At PCD, our number-one priority is providing outstanding experiences for our clients. As a business, we turn their vision into a wow! reality. Employees are critical to delivering customer excellence because they share the PCD passion and commitment.
We, as PCD leaders, believe that, if we want to deliver the wow! experience to our clients, we must provide an amazing experience for our employees. The turnover is low at PCD. There are field team members who have been with us for nearly 25 years, and there are members of our support team with a 15-year tenure.
We focus on multiple areas of employee support, all with the goal of creating a strong culture. We’ll explore several of them here.
Methods of Employee Support
Being a Resource for Employees
Focus on being a resource to your employees. We do this by removing obstacles that would prevent them from performing at a high level. Whether they experience an on-the-job problem or a family emergency, our team members know that they can always go to their manager to help solve any issues that may arise. This creates a team atmosphere.
Paying a Fair Wage that Helps Employees Reach Financial Goals
Pay is not everything. However, paying well enough is critical to making sure that employees can afford the necessities and attain their financial goals, such as buying a home. We swell with pride when one of our employees makes that type of investment. We offer a cohesive benefits package to provide for team members’ families, including a participating 401(k) and profit sharing to assist with planning for their future well-being.
Supporting Education and Continuous Learning
Growth and development play a big role in job satisfaction. Many team members work on training and certifications. We do everything that we can to support them in their quest for knowledge, working to create a culture of learning and advancement.
Listen: AV+ Podcast: AVI-SPL’s Al Ayulo on Building High-Performing Teams
Work Hard, Play Hard
Being Social and Having Some Fun Together
Like most people, we enjoy a good party. Post-pandemic, we have brought in-person social activities back because coming together socially helps to solidify our connection and build long-term bonds. There are so many positive effects that stem from celebrating as a team. Each year, we have a summer family get-together, and we host an annual holiday party to come together and celebrate. These events are essential components of building the team at PCD. Most importantly, they’re an opportunity to show appreciation and gratitude to our team members and their families.
Providing More Opportunities for Customer Facetime
It’s a good idea to let more employees interface with customers. For example, both the design lead and the salesperson should meet and greet the customer to better understand project scope and deliver on project needs. The model of sales meeting the customer, asking questions and taking pictures that get downloaded to an engineer, who will design the system, is flawed. Because that engineer has not met the client or seen the facility, he or she can often experience miscommunication and frustration. Equally importantly, when more people connect with the customer, more people feel greater connection and commitment to the project outcome. Employees feel bonded to the client and feel more pride in their work. It is a win-win-win for the client, for PCD and for the employees.
A Culture of Respect and Support
Because we create a culture of employee respect and support, our team members have deep pride in PCD, and they deliver the wow! experience for our clients. By delivering this great experience, PCD has created a faithful group of repeat clients and incredible sources of referrals.
PCD employees are the heartbeat of the organization and the core of the company’s success. Although we have incredible products and AVaaS, offer remote monitoring and provide continuing support, the employees play a critical role in the client becoming a customer for life.
John Rudolph, CTS, is the president of PCD Audio & Video Integration. PCD is an Edge member.
