Nate Waits was worried about the transition to civilian life even before he left the Marine Corps.
Waits, then a Marine corporal, had decided to relocate with his wife, Abby, and raise his family in northwest Arkansas after falling in love with the area while visiting other family members in 2013. Waits was preparing for his second deployment to Afghanistan and walked around to area businesses with a handful of resumes, telling prospective employers he would be back in eight or nine months.
“I knew I wanted to get out of the military,” said Waits, 25. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I had some skills trained into me by the military. I knew I wanted to work in northwest Arkansas. I could always cut grass or have my wife go back to work.”
Waits, who grew up in Cincinnati, served two tours during his years with the Marines and faced frequent combat during his first tour in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. After his first deployment, Waits said that post-traumatic stress made adjusting to peacetime life with his wife and son, Carson, difficult.
When he was looking for a job to take after his discharge, Waits didn’t have a lot of resume-type skills to tout. Waits had joined the Marines after one year at Ohio State University, and there aren’t a lot of job descriptions requesting men or women who can drive a vehicle expertly through gunfire and explosions or fire a mortar accurately on distant targets.
That’s where Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville stepped in with its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, which it had announced on Memorial Day 2013. It guaranteed a job for any veteran recently and honorably discharged, and Wal-Mart projected it would hire 100,000 in five years.
Two years later, Wal-Mart announced an extension of the program to 250,000 veterans by 2020 because the original initiative had outstripped its projections, with 92,000 veterans hired in just two years. Waits was one of those.
“Wal-Mart wasn’t on my radar until I heard they were hiring veterans,” Waits said. “This was getting passed around the group of guys getting out as a valuable option.”
Waits took a job as an area manager at Wal-Mart’s distribution center in Bentonville where he supervises about 47 workers. Waits was discharged from the Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Feb. 1, 2014, drove two days to northwest Arkansas and started his new job and life on Feb. 4.
“The transition was very simple,” Waits said. “It was show up and work hard.”
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Gary Profit runs the military programs for Wal-Mart. Profit, who served 31 years in the military, said he told executives that 100,000 in five years was a much too conservative estimate, but even he was surprised by the early numbers.
“I was pretty sure personally, and I was fairly outspoken that we would way over-index,” Profit said. “Having said that, I’m not sure I would have predicted the level of success we realized. I thought it would be more than 20,000 per year, but I don’t know if you had asked me two years ago that it would have been more than 40,000 a year.”
Wal-Mart is one of many U.S. companies that have announced initiatives to provide jobs for military veterans. J.B. Hunt Transport Services of Lowell has been ranked highly by G.I. Jobs magazine as a military-friendly employer for nine consecutive years and announced an initiative to hire 10,000 veterans by 2020.
Waits said he had an offer, as well, from Kimbel Mechanical Systems of Springdale to become a licensed plumber through its in-house training school because of his military status.
“Just knowing there is a stable corporation who wants you regardless of your skills is a nice fallback,” Waits said.
‘Just Good Business’
A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that veterans who joined the military after 2001 have an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, almost a third higher than the overall rate in the U.S. of 5.5 percent. Profit said veterans should be recognized as a highly desirable workforce pool.
“This is frankly just good business,” Profit said. “These are very talented people. I tell audiences when given the chance that the military community arguably represents the largest diverse talent-rich pool in the world. Who wouldn’t want them in their organization? Frankly, we want more of them.”
Profit said he was proudest of the fact that of the 92,000 veterans hired by Wal-Mart, more than 8,000 have already received promotions.
“In addition to finding an entry point, some of those jobs are becoming careers,” Profit said. “That’s a big deal to me.”
Waits, who now also has a young daughter, Ava, said settling into a job routine quickly was crucial to his “separation” from the military. It’s no secret that a Marine — and any other service member — generally has his or her days mapped out with defined responsibilities and orders.
Waits said that when he was in Afghanistan he was doing one of three things: patrolling, standing guard or sleeping. When asked why he didn’t take a few days off between his discharge and first day at Wal-Mart, Waits said it was important for him to keep moving.
Waits said he has taken only a day or two off in the 16 months he has been with Wal-Mart for the same reason.
His adjustment has gone better, too, because he and his wife have a better understanding of how to handle the stress of post-combat and the re-entry into civilian life. Having the routine of working four 12-hour days a week helps immensely, Waits said.
“It keeps my mind off it,” Waits said. “It’s a sense of belonging. I have a job here and people are counting on me. I have 47 associates counting on me.”
Profit, who earned three degrees while in the military, had a different trajectory than Waits when he left the military. Profit headed to an executive position with a government contractor before being hired by Wal-Mart in 2008.
The leadership skills, work ethic and other so-called “soft skills” so valued by employers are the same for an Army general and a Marine corporal.
“They leave with skills and abilities and knowledge that far surpass their ages,” Profit said. “There’s no secret sauce here. We say quite often if you can bring me a leader, I’ll teach them the retail business.”
Profit said he understands that some veterans take jobs at Wal-Mart with no intention of staying long term. It’s viewed as a place to settle in, earn some money while deciding what to do with the rest of your life, and Profit is OK with that.
“When they separate the only decision they make is they’re going home,” Profit said. “They haven’t given a thought to a job or a career. In addition to the careers people are finding at Wal-Mart — and we believe that is very important — we also realize some people are just looking for a landing spot. We give them a chance with some financial security to figure out the next step in their lives.
“While we’d love for all of them to stay with us, we know that is not likely. As long as they remain productive members of our community and, hopefully, customers, I think we’re going to be just fine with that.”
Profit said it’s important to note that the program — and others run by other companies — is not a handout. Wal-Mart and others find veterans who want to work and put them to work.
“This is not charity,” Profit said. “It’s not a handout. If anything, it’s a hand-up.”
Waits, for his part, has his sights set on a long-term career at Wal-Mart.
“It meant the world to me,” Waits said. “They set me up for success. They gave me a fighting chance.
“I’m here at Wal-Mart to stay unless someone pays me millions of dollars to fish and watch football.”
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