DOL releases toolkit for hiring veterans

An online toolkit for employers who want to hire military veterans is now available on the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s website. The toolkit includes information on everything from tax incentives to orientation advice to retention strategies. It also provides links to numerous other resources to help with your recruiting efforts.

If you are an affirmative action employer due to your federal contracts or subcontracts, you should be aware that the employment of veterans is an area of increased focus during audits by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The OFCCP expects you to track the effectiveness of your outreach sources, and to make adjustments as needed to educate the ones that aren’t sending you the right candidates, and to improve the effectiveness of those that are. You may also want to consider resurveying your workforce for purposes of your statistical tracking of employees’ race/ethnicity, gender, disability and veteran status. “Disabled veteran” status is something that could change over time, because it is based on whether the Department of Defense awards compensation for a service-related disability. Hearing loss is an example of a condition that could take time to manifest itself. See our Model Form, “Invitation to Self-Identify” (1607).