Marines to Manufacturing: Military Skills That Fill the Labor Gap

Ed Ballina (00:00)
Hi, I’m Ed Ballina.

Alvaro Cuba (00:02)
Hey guys, Alvaro Cuba here. Hey Ed, what’s about the hat?

Ed Ballina (00:07)
Well, you know, we’re starting something new here. We’re going to wear different hats.  Every time we come on this one, I am, I’m sorry. I was never creative. I wore our manufacturer Meet Up hat, ⁓ because the hat that I  was going to bring with me stayed at home. I’m obviously in a hotel room, but Alvaro, it looks to me like you got a tennis racket going on up there, huh?

Alvaro Cuba (00:25)
Yeah, I do. I’m a tennis fan, and I don’t know, guys, for sure, several of you saw over the weekend a masterpiece on tennis. No, an epic French Open final and Alcaraz and Sinner played five hours, 29 minutes, and an amazing match, amazing players, and a treat for all of us that were,

Ed Ballina (00:47)
That’s insane.

Alvaro Cuba (00:54)
there are fans of tennis. So that’s about it.

Ed Ballina (00:58)
That’s amazing stamina. Well, speaking of stamina, we’re racking up episodes. Welcome to the Manufacturing Meet Up podcast. This is the show where we kick back on our downtime. We talk about efficiency and what really happens out on the plant floor. So join us.

Alvaro Cuba (01:20)
So guys, today we have a special episode. We are close to July 4th. So we wanted to spotlight an incredible resource, often overlooked in our industry, which is the military veterans. You heard us and for sure you are experiencing this 70 % of the companies are experiencing severe shortage in labor.

We talk about half a million gap in today and the forecast is two and a half million in four years. So  we were thinking, well, somehow we need to fill those jobs with talent and skills. And what a better thing that to think about our veterans that have, they are highly trained at discipline, they process oriented, clear on safety, global experience because they all travel around clear on chain and command. So, so many great skills, attitude,  even culture that we can use in our industry.

So, we decided we want to explore this and how we can fill this gap with our estimated veterans.

Ed Ballina (02:58)
Terrific.  Obviously,  we have a lot of respect for our veteran community and the sacrifices they make for all of us.  And today, we are joined by our very own Chris Morrison. He is an account exec and former field ops and former field operations, I’m sorry, with Augury. He brings a unique perspective to manufacturing.  He served in the Marine Corps as a communications electronic technician for over five years, including deployments to Afghanistan. He managed some pretty complex communication systems and countermeasure systems. I’m sure he can’t tell us all of it. He’d have to kill us. So only the things you can tell us Chris.  He also transitioned after his military service providing that same kind of support to the military. And he joined Augury, in Augury’s sales team, I think 2019 but Chris will get that for sure. He is also kicking out his own content on LinkedIn. And let me tell you you’ve got to watch this stuff. It is entertaining, educational and funny as heck. I’ve learned that I could actually turn my hair into a mohawk. We’ll see how that works. Anyway let’s get started!

Alvaro Cuba (04:20)
So welcome, Chris. Thank you so much for joining the show. Tell us a little bit about your journey. You started Marine Corps Communication, and then you transitioned into manufacturing in the field and in sales. Quite an impressive journey. Tell us a little bit how you did and why you choose this field.

Christopher Morrison (04:25)
Thank you for having me. So when I joined, I joined the Marine Corps back in 2006, and it was just an absolute like first time job, 18 years old, I didn’t really know that much. My father was a Marine. So that like helped. Like, so four years old, I was walking around the house. Hup, two, three, four, I love Marine Corps. I was like, okay. So like that fate was kind of, I was born to be a Marine. I mean, I knew it was gonna happen. And it did. And when it turned out for different jobs, like it’s crazy. They’re like, hey, what job do you want to do?

And it’s like, you know what, I like electronics. Let’s do something with electronics. And they sent me on this way of telecommunications. And it’s been a blessing. They put me in school for a year. And then I started doing different deployments. Did two deployments in Iraq active and then one Afghanistan tour active. And in those environments, you really learn how to think on your feet and also use what you have around. Like before you go ordering a new part, see if you can like get around that. So there’s been a lot of that. And also the Marine Corps is very poor compared to the rest of the other services. So we have to make do with what we have. That translated over to my private contracting when I was working on different jammer systems and also anti-drone systems. Like you had to have a fix for what was going on. Like sometimes we’d have GPSs go out and who would have known if you put a GPS inside of the back of a coffee can, you can get a better signal, spirals it as it goes up. So, oh, that’s pretty cool. So like just these little like hacks if you want to call them and then from there. 100%, Oh

Alvaro Cuba (06:15)
How useful in the plant. I’m sure. Yes.

Christopher Morrison (06:19)
1000%. So

Ed Ballina (06:19)
How useful when I get in the woods in my ATV and I can’t get GPS signal. I’m bringing a can of coffee with me next time.

Christopher Morrison (06:27)
So it’s funny because it’s led to a lot of different things like how we hold our fin sensor on our machines at Augury. Like  literally it came from opening and closing rabbit cages and I was like wait a minute, this will hold up  a fin mount so the technician’s not having to stand there and wait for glue to dry and then just keep going so it’s pretty cool. Then the glue can also secure while it’s not like being a, you know, if you’re moving it, your heartbeat’s going a lot of different. So it’s in the most stable environment possible so that glue can get the best cure. So it’s just funny little things, little hacks you figure out like, okay, you can apply it. And the trick is, ⁓ sorry,  you can apply these little lessons. When I got to Augury is where they really accelerated that a ton. The first thing Augury gave me when I showed up was a Kindle. And I was like, okay, what’s a Kindle?

Like, I’ve seen people like read these on planes, like what’s going on? And they’re like, hey, we like our employees to read. So you know, get on it. I was like, okay. And they gave me a little list of books to get. And then it’s just been on from there. And I’ve learned how to take those little hacks that we’ve had and make them real, like make them actual like procedures and get it through, get those ideas actually like kept and we can use them versus if I’m just doing it and then some technician or 30 other technicians and 30 other plants aren’t. It’s better just to, everyone’s doing the same thing.

Alvaro Cuba (07:50)
Any reason specifically for manufacturing that you landed, you choose it, it chooses you?

Christopher Morrison (07:57)
So it kind of was just fate.  I was in Bagram at the time and we had about three rockets go off right next to me and like the building over and it was like really chaotic and I got a phone call from one of the old guys that he worked at Augury but I worked with him on a prior contract. He’s like, hey man, you want to get out of there? I was like, yes, I do. Yes, I do. I want to go. And so he said, try these guys at Augury.

And it’s been best from there. Like the manufacturing, I’m actually extremely proud to be working in it because I think that’s also what a lot of people have forgotten. When you are creating steel or getting food out to people, you’re literally feeding people. You’re going to a place and you’re feeding people and there’s honor in that. And I think in America at least, we’ve really lost that, like, oh, you work at a line job, a factory job. It’s like, no, man, these factories are lot more complex than you think. I’m seeing one operator running there on a, working a seamer, and he’s sitting there throwing the caps in running around make sure everything’s okay. I’m like, holy crap, like he’s moving all day. I was like, that’s a hard job. And like, I really, look up to those guys. I’m like, it’s pretty cool stuff.

Ed Ballina (09:07)
You know, it’s great to hear you say that because  I think our manufacturing people like Alvaro and I said this right from the beginning,  they were real heroes as well, right? Because they were the ones that were in the plant. They could not work from home. They had to be in there engaging with equipment, right? Making stuff. And we saw how tenuous that is, right? And the early days of COVID, it…freaked me out to go to the store and find empty shelves. Who sees that in America, right? So it’s very, very important to have strong manufacturing.  And speaking of the environments that you work in, you were involved in some pretty, fancy stuff. There’s complex jamming, communication systems. 

Millions of dollars in Afghanistan and I’m sure Iraq as well. We’re hearing a lot of this stuff now with what’s happening out in Europe with drones and jamming drones and counter jamming drones. Bringing it back to manufacturing, our manufacturing is increasingly AI and IoT driven.  How does military background translate? And I’m sure you guys are 10 decades ahead of what we’re doing in manufacturing, but.

Christopher Morrison (10:23)
You’d be surprised.  No, it’s extremely slow to get anything implemented in the military. Like, if you have an idea for anything new, like it’s going to go through a huge bureaucracy to get where it’s at.  I fortunately was a part of a different program where it’s quick fixes, like, we have this new jamming system, it’s prototype, get it out there, and we get it out there. So  there was a little bit of  quickness and I’ve seen that in manufacturing with what we do. Hey, we need a sensor that’s much more waterproof. Boom, they build it and now we can test it. Okay, hey, it works. Cool, keep going. And so that part was really relatable. Like, hey, we have this thing that’s new. Let’s go try it on an active environment and go for it. So it’s, I like that.

Alvaro Cuba (11:11)
Chris, if there is a plant manager,  how you make him understand how valuable could be veterans, how the experience in the military prepares you for… You have a couple of great examples, but in general, what prepares you and or doesn’t prepare? In which areas and for sure there is a couple areas they don’t prepare you. Share a little bit.

Christopher Morrison (11:47)
100%. 100%. It depends on how beat up you’ve gotten. When you’ve, I mean, for real, like when you are trying to put up an idea and someone’s saying, no, no, they’ve like suffered under bad leadership, you’re gonna get someone that doesn’t wanna move unless they know that they have permission or they 100,000 % know the answer to something. What we gotta get away from on that is if you like, it’s almost like wanna pull that person off to the side, like imagine you’re in combat. And you see someone that’s jacked up over there, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna wait for someone to tell you or are you gonna go over and get it? It’s like go over and get it. So like that’s one thing that we can work on as veterans is use your brain and execute. Like you know what needs to happen. You’re there every day. You don’t need your boss to do whatever. And if,  that should solve your problem though, because like you are the closest one there.  If your boss has told you not to do that, that’s a different story. But like, the obedience to orders, we need to find a way to make this fit. I don’t think you can. If you can doubt a soldier or a Marine, they see it as a challenge. It’s like, all right, you wanna doubt me? I will show you. And you get a little bit of an extra fire in there. So that’s one thing is, it sounds funny, but  I don’t think you can do it. Whenever you throw that doubt out there, it really like, okay, fine. I’ll show you what I can do.

Ed Ballina (13:10)
You know, it’s when you were talking about the decisions that you need to make in a battlefield environment, right?  I  would at times share with my team that sometimes we especially, you know, we’re engineers or technical, we get into analysis paralysis. And I use kind of the analogy of if you have a battlefield casualty, you know, somebody’s appendage got blown off.

 Your first priority is to keep that person alive. So you stanch the bleeding, you keep them alive. After that, you can go find the appendage. So hopefully you can put it back on. But don’t spend a lot of time doing that while the person is potentially losing their life. So that immediacy and take charge mentality is really something I very much appreciate in working with veterans. Yeah exactly. Yeah, you have to trust people to make those kind of decisions.

Alvaro Cuba (13:56)
That’s true empowerment, on the other hand, no?

Ed Ballina (14:03)
And I’ve had the pleasure, the honor of working with a number of phenomenal veterans from enlisted folks to  Academy grads from Annapolis, West Point and Colorado Springs. And I’ve really have enjoyed the relationship with them over the years. So getting back to what Alvaro was saying about manufacturing skills, right? Man what a big gap we have, and it’s only getting bigger, right? As we potentially onshore more of this.

So based to your knowledge, how do you think veterans can help bridge that gap? Because I really feel  that’s an, it’s somewhat tapped. Most Fortune 100 companies have some sort of an engagement process, but I think we’re still leaving a lot on the table, right? And especially as these plants get more high tech, it seems like, wow, that background from the military fits perfectly.

Christopher Morrison (14:55)
Especially with dealing with all these crazy GUIs, graphic user interfaces that we’re dealing with so it’s pretty fun, you’re like, all right, how does this video game work? But no, a hundred percent, if they had some job shows that were actually on Camp Pendleton and catching those guys a year before they got out that would be like a very very steady and I would say one year before they get out because the application process takes a while and you know, going through. Like attracting the military veterans, that’s where you have to bring the honor back to manufacturing. You have to show that guy that is marred in dust and dirt and he’s working hard and you gotta show him where he’s all jacked up but he gets it done. Like what he was messing with, that crack that was there, he welded it and it is fixed. And he gets to walk home and freaking take off his hard hat and just, all right, you know, and get ready for the next day.

Like that’s when you see  the hard work there. Cause if you look at any military commercial, what do you see most of the time? You see guys running into machine gun nests, running into battle, you know, there’s explosions everywhere. It’s like when you want to get a Marine or a soldier or airman, a SEAL, a sailor,  you have to show  what you’re going to go through and put, the pain on there and all right, take it.

Especially even the mental pain too. When you have  10 different people coming to you at once It’s like alright. I can only actually do four of these things. Let me prioritize and execute. What’s the highest priority? Let’s circle it. Okay. That’s what I need to do right now and you know focus.

Alvaro Cuba (16:29)
Great skills and you touch in culture, which is so important and to bring back that pride and that energy into manufacturing. We had one entire episode dedicated to that and how we all have to change the perception in manufacturing. It’s not the dirty dingy alone, it’s really important. It has a lot of skills and nowadays even has a lot of help. So, but it’s to all of us to change the perception.  In the skills, one thing that is  the center in manufacturing, safety quality. If you touch those…

You in the military, you have exactly the same. It’s the same culture, even probably overexposed because it’s safety of the people and quality of the execution. How correlates what you learn there into what you are applying into manufacturing?

Christopher Morrison (17:45)
So it’s pretty close when it comes to safety. Instead of putting my Kevlar on, I’m putting my hard hat on. Instead of putting my ballistics on, I’m putting on my safety glasses. Instead of putting my flak jacket on, I’m putting my safety vest on. And then instead of having my combat boots on, I got my steel toes.

So  it was kind of a real different uniform, different environment, and then like start adapting.  But the thing is, is like in the military, we’re doing the most dangerous things you can do, like mobile shooting and stuff like that, the safest way that you can. And in the manufacturing environment, it’s actually the same way. Sometimes you’re doing dangerous things as safely as possible. And that’s just how it is. Like, there’s been a few times where I found myself where I have to go grab the safety guy that is in charge of the plant. Because I know I can do it. I know I can do whatever I’m about to ask to do. But it’s like, you guys are in control here. Let’s see if we can work something out. And they’re telling a little bit about my background. Like, can I supervise? Yes, you can supervise. I know it’s dangerous. I am tied off as best I can. Is this OK? You know what? It’s OK. I’m going to supervise you. Got up there, did something dangerous as safely as possible, and the sensors were installed.

Ed Ballina (19:01)
Well, that’s terrific. And I tell you, I’m probably going to steal  something you just said. Bring honor back to manufacturing. Man, do I love that.  Because we’ve been downtrodden, you know, our image has been somewhat tarnished. We are rising like the phoenix out of the ashes. So I’m going to use that one again. So, hey, you managed a platoon of Marines, right? 

I think it’s 23 Marines.  You obviously learned and applied leadership skills as you manage them, right? How do you apply that to when you’re training teams on a new productive maintenance or monitoring system or just simply being a leader on the shop floor? How does that translate?

Christopher Morrison (19:49)
Actually translates incredibly well. One of the roles of the platoon sergeant is to make sure that everybody has all their trainings that they do need in the first place accountability of everybody and  learning how to deal with people because of 23 people you get some problem children in there. Like dude, what’s going on? Why are you late 15 minutes every day? Like I already made you do 13,000 push-ups. I mean you’re getting really strong, but you’re still late.

It helps with like, you have to be confident in what you’re doing. When you’re telling someone else to do and you’re not confident in what you’re saying, they’re gonna look at you like, are you sure? You know, so, and then the other thing too is like, this actually happened to me at one of the recycling plants we were at. There was two towers. One was a hundred something feet in the air. The other one was like 150. Well, I was introducing a new guy, be like, I cannot, and I will not tell you ever to do something that I’m not willing to do myself. So I’m gonna take the taller tower.

And you’re going to take the smaller tower. So this is this guy’s first time on the job. So I went up, got my job done, took some video documentation to show him exactly what he’s going to be doing, because I don’t want to climb the other tower. So we go back down, and I give him the footage. He’s like, all right, here we go. Here’s how it goes. And all right, got it, Chris. And that’s really nice. Whenever you’re dealing with a brand new people, brand new set of people, you’ve got to have that command presence.

It’s like, hey, we’re going over here. This is what we’re doing. Do we have any questions on this? It’s OK to have questions. Don’t let anyone else. There’s no dumb questions. What do you got? Then they ask a dumb question. OK, all here we go. And you give them the answer to it. So.

Ed Ballina (21:30)
Leading from the front, right? That’s how you do it.

Christopher Morrison (21:33)
I mean, by examples by far, my favorite. I mean just try as best you can. And sometimes you do make mistakes. And the ultimate on that is be quick to be like, I was wrong. Don’t try to defend. When you figure out you’re wrong and you’re trying to defend your old answer, you’re an idiot. Like, you gotta cut it out. Like, okay, I screwed up. I miscalculated. I’m sorry. Here’s how we’re gonna do it better. And…

Ed Ballina (21:55)
Mea culpa.

Alvaro Cuba (21:57)
Yeah, and it’s the only way to really start learning. You need to switch the switch. Chris, manufacturing is changing and it’s changing very fast. You experienced firsthand in Augury with all the artificial intelligence, new technology. and I are seeing that in the plant with automation and drones and a lot of technology, not only in the machines, but for the operators, for the mechanics. So it’s really a complete different manufacturing. If you would have to give advice to the veterans, how to prepare or how to present themselves or how to apply to these jobs in these environments that are tech enabled in these days? What would you tell them to prepare them for their interviews and to go into these open positions?

Christopher Morrison (23:11)
One of the big ones, at least when it comes to Marine Corps, one of the things I would tell them is it’s okay not to know the answer. In the Marines, you have to know the answer and then you have to be confident. Even if you’re dead wrong, you’re still confident in your answer. It’s crazy. How many people can sit in the back of an M240 ⁓ MRAP? You’re like, 16. Yes, 16. And you put a real stern, no, that’s wrong because you can get someone killed by giving out the wrong information.

So like that is one thing immediately. Like if you don’t know the answer, don’t bull crap. Like, hey, you know what? I actually don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out and I will, you know, get back to you on that very shortly. So just not having to know everything. When it comes to the technical skills, you just gotta let them know what they’re walking into. Be like, hey, this is gonna be hard at first. I think you can rise to the challenge or maybe you can’t. I’m leaning on that you can. And we’re gonna have to learn this with your hands and feet and go for it. Like MOS school, it’s Marine Occupational School. In those, they almost kind of force you through it. But this, they’re not gonna force you through it. If you don’t pass, you’re not gonna pass. So.

Let’s put some extra effort into it. Don’t put it off to the last second. Prepare for what you’re doing.

Ed Ballina (24:20)
So like wearing the drilling, the DI hat and like yelling at them won’t work? I tried that one time in a plant. I got a few flat tires. You will!

Christopher Morrison (24:30)
So that’s a funny one and that’s just kind of a thing between people. You’re more inclined to do what someone’s telling you to do when you know they can beat the crap out of you. I better do what that guy says, you know?

Ed Ballina (24:38)
Yeah, yeah. That’s terrific. I gotta start working out, because I’m not there at all.

Christopher Morrison (24:55)
Always keep mentally, physically, and spiritually strong. Always.  In the Marine Corps, on deployment especially, we had what’s called “The Pit.” Because you have a bunch of angry individuals that are deployed away from home, sleeping on little cots or worse. And you get extremely lonely. Even though you’re around all your friends, you want to get away from them too. There’s no time that you actually have to yourself. So that part’s  pretty rough. I forgot where I was going with that. My apologies.

Ed Ballina (24:59)
I like that. The Pit!

Christopher Morrison (25:26)
Oh, the pit, yes. So when someone actually does challenge you and they have a legit challenge like, hey, I’m not doing that, that’s wrong, blah, blah, blah. You wanna take it to the pit? Now you see if they’re serious on it or not. And then you go and you can grapple and when all else fails, violence prevails. So we’re able to do that. Yeah, you can’t do that in the manufacturing though. Like, hey, meet out in the parking lot, you’ll have the cops there in a heartbeat. And there’ll be marine cops getting you out, so yeah.

Alvaro Cuba (25:26)
Yeah. It’s like when I was in high school. Hey, you really mean that? Okay. Yes. At the end of the day, we’ll meet in the parking lot and we’ll…

Christopher Morrison (25:56)

So you can’t, not supposed to do that, like you can’t do that, I guess unless you’re in Texas. But so.

Ed Ballina (26:05)
It’s interesting how all these cultures have their equivalent of the pit, right? High school, know, even grammar school, you get called out to the back of the playground. The pit, I love it.

Christopher Morrison (26:17)
just let me add one little note on that. I used to go to the pit and I used to crawl out a lot. I didn’t win very many. Yeah.

Ed Ballina (26:22)
⁓ But you went to the pit.

Alvaro Cuba (26:23)
Well, and I’m sure that prepare you a lot for what you had ahead of you.

Christopher Morrison (26:33)
Well, you learn de-escalation, you learn escalation. So when someone starts like shouting, sometimes you can stop someone from like overreacting and getting crazy when you’re like, sir, I’m actually, standing right here. I’m not far away from you. Like what you’re saying is reaching me. You’ve got this. And sometimes they’ll, and then they talk into your level. Cause when we’re shouting at each other, we think we’re far away. And it’s like, no, like you don’t have to raise your voice. Like, I got you.

Ed Ballina (26:51)
That’s wow. That is well, you’ve given us lots of tips  here too in this. So hey, as we’re, yeah, no, you’re good.  As we’re trying to kind of wrap this thing up here a little bit. ⁓ How do we, how do we do a better job of recruiting and leveraging those technical skills and aptitude? Specifically as you know, we’re looking at industry 4.0, right? Call it whatever you want to call it AI IoT.

Alvaro Cuba (27:00)
Yeah. There is a lot, yes, that we can use. Go ahead, sorry.

Ed Ballina (27:29)
How do we do a better job? You already mentioned the one thing about a year before they leave, which I wrote down. That’s pretty interesting. And it’s a simple thing that could make a big difference, right?  But what else should we be doing to better recruit them and bring them into manufacturing? ⁓

Christopher Morrison (27:44)
So we do also have something called TAPS. It’s at the end of an enlistment. And at the end of an enlistment, they have guest speakers that can come in. Because honestly, when I was getting out of the Marine Corps, I had no idea about manufacturing. I knew my stuff came from the store, but I had no idea how it was made. If I would have known about that, that probably possibly would have changed my trajectory.

And so there’s absolutely , like I said, we need to bring the honor back to it because nobody  not that nobody knows about it, but the wrong people spread information about it, negative information. And it’s like, when you see  a team of people struggling with a problem and then you bring in a solution for them and then they’re all executing perfectly. Like it is a, just a beautiful.

Ed Ballina (28:28)
It’s huge, huge. That’s terrific.

Christopher Morrison (28:34)
But I would say veteran CEOs, veteran directors, if they could speak out on how the military has changed them, how military, at least put, because everyone says you’re lucky, you’re lucky, you’re lucky. It’s like anyone that’s lucky, put themselves in a position to get lucky. So that’s where you gotta believe it.

Ed Ballina (28:40)
Right. The harder you work, the luckier you get sometimes. Yeah, absolutely.

Christopher Morrison (28:56)
Puts you in a better position the harder you work.

Alvaro Cuba (29:00)
No, and it’s a great opportunity, Ed, I’m sure you have done this, but in all the companies that I work, we always have people going into universities to talk to the people, no? And to attract them, and one year earlier, and they have specific programs. If we do that, imagine how even much richer is if you go into the military, because as Chris was saying, they come already with the skills and with all the experience applying those skills in extreme situations. So it’s kind of they are ready to go into the plant and perform or in any place in manufacturing. So I love it.

Christopher Morrison (29:51)
One of the beauties too is the military does give you after an honorable discharge, they give you a Montgomery GI Bill. You get about four to five years of college for free. So  if you can catch a veteran early enough and influence his major or their major, that would be pretty cool. Like, hey, you want to be a production engineer? We’ve got Cal State right over there, you know, do an engineering degree out of there and they have their GI Bill already there to help them. So.

Ed Ballina (30:16)
That’s a terrific way to build capability and kind of hunt where the ducks are too, right? 

Alvaro Cuba (30:23)
Yeah. No, and imagine you have these veterans with this culture, how it will even help the other people in the plant,  bringing that kind of culture and discipline and process. So it’s not only you are getting the skills, the technical skills, but leadership and people skills.

Ed Ballina (30:47)
And a professionalism, right? It always strikes me. Military folks are very professional, you know, very respectful. And yeah, frankly, the only issue I ever had was I had one guy that was kind of like a little funky about the fact that people just wouldn’t automatically listen to him. And I said, hey, man, this is a different world, right?  But most, 99% of them were, hey, to your point, they understand leadership. They understand what it takes to get people to follow.

Alvaro Cuba (31:19)
One last question, Chris. If we are hiring from the military in the company, what are a couple of things that the company should put out there as a program or to help them to integrate better?

Christopher Morrison (31:46)
That’s a good question.

Alvaro Cuba (31:50)
What’s an area that you that go to the plant see that, okay, if we would put this kind of support, help on adaptability or empower. What would you suggest to a plant?

Ed Ballina:
But, know, are there some watch outs? know, are there some kind of, ⁓ you know, yeah. If you’re in, if you’re coming in as a veteran into a plant, if I’m the plant manager, what are some things that I should have as things to be on the lookout for so I can help coach and develop? Or what are some of the watch outs that makes you guys and gals different than your typical off the street or campus hire.

Christopher Morrison (32:59)
So, if you’re hiring a junior position, one of the things you got to watch out for is this person wasn’t a higher position before. Like I used to be in charge of 23 people and then I went to zero, you know, when I did my first job. So it’s like, okay, it’s just a little bit different. And some people look at that differently. They think like, once I’ve been at this place in this company, I should be at this place in this company. It’s like, like you said, hey, this is the real world. You got to start in the mail room. It’s just how it is.  And one thing to  watch out for is that military veteran might not understand that. Like, cause they’ll still, be older in a position of other people that are younger. So they’re going to, you got kind of a weird little area there. If you’re hiring someone that’s more senior military background, generally they got their head on straight already. They’ve been in the civilian world a little bit longer, but if they’re coming right out of the officer ranks, it’s almost the same thing. Like be advised, these are your people that you’re in charge of. Here’s your sectors of fire. Stay within them.

You know, if you can help out the other sectors, do it.

Ed Ballina (34:03)
Can I give you one through personal experience? And that is as a hiring manager or somebody who interviews  vets, at least have an understanding of rank structure and what it means. So I interviewed a, I think a master sergeant from the Air Force, I mean, incredible professional, right? And I don’t know, right? And like his master sergeant, this guy could have been something different. Right? So I asked him a question. I said, so like, you’re really great. You have all these attributes, right? Like, why didn’t you become an officer and like climb up the chain? I’m thinking, you know,  corporate, right? And he looked at me, well, it doesn’t work that way. You know, we’re professional and all this. We became great friends and I know he watches this podcast. So Scott, this is for you. My apology for that because he drove home. We were in Orlando. He drove home to Tampa. Tell my wife, Can you believe this guy asked me why I didn’t become an officer? I was a professional! So we became great friends. So please understand the difference in the ranks and don’t make the same mistakes that Ballina made.

Alvaro Cuba (35:12)
Well, and it’s very similar in manufacturing, you know? But you have the techs that are, to Chris’ point, very proud of being the tech, the expert on these kinds of machines or these kinds of processes and all that. And for them, it’s not important the ranks and go up. They are so happy. They know so much and they are…very well respected and very well rewarded managing their technical parts. So, a lot in common, clearly. So, Chris, thank you very much for being with us in the show. It has been great. And guys in the plants, I’m sure  you heard this and…all what Chris was sharing with us, but think about it. The gap is getting bigger and we need to fill it somehow. I cannot think of a better way to go with a veteran that has already the work ethics. It has already skills, technical skills, and it managed people and how to move around. So it’s just…come the technicalities of the specific job and then you are good to go. So it’s certainly an area to go and explore very quickly and to bring highly skilled, highly qualified people to our plants.

Thank you very much, Chris.

Christopher Morrison (37:01)
Thank you, Appreciate it.

Ed Ballina (37:03)
No, absolutely, it’s been not only informative,  I took several notes and it’s been a lot of fun. I’m definitely gonna watch that video on the mohawk, now I’m intrigued.

Alvaro Cuba (37:14)
Watch it, I did it and it’s hilarious. And the way you can use it, I’m sure. Okay, folks. So this is the wrap up of the episode. Thank you very much for joining us in the Manufacturing Meet Up. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow and subscribe, tell your pals about it. Like us in YouTube or write a review in iTunes and let’s make this meet up to grow.

Ed Ballina (37:56)
Absolutely. ⁓ Once again, thank you so much, Chris, and a big thanks to the whole veteran community in the United States. ⁓ If you’d like to keep this conversation going, can email us at mmu.augury.com or find us on the Endpoint. As you know, that’s a free online community for manufacturing pros. And that’s at endpoint.augury.com. Also, by the way, don’t feel like you have to get to the end of the episode to like us and to subscribe. You’re perfectly okay with being enthralled by this from the beginning and hitting subscribe and like time and time again. Anyway, we’ll also have those links in the show notes for this episode. Thank you and see you next time.

Alvaro Cuba (38:32)

Yeah. Thank you guys, bye.