We live in an era when the value of military service in the professional world is unquestioned and unmatched. Our nation’s military members perform highly skilled jobs using high-tech equipment in the most challenging situations around the globe. They develop real-world experience and global diversity. They are leaders who work well in teams and are truly mission-oriented. They are graduates of the premier training institution in the world. We like to call them “military alumni.”
Employers and colleges know this, which is why they compete to attract military candidates as employees and prospective students. What this means is that veterans have countless opportunities on where they can put their skills and benefits to use. They need a consistent and predictable standard that lets them make good choices for major life decisions like where to work or where to enroll in school.
Military Friendly®is the military ratings division of VIQTORY, a service-disabled, veteran-owned business. Military Friendly®rates companies and colleges on their programs to recruit and retain military veterans as employees and students. Military Friendly® is a federally trademarked term, created in 2003 by VIQTORY. Perhaps equally important is what the term is not. It is not a generic phrase or moniker that an organization or institution can self-assign. Nor is it a term that is owned, controlled or defined by the federal government. The organizations and institutions that choose to participate in the process earn their Military Friendly® designation. Our mission of Military Friendly® is to create maximum professional opportunity for our nation’s military service members, veterans and military spouses.
First, we establish a standard definition of what it means for an employer or institution to be Military Friendly®. We measure how well a company’s or institution’s military recruiting program does in three primary areas:
Then, we collect vast amounts of public and proprietary information; process this data using our methodology and weightings, which are established with the guidance of our Military Friendly® Advisory Council, and audited by an external 3rd party; and rate institutions and organizations on how Military Friendly® they are. We release and promote those ratings among the military community and the institutions and companies that compete to attract veterans and military spouses.
As part of our assessment we evaluate, among other factors, public data from government sources, including the U.S. Departments of Veteran Affairs, Labor, Defense and Education, along with proprietary data collected through our Military Friendly®surveys. Through our enhanced Data Quality Assurance protocol, we periodically review key data points from public data sources and may, at times, re-evaluate an institution’s or organization’s Military Friendly® designation based on changes in reported data.
Federal databases for higher education-employment outcomes, for example, rely on total aggregate student body data in several key areas: student graduation rates, student placement rates, student loan default rates. Within our Military Friendly®Schools program, we request additional proprietary data to establish an institution’s effort specifically on behalf of military families and veterans. Through our list publication, we provide an alternative that we believe reflects a more accurate account of an institution’s Military Friendly®status.
Given the President’s executive order regarding gainful employment regulations, the release of comprehensive cross-governmental post-secondary data through the College Scorecard, and our own rise in benchmark scoring, we follow a Data Quality Assurance protocol to review all scored and potential Military Friendly®Schools in light of this additional scrutiny due to these federal programs and initiatives.