Finding talent that matches your organization and not just your job is imperative to retaining employees. Hiring for a strong company fit is especially true in today’s talent-driven market, where technicians, A&Ps, and aviation professionals have ample opportunities elsewhere.
Losing an A&P, technician, or any employee is costly in both time and money. Additional recruiting, training, lost revenue, and customer frustration over delays or poor quality results directly from understaffed teams. However, turnover is often not about skills but rather about organizational fit.
Recruiting for Retention
Avoiding employee turnover starts during the recruiting and staffing process. You’re not just looking for people with the skills to perform the job. You need people that match many other factors within the organization, including corporate culture, daily stress, working environment, and even the local weather. As Herb Kelleher — co-founder of Southwest Airlines — said, “Hire for attitude, train for skills.”
A candidate may have all the relevant experience but can damage your company culture if they do not match these underlying factors. When someone does not truly fit, it can result in a toxic environment that makes the workplace less enjoyable for their team, manager, and the company.
Interview Yourself First
You need to interview yourself before you interview candidates. Ask yourself the hard questions — and be honest in your answers. Recognize the characteristics of your organization. Not just what you aspire to be, but what is in place.
- How stressful is the work environment? Does it need to be this stressful?
- Does my team openly welcome new members?
- How physically and mentally taxing is the work compared to other jobs candidates can take?
- Does my company match or exceed the pay and benefits offered by competitors?
- Is the job in a desirable location to live and work?
- Would a new employee want to move their family to take this job?
The answers to these questions will help you determine what type of person will match your job. They also reveal how desirable your job opening will be to prospects.
While you cannot change things like your location, you may take steps to reduce stress in your team or create a more inviting environment. These changes will have long-lasting impacts both on hiring and retention.
Identify Matching Characteristics
After you define the characteristics that make up your work environment, you need to take two distinct steps — identify the areas you can change for the better and uncover candidate traits that fit your organization.
Defining these characteristics before recruiting for a job opening will allow you to dig deeper into a candidate’s background, experiences, and values. This can pay significant dividends toward improving retention and workplace happiness.
Here are a few examples that may be challenging or essential for you and your organization.
- Have a high-stress work environment — like line maintenance where repairs are made quickly and often in demanding environments? Look for candidates that have worked and stayed in similar jobs. Candidates with military experience often match these characteristics.
- Want to foster a close-knit team with employees that spend a career with your company? Ask candidates if they have questions about your company’s benefits. It’s a good sign if they ask about the retirement benefits.
- Will you need to add or replace management positions in the future? Promoting from within is a great way to fill these roles. Look for candidates that have consistently gone the extra mile to improve themselves, have gone back to school to add new skills, or have been promoted while at previous companies.
Current Talent Pool
The time of candidates begging for jobs has passed. This is a talent-driven market. A significant number of mechanics and technicians moved to non-aviation industries after pandemic-induced layoffs. Others decided to retire. Regardless of the reason, many potential employees have left the workforce, thereby deepening the scarcity of good A&Ps, technicians, and other skilled positions.
Finding the right person and not settling for “close enough” could not be more critical than now. Previously, employees may have stayed in less than desirable roles because they felt they had no other options. Now, employees have ample opportunity to job hop when they are not satisfied in their current position.
Finding the IdealMatch
Fovea Aero created IdealMatch to merge our next-generation recruiting technology with industry experts to identify and provide the candidates and staff that go beyond just matching your skill requirements.
Fovea IdealMatch deep candidate analysis looks at subtle traits and data points to find people that will thrive in a role, not just get by. Our aviation experts then add the human insight necessary to select and suggest great people for your positions. IdealMatch delivers candidates that ultimately make you, your team, and your company better.