Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Would You Join Your Own Company?

In the past few years, I have heard many company runners complaining about their workforce. They tell me that the government is paying people too much money not to work, too many young people are not interested in working every day, and there is just not the work ethic there once was when they were young.

Many of these leaders tell me that they hire 10 people at a time and typically only four of them stick to the job longer than a week; the rest stay a month tops.

In his book, The Song of Significance, Seth Gobin claims that Amazon lost a quarter of their profits in 2012 to attrition—more than $8 billion. Only one out of three hires stayed more than three months.

Side note: From what I hear and read about working in those Amazon distribution centers—with their strict hours, surveillance cameras, and regulated bathroom breaks—I am surprised they can keep anyone in those jobs at all.

When it comes to our industry and those complaints from our own people, I have to ask, “Would you work there if you were starting out?” I ask them to take a look at their own companies. I mean, take a critical look at the working conditions they are providing to their employees. Is this the kind of company they would like to join and work at today? Or even when they started out a million years ago?

I was lucky. I started my career at the top of the industry: Rockwell International. From the very first step I took into that shop, I could feel the pride of being part of something great. I certainly felt immense pride of product. But then again, that was Rockwell. We were building boards for everything from the Minuteman Missile to the MK-92 Frigates all the way to the Space Shuttle. Even when we went to the movies and watched blockbusters like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” those engineers around the foreign space company were all wearing white lab coats with the Rockwell logo on the backs.

Sorry, but your PCB companies just don’t seem that glamourous.

Does it look like a great place to work? Do your people understand the vision and mission of your company? Do they know why you are in business? Do they have pride of product? Do they even know what your boards go into? When was the last time you had a regularly scheduled, all-hands meeting? When was the last time you had any meeting, especially one designed to make your folks feel good about where they work? Have you laid out a clear and well-defined career path to your future with your company? Think carefully. If the answer is no then we’ve met your enemy, and it is you.

Speaking of career paths, Dr. John W. Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, wrote a book called Fire Your Hiring Habits: Building an Environment That Attracts Top Talent in Today’s Workforce. He gives a great example of one company that is succeeding at hiring and the keeping the best people.

This company developed a clear and well-defined path to promotions and success. He writes, “The people at the factory could think, ‘If I stay here and learn these things and these skills, then I can become a level two at this position in four weeks. Then in another six weeks, I can move to this position. And then in another four weeks I could be at this level if I work hard.”

Mitchell continues (using boldface type): “Every day, employees know exactly how they could become the supervisor, and more importantly, that it was really possible. They could see their peers moving up in the organization.”

I think that’s brilliant. I am sure that there are certain milestones they can strive for where monetary rewards will be realized.

In talking about this company, Mitchell writes that while the headcount turnover in that country was 20–30%, this company’s turnover rate was less 10%, which was a true and measurable testimony that their plan is working.

Think about that. You run a company where the employees are so turned on that they are self-motivated to learn and grow on their own. Even more, they can grow at their own speed.

Of course, you as a company runner will have to develop and implement the plan. But that exercise will be a tremendously productive and rewarding project. If you implement a training and growth plan, you create a true path to success that makes everyone better—you, your employees, and your company. It would become a company that you would want to work for.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.