Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 12

AV BRAINS & BRAWN
Why People Join (and Stay with) a Company
For integration businesses to thrive over the long term, they must understand what attracts
top talent...and what makes them stay. By Alan C. Brawn
WE ALL KNOW that the only constant is
change. We see it every day and in every
way. Change might be technological, social
and/or situational (aka personal). Change
can be unsettling, inconvenient or, at its
best, exciting and invigorating. Perhaps
the biggest professional changes we have
seen over the last decades lie in the area of
company culture (or the lack thereof). This is
at the heart of why employees stay or go.
Back in what some might recall as " the
golden era of life in the U.S., " the iconic
painter Norman Rockwell regaled us with a
depiction of an idealized America. From an
employment perspective, it was common
from the 1950s through most of the 1980s
to work for a company for an entire adult
lifetime. My uncle retired from Shell Oil after
47 years on the job. Twenty-five years of
service yielding a gold watch was common.
Pensions were also common, and 401(k)s
were not a thing yet. So...what changed?
Suffice it to say that the biggest changes
came with the technological revolution
and the globalization of economies that
characterized the 1990s and beyond.
Markets, companies and work changed;
that, of course, affected companies, employees
and employment trajectories.
Change Necessitates Change
The genesis of this column was some
research I was doing for the new sales seminar
I created for AVIXA. In this seminar, we
clearly state that the buyers have changed
and, thus, our sales approach needs to
change. In short, change necessitates
change. During my research, I looked at
data on average tenure on the job. I came
across a startling statistic from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics: As of three years
ago, 23.7% of workers (both hourly and salary)
were employed with a company for less
than one year. Yes, you read that correctly!
The gold-watch milestone is nearly extinct.
If you doubt it, just look at social media and
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Positive and empowering cultures are often designed to attract talented employees,
but it's equally important to cultivate that talent so they're inclined to stay.
see how many of your friends, colleagues
and acquaintances change jobs every
couple of years.
Previously, I have written about turnover's
negative financial effects on companies and
employees alike. However, it is turnover's
negative impact on company culture and
individual employees that is more insidious,
pervasive and, on many levels, destructive.
The first question to address is why
employees stay. According to a recent
Harvard study, the commonest reason is
inertia. Employees tend to remain with a
company until some force causes them to
leave. This invites the question of which
forces act to break this inertia. According
to the Harvard study, there are two relevant
factors within the company and two
relevant factors outside the company.
Within and Without
Let's first look within the company. There,
we find the issue of job satisfaction. Second,
there is the issue of company environment
(aka company culture) - specifically,
the degree of comfort that an individual
Commercial Integrator MARCH 2023
employee feels within the organization.
An employee's inertia is strengthened or
weakened by how compatible their own
work ethic is with their company's values
and culture. A widening gap between
these two factors serves to break inertia;
a narrowing gap between those factors
strengthens inertia.
Now, let's look outside the company.
One factor involves an employee's
perceived and, in many cases, real job
opportunities with other companies. This
situation is dynamic, as the job market
changes amid industry growth or contraction.
Suffice it to say that excellent employees
are in demand. Second, personal
factors directly affect inertia. These include
financial responsibilities, family ties, friendships
and community relations.
What does all this boil down to? We
must understand whether employees
join, stay at or depart companies due to
job-satisfaction-related reasons or for other
reasons. These nuances are critical to understanding
why people join organizations
in the first place, as well as distinguishing
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Commercial Integrator March 2023

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