Employer of the Week: Merit

Our Employer of the Week series features one company each week that has made a commitment to hiring and supporting veterans. This week’s employer is Merit.

Merit is building the first universal verified identity ecosystem for all of the identity paperwork you need. Licenses, credentials, achievements, training certifications — all in one place and all paperless to allow users to track, access, and organize it all. While only four years old, the company is growing — and it's committed to hiring and supporting veterans. 

"There's a gap between understanding how to go about getting a job and how to explain one's skills," Merit COO and co-founder Jake Orrin said. "It was important to us that we find a way that we can help. As a company, we are invested in helping people find new opportunities. Our whole vision of our company is around building tools to allow employers, employees, everyone to have better chances to connect to our work and skills and training and achievements."

Currently, 15 percent of Merit's workforce is veteran employees — but they just recently put a program in place to increase that number. 

"Our head of recruitment is a veteran, and he brought to my attention this program called CSP which allows organizations to basically set up training programs to help vets transition out of the military and to get internship and fellowship opportunities when they leave," Orrin said. 

Merit's Career Skills Program (CSP) launched in January of this year. The program helps veterans connect with job opportunities in line with their skills and expertise. 

"It's exciting to see our first class going through it," Orrin said. "And the goal here is to just help vets better learn how to communicate their skills in the military towards jobs in civilian life while at the same time giving them some of the intermediary skills — everything from how to find jobs, how to better deal with rejection, how to explain their background and skills in an effective fashion in the civilian world. We've gotten great feedback so far on the program."

"They're some of the hardest working people in the country," Orrin added. "They train them with the skills on how to learn fast, how to deal with creative problem solving, how to deal with high-stress situations, how to follow directions — all the things you want out of amazing employees, skills that really honestly are hard to find."

Merit's CSP is designed to work hand-in-hand with the Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program and the Department of Defense's SkillBridge program — making the transition for veterans that much more seamless.

"Veterans serve so the rest of us can be safe. It is our obligation to do the best that we can to ensure the veteran community has the best opportunities when they transition back into civilian life," Orrin said. 

To learn more about Merit and opportunities for veterans, click here.

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