Set up career paths
GAI’s development doesn’t stop with the top leadership; the company spends a lot of time on career paths, as well. Maintaining resources and people is one of the bigger challenges in business today, and GAI is no different.
“We try to give them the vision of what’s there for them in the future,” DeJidas says. “Some people are adaptable, and they’re willing to wait. Others want to get to the top as fast as they can and don’t understand why they have to wait and gain experience.”
DeJidas says the firm has about 100 people he considers core staff. They’ve been with GAI for 15, 20 or more years. It’s more than a job for them; it’s a career. Other employees are going to jump around from company to company.
“The lesson you learn is no matter how hard you try, if somebody wants to leave you, they’re going to leave you — for whatever reason,” DeJidas says. “It could be a family matter. It could be pay. It could be a lot of things, but you can’t stop because of that.”
You also have to get over the fact that you might put a lot of effort into developing somebody, then that person decides to leave, he says.
“Our turnover rate is probably 10 to 12 percent a year, and we’ve just got to find new blood through the different channels we have and hope we catch a few good ones along the way,” DeJidas says.
One tool to help make GAI a great place to work, a place where people feel their careers are developing, is an in-house MBA program with Point Park University. The program — which gives people in the engineering field exposure to the business side — just graduated its fifth class,
“I had to learn on my own, but I wanted to help others that hopefully will be leaders someday to understand the business side of the company,” he says. “Engineers in general are problem solvers. We like solving problems, but it’s foreign to most of our engineers what a balance sheet is or what a P&L is — some of the things that you have to know to be a financially successful business.”
GAI covers half the cost of the MBA program, which has resulted in about 60 people earning degrees. Of the 40 still in the workforce, many have moved their way up through the organization into higher levels of responsibility. And although some people have earned their degrees and left, the company is still better off for offering the program, because those who stay do so not just for the money but because they want to make the company a better place.
The company also has a Harvard self-study program, lunch and learns and in-house loss prevention training, and it offers employees work/life balance.
When DeJidas started his career, you worked whenever you had to work — Saturdays, Sundays, 60, 70, 80 hours a week. But he understands that things have changed. Employees want a steady workload, with the ability to go home at night and have weekends off, rising to the occasion from time to time when more effort is needed.
“What that means for us is that we have to balance our workload with our resources,” he says. “It’s a fine line you draw because clients don’t want to hear this. Clients want their work done, and they all think they’re No. 1. So it’s a balancing act.”
Show that you care
In addition to career development tools, GAI started an engagement committee several years ago. This diverse group of mostly younger employees generates ideas and helps GAI’s executive leadership understand what’s important to them — such as improved medical benefits and paying off college loans — and is working with HR to improve GAI’s employee reviews.
Executives also can educate the committee about why some ideas, which all require money, cannot be implemented. Because GAI is employee-owned, DeJidas says, once you’re vested, you’re a shareholder in the company and the investment needs to be worthwhile for everybody.
“That’s what I try to teach folks — I applaud what you’re coming up with and I hope we can do some of these things, but at the same time, we’re running a business and our shareholders expect to have a return on their investment,” DeJidas says.
