Veterans Have the Right Stuff

On this Veteran’s Day I would like to suggest a way that the HVACR Industry can help those who served their country: offer them jobs. Veterans have many characteristics that make them ideal employees.

Veterans are disciplined.
Veterans have developed both self discipline and group discipline – both crucial skills for employment.

Veterans know how to work hard.
Remember, they made it through boot camp and survived years of living conditions most of us would find intolerable, all the while performing their job.

Veterans know how to be a team player.
The armed forces cannot function if everyone is freelancing. Installation is so much easier if you have a good team. Far more efficient than working alone.

Veterans can master technically difficult machinery.
Take a look at the equipment today’s armed forces work with. Much of it is incredibly complex. A veteran is someone who has been in a position where their life depended upon knowing how to operate that machinery.

Today, finding people who are good candidates for employment in the trades can be tough. Veterans already have the traits employers look for in a good employee, and that is a good base to build on. If the industry will reach out to veterans we will also help ourselves.

Here are links for people considering hiring a veteran or for veterans looking for help getting started in HVACR.

Troops to Trades 
Nexstar Legacy

Looking for a Day On

As we celebrate this Labor Day I am reminded of the many Americans who don’t want a day off, they are looking for a day on. Your job provides you with more than the financial means to support yourself. For most of us, we are identified by our profession. One of the first things people ask when meeting is “what do you do?” Having regular earned income also gives us a way to be more in control of our destiny. With a predictable source of income, you can manage towards improving your lot in life. I truly believe all our political leaders want to help. We would all like for everyone seeking employment to find it. There have been many attempts by government at all levels to pass legislation that would stimulate the economy and create jobs. The problem is that it is very difficult to create truly new jobs, particularly in new and emerging technologies. I believe we would have more success investing our time and money training people for jobs that already exist, particularly in fields where industry growth exceeds the available workforce. HVACR is one such industry. Jobs are available now for skilled HVACR technicians, even with the construction industry operating at historically low levels. Money spent in technical education prepares students for real jobs that we know exist, not jobs that we wished exist. Preparing people for a real job that pays real money makes them a contributing taxpayer. In short, the government gets the money back. Some HVACR students will be successful enough to start their own business. There are several in the Athens area who started as students at Athens Tech. One relatively small business with five employees can gross $500,000. That generates tax revenue of $75,000 at 15%. If those five employees are trained at Athens Tech, the cost of their training is less than one year’s tax revenue. Not all students will generate that kind of return, but even a student earning $12 an hour will likely pay back the cost of training in two years. For people who already have a job in HVACR, education makes them more productive. Increased productivity means a better bottom line for the government – more income to tax. It is not necessary to start new programs with new administrative costs; there are already programs and institutions in place with proven track records of training workers for skilled trades. All we have to do is support them.