Aviation industry is changing, evolving super quickly !
Therefor Airlines, operators, Airport, any entity in this industry hiring staff needs to prepare and face new challenges coming up.
Based on IATA 2018 Aviation Human Ressources Report and as Butterfly Training as IATA ATS Partner we’ll explore and make a concrete analysis of what are the new challenges and how to prepare and anticipate them at the best. The aviation industry is rapidly evolving.
As it does, the demand for talent within the industry – from customer service to ground operations – will also evolve. But what does the future demand for talent look like, and how well prepared is the industry to conquer upcoming challenges?
This report is based on a survey of over 100 leading industry HR professionals at airlines, airports and ground service providers. These professionals are responsible for the training and development of staff around the world, representing all geographic regions and a range of organizational sizes.
Here are 5 key things you need to know from what they told us:
1. Significant growth in jobs is forecast.
Staff numbers in the industry are set to soar both in the short- and the long-term, driven by a strong increase in passenger numbers. Three job roles emerged as having the highest anticipated growth in demand.
a. Ground operations
b. Customer service
c.Cabin crew
2. Finding new talent is a much bigger challenge than dealing with retirements.
48% of HR professionals in the industry say that recruitment is the biggest challenge they face compared to just 5% saying retirement. Specifically, the biggest recruitment challenges are: a. The availability of applicants with the right skill levels and qualifications b. The salary demands of new applicants With recruitment already a major challenge, strong retention of talent (quoted as the biggest challenge by 25%) will be vital to prevent t
his becoming further heightened.
3. Current training initiatives are not effective enough.
In addition to their salary, job applicants prioritize training and career development opportunities as most important. However, HR professionals do not think the aviation industry is adequately meeting this demand. In particular, the quality of training programmes is not seen to be good enough: only 28% of HR professionals say that current training is very effective. Many organisations report that they will be looking for increased help from external partners to improve the effectiveness of training.
4. Providing training in safety and customer service skills are higher priorities than IT and digital skills.
As basic digital skills become commonplace in the market, twice as many HR professionals say that safety and customer service skills are priorities for training and development compared to IT and digital skills.
5. Technology is changing, not replacing, the customer service role.
With self-service options on the rise, traditional customer service roles of check-in and gate agents will evolve and remain an integral part of the industry as organisations seek to deliver a smooth, hassle-free and enjoyable experience throughout the entire passenger journey.
Source : IATA Aviation Human Resources Report 2018
In the future, what might the passenger experience in the aviation industry look like?
• ‘Robot guides’ in terminals, on-hand to answer passenger questions and provide traveller assistance?
• Passengers using mobile apps to preorder food and gifts for collection at the airport or to be served on their flight?
• Biometric identification automating customs and border control to simplify and speed-up journeys?
• Electronic, re-usable, bag tags, linked to mobile apps, enabling passengers to automatically check-in their bags whilst also avoiding paper waste?
It might surprise you to know that all of these are already happening. And furthermore, whilst these developments are set to become mainstream, they barely begin to even scratch the surface of the potential changes in the industry. Prospective game-changing innovations in aviation are numerous and rapidly evolving.
Employee numbers are taking off
Let’s start with the view from 35,000 feet: in terms of pure numbers, the aviation industry is set to become a much more crowded workplace over the coming years. Across a wide spectrum of job roles – from ground operations to customer service, finance to security – the respondents to our survey overwhelmingly indicated that they expect staffing numbers to increase over the next two years.
And this growth is not just a short-term spike. Our interviewees were adamant that job growth is here for the long term. In addition to the job roles outlined above, the need for regulatory and security roles is also expected to surge over the next 10 years.
Source : IATA Aviation Human Resources Report 2018
So what is causing this growth?
Job growth and demand is dependent upon a wide myriad of interlinked factors, which can differ depending on the exact job role in question. However, one consistent driver of growth across all job role areas in aviation is seen to be the anticipated increase in passenger numbers. Over the next 20 years, IATA forecast a near doubling of the number of passengers flying today, i.e., an additional 3.8 billion, and the respondents to our survey are clear that this will result in the need for significant numbers of additional staff.
Source : IATA Aviation Human Resources Report 2018
Self-service will change customer service, not destroy it
With new technology, I don’t think customer service professionals will ever become obsolete; instead, their roles will change. Often people talk about how the check-in agent will disappear as technology takes over and allows the customer to check themselves in. But what you will still need is people available to guide and help the customer and to advise them when they need help. Technology on its own is not enough to provide excellent customer care. I remember in the early days when self-check-in machines first came in, a customer survey asked people if they’d prefer to be checked-in by a machine or a person. The preference was for a machine but the really interesting bit was the reason given: it was because the machine couldn’t be rude to them! That was a big wake up call to me. It proved that customer service is the single most important thing in the air travel experience. What this doesn’t mean is that ‘technology is always the answer’ but rather that customers want to deal with people who will be nice with them! As an airline, we need to find out where the new touch-points are that we can bring in customer service to support and complement technology to make the overall customer experience quicker and more enjoyable.
Says > Brendan Noonan Vice President – Talent Development Qatar Airways Group
Attracting and retaining talent – the challenges
Staffing demands in aviation are set to rise. This makes retaining and up-skilling staff especially important so that the deficit doesn’t grow. However, even should perfect retention be achieved, there would still be an urgent need for additional human resource to meet the increasing demand. The challenge facing the industry is that recruitment is tough. Compared to dealing with retention, training and development and retirements, recruitment is by far the biggest challenge across every region of the world.
Two things in particular make recruitment difficult in the industry:
• The availability of applicants with the right skill levels/qualifications (39%)
• The salary demands of new applicants (28%) In other words, the industry is struggling to afford the people they desperately need.
Percentage of respondents selecting each factor in the top 3 requirements of new applicants:
Source : IATA Aviation Human Resources Report 2018
As a recent Gallup study confirms, development and training are of particular importance to the younger workforce generation: 59% of millennials report that opportunities to learn and grow are ‘extremely important’ to them when applying for a job, compared to 44% of Gen-X and 41% of Baby Boomers. A strong training and development offering could therefore hold the key to solving future staffing challenges in the industry. However, HR professionals worry that the industry may not be able to live up to this mantle unless changes are made. When asked what important advantages there were to a job in the aviation sector as opposed to other sectors, both career progression and development opportunities scored relatively poorly.
“When we’re recruiting from the labour market, we are obviously being compared directly with other companies. One of the key areas that we are being compared on is career development. They are always asking how long it will be until they can get to the next level.
Says – Li Wang Deputy General Manager of HR Air China Cargo
The aviation sector needs to ensure that attractive training and development programmes, which enable career progression, are prioritised if the sector is to remain competitive in the race to attract the best talent. Not only will improved training and development help attract and retain staff, it will also help reduce the challenge – and expense – of finding new employees with the right skill sets (and at the right salary) by promoting internal talent. This is highlighted by the HR and training professionals we surveyed who see building staff capabilities in new and emerging skill sets as a far greater challenge than the loss of existing skills amongst workforces
Safety awareness
Safety is the number one priority in the aviation industry. Safety awareness is therefore essential, and must underpin everything staff do in the industry; not just training new employees to be safe themselves, but to also to challenge a lack of safety in others.
There’s so many dangers in the airport, right down to the airplane itself. From the airplane engine to airplane movements and the risk of someone being run over. If a person is not safety conscious and they don’t always apply the best principles, the chances of injury or even death are very real. So, we’re looking for people who are safety conscious themselves but who are also willing to make the tough decisions. You may be operating safely, but when someone else around you is not, you need be able to recognise this and have the strength and willpower to say something. I really appreciate those people. They are the people who are most difficult to find and retain, but they are also the people that I want to invest in.
Says – Krish Chand Training and Development Manager Swissport
Customer service
Customer service is rapidly evolving. Staff who previously may never have interacted with a customer before are being asked to do so, whilst existing customer service professionals are being taken out of their comfort zones. As such, skill development and training needs become heightened.
Customer service is the single biggest area where we’ll need new skills sets in the coming years. There is an expectation level from customers and we have to meet that. But when you look at new entrants to the workforce, many don’t have the necessary courtesies or customer service skills. So, we have to rebuild them. We have to help them become more focused on the needs of our customers. It’s about training people in the right way, using the right technologies, and re-building people to be more service-orientated.”
Says > Brendan Noonan Vice President – Talent Development Qatar Airways Group
To tackle the problem, we first need to understand why training is currently only ‘quite effective’. Thinking about what training should achieve, over three quarters of HR professionals in the industry report that they look for evidence of tangible skills development.
We need to eliminate human error in training. To do that you need to have very good infrastructure, like training management systems, learning management systems and online assessments. And the three of these should of course be integrated. We also gather pre- and post-assessment information on our trainees and apply a formula to calculate how effective the training was. This helps us to see the contribution and the quality of every training course, and every part of the training course. You can then revise the content of the parts of courses that need most improvement accordingly.
Says – Prof. Kemal Yüksek, Senior Vice President, Training Turkish Airlines
Current training formats
Training is only effective if it is delivered through an appropriate medium. Currently, more traditional methods of training – such as instructor-led classes, certification courses and seminars/workshops – are most popular. However, this is set to change. Technology is being used more all the time to provide online courses and libraries, whilst coaching and shadowing will also provide more intimate training environments.
Source : IATA Aviation Human Resources Report 2018
Conclusion
Passenger numbers are set to grow rapidly and staffing levels must keep pace. This will not be easy. In testing economic times, the aviation industry must compete for talent in a highly competitive market, overshadowed by the tech giants. Against this backdrop, training and development will play a vital role. From ensuring that a career in aviation is appealing to millennial workforces, to up-skilling and retaining existing talent, training and development is arguably more important now than it has ever been. And whilst IT and digital skills continue to be crucial, it is safety and customer service skills that top the agenda for HR professionals in the industry. Customer service takes on particular significance as automation and digitizing, far from eliminating the customer service role, change the job description and skills required, redefining its scope. To achieve training and development success, the best programmes are dynamic and forward-thinking. They use new and innovative training techniques – from virtual reality to artificial intelligence – to complement and support more traditional learning formats. And they leverage their own internal resources, combining them with external training experts to give their learners the best possible chances to succeed. This not only creates job satisfaction for staff, it better prepares the industry for its unprecedented growth. We would like to offer our sincere thanks to everyone who took part in this research and hope this report helps you in planning your organisation’s approach to talent, learning and development in the coming years.