Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Hiring Veterans Benefits Employers: Vets Bring More Than Job Skills to the Work Place

(Los Angeles, CA) Vets on Set is a non-profit organization whose mission statement is to attain entertainment industry jobs for US military veterans. Their main purpose is to achieve this goal of job placement while highlighting little known benefits to employers. Many states and cities have incentive programs designed to financially encourage business owners to hire a veteran.

Since its official start in early July of this year Vets on Set has placed over 50 veterans in film, television and music industry jobs contributing more than $20,000.00, per week to the "veteran economy."

“Our mission statement is very simple, we find jobs for veterans in the film, music and television industry,” said Tamara Akins, Director of Development.

Veterans come equipped with significant job skills for the industry including excellent training and leadership abilities. For an employer these job skills can be just the tip of the iceberg. In many states and cities there are incentive programs already in place that are designed to financially encourage business owners to hire veterans.

“Some of the incentive programs Vets on Set have already discovered have such significant savings for an employer that it is unbelievable that all veterans are not gainfully employed,” said Dave Rosen, Executive Director. “These are not new proposals, but existing programs already in place.”

One of the most exciting is a program called the Enterprise Zone. Employers who hire a veteran and employ them for one year receive $12,500 from the state. Keep them employed for 5 years and receive $37,500. California has not only launched such a program, it has successfully been in effect for years. The state issues a credit voucher for each vet hired. This voucher can be considered the same as cash for payment that a business owes on their California State Tax.

The tax credit is geographical in nature, which means that companies who are allowed to participate must be located in an Enterprise Zone. The second major qualifier is that the veteran must have either served and been honorably discharged in the last four years of the date of hire, or be a Vietnam era veteran.

“We are pleased that we place on average, one veteran a day,” said Akins. “We want to reach a state of automation, where hundreds of jobs are being processed every week and we become the go to organization for major productions.”

Vets on Set continues the mission of finding jobs and building rosters of highly qualified young men and women. Second only to the jobs is the need to focus on fundraising as much as possible.

“We’ve been so successful, so fast that the organization is growing faster than the structure,” said Rosen. “It had to be about the jobs first. Now that we are getting a steady flow of jobs and veterans to fill them we need to establish the foundation of Vets on Set.”

Vets on Set has had support ranging in level from help with the website to corporate sponsorship. A great deal of work has been done, and there is a lot more to do. As a nonprofit the operational cost depends on the support of donations.

Resources:

www.vetsonset.com