RSSOral Testimony
of
Theodore L. Daywalt
CEO and President
VetJobs
on
Assessing Federal Small Business Assistance
Programs for Veterans and Reservists
to
The Senate Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Good Morning Chairman and members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Let me first thank you for the opportunity to come before the Committee.
It is an honor to be here. I would ask that my written testimony be added to the record.
In my written testimony I present some suggestions from the position of being a businessman and a former drilling Navy Reservist.
The most important of my suggestions is that the Rule of Two needs to be eliminated and federal contractors need to have the ability to sole source to small veteran owned companies.
However, I want to bring to your attention the second half of my written testimony that discusses the new DOD policy of extending call ups of the Guard and Reserve. Corporate America will not support this new policy. At a press conference on January 11, Dr. David Chu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, was quoted as saying: The fact that some with previous Iraq experience will end up spending more than 24 months on active duty is no “big deal.” With all due respect to Dr. Chu, it is a big deal.
Since the announcement of the new policy I have had the opportunity to confidentially talk with over 50 human resource managers and senior executives with brand name companies. Uniformly, they say they can not support this new policy.
This policy puts human resource managers and recruiters in a quandary.
One senior HR executive at a major company commented that in light of the new policy, they will continue to support current employees who have been activated, but will no longer hire new employees who are in the Guard or Reserve. All seem to agree with this position.
Another explained it to me this way: If I have three final candidates for a position who are all equally qualified and one mentions they are active in the Guard or Reserve, with the new policy I now have two final candidates, especially if it is for a critical position in the company.
You see, companies have a fudiciary responsibility to their shareholders to run an efficient and profitable operation. Companies can not do so if they can not count on having their employees, their human capital, being readily available. While for many this is just common sense, those making the decisions on how to utilize the Guard and Reserve seem to have missed what corporate America is saying.
This week I received an email form a Master Sergeant who is a recruiter for the National Guard. Here is the concern this recruiter expressed: “As an AGR soldier with a spouse that is a TPU member, I find this new policy very disturbing. How can our government ever conclude that it’s okay to add more uncertainty to serving in the Reserve? I recently interviewed a soldier who chose not to affiliate with the Guard because of her fear that her employer would not support her service.”
And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Last week I met a Reserve Navy Commander that has 7 years of active duty and the rest in the Navy Reserve with a total of 16 years service, who is going to resign his commission. He is a financial analyst who wants a promotion. He can not be subject to being called up for two years and still keep his civilian job. So he is going to quit with 16 years of service!
This is appalling. But more appalling is what corporate America is quietly saying.
Following the policy announcement Workforce Magazine ran a poll the week of January 15 that asked:
If you, as an employer, knew that a military reservist or National Guard member could be called up and taken away from their job for an indeterminate amount of time, would you still hire a citizen solider?
The results to this question from 389 respondents are very disturbing.
Yes – 29%
No – 54%
I don’t know – 17%
The fact that there is even one employer who would say no is disturbing!
This new policy will hurt veteran owned companies. The policy is the straw that will break the back of corporate support of our Guard and Reserve system that has worked so well for nearly a century. And without corporate America’s support, the citizen soldier system can not work.
And that is a “big deal”.
Thank you for your time.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
Theodore (Ted) L. Daywalt
CEO & President
VetJobs
P. O. Box 71445
Marietta, GA 30007-1445
770-993-5117 (o)
877-838-5627 (877-Vet-Jobs)