As part of the Dwyer Group’s recent pledge to hire 300 veterans, Glass Doctor president Mark Dawson says the company plans to hire 50 veterans throughout the company’s 200 franchises by 2014.
The Dwyer Group’s pledge was announced last week as part of the International Franchise Association’s (IFA) Operation Enduring Opportunity program. First lady Michelle Obama and Dina Dwyer-Owens, chief executive officer and chairwoman of The Dwyer Group, announced the launch of the program on Veterans Day, November 11. As part of the program, the IFA’s more than 825,000 franchise establishments have committed to hire and recruit 75,000 veterans and 5,000 wounded warriors by 2014.
Operation Enduring Opportunity is being conducted in conjunction with IFA’s VetFran program, developed in 1991 by Don Dwyer Sr., the late founder of The Dwyer Group. The program was created with the goal of thanking veterans returning from the first Gulf War by offering them financial incentives, Dawson says. “VetFran includes 428 franchise systems, including Glass Doctor, [which] voluntarily offer financial incentives to veterans seeking to become franchise small-business owners,†he says. “The Dwyer Group and Glass Doctor will utilize the Joining Forces Veterans Job Bank, a new search enhancement tool to enable franchise recruiting and hiring operations. The franchising companies will also utilize veteran job fairs and other more traditional hiring methods.â€