How do you define a career? Is it the projects accomplished? Is it the sales dollars, the business contacts made, or the growth of the business? Or is it something else - something less tangible?

These are some of the questions, among others, that come to mind when one thinks about retirement.

Here at United Equipment Accessories (UEA) we are losing an original pillar in our hydraulics department to retirement – Tom Van Veldhuizen. Tom joined the UEA hydraulics team at its very infancy, and is now retiring when we have a big bright future ahead.

The retirement of an employee can be felt immediately and can cause ripples that can affect the company for a long time to come.

This has required us to try and fill the vacancy. We interviewed quite a few applicants for the position to fill Tom’s spot and found Vinay Patil, a recent graduate from Wichita State University. UEA places a high value on employee training. Hiring Vinay has allowed UEA hydraulics the opportunity to train and back-fill a position. Many times companies are not given the opportunity to train a replacement. This can create a large disconnect between current and previous employees, which could also affect customer relations. Allowing adequate time to train helps ensure happy customers and employees.

We pride ourselves and excel in our employee relations and making sure each employee is taken care of. It is a core strength that allows us to be competitive within a global economy. Competing in a market with other competent organizations requires us to play to our strengths. Playing to our strengths means being smart, nimble and decisive. None of which can be accomplished with unhappy, poorly trained employees.

A career may be more or less undefinable from a metrics standpoint. Numbers may not tell half the story. One person’s career could look great on paper, but the reality of it could be completely different. Another person’s career could look very modest on paper, but they positively influenced everyone they encountered. Or I could be way off, heck, I still have 30 years left! All I know is that UEA is a great company that values it’s employees and helps build their careers!