You run a facilities services or janitorial contract. You know the real cost is not the floor wax. It is turnover. A crew lead quits, a shift goes uncovered, and the client calls before 7 a.m. Reliability is the whole job. That is why veterans fit this work so well.

Veterans show up early. They follow a checklist. They own a shift. Most have run a team, tracked supplies, and met a hard standard with someone watching. That is site operations. It is also what wins your next contract renewal.

This guide is for midsize facilities and janitorial firms. You hire crews. You staff buildings. You may hold a federal contract with rules to follow. We will cover where to find veteran candidates, how to read their resumes, the roles they fill best, and the compliance basics. We will also show how Best Military Resume helps you reach them.

Why Do Veterans Fit Facilities and Janitorial Work?

Facilities work runs on three things. Accountability. Safety. Shift discipline. Veterans live those three every day they serve. The match is direct.

Think about what a building needs. Someone has to open it, clean it, secure it, and report problems. Someone has to lead a crew through a night shift with no manager on site. Someone has to hit a quality standard every time, not just when the boss walks through. That same standards-and-inspection discipline is what makes veterans a fit for hiring veterans for quality assurance and QC roles.

That is the same job a squad leader or shop chief did in uniform. They led people. They owned equipment. They kept a log. They answered for the result. The setting changes from a base to an office tower. The skill does not.

One more point. This is a high-turnover field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 351,300 openings for janitors and building cleaners each year through 2034. The demand is steady and large. The win is not just filling a seat. It is filling it with someone who stays.

Which Facilities Roles Do Veterans Fill Best?

Not every veteran wants the same job. Some want to lead. Some want hands-on technical work. Some want to run a whole site. Match the person to the role and they stay longer.

Here are the roles where veteran backgrounds line up cleanly. Start your sourcing here.

The crew lead and site manager roles are your highest value. A good site lead keeps the client happy and the crew staffed. That role is hard to fill and costly to lose. Veterans with squad or shop leadership step into it well.

Some military jobs map almost one to one. A Navy Utilitiesman runs water, plumbing, and building systems. An Equipment Operator handles heavy gear and grounds work. An Army Plumber does pipe and fixture work daily. Those are facilities skills with a uniform on.

Want to see how a specific background translates? These career pages break it down. The Navy Utilitiesman career guide and the Navy Equipment Operator guide show the building and grounds match. The Army Plumber guide and the Navy Builder (Seabee) guide cover the trades side.

Where Do You Find Veteran Candidates for These Roles?

You will not find these candidates by posting once and waiting. The best ones get hired fast. You have to go where they look for work. Then you have to make it easy to apply.

Start with a candidate pool built for this. Best Military Resume adds over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a fresh, growing supply of veteran candidates ready for site-ops and crew-lead work.

Beyond the pool, four channels work for facilities firms. Use them together, not one at a time.

SkillBridge deserves a closer look. It lets a service member work at your site during their last months in uniform. The military still pays them. You get to see them on a real shift before you commit. Learn the basics at the official DoD SkillBridge site.

How Do You Read a Veteran's Resume for Facilities Work?

This is where most firms stumble. A veteran resume can look foreign at first. The titles are codes. The duties use military words. But the work underneath is exactly what you need.

Your job is to read past the words and see the work. A "logistics specialist" tracked parts and supplies. A "squad leader" ran a small team and a shift. A "shop chief" owned tools, safety, and output. Strip the uniform off and you have a crew lead.

A note on screening software. Many firms run resumes through an applicant tracking system. That system racks and stacks candidates by keyword match. A veteran resume full of military terms can sink to the bottom of the list. It does not get rejected. It just does not surface. So have a person read the resumes of veteran applicants, not only the software.

This is the gap Best Military Resume helps close. Candidates on the platform have already translated their service into plain civilian terms. The crew-lead skills are spelled out. You read a clear resume, not a code sheet. If you want a deeper how-to, see our guide on writing a job description that attracts veterans.

How Should You Interview a Veteran for a Crew Role?

A good interview pulls out the work, not the war story. Veterans often undersell themselves. They were trained to say "we," not "I." So you have to ask the right way.

Skip the open "tell me about yourself." Ask about a shift instead. How many people did you lead? What did you do when someone did not show up? How did you handle a safety problem? Those answers tell you if they can run your site.

Ask about standards too. Veterans come from a world with strict checks. Ask how they made sure a job was done right. You will hear about inspections, logs, and checklists. That is the mindset a client wants on their building.

Do not screen out a candidate for a thin-looking resume. A short resume is often a translation gap, not a skill gap. Ask one more question before you pass. You may find a strong site lead hiding behind plain words.

What Compliance Rules Apply if You Hold a Federal Contract?

Many facilities and janitorial firms clean federal buildings. If you do, extra rules apply. This is the part midsize firms often miss. Get it right and it becomes a sourcing advantage.

The main rule is VEVRAA. That is the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act. It applies to federal contractors above a set size and contract value. Under the rules from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, a contractor with 50 or more employees and a covered federal contract above the dollar threshold must build a written affirmative action program for protected veterans. As of October 1, 2025, that threshold is $200,000.

VEVRAA also asks you to do a few practical things. List most job openings with your state employment service. That gives veterans a priority referral. Set an annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans. Keep records of your outreach. None of this is busywork if you are already trying to hire veterans.

There may also be a tax credit. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit has rewarded employers for hiring certain veterans. The credit lapsed at the end of 2025. It is not available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. It has been renewed after past lapses, so check the current status before you plan on it. Our WOTC employer guide walks through the details.

For the full picture on contractor duties, read our VEVRAA compliance guide for federal contractors. It covers the benchmark, the listings rule, and the records you keep.

How Do You Keep a Veteran Crew Member Once Hired?

Hiring is half the job. Keeping people is the other half. In a high-turnover field, the firm that holds its crew wins on cost and on client trust.

Veterans stay when the work has structure. They came from a place with clear rank, clear duties, and clear standards. Give them the same. A defined role, a path to crew lead, and honest feedback go a long way.

The first 90 days set the tone. Pair a new hire with a strong lead. Spell out what good looks like on your sites. Check in often early, not just at a review. Our 90-day onboarding plan for veteran employees gives you a ready framework.

One more move. Promote from within. A veteran custodian who proves out becomes your next site lead. They already know your standards and your clients. That promotion path is the cheapest retention tool you have.

Where Does This Fit With Your Broader Facilities Hiring?

Janitorial and site-ops crews are one piece of a larger facilities picture. You may also need building engineers, maintenance techs, and program-level managers. Veterans fill those too.

If your hiring runs broader than crews and custodians, start with our pillar guide on hiring veterans for facilities management roles. It covers the management and technical layer above the crew.

Two adjacent fields share the same talent. Grounds and outdoor crews overlap with your work. See our guide on hiring veterans for landscaping and grounds companies. Building-systems trades overlap too. See our guide for HVAC and electrical contractors. Plant sanitation and clean-room crews share the same standards-driven talent, covered in our guide on hiring veterans for food and beverage production.

Start Hiring Veteran Crews and Site Leads

Facilities work rewards the firm with the steadiest crew. Veterans give you that steadiness. They show up, they lead, and they hold a standard. The hard part is reaching them and reading their resumes right.

That is what Best Military Resume solves. Over 1,000 new veteran profiles join every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. The candidates have already put their crew-lead and site-ops work in plain civilian terms. You search clear resumes, not code sheets.

Ready to staff your next contract with veterans? Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and tell us the roles you need to fill. You can also partner with us to build a steady veteran hiring channel for your firm.