Five Questions: Bill Smillie

After Bill Smillie closed his South Glenstone Avenue Smillie’s Market in June – a move that marked his retirement from the grocery industry – he transitioned into the business of putting people back to work. In September, he started working as coordinator of Missouri Career Center’s On the Job Training Program through the city’s Center for Workforce Development. Smillie helps connect hiring companies with displaced workers and manages a training assistance program that serves seven counties.

A New Chapter
“(I was) a retail grocer for 20 years with Smillie’s Market and also working with the Ozark Empire Grocers Association representing retailers with regard to regulation and legislation, but then our store closed in June and I was looking for a different challenge. Through my work with the Workforce Investment Board at the Missouri Career Center, I became aware of some opportunities. Specifically, they wanted to hire an on-the-job training coordinator who focused on getting people back to work. … This program provides some incentive for the employer to hire that extra person before they normally would to get people back to work.”

Hiring Incentives
“The federal government, through the Department of Labor, has an on-the-job training program where it will pay 50 percent of the wages of a new hire specifically for veterans, displaced workers or (people) receiving benefits. Those three categories are people who are within our system. This program will pay 50 percent of the wages of a new hire up to a predetermined number of hours. For example, an entry-level cashier may not receive 40 hours of training, but an (Internet technician) or dental assistant can receive up to 1,040 hours of training. There is a job-code book where you can look up [training covered]. A meat cutter can receive up to 600 hours of training.”

Follow the Money
“The city of Springfield is the financial arm of the career center. … We are providing a program, but we can’t write a check. We have to fill out a contract with the city of Springfield and the city looks at it, approves it, and obligates the funds. With a dentist, for instance, who paid $12 per hour, and we would pay $6 an hour of that for up to 1,040 hours. Well, you can run the math and see he would have been paid around $6,000. The city of Springfield requires certain documentation and the state requires the same documentation. It is a federal program, and we are all stewards of the taxpayer’s money.”

Assisting Employers
“My first day on the job was Sept. 17. The program had been in place before I started. Actually, on July 1, the state asked each region – and we are the Ozark region – to hire a OTJ coordinator. It wanted an emphasis to be placed on this program [because] you might create a job if you knew you’d get some additional assistance with training through this federal program. … We have 12 OTJs written since July 1. Those are people who were identified and matched with local businesses. We have worked with a business in Branson, but most have been in Greene County. One business here in Springfield, Holloway America, has several of our folks. The minimum wage that we can pay [toward] is $10 per hour. A lot of businesses pay minimum wage, but that is not acceptable in OTJ. We have a maximum, too, around $19 per hour.”

Grocery Movement
“In around 1978–80, Smitty’s and Dillons came to town. Well, the market had been complacent for many years, and then, here are these new upstarts. It’s a cyclical thing. Then in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we saw the influx of the Walmart Supercenters. I think it is a cyclical thing that new stores come in and then things kind of plateau. Along the way, there is going to be some fallout. … I don’t think grocery stores are different than restaurants or hardware stores or other types of business. New people come in, you go along for 15 or 20 years, and then a Hy-Vee pops up. … Whether it is at the Missouri Career Center or in private business as a grocer, it is all about serving customers.”