Saluting Our Military Families

“Booz Allen’s commitment to military families stands apart from other companies,” says Lead Associate Amy Bennett. Amy’s husband, also a Booz Allen employee and an Army reservist, recently got called for an unexpected deployment.

“The last time my husband deployed [prior to joining Booz Allen] we lost two-thirds of our income overnight and nearly lost our home. Because of the benefits that Booz Allen offers reservists—among them differential pay and continuing health and retirement benefits for up to 1 year of deployment—the situation is completely different for us this time. It demonstrates that Booz Allen both understands the unique needs of the military community and also places great value on the skills and expertise of its military, veteran, and military spouse workforce.”

And that comes naturally—Booz Allen was founded by a veteran, has continuously supported the Department of Defense (DOD) since our first DOD client in 1940, and, today, boasts a workforce in which one third its employees have a military background.

Among the differentiators in Booz Allen’s support for the military community:

• A formal veterans strategy led by senior leaders committed to raising awareness and serving the needs of the veteran community
• Two military-focused employee forums, the Armed Services Forum and Military Spouse Forum, that offer networking, career training, and a valuable knowledge base to help employees facing relocation with a military spouse
  
• A corporate strategy for charitable support and relationship building with leading military-focused not-for-profits, such as Operation Homefront, Blue Star Families, and Give An Hour
  

“Booz Allen understands the military lifestyle,” says Associate Tracy Freedman, a military spouse who co-leads the Military Spouse Forum. “We are focused on helping military spouses build their careers, not just get a job.” Tracy has worked for Booz Allen for 7 years, and during that time has relocated three times with her husband, a Marine officer. “The Military Spouse Forum provides a support network for spouses who have to relocate regularly with the military. We are also building awareness of the needs of our community among Booz Allen career managers, which makes all the difference.”

In November, in honor of Military Family Appreciation Month, Booz Allen launched a powerful campaign to build military family resiliency and highlight the unique skills and needs of this community. The month’s capstone event was the Military Family Resiliency Summit, which Booz Allen co-hosted with Blue Star Families and the White House’s Joining Forces, which brought together representatives from commercial organizations, military/veteran not-for-profits, and DOD leadership to discuss changing needs of military families. The Summit resulted in a corporate engagement guide that was distributed across a national network of business and government supporters of the military community.