Thanks to social media vehicles like LinkedIn, it’s a common occurrence to read about friends and colleagues who’ve just landed a great new job. Or gotten a new job title. Or added a new skill to their resume.
The grass often looks greener on the other side. And people might think “What’s in it for me” (WIIFM) if I stay where I’m at?
As an aviation leader, you know it’s true that your team members are constantly being reached out to and recruited.
So, how do you create a work culture or job environment in your organization that’s “sticky”? One that’s designed and operated in such a way that the top aviation talent you’ve attracted to your flight department is happy to stay?
One thing is definitely true: with increasingly greater competition for pilots and aviation maintenance professionals, it’s becoming harder to keep solid aviation talent from leaving. Especially when aviation departments are structured in a rather flat organizational chart.
So, an important question is, just how do we meet some of your team members’ career aspirations and goals when they get the sense that there’s little room to grow?
On November 1st, I sat down with a panel of aviation leaders at NBAA’s Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition to address these important work-related issues and more.
My panel of distinguished guests included Dan Williams of Wal-Mart, Milt Hobbs of JPMorgan Chase, Jennifer Alessio of HPE and Jim Bennett of Starbucks.
Together, in front of a standing-room-only audience, we talked candidly about employee retention challenges—and how to solve them.
Each panelist shared his or her own best practices on how their flight departments attract top talent, retain them and build a sustainable, enviably “sticky” culture.
I also shared some interesting results to survey questions from leading aviation directors. The results answered such questions such as:
- What are the top things that help you attract talent?
- How do you keep your team members engaged?
- What are the top reasons people leave?
So just what do aviation personnel need from their employers?
According to the survey results, in a nutshell, they want to:
- Be heard and have influence in decision-making.
- Work for a reputable brand and employer.
- Have stability coupled with work/life balance (or at least a “known” schedule).
- Receive continuous feedback from their managers.
- Be able to take advantage of personal development and mentoring opportunities.
And, not surprisingly, they want stability and very competitive compensation and benefits packages.
These are just a smattering of the highlights. But the session yielded many more valuable tips and findings for you.
So if you missed our session and would like to know more, you’re invited to check out the presentation on NBAA’s website.You can also watch this full-length video over on our Facebook page.
It’s about 50 minutes long, so if you don’t have the time to watch it now, I believe you can download the .MP4 file to watch later on a media player.
And on a final note, if this topic of creating a “sticky” work culture is something you’d like assistance with, I’m more than happy to discuss these takeaways with your aviation organization, as well as with your HR partners. Please feel free to reach out to me so we can put a meeting date on the calendar.