When workers are good soldiers

Nation's Business, Feb, 1997 by Albert G. Holzinger

Entrepreneurs have an uncanny knack for spotting--and using to their advantage--a dark cloud's silver lining. Take, for example, Steve Pitt, who owns and operates Architectural Hardware, headquartered in Richmond, Va.

Pitt's company fabricates and sells to construction contractors steel and wood doors, door frames, and related hardware. In the summer of 1995, when he had fewer than 25 employees, Pitt decided to open a satellite location in Fredericksburg, Va., about 50 miles north of Richmond. The person he wanted to be the operations manager of the new site was Robert Green, who already was holding down two jobs.

Green not only was key in Architectural Hardware's production operation but also was a sergeant in a local Army National Guard unit. Among his Guard obligations, Green was required to spend two weeks or more a year honing the skills associated with his specialty, combat engineering.

Pitt recalls that losing Green to military training for such long periods "was kind of tough." Yet he still felt that Green was the best candidate for operations manager at the new plant.

He says he looked beyond the inconveniences resulting from Green's military obligations and saw the positive attitude and work habits nurtured by Green's Guard training. Says Pitt: "Military service appeared to have instilled in Robert a sense of worth and good values, and he seemed to pass those traits along to the others with whom he worked. Then and now, I consider Robert a valuable business asset."

Green typifies the men and women who voluntarily attempt the difficult feat of juggling personal lives, civilian careers, and military service, says Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va. "Generally, this is a group of workers that is well-disciplined, highly motivated, and skilled. It's a good quality of employee," Davis said at a recent event in Tysons Corner, Va., that was aimed at building business support for employees in the military.

Davis himself served in active-duty and Reserve units of the Army throughout the 1970s. Early in the period he attended college and law school, and later he was employed as vice president and general counsel of PRC Inc., a high-technology firm in McLean, Va.

Maj. Gen. William A. Navas, director of the Army National Guard, headquartered at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Va., says another attribute that members of the Reserve or Guard bring to employers is assurance that they are drug-free.

"We do regular testing and have a zero-tolerance policy," says Navas, who for 10 years was in the construction contracting business. "The inconvenience of losing [an employee] for short periods is outweighed" by that assurance and other positive factors, he says.

Navas, Davis, and Pitt are representative of the legion of military officials and civilian backers working to broaden employer support for current and prospective employees who serve in any of America's seven reserve forces--the Air and Army national guards and the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy reserves. Employer support is vital because the majority of those who leave the Guard or Reserve cite workplace problems resulting from their absences as a key reason.

And maintaining a strong Guard and Reserve has become vital to the effective defense of the United States. The reserve forces now make up more than half of America's total military force.

Immediately after the highly unpopular Vietnam War, the overall caliber of enlisted men and women was about average, says Lewis C. Brodsky, director of public and congressional affairs at the U.S. Selective Service System, also in Arlington. But the quality began improving dramatically during the 1980s, he says.

Ronald Reagan's presidency helped revive America's patriotic spirit, and "a really high quality of people" began enlisting, says Navas. Also during the Reagan administration, Congress dramatically increased weapons-system and other military spending From 1980 to 1989, military spending grew about 10 percent a year, increasing to $295 billion from $131 billion, while inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, averaged about 6 percent a year. It was this potential one-two punch of better soldiers and state-of-the-art weaponry that ultimately ended the Cold War, Navas says.

"Because Congress now is trying to balance the budget, fix Medicare, fight crime, and put computers in schools," the military is on a tight budget again, Navas observes. That spending restraint means the United States will have to rely more heavily than ever on Guard and Reserve forces, which cost substantially less per soldier to maintain than active-duty units.

Increased reliance on Guard and Reserve members could further erode the already mixed amount of support they receive from business owners tired of losing key employees temporarily, Navas predicts.

To minimize the burden on employers, the military is trying to reduce workplace disruption. One major way to do this is by streamlining training.

Currently, "a lot of service time--and money--is wasted moving people to locations to receive training," says retired Army Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight, now chairman of the board of the emerging Community Learning and Information Network (CLIN), a public-private partnership based in Washington, D.C. To reduce time spent for training and to provide instruction that could be useful in Guard members' civilian as well as military roles, the Guard will employ the technology-based CLIN when feasible to deliver high-quality education and skills training across great distances to Guard and Reserve members.