Business Now Turns to Deal With Peace --- Most Companies Are Unprepared For Veterans
After employers greet Gulf war veterans, it won't be business as usual.</br></br>Instead, companies probably will have to wrestle with a host of re-entry adjustments by returnees to the workplace. And, given the brevity of the war, many employers aren't prepared.</br></br>There is still time to get ready: Although a cease-fire has been declared, reservists may not be home for weeks, and in some cases months. But up to now, companies "haven't made adequate preparations for people coming back," says Dee Soder, president of Endymion Co., an executive-advisory firm.</br></br>For example, employers may not have adequate counseling and re-entry programs in place, or low-interest loan programs for cash-squeezed reservists who didn't get supplemental pay. And many companies haven't yet figured out what to do with replacement workers who thought they had a job for at least six months.</br></br>For the most part, employers relied on co-workers to fill in for reservists sent overseas. "A lot of companies were in a recession and felt overstaffed anyway," says Susan Koralik, a partner with Hewitt Associates, an employee-benefit consulting firm. In a Hewitt survey of large companies, 22 said they had spread work out among co-workers, while only three hired temporaries.