Verizon honored as #1 Military Friendly Company
Military Friendly® has named Verizon its #1 Company for 2018 for our commitment to the military community, service members and veterans across all aspects of our business.
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Verizon has been named the 2018 #1 Military Friendly® Company, a tremendous honor in which all V Teamers can take pride.
Military Friendly® has the deepest history of any military and veteran evaluation program, and created the Military Friendly® Company ranking, which is the highest honor it bestows on employers. The award combines the rankings for Military Friendly® Employer, Military Spouse Friendly Employer, Military Friendly® Supplier Diversity program and Military Friendly® Brands program. The evaluation process includes a comprehensive 258-question survey.
The civilian version of military readiness.
- “Verizon’s culture fits hand-in-glove with your military experience.”
- “Verizon’s embrace of diversity and customer service reflects the expectations you have of your brothers and sisters in uniform.”
- “Verizon’s dedication to product quality mirrors your own commitment to quality and accountability in the service you perform on behalf of a grateful nation.”
- “Verizon’s mission-orientation is inspired by this millennial generation’s demand for work that results in meaningful impact on the broader world.”
Conversations of pride.
On our connection and commitment to the military community: "If I look at our Credo, there’s a lot of similar values between what all of our employees believe about what our obligations are to our consumers and the cultures of the military branches."
- Angie Klein
Vice President of Consumer Segment Marketing for Verizon Wireless
- Kathrina “Kat” Hardy
Senior Manager of Threat Intelligence
Kat served as a Marine, meritoriously promoted to Sergeant while serving in the first Gulf War. She leveraged the technical skills she gained during her military service to land a position with then Bell Atlantic Mobile. She sees the strong connection between the Credo and military culture.
“We don’t hide from anyone, we are available. Whether it leads to a hire or not. Veterans appreciate a straight answer that can help them along the way. I didn’t want anyone to look at Verizon as a brand that was saying we were doing all of these things, but wasn’t walking the walk.”
- Tommy Jones
Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition and Leader of Military Programs
Tommy served 20 years in the Army, retiring as a First Sergeant out of the signal corps with multiple tours of combat duty which garnered three Bronze Star awards.
Tommy’s experience in getting hired by Verizon as a Veteran was not great. So when he took on his new role with the V Team he used that as an opportunity to improve the process. “Our actions produce measureable results” is a key principle in our Credo, and Tommy embodies that as we hired 600 veterans in his first 6 months on the job in 2013 compared to 400 for all of 2012. He built a military recruitment program from the ground up with a goal to hire veterans and help make them successful across the company.
On culture and the similarities between Verizon and the military: “The thing we spend time talking about in our business is that you don’t get to ‘pocket veto.’ If we talk about it and we align and agree on something we are going to do, then we get after it and we do it with 100% of our commitment. I have to believe, not having spent time in the military, but having met many people who have, that this is not dissimilar to the military mindset. There is a shared desire to drive execution. One of the pillars of who we are is to be operationally excellent.”
- Tami Erwin
Executive Vice President, Wireless Operations
On the importance of diversity in the workplace: “When you come to work, you want to belong and you want to have the opportunity to contribute and to grow in the organization. You have to come into an environment where that can happen. For your own ability to maximize your potential, you should care about joining a company where you can do that.”
- Magda Yrizarry
Chief Talent and Diversity Officer
On including veteran-owned businesses in our supplier diversity program: “We find that our veteran-owned businesses are strategic partners because of the values alignment we share. And the evidence is seen in the growth of our spend with our veteran-owned businesses, which has increased 30% from three years ago.”
- Viju Menon
Chief Supply Chain Officer
The views shared in each of these conversations are centered on a common view of our culture and our values. And it is the culmination of a historical commitment to bringing veterans into leadership positions that dates back more than 100 years. Now, we not only embrace the value of military experience and support our military community, it has become part of the DNA of who we are.
And as our Credo concludes: “We know our best was good for today. Tomorrow we’ll do better.”
G.I. Jobs is committed to finding jobs for veterans. Find more information on careers with Verizon.
For related media inquiries, please contact story.inquiry@verizon.com.
