Heroes Work Here, Disney’s company-wide commitment to hire and support military veterans and encourage other companies to hire them, is celebrating its third anniversary. Disney recently made its 5,000th veteran hire and has played a key role in encouraging other companies to hire those who have served. Companies who have attended Disney-hosted Veterans Institutes (day-long workshops that teach other companies how to create or enhance their existing veteran hiring programs) have reported collectively hiring 5,000 more veterans—for a total of 10,000 jobs for ex-military personnel.
The Veterans Institute, which launched in Orlando, Florida in 2013, expanded its reach in 2014 with the introduction of the San Antonio Regional Veterans Institute, which took place at USAA Headquarters. More than 300 attendees from companies of all sizes were in attendance at the San Antonio event to learn from Disney about veteran hiring best practices.
The next Heroes Works Here event is a Veterans Institute that will take place on June 5, 2015 at General Motors headquarters in Detroit.
At The Walt Disney Company’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders held Thursday, in San Francisco, California, Chairman and CEO Bob Iger took some time to recognize the Heroes Work Here initiative. “Disney is now consistently recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies, respected for our products and our people as well as our performance,” he said. “Our commitment to social responsibility and corporate citizenship includes hiring military veterans. Three years ago we launched Heroes Work Here to promote career opportunities for veterans and raise awareness of their tremendous value as employees. Since then, I am proud to say more than 5,000 former service men and women have become part of the Disney family. And another 5,000 veterans have found careers with companies across the country as a direct result of our program.”