Hire a Veteran This Month

Now that we’ve just finished honoring veterans with two spectacular holidays, Memorial Day and Independence Day, it’s time to focus on another major concern: veteran employment. This is a tough topic for many veterans because returning to the civilian world, and securing gainful work, isn’t as straightforward as it once was. Sadly, many veterans in Florida don’t have full employment to pay their bills or make use of their talents.

July 25th is National Hire a Veteran Day, and an outstanding way to support former U.S. service members. Since vets often make dependable employees, we believe you’ll find it easy to see why it’s smart to focus on veteran applicants.

The Purpose of National Hire a Veteran Day

National Hire a Veteran Day has been around for seven years, resulting from legislation designed to encourage and recognize employers who hire veterans. The 2017 HIRE Vets Act enabled the HIRE Vets Medallion Program, which bestows Gold or Platinum medallions on businesses who hire a certain proportion of veteran employees. Any company can qualify, provided they meet the program’s criteria, such as retaining veteran employees for at least 12 months.

If you’re a business owner, looking for new workers, then we encourage you to learn more about this by exploring the HireVets.gov website. There you can learn how to become one of dozens of Florida businesses to earn either Gold or Platinum status for hiring veterans.

Reasons to Hire a Vet

There are a litany of terrific reasons to hire a veteran to bolster your workforce. Here are just a few for your consideration:

1. Many veterans have significant, versatile, and entrepreneurial skills. Military experience involves both following orders AND creative troubleshooting. It never hurts to have a multi-talented, seasoned vet on your staff.
2. Veterans possess superior technical skills. This helps enormously if your business depends on folks to comprehend data/information, use computers, or handle complex machinery.
3. They also have experience with adverse weather and unpredictable environments. If you’re familiar with the history of American overseas conflict, then you know how our troops have endured a multitude of conditions: deserts, jungles, frigid temperatures, and beyond. Here’s your chance to hire someone who won’t complain about unpredictable (unavoidable) work circumstances.

Support Our Efforts to Help Vets Find Meaningful Work

We hope you’ll consider hiring a veteran for your Florida business, especially during the busy summer tourist season, where reliable additional staff is so essential.

You can also get involved with SRQ Vets several other ways. Since many veterans are disabled, and cannot work any longer, it’s also a great work of mercy to help them with your time, donations, and companionship. If you’d like to know more about all of that, or partner with us in other ways, call SRQ Vets anytime at 941-777-8387.