Veterans Health Administration
Information for Employers - Compensated Work Therapy
CWT - Home | For Veterans | For Employers | Locations | Services | Success Stories
The Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) program provides a cost-effective means of achieving your company's goals of managing labor costs and improving service delivery, while maintaining high quality standards. CWT is a national vocational rehabilitation program that assists Veterans return to competitive employment; making a living wage and building their self-esteem while contributing to the community.
Using a business model, CWT program staff specialize in working with facility management, human resource, and/or production personnel to address labor force deficits. If your company is searching for prescreened workers to address staffing shortfalls, please email PSRHQ@va.gov.
Cost Management
1. Additional Workforce:
- Readily available competitive, skilled labor for short term and permanent positions.
- Veteran workers are pre-screened and matched to the specific job requirement.
- CWT workers may be hired directly or you may want to use workers through CWT Transitional Work. There is little risk for the company working with the CWT Transitional Work program. The employer/employee relationship is non-existent, and there is no mandated obligation to hire the Veteran. However, Veterans typically demonstrate their value to the participating company which often results in permanent hires.
- Transitional Work provides the company with the opportunity of an extended job interview for each Transitional Work Veteran.
2. Reduce Overhead Costs:
- With the CWT Transitional Work program there are none of the standard employee costs like health care, workers compensation insurance, vacation and sick time, FICA, and job vacancy advertising.
- Training and employee assistance are provided at no cost to the company.
- Comprehensive medical costs are covered by the VA.
- CWT vocational staff refer Veterans for direct hire whose skills and interests are aligned with the duties and needs of the company. Additional employment assistance may be provided by a CWT staff to the Veteran and/or to the employer following the hiring of a Veteran, as requested.
Service Availability
The CWT Veteran labor force is available to help meet peak or unexpected workload demands at most locations across the country. Review the CWT Locations page to find site specifics or please email PSRHQ@va.gov.
We Can Help with Retention of Veteran Employees
The CWT team can partner to assist your company in hiring the right Veteran, retaining this valued employee and gaining the most from the skills and experience each has to offer. This training was developed to provide helpful strategies we can provide to help meet your employment needs.
Benefits of Hiring Veterans
Veterans bring the following attributes and characteristics to the workplace*:
- Proven leadership and leadership readiness
- Mission-focused approach to work
- Experience working in diverse teams and organizations
- Adaptable and immediate contributors
- Strong work ethics
- Strong performance under pressure
- Creative problem-solving
- Self-starter
- Integrity
*US Dept. of Labor
Employer Success Stories
To learn more about our employer successes, read our success stories. If you’d like to share your experience partnering with the CWT Program, e-mail your story to our national CWT team at PSRHQ@va.gov.
