Businesses find vets are dedicated, capable

Years in service make people dependable, industrious: employer

NEW YORK, May 24, (AP): Clinton Smith hires veterans because he knows military service has helped them become dedicated and hardworking staffers.

“When you say, ‘I need you to do this right now,’ they get it done and get it done well,” says Smith, a former Marine who is CEO of Government & Civil Employee Services, a financial planning company in the western Pennsylvania borough of Indiana.

Smith also finds that veterans are ideal for his company, whose clients are mostly federal workers; anyone who’s been in the service has spent years understanding and navigating government-supplied benefits.

“The military experience in these individuals truly comes back in positive ways throughout the rest of their adult lives,” says Smith, who with his partner Galen Bargerstock has six employees, three of them veterans.

Many small businesses make it a point to hire veterans. Often the owners have military experience themselves, and believe that years in the service make people dependable and industrious workers. Some appreciate service members for the sacrifices they make. And others want to help veterans who struggle with homelessness, addiction and other problems.

There are plenty of veterans looking for work. The federal government counted 453,000 unemployed veterans in 2016, with a 5.1 percent unemployment rate for veterans who were on active duty at any time since September 2001. The unemployment rate for all veterans was 4.3 percent, compared to the national rate of 4.9 percent.

Paul Huszar hires veterans because he learned firsthand that many employers don’t recognize the value former service members bring to a workplace. Huszar, a West Point graduate who served as dean of the U.S. Army Engineer School, had a hard time finding a job when he retired in 2013.

“People didn’t know my capabilities,” Huszar says. He did find work with VetCor, a company based in Sebring, Florida, that repairs water and mold damage in homes and commercial property, and he ended up buying the business. He has 26 veterans in his company’s three offices.

“We show up when requested and our technicians are fit, polite, in uniform, treat everyone with dignity and respect, and are willing to do whatever is required to complete the mission,” Huszar says.

Steve Myers decided not only to hire veterans for construction, electrical contracting and computer networking jobs, but to also help them readjust to being civilians. He put together a training program, giving veterans a two-year apprenticeship. Between their benefits under the GI Bill of Rights and what Myers pays them, they take home money comparable to what they made in the service.

“We don’t ask people that are typically in their mid-20s to start over at entry-level pay,” says Myers, owner of True North Management Services, a Fenton, Missouri-based company that builds and manages cellphone networks.

Myers is aware that while veterans have spent years in uniform, their classmates have gone to college and graduate school and started moving ahead with their careers.

“They’ve truly put their lives on hold for us,” says Myers, who served eight years in the Coast Guard. He describes himself as having been behind the eight ball when he left the service.

By the time he finished his service and college, he was 10 years behind his contemporaries in experience and pay.

Companies cannot have a policy of hiring only veterans, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because women historically were excluded from military service or work within the military, a smaller number of veterans are women and they therefore are at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring, the EEOC has said. A veterans-only policy could be seen as discriminating against women.