Veterans Need Employment, Jobvite’s Apps For Heroes Helps Them Find It

When military veterans complete their service, they shouldn’t have to struggle to find jobs. That’s why Jobvite and The White House’s Joining Forces initiative are teaming up to release “Apps For Heroes”. The new feature set allows Jobvite’s recruiting platform clients to check a box and flag the job openings they post to be automatically included in Veterans Job Bank. Clients can also easily add a Veterans Affairs Blue Button to their job application submission forms to allow vets to upload their military service history.

Apps For Heroes will be unveiled later today at a San Francisco event promoting First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden’s Joining Forces initiative to support veterans. Held at the Code For America office, Biden and US CTO Aneesh Chopra will be on hand to discuss how technology can help reduce unemployment, especially for those who’ve served their country.

Jobvite will now give its clients the option to include Apps For Heroes features on their job openings. If they check the box indicating an opportunity is targeted towards veterans, metadata will be added to the job listing so it can be scraped and syndicated on the Veterans Job Bank. Employers are incentivized to participate in Apps For Heroes, as they can receive up to $9,600 per veteran hired thanks to the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Tax Credits.

Launch partner LivingSocial will be one of the first companies to flag openings for vets through Apps For Heroes. Beth Mensinger, Head of Global Recruiting for LivingSocial tell me veterans make great employees because they’re “fast-acting, quick on their feet, strong, and dedicated.”

Apps For Heroes is great example of how the tech industry is banding together help the US bounce back from the recession. Today’s event at Code For America follows yesterday’s event with CTO Chopra at Twilio, where Codecademy and Mitch Kapor announced new and expanded programs to teach kids engineering and entrepreneurship.