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With growing national attention on defense and workforce preparedness, this initiative will help ensure military Veterans can transition into meaningful civilian careers—while employers gain access to proven, mission-ready talent.
Veterans aren’t a hiring exception. They’re a workforce advantage.
Challenge Factory is proud to share that our Veteran workforce efforts are expanding. With new project funding from Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), we’re launching a national initiative to scale our proven Veteran Ready approach—equipping employers across the country to better hire, retain, and support Veterans in meaningful post-service careers.
The Veteran Ready Employer Program Refresh and National Pilot is a three-year project that will update and enhance our Masterclass in Hiring to align with new federal strategies and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) transition frameworks. It will also design and test operating and delivery models needed to provide Veteran-focused training and support to employers nationwide, equipping organizations to better hire and retain Canada’s Veterans.
Three core goals guide this work:
- Update our Veteran Ready Employer program to align with VAC’s National Veterans Employment Strategy and CAF Transition Group frameworks.
- Design a scalable, sustainable operational model so employers across Canada can access consistent, high-quality support.
- Deliver a sustainability blueprint and recommendations that employers and government can activate nationwide.
What makes our approach different? We view Veterans as a strategic asset and catalyst for solving a broad range of workforce issues like:
- Employee retention struggles
- Stalled leadership pipelines
- Disengaged mid-career workers
- Outdated onboarding systems
Veterans are a hidden talent pool, and helping employers tap into their potential improves outcomes organization-wide. From training to transformation, we’re making Veteran Ready hiring part of Canada’s Future of Work.
“Helping more employers to be ‘Veteran Ready’ will empower organizations of all sizes across the country to benefit from the significant skills that Veterans offer. Veterans are used to working in high-stakes, fast-paced, collaborative environments that require resourcefulness and adaptation to changing conditions. Challenge Factory is appreciative of Veterans Affairs Canada’s support to ensure more workplaces benefit from this hidden talent.”
Lisa Taylor, Founder and CEO, Challenge Factory
Why this project matters now
In today’s labour market, employers are navigating relentless disruption, shifting workforce expectations, and the need to build resilient, future-ready teams. At the same time, jobseekers face hiring barriers that don’t reflect their capabilities. Veterans sit at the heart of this challenge: highly skilled and deeply experienced, yet too often overlooked by systems that don’t fully understand their value.
This project is about more than fixing hiring practices for today’s Veterans. It’s also about ensuring that as Canada increases its focus on defense, security, and preparedness, we’re strengthening how we welcome retired CAF members into civilian careers. When post-service employment is thoughtfully integrated into workforce strategy, it benefits not only those currently transitioning, but also those just entering military service, knowing they’ll be supported long-term.
Across sectors, there’s a growing recognition that inclusive hiring, skills translation, and career mobility are essential to national prosperity. The Veteran Ready Employer Program Refresh and National Pilot is part of this bigger picture. It aligns with broader efforts to build talent pipelines, close opportunity gaps, and prepare employers and jobseekers for an increasingly complex world of work.
Inclusion and strategy combine to create a workforce advantage that’s both economically smart and socially meaningful—for today’s workforce, and for those who will serve tomorrow.
Get involved
This project is for more than HR professionals and hiring managers. It’s also for:
- Senior leaders who want to future-proof their hiring strategies and tap into underused talent pools.
- Policymakers and influencers responsible for scalable, evidence-backed workforce solutions.
- Military Veterans who want to see real change in how their skills are recognized and valued.
- Veteran-serving organizations looking for practical tools and national alignment.
Over the next three years, we’ll be sharing lessons, insights, and opportunities to get involved—from pilot tests and training cohorts to thought leadership and policy recommendations.
Want early access to updates, opportunities, and tools? Subscribe to our newsletter or follow Challenge Factory on LinkedIn.
Interested in bringing the Veteran Ready approach to your organization or community? Contact us to start a conversation.
Help us shape a future where every employer in Canada knows what it means to be Veteran Ready, and has the tools to do it well.
Building on a legacy of Veteran and employer impact
At Challenge Factory, we believe real workforce change happens when you stop seeing talent and skills gaps as a hiring problem, and start seeing them as a career development opportunity.
For more than a decade, we’ve worked with employers and policymakers to solve workforce challenges from both sides of the labour market equation: supply and demand. Our Veteran-focused work began by listening to the lived experiences of CAF members transitioning from military service to civilian careers, and helping employers make sense of the value Veterans bring to their teams.
This approach led to:
- Experiential learning pilots that connected Veterans and transitioning older workers to explore meaningful career pathways.
- Employer-focused hiring resources, including The Canadian Guide to Hiring Veterans, MasterClass in Hiring, and Hidden Talent: A Challenge Factory Podcast.
- The Veteran Friendly Ontario Challenge, which strengthened small business owners’ Veteran hiring practices, built Veterans’ small business acumen, and enhanced coordination across employers, government, and military partners.
Our programs don’t just create awareness. They change behaviour and approaches. They support both individual career journeys and strategic workforce planning. That’s the Challenge Factory difference.
About Challenge Factory
Challenge Factory is an internationally trusted advisory and research firm that supercharges talent across organizations, industries, and economies. Our clients don’t worry about the Future of Work. They shape it.
www.challengefactory.ca
Contact
Emma James
Public Policy and Research Associate
Challenge Factory
416-217-0777
[email protected]
