You won a federal contract. Now the government wants a plan. Not just any plan. A written affirmative action program that shows how you recruit, hire, and keep protected veterans. This is where a lot of midsize employers freeze up. The rule sounds heavy. The veteran part feels vague. And a bad audit can cost real money.

Here is the good news. The veteran section is not a mystery. The rule spells out what belongs in it. It lives in one place. That place is 41 CFR Part 60-300. Once you see the parts, you can build each one.

This guide walks through every piece. What the policy statement says. How you review your hiring steps. What counts as real outreach. Where the hiring benchmark goes. How long you keep the records. By the end you will know what to put in each part. You will also know what proof to keep for an audit.

This is written for the HR or compliance person who has to build or update the plan. If you want the wider view first, start with our VEVRAA compliance guide for federal contractors. Then come back here for the veteran section itself.

Who Needs a Veteran Affirmative Action Plan?

VEVRAA covers federal contracts of $200,000 or more. That coverage threshold rose from $150,000 on October 1, 2025, so confirm the current figure with OFCCP. If you have 50 or more employees and a covered contract, you usually need a written affirmative action program. That program must include a veteran section.

The dollar amount can change. An inflation adjustment raised the coverage threshold for some new contracts on or after October 1, 2025. Check the current figure with OFCCP before you decide you are exempt. When in doubt, build the plan.

The plan is about protected veterans, not every veteran. Protected veterans fall into four groups. If you are fuzzy on the four, read what counts as a protected veteran before you write a word. The whole plan hangs on that definition.

What Belongs in the Veteran Section?

The required parts come from 41 CFR 60-300.44. The rule lists them by letter. You do not get to pick and choose. Each part needs to show up in your written plan.

Here are the core parts in plain words. Read them once so you see the whole shape. Then we build each one.

What Goes in the Policy Statement?

Start with a short written policy. It says you recruit, hire, train, and promote people in all job titles without regard to protected veteran status. The rule calls for this policy statement first.

Keep it plain. Name protected veterans by that term. Say you take affirmative action to employ and advance them. Post it where staff can see it. Many firms put it on the bulletin board and in the employee handbook.

The rule also wants the policy shared inside and outside the company. Inside, it goes in the handbook and to any union officials. Outside, it goes to your subcontractors and vendors in writing. This spreads the promise past your front door.

One more part fits here. The rule wants a named official who owns the plan. Pick one person. Give them real backing from senior leaders. Give them the staff and time to do the work. A plan with no owner falls apart at audit time.

How Do You Review Your Hiring Steps and Job Standards?

Next you look at how you actually hire. The rule wants a careful, thorough, and systematic review of your personnel processes. In plain terms, walk each step from job posting to offer. Check that a qualified veteran gets a fair look at every stage.

Write down that you did this review. Note the date. Note what you checked. Note anything you fixed. That written note is what an OFCCP reviewer wants to see.

Then review your job standards. Any physical or mental requirement must be job-related and needed for the business. The rule asks for a schedule to review these standards on a set cycle. A lifting rule or a vision rule may screen out a capable disabled veteran for no real reason. Check each one.

Two more duties sit close by. You provide reasonable accommodation to a qualified disabled veteran unless it causes real hardship. And you put procedures in place so veterans are not harassed for their status. Both belong in the veteran section.

What Counts as Veteran Outreach and Positive Recruitment?

This is the part reviewers dig into. The rule wants appropriate outreach and positive recruitment that is reasonably designed to reach protected veterans. It is not enough to post a job and wait. You have to go find the talent.

Then you have to prove it. Each year you assess whether your outreach actually worked. If a source sends few veterans, you can drop it and try another. The records of what you did and what you changed are the heart of a good-faith effort. We cover this in depth in building OFCCP good-faith-effort outreach records.

What sources count? State workforce agencies. Veteran service organizations. Base transition offices. Veteran job fairs. And veteran talent platforms. Naming a real, active source in your plan is far stronger than a vague line about veteran hiring.

This is where BMR fits your records. BMR adds more than 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That makes it a live, documented outreach source you can name in the plan and log each year. Employers connect through our veteran hiring page.

One more outreach source is worth a line: SkillBridge. Hosting a SkillBridge intern is a documented way to reach transitioning service members. See how it maps to your plan in SkillBridge as documented veteran outreach.

What Is the Hiring Benchmark and Where Does It Go?

The rule wants you to set a hiring benchmark each year. The benchmark is a target you measure your veteran hiring against. It comes from 41 CFR 60-300.45.

You have two ways to set it. The simple way is to use the national benchmark that OFCCP posts and updates each year. The other way is to build your own number from labor data and your own hiring facts. Most midsize firms use the national number to start.

The current national benchmark is 5.1 percent, effective July 30, 2025. You can confirm the live figure on the OFCCP hiring benchmark page. The number changes most years, so check it before each plan cycle.

The benchmark sits next to your data. Each year you count your veteran applicants and hires. You compare the veteran share of your hires to the benchmark. If you fall short, that is not an automatic penalty. It is a signal to widen your outreach and write down what you will change.

To go deeper, read why the VEVRAA benchmark changes and how to document the benchmark every year. Both keep this section audit-ready.

How Do You Audit the Plan and Train Your Team?

A plan on a shelf does nothing. The rule wants an audit and reporting system that measures how well the plan works. Build one system that tracks your goals, flags weak spots, and records what you did to fix them.

Keep it simple. Review your numbers on a set schedule. Note where veterans drop out of the hiring flow. Write down the action you took. This is the paper trail that shows good faith.

Training is the other duty here. Anyone who touches recruiting, screening, selection, promotion, or discipline needs training on the plan. They should know the veteran commitments and how to carry them out. A short, dated training record covers this part.

Part of your data work also feeds the yearly VETS-4212 report and your job-listing duty. Covered contractors list most openings with the state workforce agency. See what contractors must post under the mandatory job listing rule so the same data does double duty.

How Long Do You Keep the Records?

Records make or break an audit. Under 41 CFR 60-300.80, you keep personnel and employment records for two years from the date you made them.

A smaller contractor gets a shorter period. If you have fewer than 150 employees or your contract is under $150,000, the retention period is one year. Certain records may need to be kept longer, so read the section for your case.

Your data collection analysis has its own habit. You document each year the veteran applicants, total applicants, total job openings, veteran hires, and total hires. Keep those numbers organized so you can produce them fast.

Self-identification records ride along with all of this. You invite applicants and new hires to identify as protected veterans, and you keep those invitations on file. See how to invite the protected veteran self-identification form the right way.

What Trips Up the Veteran Section at Audit?

Many veteran sections fail for the same reasons. They state good intent but show no proof. A reviewer does not grade your effort by how it sounds. They grade it by the records behind it.

Look at the difference below. Both firms say they recruit veterans. Only one can back it up.

One part employers often forget is the flow-down. If you use subcontractors, you pass certain veteran clauses on to them in writing. Skip it and the gap shows up in your review. Read which VEVRAA clauses you flow down to subcontractors so your section is complete top to bottom.

How to Build the Veteran Section Without Guessing

The veteran section is a checklist, not a puzzle. Write the policy. Review your hiring steps and job standards. Name real outreach sources and log the results. Set the benchmark and compare your numbers. Audit, train, and keep the records for the right period.

The part that trips up most midsize employers is outreach. You need live sources that actually send veteran talent, and you need proof you used them. That is where BMR helps. A steady flow of new veteran profiles gives you a source to name in the plan and a record to keep for the file.

Want to make BMR a documented source of veteran talent in your plan? Reach out through our hire veterans page to access the talent pool. Organizations building a longer-term pipeline can also partner with us. Either way, you walk into your next review with real records in hand.