Recently, Maximus has achieved remarkable recognition as a top Veteran employer by three military organizations. This exceptional honor underscores Maximus' commitment to hiring and honoring Veterans, solidifying its position as a leading advocate for those who have served our nation.

Our dedication to providing meaningful career opportunities and unwavering support continues to set the benchmark for excellence and impacting the lives of Veterans.

Last month, Maximus was named a Veteran-Friendly Company by U.S. Veteran's Magazine. Earlier this month, we were named one of Military.com's Veteran Empowerment Project's 2024's Top Veteran Employers and a Top Ten 2024 Military Friendly Employer.

U.S. Veterans Magazine polled hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies for the recognition list. They evaluated Veteran conference participation and survey responses and researched corporations and government agencies to determine this year's list. Military.com's top criterion when creating this year's list was whether the company has a dedicated Veteran or Veteran/spouse recruiting team, which Maximus does. Not only are our recruiters trained in hiring and attracting Veteran talent, but several are Veterans themselves. Military Friendly measures more than 1,500 companies' efforts in creating sustainable and meaningful benefits for military communities, as well as their commitment to hiring and retaining Veterans employees.

These awards reflect Maximus' effort to attract, support, and retain our Veteran employees.

So many of the skills that Veterans bring enrich our talent base and help equip Maximus for the future. Maximus recognizes that their military experience can translate into real-world skills that benefit our organization—operations, human resources, cybersecurity, training, and leadership, to just name a few.

Hiring Veterans will always be a priority for us. Veterans have diverse talents and abilities that transition well into our current and future roles, such as adaptability, advanced technology skills, planning, teamwork, resilience, integrity, leadership, and responsibility. These traits are key to our success.

Amy Butchko, Vice President of Talent Acquisition, is just one of the leaders driving to increase Veteran employment at Maximus through training, hiring of Veteran recruiters, and outreach and attendance at job fairs, but she isn't stopping there. With her and other employee efforts, we'll continue to see the number of Veteran employees grow.

When we began launching our employee resource groups as part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives last year, the VETS Employee Resource Group was one of our first to launch. During the last 18 months, this group has grown to almost 450 members. Not only does the group share a common goal of supporting each other as an extended military family, but they regularly share resources, promote professional development opportunities, and continue to provide the sense of camaraderie our Veterans left behind when they separated from the military. I'm also proud to share that the VETS ERG leaders have taken the initiative to provide educational sessions about mental health, anxiety and depression, and suicide prevention that are open to all Maximus employees.

I have spent time talking to our VETS ERG members, and many candidates don't self-identify as Veterans when applying for jobs because they're afraid of discrimination from employers during the hiring process. From a human resources perspective, Veterans are prime job candidates. I know that I, and leaders at other organizations, wish we had a better sense of who our Veteran employees are because we want to recognize them for their contributions and better understand how we are growing and developing them in their careers.

I want to close by saying thank you to everyone who made this recognition happen and, most importantly, to our Veterans at Maximus. Thank you for your service to our country, and I'm grateful to have you with us. We will continue our commitment to hiring Veterans and providing opportunities to continue their careers here for years to come.