143 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 10 ASTRO MACHINE WORKS Using the ESOP has also been very beneficial to Astro’s rate of employee retention, especially during the days of COVID, as Gift points out. She adds that the company thus boasts a very low turnover rate. “People want to stay here,” she says, “and they want Astro to be successful.” Employee engagement—taking ownership over their careers and what they’re doing— is the name of the game when you make use of an ESOP model, as Gift emphasizes. Being an open-book management company, Astro shares all of its financial information, says Gift, and all of its employees are up to date and informed about all such facets. “We have a great culture here,” she says, “and people are just very engaged. They ask a lot of questions. Those are the main impacts (the ESOP) has had.” Sharing Gift’s point of view, Blow adds that the company brings in new, entrylevel people every year, whether they’re technically needed or not. That ties in with Astro’s eye to the future of its workforce. “In my opinion,” says Blow, “you can always tell how good somebody’s culture is by how they treat the new people.” He adds that Astro’s seasoned veterans will trip over themselves to help new employees. Plus, this ties in with the ESOP way of doing things. They have a vested interest in getting new workers on board and up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible. In countless other companies, governmentmandated COVID restrictions made people simply not want to work—the phenomenon known as “quiet quitting,” as Blow notes. But at Astro Machine Works, that fortunately did not happen. Looking to the future When looking at what’s ahead for Astro
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx