AIN’s 2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit (CALS) East brought together a selection of business aviation thought leaders to examine and discuss some of our industry’s pressing issues. The session’s topics included Retention, Safety, Managing Generational Differences, Insurance, Metrics, Legal, Sustainability, Mental Performance (health), and Maintenance.

Everyone in business aviation is painfully aware that job-hopping and talent poaching are as much a part of our world as jet-A. That’s pushed the challenge of recruiting and retaining flight department team members to the top of every department head’s ‘to-do’ list.

The CALS East attendees identified four key areas that can help stabilize a flight department’s personnel roster: a positive work/life balance, career-growth opportunities, the correct compensation package, and hiring the right people in the first place.

People don’t ‘live to work’ any longer.

The number one message heard around the CALS Retention roundtable was that as much as pilots, maintainers, and schedulers love their jobs, it is, after all, “just a job.” And when someone feels their job is “all about the work,” retention becomes a lot harder.

While compensation is important, many attendees noted that money alone is not always enough to retain the best employees.

As a senior flight department manager said, “We have found that pilots and maintainers come to work for us, not because we pay well—which we do—but because we give them a workable schedule.”

“We try hard to be flexible to accommodate the people who have to attend school plays and other important family events,” a chief pilot added. “Managing scheduling is more critical today than ever. Whenever possible, we ensure that everyone on our team has adequate personal time. We feel it’s key to retention and job satisfaction.”

Of course, while large departments play the flex-scheduling card, it’s a lot harder for smaller flight departments.

One benefit that any flight department can offer is the willingness to allow spouses to come along on some trips.

“Integrating family considerations into someone’s work environment greatly contributes to employee satisfaction and retention,” a department manager says. “It’s about balancing today’s operational needs with long-term retention goals. Especially when it comes to ensuring that employees do not feel overburdened.”

Training as a retention tool.

While smaller operators may see the use of contract pilots as a viable option to provide flexible scheduling, many attendees balked at the idea because of challenges with maintaining safety standards.

“I rejected the idea of using contract pilots because we pound our chests about safety,” a chief pilot said. “The core of safety is standardization, and that requires consistent training. We always train as crews.”

Alongside the challenge of using contractors, another issue facing smaller operators, in particular, is the lack of promotional opportunities in the organization. Nobody wants to be stuck in a ‘dead-end’ job.

“Managers need to find ways to provide growth opportunities or clearly-defined career paths for their team members, even in small flight departments,” a senior manager stateed. “Whenever I can, I include everyone in everything that goes on down to the aircraft decisions about when we recruit and hire people.”

Another proven way to create a clear career track is to provide consistent training opportunities. Investing in someone’s growth today clearly indicates that you see them as part of your group tomorrow. And it’s not only for pilots; mechanics and flight attendants benefit significantly from advanced skills training programs.

“Proficiency is key,” an attendee explained. “We send our flight attendants and pilots to cabin safety training every two years.”

It’s about money until it’s not.

Thanks to the Internet, salaries aren’t sacred anymore. Everyone seems to know where they stand compared to their peers. That means employers have to stay on top of what the market is paying. Although today’s generation says, “It’s not about money,” the truth is nobody wants to work for less than they can get.

“You’ve got to find the right number, and for us, that’s in the 85th percentile of each job category,” a senior manager said. “They can go to bed happy thinking they’re valued more than 85% of their pilot friends.”

But the challenge then becomes, if employees are paid “enough,” what can you do to enhance retention? Many attendees shared that one way is to make sure the entire flight department understands the valuable role they play in the company’s ongoing success.

“Helping everyone who’s involved in your operation understand how their work contributes to the broader organization’s mission and brand is becoming more important today,” a department director said. “It can often be as simple as reinforcing the flight department’s value beyond just saving time for the executive team.”

“The flight department’s value proposition is something few of us openly discuss,” they continued. “But we need to. It can help nullify many negative private aviation comments that flight crews often hear from their friends and family.”

Retention starts with recruiting.

Even with all the various tools flight departments can use to retain team members, the CALS attendees overwhelmingly felt that retaining employees starts with hiring people who will fit the company’s culture.

No matter how much you “love” a job, if you don’t feel like you belong in the group, you won’t last.

“It starts with knowing an employee’s personality and then valuing them as individuals,” a DOM said. “This personal connection is extremely critical today in fostering loyalty and reducing turnover.”

As one manager shared, “While technical skills and experience are mandatory, today, finding the right person for the position goes beyond what we used to judge candidates on. Finding people who are a ‘natural fit’ will go a long way toward making them happy in the long run.”

But how can you be sure the candidate you’re considering may well be the “perfect fit?” Multiple attendees shared that they’ve expanded the interview process to include the people the candidate will be working with directly and others in the flight department.

“We’re using a team approach to interviewing candidates,” a senior department director said. “We do the normal one-on-one interviews and then complement those with less formal group interviews so we can get to know each other.”

“If someone’s skills are right, then it’s really about a personality fit with the group,” they continued. “One thing to remember is that if you use this team approach, the hire/not-hire decision has to be unanimous. If someone has a problem, we need to address it early on.”