Veterans often face prejudice by potential employers due to misconceptions and assumptions. To ensure veterans receive fair treatment in the workplace, federal contractors and subcontractors must submit a file each year called the VETS-4212 Report that reports data concerning the veterans in their employ. Use this guide to learn what you need to know about the VETS-4212 Report.
What Exactly Is the VETS-4212 Report?
Every year, the VETS-4212 Report’s filing period begins on August 1st and is due by the end of September. This gives federal contractors and applicable subcontractors a two-month period to compile all the relevant data and information for submission. During this time, contractors will use this report to distinguish how they’re hiring veterans and whom they have employed throughout the previous year. Veteran statuses that the act defines include:
- Recent veterans who have been separated from active duty for 36 months or less
- Veterans awarded a medal during active service for a U.S. military option per Executive Order 12985
- Disabled veterans
- Veterans who served active duty during a war and earned campaign badges
Keep this in mind when hiring veterans or when compiling relevant data about veterans already in your employ. It is necessary to define such details for your report.
Preparing Your Report
Even if you have everything you need to know about the VETS-4212 Report, you may not know where to start. Once you’ve established that your company must file a report, it helps to break up the preparation process into steps because of how much information you must compile throughout the process.
The information you’ll need to provide includes the following:
- Whether you are a single or multiple establishment contractor
- Your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code
- Whether you’re a contractor or subcontractor
- FEIN and DUNS numbers
- The number of protected veterans compared to the total employees associated with your business
- The types of protected veterans in your employ
- New hires in the past 12 months compared to the total number of protected veterans
- Minimum and maximum number of permanent employees for your contract
The form is specifically meant to track how many protected veterans are in your employ, which categories they fall into, and how many your business is hiring annually.
Submitting Your Report
How you submit your report is at your discretion. The easiest way to submit your form is online on the Department of Labor’s reporting application. However, you can also mail a paper version of your report to the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service Center associated with the Department of Labor National Contact Center.
