Veterans Day: How Employers can Honor our Servicemen

On November 11th, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson addressed the nation to commemorate Armistice Day, the official end of WWI, with the following words:  

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” 

Armistice Day would later be recognized by Congress as a federal holiday on May 13, 1938, and would be renamed to “Veterans Day” by President Eisenhower to honor veterans from all wars and conflicts. 

This Wednesday marks another Veterans Day, a national holiday where we can honor American veterans for their patriotism, love of our country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.  

In honor of Veterans Day, we wanted to put together some ways that employers can honor our countries veterans through employment. We’ll also be discussing some benefits that employers can get for hiring veterans and talk about other ways that businesses can celebrate veterans day this year. 

Why Hiring Veterans Makes Sense  

So why should employers hire veterans? Well, there is a slew of benefits that employers can get from just hiring a veteran, but we’re going to talk about those benefits later. Right now we want to discuss veterans themselves and what they can offer your business. 

According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), 65% of veterans have some college education, or higher, making veterans more educated than their civilian peers; 68% of employers report that veterans perform “better than” or “much better than” their civilian peers; 57% of veterans stay at their jobs longer than the median tenure of 2.5 years. 

Veterans also are experienced team players that can be a boon to any business, thus making veterans an easy way to find hard–working employees with experience working in an organization. Military.com also gives some more compelling reasons to hire veterans on their website that we’ll summarize here:  

1. Accelerated Learning Curve 
2. Leadership 
3. Teamwork 
4. Diversity and Inclusion in Action 
5. Efficient Performance Under Pressure 
6. Respect for Procedures 
7. Technology and Globalization 
8. Integrity 
9. Conscious of Health and Safety Standards 
10. Triumph Over Adversity 

All these reasons make veterans an excellent way to help a business meet their workforce needs, while also allowing a business to help our countries servicemen with their lives after service. 

Benefits of Hiring Veterans 

We just talked about how veterans themselves can benefit employers, but there are also some more benefits that come with employing veterans. The federal government (and even state and local governments) offer several incentives to employers who hire veterans such as: 

• Salary Subsidies- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers employers salary subsidies when they hire a veteran through the on-the-job training program. This makes it to where employers pay an “apprentice-level” wage while training veterans, and as the veteran progresses through the training, the employer pays a larger portion of the veteran’s salary until the training is completed and the employer is paying the full salary.  

• Assistive Technology- the VA also provides employers with specialized tools, equipment, and workplace modifications to accommodate eligible veterans, allowing them to perform their duties. These resources are provided at no cost to the employer.
   
• Salary Reimbursement- Through the Special Employer Incentive Program, employers may receive an incentive to hire veterans facing extraordinary obstacles to employment. One of these incentives includes reimbursement of as much as 50% of the veteran’s salary for up to six months.
   
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit- Employers who hire Veterans may be eligible to use the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). WOTCs can range from $1,200 to $9,600 per eligible new veteran hire, making it quite beneficial to give preference to hiring veterans.
   
• And more!- Different states offer different benefits to employers hiring veterans, so it’s best to check your state’s veterans affairs website to see what benefits they offer employers.

The VA employer incentives make it a no brainer to hire veterans, so when having to fill positions, it’s good to think about looking at a candidate pool of veterans to try and fill it. 

Other Ways Businesses Can Help Veterans 

We’ve talked a lot about why employers should hire veterans and the incentives for doing so, but if your business doesn’t need to hire anyone right now there are still other ways that businesses can observe and celebrate Veterans Day such as: 

• Treating them- Consider honoring and recognizing veterans by hosting a lunch in their honor or offering your veteran customers discounts is a great way to give thanks to veterans. 

• Recognizing them- Businesses can recognize their employees who served in an internal newsletter or other internal communications. Highlighting their experiences reinforces the value that veterans bring to the workplace and gives them credit for their accomplishments to their country.
   
• Sharing their story- Veterans’ service can often be shrouded in mystery and feel like a taboo subject to bring up but sharing their stories with respect and sensitivity is an excellent way to bridge the servicemen’s experience to civilian life.
   

• Serving the community- Every community has veteran service organizations (VSOs) who provide support to military veterans and families. Partnering with a local VSO to help combat some of the big issues that impact veterans is a great way to show support. 

Veterans Day is the perfect time to think about how businesses can better support their communities by honoring their heroes. For more information on how you and your business can help this year take a look at the VA website to learn more about veterans’ affairs. 

Are you struggling with managing your human resource needs? SolveHR offers several transactional and strategic HR services to help your business. Contact us today to find the right solution for you, so you can focus on what matters—growing your business

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Written by: Matthew Muriel

Meet Matthew! Matthew is our content writer and has been working with us for a year. He enjoys working for SolveHR because it allows him to practice his copywriting and allows him to build experience in his fledgling career. Matthew studied at the University of Texas at San Antonio and earned his degree in English with a concentration in Professional Writing. He values learning new processes in the HR industry and then conveying those ideas to the company’s clients. When he isn’t working, he enjoys reading nonfiction, with his favorite book that he recently read being The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. If he could go anywhere in the world he would travel across the United States and visit all of the national parks.