 It's DAV, and I'm joined by National Employment Director Rob Lujie. We're live to talk about National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is observed every October as a way to celebrate the contributions of workers with disabilities and to champion inclusive employment policies. DAV has loads of employment resources for veterans with disabilities, as well as for employers, so we'll talk about some of those today as well. Rob, thank you so much for joining us. Well, thank you for having me, Elizabeth. Can you start by telling us a bit more about National Disability Employment Awareness Month? Yes, this program actually started in 1945, and it was a way for the federal government to be able to recognize persons with disabilities in the workforce, and it's been adjusted slightly over the last, you know, the last 60 years. In 1962, it had a verbiage update. In 1988, they actually brought it from a week of recognition to a month of recognition. So that's a big, that was a big jump. Also, every year, there is a theme to the needy, as they call it, to the whole month. And this year, for 2022, it's disability, part of the equity equation is the theme for this year. So we're very excited to be able to talk about some of the information today and resources we have to help employers and veterans during this month. I think it's good if we start by talking and reminding folks about what veterans, those with and without disabilities, really bring to the workplace. Can you talk about that? I can. As a veteran myself, and working for the DAV for a long time, you know, it's just soft skills that military veterans bring to the table. That's what corporate America is looking for. And those come in different forms. And some of those include leadership, adaptability, you know, advanced technical training, resiliency, there's loyalty, integrity. Those are just some of the soft skills and attributes that veterans bring to the table. And those are what employers are looking for. Also, they contribute to a strong company culture of inclusion and equity, which is very, very important. We want everybody to feel welcomed and a part of the team no matter where they are. And what do veterans with disabilities need to know in terms of their rights in the workplace? I think it's important for disabled vets to understand what their contract says or what their employee manual says or handbook on, you know, what their rights are as employees. It's also if you're in a position where you have to know, you know, what your rights are, you can actually get online to the Department of Labor or to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and you can look at all of the information they have. And that's a big part of it. It's also understanding the accommodation request procedures for your company or your organization. Simply understanding how do I file for an accommodation if I need a chair or something enhanced headphones. You know, what's the process for that? And also, it's about personal identifiable information, PII. We all learned about it in the military. We've all had classes on it since we've been out of the military. The key here is to only divulge information, personal or PII level information to those who have a need to know. Not everybody needs to know a lot about your disabilities or or any information in those regards from your workplace. Of course, and unfortunately, there are some misconceptions out there about hiring veterans with disabilities. What are some of those that you'd like to address? You know, some of the some of the misconceptions you're saying? Yes. You know, there's so many of them over the years that have come around and we've dispelled a lot of those. But, you know, it starts out with, you know, people or entities within corporate America or even organizations thinking, well, disabled veterans are going to require, you know, more time off to see their doctors than the average employee or where they're all combat veterans have some level of post-traumatic stress disorder, or veterans with disabilities require, you know, preferential treatment, or veterans with disabilities will eventually require some level of accommodation. Those are all misconceptions. They're myths in my book. DAV does a very good job of dispelling a lot of the myths and misconceptions that may be out there in the world regarding disabled veterans in the workplace. And we do that through our guide, The Veteran Advantage. It's a guide that we put together in 2018, and it specifically speaks to veterans and, more importantly, employers and giving them the advantage in the business case and hiring disabled veterans into their workforce. And I think what I hear too when we talk about misconceptions is just remembering that every veteran is different, right? Everyone's a unique individual that might have unique needs, and so it's important not to assume anything. You mentioned the guide that we have. Can you talk more about how employers can support and retain veterans with disabilities? Yes. There's a few simple things they could do, actually, and let's understand accommodations. What are accommodations? What, you know, what's the requirement on my side due to the, you know, ADA? I mean, what do I have to do? Where's my limit? The other thing is supportive policies within the structure of your culture, you know, for disabled persons in general. That should already be in place. And for disabled veterans, you know, it's no different. You need to understand, you know, if we need to adjust a policy for human resources purposes, we want to make sure it covers everybody. You also want to understand military to civilian culture. You know, a long corporate America right now is bringing on a lot of veterans to actually recruit other veterans, which is a good thing because they understand and they can, you know, talk to each other because they both, you know, served in the military. But it's important to understand the military culture to an extent where, you know, coming into civilian life out of a very structured environment is not easy. And I think if hiring entities and managers understand that better, it would be smoother on both sides. And also, create veteran support groups or infinity groups within your companies. It's the best way to do that. Most companies already have, you know, employee support groups, and many companies are actually breaking them down into various different types of infinity groups. And veteran support groups are very important because not only does it allow the veteran community within your culture to feel wanted, respected, and needed, but it also allows them to maintain a level of camaraderie that we all developed while we're in the military. And that's a big help. Right. And going back to culture, that can only benefit culture throughout the workplace, I would think. Definitely. Yeah. So for employers who hire veterans with disabilities, what are some of the resources that they can take advantage of? Well, you know, the federal government has been very big on supporting veterans and disabled veterans in the workforce. And, you know, over the last few years, and some tax credits have been approved and authorized to help offset the onboarding cost of bringing veterans on board. And I would say the wounded warrior tax credit is one of them. I would say the, you know, work opportunity tax credit is another. Also, the veteran readiness and employment program is big. And the reason it's big is because if a company has an internship or an apprenticeship program, the VA will actually step in and help offset the cost of putting that veteran through the training. And it also allows the veteran to receive additional benefits as well throughout that process. So that's something that any company should look at that has internship or apprenticeship programs. And also with regard to accommodations, the job accommodation network, known as JAN, is a very important place to visit for any hiring a manager or anybody in leadership that wants to understand accommodations, how to apply for accommodations, how they work. It's just a great place to go to learn a lot more about the needs if accommodations are required. Sounds like a great resource. Can you recap some of DAV's employment resources for veterans and employers? Yes. You know, DAV, since we stood up our employment program in its current form in 2014, has developed a lot of various resources for veterans and their spouses and even employers. Some of those are the job fairs. So we do traditional and virtual job fairs each year. I mean, next year we're going to be doing about 92 job fairs. And we're going to have a number of those on military bases around the country as we start seeing an uptick from people re-entering the workforce and coming back to these events, looking for their next mission or looking for something better, whatever it is, we're starting to see that come back. Also, our corporate partner recruit military has a job board. It's a veteran-centric job board, which means only employers who are very interested in hiring and have demonstrated that they hire veterans and their spouses can list their jobs on this job board. Currently on this job board, we have over 350,000 jobs listed prior to COVID. We averaged about 105,000 to 110,000 jobs. So you can see the difference out there. There's an inequity going on out there with the number of jobs available comparable to the unemployment rate, which is very, very low. It's historic lows for veterans right now. Also, the hiring guide we mentioned earlier, that's an important tool for employers. It helps them understand military culture. It helps them dispel some of the myths that are out there that veterans are broken, disabled veterans are broken individuals and be leery of them. I mean, it's just not the case. Matter of fact, information shows that 70% of disabilities that are incurred in the military aren't even noticeable. You can't see them, so that's something to keep in mind. Also, our patron employer program, we developed this program and we launched it November of last year, 2021, and we wanted to be able to recognize those employers, companies and organizations and agencies that hire, train and retain veterans in their workforce. So we came up with the Patriot Employer Program. It's a great program. I encourage any employer to apply for it if you hire and you retain veterans, whether you're small, medium or large, I want to make sure that you're getting recognized. I see there's a question, how does that work for veterans and DOD contracting as well. It works the same. Veterans preference and civil service, all those things, they're applicable. It just depends on your specific snare circumstance. You mentioned earlier, no two veterans are alike in the case that there needs. We want to ensure that all veterans have all benefits displayed to them that they earned and let them cherry pick what's going to give them the best life work balance. Those are some of the resources we have available to veterans and employers through our website at jobs.dav.org. Rob, anything else that you would like to add? I'd like to say that DAV takes great pride in hiring disabled veterans we have for our entire history, which is 102 years old. We've been around a long time in the veteran's space. We've done a lot in the veteran's space to help create legislation and back legislation to promote better jobs, preference, wages, all those kind of things for veterans and military spouses. So we take great pride in hiring disabled veterans and we always will and we encourage any employer or any organization, it's kind of been on the fence to hire a disabled vet or, you know, look at the resources that we're providing, make an educated decision and I can tell you this, you will not regret hiring a veteran or disabled veteran in your workforce and don't forget the military and the veteran's spouse. They are resilient people who go through a lot as military spouses just like the vet themselves did. So I would ask any employer to keep a sharp keen eye out for the talent that exists within military spouses as well. Great, Rob, thank you so much. As you mentioned, folks can learn more at jobs.dav.org, lots of great resources there for veterans and for employers, for military spouses, and of course follow DAV on social media on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, and check us out at DAV.org. Thank you. Thank you very much.