IndustryWeek – Welcome to Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. I’m IndustryWeek Senior Staff Writer Anna Smith. Today we’re joined by Scott Gromer, CEO of Mesa Power Solutions, to discuss how veteran hiring addresses the skilled trade shortages in manufacturing, and how Mesa has successfully recruited and retained veteran employees. Scott, thank you so much for joining us today.
Scott Gromer: Yeah, thank you and I appreciate the time.
AS: So to get started, why do you think veterans are well-suited for careers in manufacturing and the skilled trades? What skills and experiences do veterans gain through military service that translate well to manufacturing and industrial environments?
SG: Yeah, so I think first it’s important to talk about what we look for at Mesa and who we’re hiring, especially on the technical skills side, we’re really hiring for character, not as much experience. We have our own training department, very robust training program. And so we can train someone on how to become a technician and turn them into the right technician. But it’s hard to train character. It’s hard to teach character. So, we hire for the right character.
And I think how do veterans fit into that and how do veterans fit in with our organization really comes down to just impeccable character, experience, going through leadership training, the first thing you can do before you lead is knowing how to follow. And anyone that’s been through basic training, I’m an army guy, so basic training, the other ones call it boot camp or something like that, but the army one’s the one that matters. But anybody that goes through basic training, the first thing you learn how to do is how to follow. And so to become a good leader, you have to know how to follow because everybody has leaders, everybody has bosses. And I think the military does a great job of teaching people how to follow, teaching people how to take orders, teaching people how to think on their own, and then eventually turning them into some of the best leaders in the world.
So it fits very well with the culture of the company that we’ve set, the culture of the people that we’re looking to hire, and the fact that those people coming out of the military, whether they serve four years, six years, 20 years, 30 years and retire from the military, they’ve got a great foundation of how to follow, how to lead, how to think on their own. And that expands just beyond the soldier, Marine into that person’s family members. So, you know, a spouse of a veteran, a child of a veteran, we think that we treat them, you know, very similar, if not the same as our veterans that we hire because they learn the same thing that their spouse is going through or their dad or mom is going through throughout the military and throughout their career.
With more than two decades of experience in public relations and journalism, Mike is a strategic communications leader who focuses on media relations and reputation management.