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The Military Friendly® program serves as a developmental framework that encourages continuous improvement by helping organizations take strategic steps and achieve milestones in various category standards and benchmarks. This program fosters civilian opportunities for veterans by setting high standards, promoting them, and incrementally raising the bar over time. It offers long-term, positive reinforcement for American organizations to invest in initiatives that enhance the lives of veterans and creats a sustained demand for veterans in the private sector. When it was founded in 2003, the number of organizations that competed for the Military Friendly® designation was 20. Today, that number surpasses 3,500 . That’s a massive increase in the quantity and quality of demand for veterans in the private sector. That’s good for veterans, good for the organizations and good for America.
Military Friendly® is the standard that measures an organization’s commitment, effort and success in creating sustainable and meaningful benefit for the military community.
Now, let’s unpack that. Because every word of that definition was purposefully chosen.
“Military Friendly®”: First of all, the term “Military” refers to the military community; which we define as the people of the active duty, reserve, guard, veterans and military spouses. It does NOT refer to the military as an organization. It’s also a trademarked name. That’s important because there are lots of copycat military lists and ratings programs, none of who possess the rigor and timeline of our’s, that result in mistaken identity. We are the standard. So it’s important to trademark the name and protect its integrity.
“is the standard”: It’s a standard that allows an organization to develop it’s Military Friendly® program over time. It starts with a PLEDGE to do no harm to veterans and to instill favorable policies to recruit, retain and advance them in the organization. It then move to a DESIGNATION that establishes baseline expectations to allocate resources to to make efforts towards those policy goals. Finally, AWARD levels of Bronze, Silver and Gold measure an organization’s success in achieving static levels of success and Top 10 ranks the Top 10 organizations in certain subcategories.
“that measures”: The Military Friendly® ratings program is rules-based and formulaic. It uses transparent, pre-determined criteria to determine the program levels, and methodology and weighting to determine the Top 10 list. It is objective and designed with perspective from third-party leading experts.
“an organization’s”: This is purposefully a broad term because we believe that every organization in America should be incentivized to be Military Friendly®. The program currently rates employers, colleges, supplier diversity programs, brands and more with more coming in the future.
“commitment”: Commitment is the first of three sequential steps toward building a military program. Commitment refers to an organization setting policy. This is acheived through a Military Friendly® PLEDGE.
“effort”: Effort is the second of three sequential steps and refers to an organization committing resources; people, time, capital, toward their military progam. This is the Military Friendly® designation rating.
“and success”: Success is the third of three sequential steps and refers to an organization’s results. How successful have they been in building their program? This is the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Top 10 Award levels.
“in creating sustainable”: Sustainable refers to the duration of the benefit. In this case, it means that the benefit is virtually infinite in duration. It is self-perpetuating because it is fueled by providing core, long-term value and ROI to the organization. Conversely, programs fueled by political or charitable tendencies, face certain demise when those inevitable winds shift direction.
“and meaningful”: Meaningful refers to the scope and origin of the benefit. In this case, it means that the benefit lifts the entire community. This is unlike a charitable donation which often benefits only a disaffected few. Meaningful also refers to the benefit being not an entitlement, but rather an opportunity. This is in line with our belief that the military community seeks a hand up, not a hand out.
“benefit”: Benefit means that veterans have earned either “front-of-line privileges,” or “backstage passes.” Benefit is also in keeping with our mission of supporting and empowering the military community.
“for the military community.”: The military community does not refer to the Department of Defense. It refers to the people who serve, serve alongside, or have served: active duty, guard, reserve, military spouses and veterans.
The Military Friendly® “Pledge” is achieved when an organization commits to doing no harm to veterans and secures a CEO pledge to dedicate resources to advancing their program. The process takes only a few minutes. The Military Friendly® Pledge is valid for one year, after which the organization must attain the Military Friendly® “Designated” status or the “Pledge” status will be revoked. This “move up or out” developmental policy ensures continuous improvement and a commitment to development over time. Click here for a link to the Pledge criteria and methodology.
Military Friendly® “Designation” status signifies that an organization has met or exceeded the standards and benchmarks within the developmental program. Achieving this designation involves completing a 16-question survey, which typically takes about one hour. It requires organizations to commit resources to the program and meet both binary and non-binary requirements to reach a minimum point threshold.
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