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.

Check state law, too. In Michigan taking any adverse employment action against a guardsman, or discourging someone from joining, is a crime.
Insurance won't cover criminal actions.
The feds will just tell you how to comply with the federal law.
Hire an employment law firm, it will pay in the long run.

Happyshooter,

Thanks for the input.  You hit it on the head.  I know how I need to comply to fulfill my legal obligations.  All I have to do is not interfere and not punish anyone for participating.  I am actually very "pro" guard or anything else.  I tell my staff I do not want them trying to dodge jury duty, it is their civic obligation to go.  

What I am looking for is what policy would actually act as a positive to help attract people to my company who are in the guard.  I just had an idea, some of the guys from Ft. Harrison (the Army finance center) are in my Kiwanis Chapter, I will hit them up for input.

I have always made it a personal policy to give Veterans a break when I can at work, out of respect to my Father and the other soldiers who helped raise me.  I do it because I want to, but it has always come back to me 10 times over. To me, Veterans make the best employees.