This week I had the opportunity to host the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service HIRE Vets Medallion Awards Ceremony honoring the 675 awardees for 2020. While we would have loved to recognize our recipients in person, we were glad to create a presentation that they could share with their employees, customers and prospective employees. The HIRE Vets Medallion Award is the only federal-level veterans’ employment award that recognizes a company or organization’s commitment to veteran hiring, retention and professional development.
If you missed out on the awards ceremony, you can watch it here. This year’s keynote address came from Sgt. Maj. of the Army Micheal Grinston and included a motivating Army video!
These 675 employers set an example for prioritizing and encouraging successful veteran hiring and retention. Search the list of the 2020 HIRE Vets Medallion Award recipients located across the United States to find the businesses that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to and proven success attracting and retaining veterans. For the employers, the medallion represents a trusted badge that transitioning service members and veterans can rely on when looking for their next job, which provides the awardees with increased access to this valuable talent pool.
We welcome you to stop by our ceremony page and hear from some of our 58 “three-peat” awardees who have shared what the award means to them.
If you missed out on qualifying for the award this year, applications for the 2021 HIRE Vets Medallion Award open on Jan. 31, 2021. We would love to provide you with resources to help build your veterans employment program.
Meg O'Grady is the National Veterans' Employment Manager in the Veterans' Employment and Training Service.