By: Mark Crawford
Jan/Feb 2012

Finding qualified workers to replace retiring employees with decades of experience is a pressing issue in the oil and gas industry — especially as Generation Y shows a fading interest in the trades. That’s why military veterans are getting serious attention as potential employees in the energy field.

Take, for example, the Center for Energy Workforce Development’s “Troops to Energy Jobs” initiative. This nonprofit group of natural gas and nuclear utilities is trying to resolve the same issue that looms large for the servicing industry — not having enough qualified workers to replace the older, highly skilled employees who will be retiring in large numbers over the next five years. In addition, folks who do want these jobs will likely require considerable training and years of hands-on experience before they can take over for experienced workers who have been on the rigs for decades.

The Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) is working hard to develop a pilot program for replacing the nearly 40 percent of the energy industry workforce that is expected to retire soon. The idea is to turn military veterans into the next generation of energy workers; one of the key goals of the program is developing new ways to streamline the certification process for many positions in the utility industry (including awarding credit for applicable military training).

Ex-soldiers are ideal candidates for oil and gas jobs.

“If you’re going to be a lineman or a nuclear power station operator, those types of things, you need to have a certification,” says Ryan Frazier, a spokesman for Dominion Resources, one of the participants in the CEWD program. “What we’re trying to do is streamline the time it takes for someone to come out of the military into an energy job”—possibly reducing a two-year certification process to as little as six to eight months.

What about oil and gas?
Finding younger workers who are interested in starting an oil and gas career has become more challenging in recent years as vocational education continues to be cut back in public school systems and students choose less field-oriented employment.

Veterans, however, often have the skills and abilities that the oil and gas and utility industries are seeking. “Three of the qualities that we look for when we’re trying to hire employees to be on the front lines of keeping the gas flowing are people who are safety-focused, civic-minded and disciplined,” says Frazier. “We find our employees that have served in the military have those qualities.”

Military veterans can also handle hard, physical work and long hours. They tend to be strong, physically fit, and accustomed to being outdoors and working around heavy equipment. Their military training has also taught them how to work efficiently as a team and lead under pressure.

“This is a brilliant opportunity for employers in our industry,” indicates Deb Fennell, vice president of human resources and safety for Dart Energy Corporation in Mason, Michigan, and chair of AESC’s HR Committee. “The military veteran is an ‘ideal profile’ for workers in the well servicing, trucking and drilling industries. We used to identify construction employees and farm workers as good models for our type of work because they’re used to heavy physical labor, are generally in good physical condition, and can work well in temperature extremes, both cold and hot. Many military veterans fit this category very well.”

They are also available in large numbers — unemployment rates are high among returning vets. According to the White House, as of June 2011, one million veterans were unemployed with a jobless rate of about 13 percent for post-9/11 veterans. A recent Pew Research Center study indicates that almost half of all newly discharged veterans describe the transition to civilian careers as “difficult.” In 2010 the federal government spent $882 million in unemployment benefits to newly discharged veterans.

Many veterans currently seeking work are in their 20s and 30s and previously had jobs in sectors that were hit hard by the recession — including mining, energy, construction, manufacturing and transportation. Also, as the U.S. military continues to disengage from Iraq and Afghanistan, more than one million soldiers are expected to leave the military between 2011 and 2016.

A valuable investment
The financial incentives from the federal government for hiring veterans are substantial. In November 2011 President Obama signed into law the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-56), which provides tax credits to companies that employ veterans.

The Returning Heroes Tax Credit provides companies that hire unemployed veterans a maximum credit of $2,400 for every short-term employee and $4,800 for every long-term employee. The Wounded Warriors Tax Credit increases the existing tax credit for firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed long-term (maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran) and continue the existing credit for all other veterans with a service-connected disability (maximum credit of $4,800).

In addition, the new legislation permits qualified 501(c) tax-exempt organizations to claim these credits against the employer portion of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax. It also authorizes the federal government to assist private organizations and others in providing job training and developing apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship programs that give veterans the education and skills they need to transition to meaningful employment.

Veterans have unique combinations of skills, training and experiences that make them valuable employees in a number of industries, including oil and gas. Both the government and the private sector have an obligation to help veterans find successful and rewarding civilian careers after serving their country. The Obama administration has challenged the private sector to hire or train 100,000 unemployed veterans and their spouses by the end of 2013. Leading this effort is the Joining Forces initiative, which asks corporations, communities, faith-based institutions, and other groups to support veterans and their families and provide them with job opportunities and related training. In response Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, AT&T and many other companies and organizations have already announced commitments to training and employing veterans.

“In a time when geographic segments of our industry are crying out for workers, veterans represent a ready-made, talented workforce with a diverse make-up (to satisfy EEOC requirements), where we can find skilled employees without having to go to the expense of advertising or other costly recruitment efforts,” says Farrell. “Above all, providing jobs and career opportunities to the men and women who have served our country so honorably is just the right thing to do.”