Retain you Pilot Staff!

A revolving staff door is not good for business and it’s not good for flight safety. This will continue to be the number one challenge for operators in the foreseeable future. How do you retain staff!

Clearly, you have to pay your staff a competitive wage—at minimum be sure you are matching or slightly exceeding what your competing operators are paying their pilots across the ramp.

Secondly, develop your staff pool by training and promoting from within your operations—parachuted imports for the new captain position will kill you staff morale quicker than removing the coffee pot, while moving a First Officer to the left seat will create pure excitement in the staff room.

Third, be sure you dedicate at least one-half of your staff-meeting time to listening to opinions and suggestions from your front-line staff—this will help you monitor and fine-tune the “happy index” of your crew. The only cost here is your time.

Forth, don’t expect staff to stay forever—management has to see the big career picture of their crew. Remember that the pilot career compels them to progress to faster, larger, higher aircraft, and this is simply the way of the world. Don’t fight it. Don’t feel disappointed when they leave; instead, celebrate their success.

Most important, remember that news of s good working environment spreads like wildfire among pilots, and there will always be potential new-hires knocking at your front door. Start with changes in your company personnel policies, and we can help you with this!