Ready to serve: Why military spouses are an overlooked talent pool

After a decade as a stay-at-home mom, Charlene Wilde, like so many mothers, had a hard time finding her way back to the workforce. But making the transition even harder was her role as a military spouse, which had required her family to move every few years.

“I was so thankful that I was able to be at home and provide stability in our house for our kids,” Wilde says. “But when I was ready to join the workforce again, I didn’t have many opportunities.”

Wilde is one of the 1.8 million military spouses in the United States. An Army veteran herself, Wilde left the service after giving birth to her first child, to avoid both she and her husband from being deployed at the same time. Over the course of her husband’s 30-year military career, he was deployed four times.

“It’s a family ordeal and the whole family serves,” Wilde says. “Often, military spouses move around every two to three years and so because of that, the choices that spouses have to make are, I can try and find a local position or I can choose to stay at home.”

Read more: Returning to work: How to retain valuable military veterans

That choice comes with tough consequences: military spouse unemployment was 24% as of May 2020, compared to 13.3% for non-military during the same period, according to the Department of Labor. Ninety-percent of military spouses are women, who often choose to leave the workforce to care for their children. And more than a third of military spouses have professional certifications that don’t cross state lines, leaving them unable to work when they do resettle, DOL data found.

For those spouses who do want to work, they often feel uncomfortable explaining to a boss why they can only stay in a role for a temporary period, or may need special accommodations, like more flex time and WFH arrangements, Wilde says. While COVID has made these arrangements much easier, it’s important for military spouses to communicate their needs, and for HR leaders and managers to listen.

“Things are changing and it used to be something that you were kind of afraid to say,” Wilde says. “But it’s so important to be upfront and honest about your needs and how to make the job a good fit from the start. It shouldn’t be a shock if someone says, ‘My husband is traveling this month, or is being deployed,’ because that way you can make an arrangement and be flexible.”

Read more: Helping employees reach work-life balance

Wilde now works as senior vice president and assistant secretary at American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association, a financial services firm for military members and their families. While she actively promotes the programs and support available to active and retiring service members, she recognizes that spouses are often left out of the conversation.

“There are so many programs for transitioning military members and retiring military that forget that the service member has a family or is married,” she says. “But a lot of programs now are open to both transitioning veterans and their wives, which is refreshing to see this shift of looking at the whole family from a holistic point of view.”

As her husband plans to retire, Wilde says her family is working together through the transition. Instead of traveling for half the month, her husband will be home, and is eager to provide the same support that she has given him, she says.

“I actively sought my new career path after being a stay at home mom, and it was a journey of discovering myself again,” Wilde says. “Now that we’re entering his retirement, he’s like, you followed me around for so many years, it’s time to focus on your career.”