias

Workday has introduced a new tool for organisations to identify skills in military veterans when hiring. 

The tool, called the Military Skills Mapper, translates a veteran's military background into civilian-equivalent skills, which Workday says will better enable companies to understand the leadership and technical expertise military veterans can provide to a business. 

Joe Wilson, Global Chief Technology Officer at Workday, who also serves in the US Air Force Reserve, says of the tool: “Veterans bring hard-earned skills – leadership, adaptability and teamwork – that don't always show up clearly in traditional hiring processes. 

“With the Military Skills Mapper, we're using Workday innovation to make those capabilities unmistakably visible to the organisations that need them most.”

Military talent pools

According to Workday, more than 200,000 service members are transitioning into civilian life each year. 

These veterans come with skills and capabilities that have been built up in high-stakes environments. However, these skills don’t always translate into the language used on civilian job descriptions, making it difficult for hiring managers to recognise veteran potential. 

Research from Taylor & Francis group supports this, finding that around 62% of employers feel veterans need more education and training before they are fully qualified for non-military roles.

This tool uses AI to analyse a candidate's background against specific job descriptions to identify transferable skills, making military veteran candidates' qualifications clearer to hiring teams so they can better tap into fresh talent pools. 

Increases in skills-first hiring

Workday’s Military Skills Mapper has been announced as many organisations look to transform their hiring strategy, with a focus on skills rather than credentials. 

Research from the World Economic Forum finds that 22% of jobs will be disrupted by 2030, due to developments in technology and a rising green transition. 

Many leaders are turning to a skills-first approach when seeking out talent to combat this and ensure they have a future-ready workforce. 

Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, has said that he is focused on hiring talent that is technologically literate.

Speaking to Business Insider in October, he said candidates who will do best in this environment are those who are “adaptable, forward-thinking, ready to learn and ready to embrace these [AI] tools”.

Unilever has also reshaped its talent strategy with an increased focus on candidate skills. 

To achieve this, the company has built a framework of over 600 skills that it is prioritising in employees for the future, allowing it to focus on specific abilities in talent when hiring, rather than experience. 

Called the ‘inventories of skills’ approach, the company breaks roles down into specific skill sets, looking at the tasks prospective candidates can complete. Unilever has said that this approach increased effective talent placement by 107%.

Reducing time taken to hire

Tapping into the military talent pool could make the hiring process more straightforward for recruiters, particularly as many say finding skilled candidates is becoming harder. 

A survey conducted by LinkedIn in January revealed that four out of five recruiters agree that finding qualified talent is becoming increasingly challenging, despite the fact that the number of applicants per open role has doubled since 2022. 

Alongside this, 63% of recruiters say they feel unprepared to manage the pressures of their job in 2026 – as nine out of 10 of those surveyed say they plan to increase their use of AI. 

AI-based tools such as the military skills mapper could make a significant difference in reducing workforce bias and relieving HR pressures by making military based skills more understandable in the context of hiring.