Reimagining the Veteran Journey
Making the transition from the military to the workforce easier
Building Research Momentum
Inspired by Kay’s work on bias and belonging, Kelley, a Navy veteran and United States Naval Academy graduate, suggested applying Kay’s insights on bias to veterans. It was a population he championed through Microsoft’s veteran hiring program. Kelly also serves as a Fuqua executive-in-residence and co-director of VTRL.
Kay explains: “Veterans are highly employed, but they’re employed at much lower levels than they should be.” He believes this is partly due to the shift from military structure to civilian workplace chaos, and partly due to stereotypes, even positive ones.
“Seeing veterans as heroes can negatively impact their career progression,” Kay says. “It funnels them into service-oriented roles and away from careers people may not associate with heroism, like being a banker or graphic designer.”
Ten years in, the lab now receives funding from Amazon, CVS Health, United Airlines, Microsoft, Call of Duty Endowment and the Walmart Foundation, among others.
In the Trenches
Among the researchers who have received funding through VTRL are Paul O’Keefe, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Exeter and Kentaro Fujita, a professor of social and decision psychology at Ohio State.
O’Keefe is leading a project that promotes the idea that new opportunities can be cultivated and are not fixed or predetermined. His team designed a 30-minute online writing and reflection activity to help veterans develop a growth mindset.
“It’s about offering them an important perspective: that the opportunities they need to thrive in the civilian world can be found or created,” O’Keefe says. “Our prior work finds that people with this growth mindset are more proactive in their job searches and more likely
to secure employment, which can help people flourish and reach their potential.”
O’Keefe’s team is partnering with veteran-serving nonprofits to reach 1,000 transitioning service members.
“We’re halfway there,” O’Keefe says. “And we’re following up to see how it affects their employment, belonging and well-being.”
Fujita is studying how military rank-based thinking clashes with civilian workplace norms. “Veterans often assume their rank defines what they should and shouldn’t do,” he explains. “But in civilian jobs, we like big thinkers even at lower levels.”
His research shows that veterans may hold back, thinking they’re “not staying in their lane,” while employers want them to be more expansive in their thinking.
“This mismatch can lead to underperformance and feelings of not belonging,” Fujita says. “Veterans need to know that rank is more of a title in civilian life, not a strict job description.”
Fujita’s findings suggest that employers should be more explicit about promotion criteria and expectations. “Veterans are used to clear rules,” he says. “If companies don’t spell things out, veterans may misinterpret what’s expected.”
He also believes veterans may do better in structured environments, at least initially. “Startups and small mom-and-pop companies might be confusing,” he says. “Larger companies with clearer hierarchies may be a better fit.”
O’Keefe and Fujita are among the 13 researchers from around the world whose projects have been funded so far, and the cost isn’t steep.
"By holding pitch competitions and distributing seed funding, we have been able to inspire researchers to apply their expertise to an entirely new problem. That’s powerful.”
Sean Kelley
The pace of research can be slow, compared to the pace of business, Kelley noted, which is when a light bulb moment led to an innovative funding idea. The VTRL would fund research at other universities to seed the system and accelerate change.
“By holding pitch competitions and distributing seed funding, we have been able to inspire researchers to apply their expertise to an entirely new problem. That’s powerful.” Kelley said.
Creating a Research Community
David Sherman, professor of social psychology in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara, is another VTRL co-director. He and Kay co-authored a paper on the challenges that veterans face as they transition to civilian life.
Bringing together sociology, military psychology, as well as their fields of social psychology and organizational behavior, the paper outlined factors that are well studied, such as trauma, and less examined, such as stereotyping and psychological fit.
Their own empirical research, led by Duke postdoctoral associate Connor Gibbs, found that the lack of structure in civilian workplaces may be one additional challenge that veterans, coming from a more structured environment, face.
“In this paper, we find that to the extent that veterans, as well as non-veterans, see their workplace as having more structure, they feel a greater sense of efficacy or ability to do their job, and they feel a greater sense of belonging,” Gibbs said.
The summits they have conducted have formed “a triangle,” Sherman said. “Academics, nonprofits and industry. VTRL sits at the center, building a community that hasn’t existed before.”
Looking Ahead
VTRL’s research is already shaping conversations in Washington, D.C., and inspiring new academic pathways in social psychology and organizational behavior.
“My dream is that our research will help veterans have better outcomes,” Kelley says. “Not just healthy, but well-compensated, connected, and feeling like they belong.”
One thing that makes the lab distinct is that it not only conducts the research but also supports the research of others.
“The goal is to inspire the field. We want the best minds in social psychology and organizational behavior to study this,” Kay said.
Fujita adds, “This work has opened exciting avenues for me both professionally and personally. It’s research that can make a real difference.”
O’Keefe echoes that sentiment: “We’re not just studying veteran transitions. We’re learning how they can help themselves thrive.”