You run a small plant. You also run hiring. There is no recruiter down the hall. There is no big talent budget. When a machine operator quits, the open spot is yours to fill, on top of everything else you do that day.

This is the reality for most small and midsize manufacturers. You need skilled people on the floor. But you cannot drop $20,000 on a staffing agency for one operator. You cannot sign a year-long job board contract either. So the role sits open. The line slows down. Overtime piles up.

Veterans are one of the best ways out of this. They show up. They run process. They handle shift work. And you can reach them without a recruiter and without a big budget. This guide shows a small-plant owner exactly how to do that. For the broader mechanics of which jobs map where and how to read a military resume, see our full guide to hiring veterans for manufacturing roles. This article stays in one lane: doing it cheap, with no hiring team.

Why Is Hiring So Hard for a Small Plant?

Big manufacturers have a whole recruiting machine. They have sourcers. They have job board contracts. They have a veteran hiring program with a budget behind it. You have none of that. You have a plant to run.

So the usual advice does not fit you. "Post on five job boards" costs real money. "Use a staffing agency" can cost 15 to 25 percent of a first-year salary. On a $55,000 operator, that may be over $10,000 for one hire. Most small shops cannot eat that more than once.

The labor side is tight too. Skilled maintenance and machine roles are in demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects industrial machinery mechanic and millwright jobs to grow about 13 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 54,200 openings each year. You can read that data on the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. A lot of plants chase the same small pool. You need an edge that does not cost much.

What Makes Veterans Worth the Reach for a Small Shop?

A small plant lives and dies on uptime and reliability. You cannot carry someone who shows up late or skips steps. One bad hire on a small crew hurts more than it would at a giant company. You feel it the same day.

Veterans fit this in a few ways. They are used to safety rules and checklists. Lockout-tagout is not a new idea to someone who handled live equipment in the service. They are used to shift work and odd hours. And they know how to follow a process the same way every time, which is the whole game on a production line.

Veteran labor numbers back this up too. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans was 3.6 percent in 2025, per the BLS Employment Situation of Veterans report. These are people who want to work and are good at it. The trick is finding them without a recruiter.

How Can You Source Veterans Without a Recruiter or a Budget?

This is the core problem, so here is the core fix. You do not need to pay a middleman. You need to go where veterans already are and reach them yourself. A few of these cost nothing but your time.

A free or low-cost candidate database is the cleanest answer. BMR runs a pool of veteran candidates that you can search. More than 1,000 new profiles get added every month, and the platform has built over 60,000 resumes. You search by skill and location, then reach out to the people who fit. No agency fee. No per-hire charge. That is the budget problem solved in one move.

The other low-cost channels work too. Here is where to spend your time first.

You do not have to do all four. Pick the database plus one of the free local channels. That is enough to fill a small shop.

What Is SkillBridge and Why Does It Help a Small Plant?

SkillBridge lets service members work at a civilian company for up to 180 days before they separate. The military keeps paying their salary the whole time. You get a working tryout on your floor at no labor cost. You can read the rules on the DoD SkillBridge site.

For a small plant this is huge. You see how someone runs your equipment before you ever put them on payroll. If they are good, you make an offer when they separate. If not, no harm done. It is the lowest-risk way to add a person that I know of.

How Do You Read a Military Resume for Plant Work?

A military resume can look like a foreign language at first. That is fine. You are looking for a few simple signals. Did they fix or run equipment? Did they follow safety steps? Did they lead a small crew? The job titles will be odd, but the work often maps right onto your floor.

Here is the kind of translation you are doing. Same person, two ways of saying it.

The work is the same. Only the words change. A vehicle mechanic who did daily checks and logged repairs is doing what a maintenance tech does on your line. The deep career pages below break down what each code did. They are useful when a resume lands and you want to know what the job really involved.

A few that map well to plant and operator work: the Navy Machinery Repairman ran a shipboard machine shop, which is close to plant maintenance. The Marine Machinist cut parts to spec. The Army Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic did general industrial repair. And the Army Power Generation Equipment Repairer kept electrical and generator gear running.

Should You Hire for the Operator Role or for Production Leadership?

Most small plants think about operators first. That makes sense. But do not skip the leadership angle. The military builds shift leads young. A 26-year-old sergeant has run a crew, owned a schedule, and answered for results. That is a production supervisor in the making.

So when you look at a veteran resume, check the rank and the team size. Someone who led 8 to 12 people in the service can step into a lead or shift supervisor role faster than you might think. If you have a foreman spot open, not just an operator spot, a noncommissioned officer is a strong fit. For more on judging this, see how to assess leadership from a military background.

This matters for a small shop because you often need both at once. You need hands on machines and you need someone who can run a shift when you are not there. One good veteran hire can sometimes cover both over time.

How Do You Interview and Keep a Veteran Operator?

Keep the interview practical. Skip the buzzword questions. Walk them out to the floor. Show them a machine. Ask how they would troubleshoot it. A hands-on test tells you more in five minutes than an hour of talk.

One thing to listen for. Many veterans give the team credit instead of themselves. They will say "we" a lot. That is the culture, not a lack of skill. Ask follow-up questions. "What was your part in that?" You will get the real answer once you ask direct.

Keeping them comes down to a few simple things you can do for free.

Are There Any Hiring Incentives Left for 2026?

You may have heard about the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. It gave employers a tax credit for hiring from certain groups, including some veterans. Here is where it stands. The credit expired at the end of 2025 and is not available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. You can check the current state on the Department of Labor WOTC page.

So do not build your hiring math around it right now. Congress has brought it back after past lapses, often with a retroactive start date. It may happen again. But plan as if it is gone, and treat any credit as a bonus if it returns.

The good news is the best part of veteran hiring does not depend on a tax credit. The value is the reliable person on your floor. That holds whether or not a credit comes back.

What Is the First Move for a Small Plant Owner?

Start with one hire. You do not need a program. You do not need a recruiter. You need one good operator or one shift lead to prove the play works for your shop.

Here is the simple order to do it in.

Once that first hire works out, the next ones get easier. Good veterans know other good veterans. One solid operator often brings you two more. If you want a longer view on this, see how to build a veteran talent pipeline before reqs open, and how to source junior enlisted, NCOs, and officers for the right level.

You do not need a giant veteran hiring program to start. You need a way to find the right people and the time to reach them. BMR gives a small manufacturer a searchable pool of veteran candidates, so you can skip the staffing fee and the long job board contract. Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start with your next open spot on the floor.