Recognizing employers that support veterans
VETS Indexes Employer Awards
METHODOLOGY
Methodology:
VETS Indexes Employer Awards
Recipients of the VETS Indexes Employer Awards are selected based on their responses to VETS Indexes’ groundbreaking survey, which examines the most important veteran employment metrics via a granular, objective, and data-focused questionnaire.
This state-of-the-art survey has set a new standard for evaluating organizations employing veterans. While our survey is significantly shorter than surveys associated with other veteran employment evaluations — only about 65 questions, it can be completed in just a few hours — it also examines veteran-related policies and practices in greater depth, using dynamic survey logic alongside detailed, multi-part questions to thoroughly and efficiently examine organizations across approximately 300 metrics. In addition, the survey provides more precision, through a design focused on collecting hard data, instead of written responses to general essay questions. This enables us to ground our evaluations in real numbers, rather than subjective interpretations.
A total of 239 organizations submitted surveys to be considered for the 2023 VETS Indexes Employer Awards. Responding organizations included companies large and small, government agencies and departments, nonprofit groups, colleges, and universities. They ranged in size from fewer than 100 employees to more than 200,000 employees.
For the VETS Indexes Employer Awards, we carefully analyze the data provided by responding organizations, putting it in context of each organization’s size/type and examining the data from multiple perspectives. Broadly speaking, employers are evaluated across 5 categories, weighted as follows:
- 28.4% Veteran employee development & retention, including
- Employee retention rates for all employees, veterans, and military-connected personnel
- Seniority levels of veteran employees within an organization
- Proportion of internal promotions going to veteran employees
- 21.2% Veteran-inclusive policies & culture, including
- Veteran Employee Resource Groups, activity levels and sizes
- Proportion of vendor/supplier budget spent at veteran-owned businesses
- Contributions to veteran employment efforts beyond your own organization
- 20.7% Veteran recruiting & hiring, including
- Proportion of new hire and overall employee populations who are veterans
- Proportion of recruiting budget earmarked for veterans
- Relative size of veteran-focused recruiting staff
- 19.0% Guard/Reserve support, including
- Compliance with employment rules for Guard/Reserve employees
- Pay policies for serving Guard/Reserve employees
- Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve (ESGR) award received
- 10.6% Military spouse & family support, including
- Proportion of new hire and overall employee populations who are military spouses
- Flexible work locations, scheduling for military spouse employees
- Military spouse recruiting and job application policies
Feedback
Do you have thoughts on what we should consider in this evaluation? What should be the most important metrics? The least important? We’d love to get your feedback, and we will use it to help us develop the program.
Please email survey@vetsindexes.com to give us suggestions.