Aerco's Longest Serving Employee Looks Back

Aerco is a family business in more than one sense. Still owned and run by Rob, Harry, and Amy Laughton, son and grandchildren of founder Bill Laughton, the business has at its heart human relationships and real family pride. But the family members are not the only people whose lives are intertwined with the business - in fact, the longest-serving employee is not a blood relative at all.

Martin Robertson takes that honour. He's been at Aerco for 48 years and he's seen a lot of changes in the business and in the industry generally. We spoke with him to see if we could find out what makes a job worth sticking with.

Martin got his first job at Aerco through his uncle, who was employed in the workshop and knew Martin had a keen interest in electronics and he fit in well building AB Connector parts in the workshop. But why did he stay? 'Aerco offered terrific support and they looked after me,' he says. 'A company needs to support staff in what they want to achieve as much as the staff need to support the company in what it wants to achieve. It's a two-way street.' Martin is not alone in this view - 2008 CEO of the Year, Anne M. Mulchahy, said that 'employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person - not just as an employee - are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.' 

Staff retention is a sticky issue. Effective staff, who work well in their roles and bring value to the company, are worth their weight in gold. In fact, a study by TINYpulse conducted in 2015 found that 78% of today’s business leaders rate employee engagement and retention as one of their top concerns.

Aside from the importance of finding, motivating, and retaining good staff, most businesses want to avoid the costly process of replacing a workforce. According to research by Oxford Economics and Unum, the average cost of replacing a staff member earning £25,000 or more was £30,614 in 2014. This takes into account the costs of hiring, onboarding and training, and the loss of productivity while the role is being filled. 

It's clear that Martin is as important to Aerco as Aerco has been to him. But in almost half a century at Aerco, Martin must have seen some big changes? 'Aerco used to do more repair work than stock holding. Modern technology doesn't need repairs - we wouldn't be able to support the high tech manufacturing the industry uses now,' he says. It's true that Aerco has vastly increased its stock holdings since the mid-seventies, when most of the manufacturing and repair work was done on site at the premises at Gatwick. In addition to the components we build on site, we now hold a huge range of products, including up-to-date ranges of the same AB Connectors parts on which Martin cut his teeth. These parts are ready for next-day delivery, and many are available exclusively through Aerco.

The phrase 'employees don't quit their job, they quit their boss’ is a well-worn one, but perhaps the reverse is also true. Employees may apply for a salary, or a convenient commute, but we stay where we are valued, where we feel our work is appreciated, and where our needs as human beings are taken into account. When we learn that good staff retention can boost company profits up to four times, it’s clear that when we take a person-centred approach to staffing, everyone wins.