I own my business, and I am getting ready to write our official policy on service in the National Guard. Up until now, I have always been able to tell someone I want to hire, if you are in the Guard we will work with you to support your effort. Reality is very few people are in the Guard, but the company is growing and I want to have an official policy/benefit stated in our benfits manual.
I know I could contact the National Guard but I wanted to ask here first. Get honest opinions form real people.
What would a potential employee who is in the guard, look for in an employer if that employer wants to be seen as "Pro National Guard". We are an IT consulting company, so our people are typically well compensated for their work. They tend to work very hard, and our clients tend to want to let them off site as little as possible. A written policy not only shows we are in favor of duty in the Guard, but it also makes it easier for me to tell my clients why an employee WILL be gone for an extra 2 weeks. We have commited up front to giving our support.
I would appreciate any suggestions here. I may not use all of them, but I am looking for ideas. My first thought is to not force them to use their paid time off and maybe supplement a percentage of their pay.