VETS Indexes Employer Awards

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

ANNUAL VETS INDEXES EMPLOYER AWARDS

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How and why to participate

Why should my organization participate in the VETS Indexes Employer Awards?

The VETS Indexes Employer Awards tell highly skilled veteran talent around the country that your organization stands out from the crowd and could be a great place to start or continue their post-military careers. This can make a big difference for your recruiting efforts.

What do organizations receive if they are recognized with a VETS Indexes Employer Award?

Organizations that prove to be the best veteran employers will be recognized with an award, news release, and logo they can use, for free, for advertising, marketing, and recruiting. This seal tells veteran talent that you’re the best.

What types of organizations can participate in the VETS Indexes Employer Awards?

All types: Publicly traded and private companies, large and small, nonprofit organizations, as well as government departments and agencies are all welcome to participate.

How can an organization be considered for the VETS Indexes Employer Awards?

To participate, just CLICK HERE OR SCROLL DOWN, provide the information requested in the yellow box, and hit the submit button. Shortly thereafter, you will receive an email with a survey invitation, unique link to the online survey form, and additional information.

How do I fill out the survey?

The survey invitation you receive will include a unique link to our online survey form. Please do not forward this link outside of your organization — it is your organization’s own, distinct survey link. You must provide responses through the online form at this link; we are unable to accept responses submitted as Word or PDF documents.

Survey Sections and Question Types

How many sections are there in the survey?

The survey has 8 sections. This includes sections focusing on (1) recruiting & hiring, (2) development & retention, (3) veteran-inclusive policies & culture, (4) Guard & Reserve policies, and (5) military spouse & family support. Additionally, a few short sections at the beginning and end of the survey collect additional basic information that is largely not factored into the evaluation.

What types of questions are in the survey?

The survey includes the following question types:

  • Data: Provide data, in numeral form, in answer blanks — no text accepted.
  • Pick one: Select a single answer from multiple choices.
  • Check all: Select as many answers as apply from multiple choices.
  • Drop-down menu: Select a single answer from options in a drop-down menu.
  • Text entry: Fill in answer blanks with text responses

Evaluation and award process

What awards can organizations receive?

We recognize the best veteran employers with the following designations, starting with the most prestigious:

  • VETS Indexes 5 Star Employer
  • VETS Indexes 4 Star Employer
  • VETS Indexes 3 Star Employer
  • VETS Indexes Recognized Employer

Does every organization that completes a survey receive an award?

No, this is a competitive awards program, designed to recognize veteran employers that distinguish themselves, so not all organizations responding to the survey will be recognized. We will only publish the names of organizations receiving awards — those that fill out a survey but fall short of VETS Indexes Employer Awards recognition are kept confidential.

How were the VETS Indexes Employer Awards developed, and why should I trust them?

This program was developed by the team of veteran employment experts responsible for the Employing U.S. Vets Conference and the VETS Indexes family of investment indexes, which includes a managing director with about a decade’s worth of experience surveying and polling veterans, as well as the organizations that employ and support them. Additionally, we received input and consultation from the foremost veteran employment experts across government agencies, veteran nonprofits and corporate America.

When will the VETS Indexes Employer Awards results be announced?

Results are announced in the spring, a few months after the survey deadline.

Essential Information

How long is the survey?

We respect your time. Our survey is significantly shorter and more dynamic than comparable surveys — average time to complete is under an hour. The survey is reduced to the most important veteran employment metrics, and is evaluated with an objective, standardized methodology that judges employers fairly and consistently.

Will my answers be kept confidential?

Some employers are unable to participate in comparable evaluation programs because those programs would publish their private data. We respect proprietary information and will never publish anything about your organization without getting your permission. Additionally, we do not publish a list of employers that pursue VETS Indexes Employer Awards recognition but fail to qualify. We can sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) if needed.

Is there any cost associated with participating in the VETS Indexes Employer Awards?

There is no cost for any employers to participate in any part of the process, from responding to the survey, to being evaluated, to receiving an award and earning a copy of the logo to use in advertising and marketing.

How many survey responses should be submitted per organization?

Organizations must submit only one response, from an authorized representative, as we are not able to consider more than one response per organization. Please coordinate with other members of your organization to avoid submitting multiple responses.

When is the deadline to fill out the survey?

Survey responses must be received by Feb. 20, 2025, for organizations to be considered for the VETS Indexes Employer Awards.

Completing The Survey

Help, I’m seeing responses from another organization when I try to fill out my organization’s survey!

This only happens rarely, but if it occurs, it is a serious problem. Please email survey@vetsindexes.com immediately, and do not enter or change any answers in the survey.

Are my answers saved as I fill out the survey?

Yes, your answers are saved every time you press the red arrow button, at the bottom of each page of the online survey.

Can I fill out the survey over multiple days/sessions?

Completing the survey in one sitting is ideal and highly recommended. If you need to pause, your progress will be saved locally for 15 days from your last activity. To resume, you must return to the survey using the same device and the same browser. Clearing your cache or cookies, or using private or incognito mode, will prevent your previously entered answers from appearing. For this reason, we recommend having one person gather the data and complete the survey when possible.

After 15 days, any incomplete sections will no longer be accessible. At that point, you may either start fresh or complete only the sections that were not finished previously. Please only submit the survey after you’ve had a chance to review your response summary and double-check that everything is accurate. You may not be able to edit the survey after officially submitting it.

Can I skip questions and answer them later?

Yes, you can skip almost all of the questions in the survey, except for a few at the beginning that are identified as mandatory. You will be able to answer them later by navigating through the survey using the red arrows at the bottom of the screen.

The survey asks for data from the current year, but this data is not available because the year isn’t over. What should I do?

If you will be able to provide data for the current year by waiting until the new calendar year to answer related questions, we encourage you to do so. You will have more than a month in the new calendar year to complete your survey before the response deadline, and you will be able to skip — and answer later — all questions asking for current year data. If you would not be able provide the data by this deadline, you may instead provide data from the previous two years, without any penalty.

How are questions evaluated if they are left blank?

We are only able to evaluate organizations based on the information they provide. The more data you provide, the better we can gauge your organization’s veteran-related efforts, which can help improve your organization’s evaluation and award level. For nearly every survey question, an organization that provides a response — even a response that compares poorly to other employers — will have an advantage over an organization that provides no response.

What should I do if I can answer some -- but not all -- parts of a question?

Please provide whatever data you are able to and leave the rest blank. The more data you can provide, the more thoroughly we can evaluate your organization, and the better you can do in our evaluation.

What/who is the "primary contact" for my survey response?

The primary contact, identified in the first survey question, is the person we will contact if we have questions. The contact’s email address will receive notifications related to this survey, as well as your organization’s primary invitation for the following year’s survey.

What happens if I skip a question that has logic rules?

If you skip a question that has logic rules, which control whether you see a subsequent question, then you will not see that subsequent question. If you return later and answer the initial question, then the subsequent question may appear. It is essential that you answer every survey question that you can, accurately.

Should my responses to questions asking for “overall” data, data covering “all employees” and the like include or exclude data that covers veterans?

Please include data covering veterans in your responses to such questions, as veterans are part of your overall organization. For example, if your employee population consists of 75 nonveterans and 25 veterans, you should enter 100 as your overall employee population — not 75.

Can I review all of the responses that I’ve entered in the survey before submitting it?

Yes. Use the arrows available on each screen to move back and forth through the survey. Please only submit the survey after you’ve had a chance to review your response summary and double-check that everything is accurate. You may not be able to edit the survey after officially submitting it.

Can I add or change responses after I complete and officially submit my survey?

Adding or changing responses after officially submitting your survey requires a difficult process that may not be possible in many cases. For this reason, it is essential that you review your answers very carefully before submitting your survey.

Quick links

What information will I need to fill out the survey?

You can find a guide to the data you’ll be asked to provide at this link.

Where can I find a blank copy of the survey, showing all of the questions?

You can find a blank PDF of the survey at this link. Again, please note that we are unable to accept responses submitted as Word or PDF documents; you must fill out the survey through the online form. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE BLANK SURVEY.

Who should I contact if I have questions or need help?

Please email us at survey@vetsindexes.com.

Glossary of terms

Guard/Reserve Members: People currently enrolled in any National Guard or Reserve branch.

Military connected: People directly connected to the military community, as either current service members (including Guard/Reserve), veterans, or spouses of service members or veterans.

Military spouses: Spouses of current service members or veterans.

Protected veterans: Former service members who served active duty during a period of war, were discharged within the last three years, have a service-connected disability, received an Armed Forces Service Medal, or meet other qualifications, as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor HERE.

Veterans: Former service members, including former members of the Guard/Reserve

Disclaimer: You are invited to participate in this survey on veteran recruiting and employment practices. Your participation in this survey is voluntary. The survey, survey results, and content, methodologies, and processes relating thereto are the sole and exclusive property of Vets Indexes LLC. Except as otherwise expressly set forth herein, Vets Indexes LLC hereby disclaims all liability, including any damages of any kind, (i) in connection with our use, possession, custody, or control of the data provided by you in this survey, or with respect to any misrepresentations or inaccurate or incomplete data submitted by you through the survey; (ii) in connection with any third party’s use of the data; (iii) in connection with any consequential, incidental, indirect, or special damages arising out of our publication of the survey results, including with respect to any benchmarking comparisons to other employers participating in the survey or with respect to any third party actions or inactions relating to such benchmarking results or the publication thereof, including, without limitation, any media coverage, losses in profit, diminution of value, boycott, or reduction in valuation or stock price, even if such event were foreseeable or even where we were advised in advance of the possibility of any such damages, liability, or losses arising. By submitting this survey, you agree that Vets Indexes LLC has a perpetual right to continue to use the data you provided for benchmarking results and to improve our products and services for commercial purposes. Accordingly, you hereby grant to Vets Indexes LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free, paid up, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable, and transferable license and right to use such data for such purposes, provided that any such underlying raw data will be anonymized to third parties. The only information respecting a survey respondent that is not anonymized is its award level, organization name, and logo. Vets Indexes LLC will make commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the privacy and security of such underlying raw data in accordance with applicable law. You represent, and agree, that the data supplied by you does not constitute material non-public information and that you, and your representatives personally supplying the data, are authorized to do so.

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