Businesses fight loss of Guard, Reserve workers

The city of Republic has had to pass some administrative duties to its assistant city manager.

And there’s an empty chair at Tiedemann Bank Equipment in Nixa.

It’s all because of an issue that companies and groups across the country are dealing with: Reserve and National Guard members being called into active duty. These stories tell of the strain placed on co-workers and the importance of having an organizational plan in place during times of war.

Missing Nixa

An empty chair at the desk of Tiedemann Bank Equipment Service Manager William Wells reminds his co-workers of his military duty. Wells was called to Iraq in early December, and he’s expected to be gone for at least a year, serving as an Army staff sergeant.

Office Manager Betty Yeary said the company has had a hard time picking up the slack, especially considering that Wells was one of the company’s first employees when it opened in Nixa 10 years ago.

Companies such as Tiedemann are caught in the middle, trying to obey federal law – The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act prohibits businesses from denying any benefit of employment based on an employee’s obligation to serve in the military – while still maintaining profitability.

“A lot of people have had to pitch in and try to fill in his position,” she said. “We’re trying not to hire someone – he’s guaranteed a job when he comes back – but we’re probably going to have to hire another technician for the field and bring someone in from the field to do (Wells’) job for a while.”

Doctor on call

Ferrell-Duncan’s Dr. John “Bucky” Buckner knows about service – he separated from active duty in 1993 to go into private practice in Springfield, though he has been called to duty in Iraq twice as a reservist, in 2003 and again earlier this year.

He said that, though the patients are still cared for, it does create extra work for the other nine doctors in his office. Buckner is now back to work, taking patients again on Dec. 28.

“I guess they all have to work about 10 percent harder for me to be gone,” he said. “There is some impact on the clinic overall, because a lot of my partners work near capacity most of the time anyway.”

The tough part on Buckner was that he had to earn military pay versus civilian pay and take a 65 percent pay cut during his seven-month stint in 2003.

“Since then, the clinic has instituted a policy where they’ll help support some of that lost income, to make it a little bit more reasonable,” Buckner said.

It could have been worse. Buckner has served with independent physicians who had to completely shut down their practices.

Republic reservist

Republic City Administrator Dean Thompson has seen the issue from both angles. As a major in the Army Reserves, he served a year in the Middle East, returning to Republic in 2004, and he served another two months in Africa last year.

The city already had been considering an assistant city manager position to deal with its expansion, and Thompson said that, after the Sept. 11 attacks, he and the city both knew the likelihood of his deployment had increased.

“That made it more of a necessity to get the ordinance in place and get that (assistant) on board,” he said. “The assistant city administrator position was created and filled about a year before I left, so we had time to plan for a transition.”

Thompson said Republic has had to deal with the issue of planning to replace other city employees being called into active duty, though he said no full-time workers have been activated yet.

“Usually you see reserves in the Police and Fire departments, so that’s something we’ve discussed,” Thompson said. “Fortunately for us, we’re growing fast enough that we’re adding new positions every year.”

Absorbing the blow

At engineering firm Heideman & Associates, engineer Jerry Hartfield was gone all of 2004, serving as a master sergeant in the Air Force.

Company associate and engineer Kevin Skibiski said the company was able to absorb the extra work.

“We shared the responsibilities amongst everybody here, and being that he was an engineer and I’m the only other engineer here, it was mostly me,” he said. “Whatever he would have done, other people in the office picked up the slack and took care of it.”

The firm really had no choice, according to Skibiski; businesses still needed design services, and the work “had to be done whether he was here or not.”

Company employees also had a makeshift tribute to their co-worker, leaving his office untouched during his absence and hanging yellow ribbons and American flags.

Get a plan

Losing an employee to the military doesn’t have to catch a business by surprise, said Ellen Rohr, business trainer and consultant with Bare Bones Biz. She helps businesses get a plan together to fill the gap created by an employee who has left due to illness or military service.

She said one of the most important things for a company to do is to have an organizational plan in place, laying out exactly who does what and who reports where.

“If everything about your business is in your head, and you’re not there, the business ceases to exist,” she said. “The plan doesn’t have to be fancy; it can be in pencil on copy paper in a three-ring binder. Here’s who reports to whom, here’s the simple procedures for turning on the lights or the computer or delivering our products to our customers.

“It’s like the old saying: Trust in God, but tie your camel.”

Rohr, who has written an e-book on how to write a business plan, said shutting the doors doesn’t have to be the answer for small-business owners facing a long-term absence – if they make their plans for the business known in advance.

“There’s a great saying: If it isn’t written, it isn’t real,” she said. “I don’t think you can figure out everything that can come down the pike, so the plan can change, but you need to have one.”

For more information on business consultant Ellen Rohr’s e-book on how to put together a business plan or to request a copy, e-mail her at ellen@barebonesbiz.com.