IT Goes To WarIT Goes To War

Scotty Smith is an IT coordinator and database administrator for TimeVision Inc. in Irving, Texas. He's also a sergeant in the Army National Guard-and is ready to join the war on terrorism. "I've been a God-and-country man for a long time," says Smith, 34. If activated, he says, "I'd grab my Bible and gun, and go."

Rob Morris heads IT and operations for Net-Strike Worldwide LLC, a staffing and recruiting consulting firm in Newport Beach, Calif. A captain in the Air Force Reserve, Morris was notified two weeks ago that he might be called to active duty. "My wife just about fell off her seat," he says.

Technology managers are facing a new challenge as members of the reserves and National Guard are called to fight domestic terrorist threats and conduct operations overseas. More than 30,000 of the 1.3 million reservists have been activated for duty in the aftermath of Sept. 11-including plenty of IT personnel. Most are being used to guard bridges and tunnels, patrol airports, search trucks, and perform other domestic support functions.

Some managers have been caught off-guard as IT staffers get call-up notices. They're scrambling to figure out how to comply with federal law, how much doing so will cost, and how the loss of personnel will affect their businesses.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 requires employers to hold open jobs for staffers called for reserve duty and to maintain accrual benefits such as vacations and retirement plans. It doesn't require companies to keep paying the workers' salaries. Some do anyway: Integic Corp. has always made up the difference between reservists' military pay and their regular salaries during the two weeks that they routinely serve each year. Right after the Sept. 11 attacks, Integic revised its policy to cover 12 weeks' pay. It plans to re-evaluate it again if military operations continue.

But the slow economy makes that approach difficult for some. With just 35 employees, human-resources software vendor TimeVision may not be able to make up the pay differential, which can be sizeable, president Lois Melbourne says. "Two years ago, we could make every effort, but not now," she says. "It creates a financial and patriotic challenge."

For other managers, a bigger challenge is figuring out how to keep their departments operating efficiently and IT projects moving forward as they deal with the potential loss of talent for lengthy but temporary periods. Normally, when an IT person leaves for another job, a manager can simply hire a replacement. But, the law says, when reservists return, they must get a job back with pay and status similar to the job they left. Also, managers don't know if or when staffers will be called or for how long they'll be gone.

"Companies being deprived of valuable employees can be completely thrown off," Meta Group analyst Maria Schaefer says. The smaller the company, the bigger the problem, because the reservist sometimes is the only one in the company with a particular IT skill.

Reservists must report for duty in as few as two days after getting their call-up notices. While they're waiting to be called, many start handing off crucial work to others-yet they don't know how much time they have for the transition or even if it will prove necessary.

Michael Willner, CEO of Net-Strike Worldwide, understands the problem. Air Force reservist Morris helped to launch the company and, as its VP of operations, knows the business intimately. "We both gulped when we heard" that reservists would be called up, Willner says. "It would be a big loss."

Morris' responsibility has been to create the procedures needed to attract, deploy, and retain IT contractors. Unfortunately, the assignment was on such a fast track that little documentation was created. Now that Morris might be called up, it's critical that he create that history, but like others, he doesn't know what his deadline is. Meanwhile, he's taking colleagues on sales calls for training.

Willner says the lesson he's learned is clear: "You have to plan, plan, plan, because you're never sure when an employee will be yanked and shipped out."

To plan effectively, managers must first determine which staffers are reservists, take a hard look at their responsibilities and working relationships, and develop a contingency plan.

That's what Novell did with Ivan Hurtt, eDirectory product manager. Hurtt doesn't think he'll be called for duty anytime soon even though he speaks Arabic, but he has worked with his manager and the company's HR department to start divvying up his responsibilities. Delegating tasks is relatively easy, but figuring out how to get by without his experience and managerial skills is tougher. Hurtt is making a point of getting his staff involved in his dealings with customers, vendors, and the media. "People pay more attention when I speak now," he jokes.

Some companies contend that certain IT staffers can serve the country better by staying put. Jim Frehle, director of civilian business development for defense contractor Integic and a member of the reserves, is in the midst of a fast-track, critical project in support of the war effort. Though the company declined to provide details, Frehle will be more valuable to the war effort if he continues to work on his IT project, says Charles Virtue, Integic's VP of HR. "We made the government aware of the nature of the work," says Virtue, who believes it may keep Frehle out of active duty.

Integic isn't trying to dodge its responsibility. Of its eight IT staffers in the reserves, Nadine Kokolis, an Integic project manager, was called up two weeks ago for a one-year term; at least two others have been notified that they may be called up soon. Integic plans to assign tasks to other members of the IT staff, but at some point it will have to call in a contractor to pick up the slack, Virtue says.

Contract labor can be costly, especially when managers don't know how long reservists will be away. "If you hire a contractor by the week and the reservist is away for a year, it's very expensive," says Ken Benesh, California State Ombudsman for the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a unit of the Defense Department. "But if the reservist is supposed to be away for a year and comes back early, you have to buy out the contract." Benesh suggests managers keep in touch with their staff's military units.

One of Integic's Web developers is a petty officer in the Naval Reserve. The woman, who requested anonymity, says her IT skills increase her chances of being called. "Because of my Web experience, I'm highly sought after," she says. "I'll probably be recalled sooner because of it."

That's not the case for all reservists with IT skills. Others say they don't expect to be called up for their civilian job skills, but rather for their military expertise, which may or may not be tech-related. The military may be unaware of the IT talent at its disposal. "They keep tabs on my title and company, but they wouldn't necessarily make the connection that I'm in IT," Net-Strike's Morris says.

TimeVision's Smith served as a weapons specialist in the Army National Guard in California during Operation Desert Storm. He doesn't think he'll be called up this time. But he knows that if he is, it won't be to use his database skills-and that doesn't bother him. "The only thing between the bad guys and my family," he says, "are a bunch of guys in fatigues."