The HIRE Vets Medallion Award is the only federal award for veteran hiring. It comes from the U.S. Department of Labor. A lot of midsize companies want it. Few think about how it actually gets scored.

Here is the part most applicants miss. The award is not a story you tell. It is a set of numbers you prove. A reviewer reads your application against a fixed criteria table. Your hiring rate, your retention rate, your veteran headcount. Each one is a yes or a no.

This guide is the reviewer's side of the desk. We will walk through what gets scored, the exact thresholds for Gold and Platinum, the proof a reviewer wants, and why solid companies still fall short. If you want the click-by-click application steps, we cover those in our guide on how to apply for the HIRE Vets Medallion Award. This piece is about passing.

What Does a HIRE Vets Medallion Reviewer Actually Score?

A reviewer is not grading your culture. They are checking your data against a table. The Department of Labor's HIRE Vets program sets the criteria each year. The bar does not move based on how good your application reads.

The award splits employers into three sizes. Each size has two tiers. Gold and Platinum. The size you fall into changes what you must prove.

Most midsize firms land in the medium bucket. That bucket has its own rules. They are different from the large-employer rules in one big way. We will get to that.

A reviewer scores four things. Your veteran hiring rate. Your veteran retention rate. Your veteran headcount. And your veteran programs. The first three are pure math. The fourth is a checklist. Let's break each one down.

What Hiring and Retention Numbers Pass?

These are the two core metrics. They are fixed. A reviewer does not round up for you.

The hiring metric looks at vets you hired in the prior calendar year. For a 2026 award, that means people you hired during 2025. The retention metric looks one year further back. It asks how many vets you hired in 2024 stayed for at least 12 months. The exact thresholds live in the official HIRE Vets criteria table.

So Gold needs a 7% hiring rate. Platinum needs 10%. Gold needs 75% retention. Platinum needs 85%. These thresholds hold across all three employer sizes. That part does not change.

The AND vs OR Trap That Sinks Large Employers

Here is the rule that trips people up. For a large employer, hiring AND retention both have to pass. You miss one, you fail. There is no partial credit.

For medium and small employers, it is hiring OR retention. You only need to clear one of the two. That is a real break for midsize firms. A reviewer applies it exactly as written.

Why Does Veteran Headcount Matter for Midsize Firms?

This is the criteria most midsize applicants forget. It applies to medium and small employers only. Large employers skip it.

The headcount floor only applies if a medium or small employer qualifies on retention instead of hiring. Hit the hiring rate and you are done, with no headcount check. Use the retention path and a second test kicks in. A reviewer checks how many of your total employees are vets as of December 31 of the prior year.

On that retention path, at least 10% of your employees must be vets for Platinum, or 7% for Gold. So the retention path is really two tests. The hiring path is one. Acing the hiring rate means the headcount floor never applies.

A reviewer reads this as a hard gate. If your December 31 veteran percentage is below the line, the rest of your application does not save you. So before you apply, run that number first. It is the cheapest disqualifier to catch early.

What Programs Does a Reviewer Want to See?

The numbers get you in the door. For Platinum, programs decide the rest. This is where a reviewer moves from math to a checklist.

The award calls these Integration Assistance Programs. They are the support you build around veteran employees. A reviewer wants proof each one existed by December 31 of the prior year. Not planned. Not in progress. Existing.

How Many Programs You Actually Need

This is the second spot midsize firms get a break. The program rules scale with size. A reviewer applies the right one for your bucket.

A large employer going for Platinum needs the full stack. Veteran resource group, leadership program, dedicated HR professional, pay differential, and tuition assistance. All of it.

A medium employer going for Platinum must run both a veteran resource group and a leadership program, plus at least 1 of 3 more: an HR veterans initiative, Guard and Reserve pay compensation, or tuition assistance. A small employer has to satisfy 2 of 5. So a midsize firm with a real veteran resource group and a leadership program can clear the Platinum program bar. You do not need the whole large-employer stack.

For small employers, Gold needs no programs, just the numbers. For medium employers, Gold needs at least one of a veteran resource group or a leadership program. For large employers, Gold needs both. The math gets you to the door. The programs get you through it. If you want a deeper read on which numbers to track and report, see our breakdown of veteran hiring program metrics that matter.

What Proof Does a Reviewer Want?

The application runs on attestation. Your CEO or chief HR officer signs that the numbers are accurate. A reviewer takes that signature seriously. So your data has to hold up if anyone ever looks.

You do not upload a stack of resumes. You report counts and percentages. But you need the records behind those counts. That means clean, defensible HR data for the prior two calendar years.

Veteran status comes from self-identification. Your applicants and employees tell you they are vets. So your hiring and HR systems need a clean way to capture that, count it, and pull it on demand. If you cannot produce the veteran count for December 31 of last year in a few clicks, your data is not award-ready yet.

Why Do Solid Companies Still Fall Short?

Plenty of good employers fail this award. Not because they do not hire vets. Because of how the criteria work. Here are the failures a reviewer sees most.

Notice the theme. Most failures are about timing and data, not effort. A company that hires vets all year can still trip on the headcount gate or a program that started a month too late. A reviewer cannot waive any of it.

How Do You Get Your Data Award-Ready?

If you want to pass, you reverse-engineer the criteria. Start from the table and work back to your systems. Here is the order that works.

The biggest lever sits at step 2 and 3: your hiring rate and your data. Both come down to a steady supply of qualified veteran candidates and a clean way to track them. If your pipeline is thin, your numbers will be too. That is the part most application guides skip.

A real veteran pipeline also feeds your retention story. Vets who land in the right role stay. For more on that, read our piece on why veteran employees stay and how to set realistic veteran hiring targets for your team.

Where the Numbers Actually Come From

You cannot post a 10% veteran hiring rate without veteran applicants. That is the quiet truth behind this award. The medallion measures outputs. The output starts with supply.

This is where the pipeline matters. The award rewards companies that hire and keep vets. To do that at a rate a reviewer scores as Platinum, you need a steady flow of qualified veteran candidates coming in the door. Earning the badge is downstream of building the pipeline. Our guide on how to become a military friendly employer covers how to build that reputation, and our internal business case for veteran hiring helps you get leadership behind it.

Best Military Resume connects employers to a deep, active veteran talent pool. Over 1,000 new veteran profiles get added every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a fresh, growing supply of candidates you can hire against, which is exactly what feeds the hiring rate a reviewer scores.

The Bottom Line for Your Application

A HIRE Vets Medallion reviewer is not looking for a great story. They are checking your numbers against a fixed table. Hiring rate, retention rate, veteran headcount, and programs. Each one passes or it does not.

If you are a midsize firm, the rules favor you. Hiring OR retention instead of both. Fewer required programs. But the headcount gate is real, and your data has to be clean. Run the three numbers first. Pick the tier you can prove. Stand up your programs before year end.

The deeper truth is that the badge follows the pipeline. Win the hiring all year and the application takes care of itself. If you want to start with the candidate supply that feeds those numbers, reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool. That is where a strong medallion application begins.