With an estimated 1.5 million members of the military expected to transition back to civilian life in the next three to five years, Veterans Day on November 11 is a great reminder of how much they have sacrificed to provide our country the freedoms we enjoy. We hear a lot about support for and hiring of Veterans, but a story that is not told as much is how National Guard and Reserve members, who choose to continue their service to their country while pursuing a civilian career, are also a valuable source of workforce talent for employers.
This has been a significant focus of Comcast NBCUniversal’s commitment to our military community, including providing benefits specifically for National Guard and Reserve members that go beyond what is required and set us apart from many other employers. We have hired more than 13,000 members of the military community, including National Guard and Reserve members, since 2010, but our commitment goes well beyond hiring.
Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Carol Eggert, who leads Comcast NBCUniversal’s Veteran and Military Affairs department, has posted this blog on our efforts to serve our military community.
We’ve been recognized for our commitments by many organizations, and earlier this year, Comcast NBCUniversal was a recipient of the 2017 Secretary of Defense Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) “Freedom Award,” the highest honor the Department of Defense awards to employers for support of their National Guard and Reserve employees. Comcast and NBCUniversal have also hired more than 2,000 veterans through our partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s “Hiring Our Heroes” program. Click here to see our veterans’ microsite.
Locally here in our Keystone Region, military personnel make up about 9.4 percent of all external hires this year and about 8.1 percent of all external hires since 2015. Earlier this year we hosted a Statement of Support Ceremony in Pittsburgh attended by members of the Pennsylvania Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and Pennsylvania National Guard.
We have sponsored multiple veterans’ job fairs this year alone, most recently in early November at our Corliss Call Center in Pittsburgh’s West End, and have participated in many more around the region, including the Military Inclusion Resource & Career Fair last month in Pittsburgh. One of our five employee resource groups, VetNet, will be holding luncheons for our military employees in both Harrisburg and Pittsburgh prior to Veterans Day as well as providing refreshments at technical operations facilities throughout the region.
When Military Spouse magazine released its annual Top 100 Military Spouse Friendly Employers’ list earlier this year, Comcast NBCUniversal was ranked number one overall. The cover of that issue featured Nicola Batts, a Business Account Executive working in Pittsburgh whose husband is an Army major serving with the Army Corps of Engineers unit in the city. Last December, G.I. Jobs magazine ranked Comcast NBCUniversal number four on its 2017 Military Friendly Employer list.
Donnarae Edwards is among our local employees who have shared their stories about their service, or the service of their spouse, and their work at Comcast.
