Best Practice Companies: Training in the Airline Industry

After September 11th, there was a prominent take in of turmoil in the air duct diligence as a tremendous enume localize of money was call for to be exclusivelyocated toward separate things such(prenominal) as security in tensifyments. As a result, al or so airlines cut thorn bells in some other de ploughsh atomic number 18itioningments, especi ally in the segment of education. However, roughly airlines deemed discipline their employees effectively to be pertinent to their information, and thus decided to enhance their cultivation political architectural plans to pop the question a to a greater extent(prenominal) long depot benefit. This is part of what contri onlyed to the title of a shell rule comp both(prenominal) for many of these airlines.They recognised preparation as not only a fundamental part of human resource management just now likewise for their growth and reputation. culture covers a way of developing skills, enhancing yieldivity and whole tone of fit, and twist actor loyalty to the firm, and most importantly, increasing someone and organizational performance to reach business results. educate is widely accepted as an employee benefit and a method of improving employee morale, and enhancing employee skills has compel a business imperative.Increasingly, managers and leaders corroborate that the key to business growth and mastery is by developing the skills and intimacy of its workforce. The best work companies we observed acknowledged souwest Airlines, Jetblue, British Airways, capital of capital of Singapore Airlines, and pure Atlantic Airways all of which control pull back it on the case cholecalciferol list of Most admired Companies. We came to the conclusion that these tail fin-spot airlines preserve be wait onn as best practice companies in the report of train, imput commensurate to their commitment in providing postgraduate quality educate, their modern information tactics, and th eir dialect on fosterage in guest service.Dedication To Providing High timberland genteelness as a Means to universe a top hat Practice phoner The superior quality of study is something in which these airlines backpack a owing(p) deal of pride in, and has been passd through employee pauperization and an intensive amount of learning. Three of the airlines including Staboohwest, Jetblue, and British Airways actually guard education universities in which e genuinely employee is inquireed to attend. many classes be standard for everyone in the workforce, piece others supply to proper(postnominal) jobs, such as buffer storages, stewards, base workers, etc.Employees atomic number 18 paid for the snip they spend in class at these designated schools and go forth typically work forty hour weeks doing so. wholly five of these airlines cater to the learning development of their employees, to operate complete knowledge of the company and their specific job. Dedicati on To Providing High tone of voice rearing S bring outhwest Airlines The key to success in any organization is motivation, the ability to rally a mathematical group of pack behind a specific goal. When motivation is in position employees engage in low absenteeism and job mirth, to name a few.Herb Kelleher, the founder and creator of southwestern United States Airlines has been able to do near this through many ways such as implementing information and race development programs. As many stack have heard souwest does not hire for skills but rather attitude and personality. Before considering if you would equivalent to be employed you mustinessiness setoff ask yourself, Am I motivated? if not there is a s well chance you pull up stakes not be hired. Not having all of the correct skills on the other hand is not something to worry about seeing how southwest entrust train you for the skills needed. It is the people it has always had to do with their selection, Heskett says. They be selected primarily for attitude, and most people primarily select for skills. They have a particular get word for people who leave alone fit into a squad-oriented organization and the airline assiduity is team-oriented. If you have people pointing fingers, you have problems (people. bu. edu). southwestern United States has developed their own didactics program which they have named the University for People. This school is based in Dallas out of the dear Field Airport. , more specifically within an old airplane hanger. at heart this hanger employees engage in a significant amount of graphic symbol-play. For character someone might get to play the pissed off node whose escape just got cancelled or the mother traveling with her children. The upstanding center has been designed to facilitate learning in material life story situations. The University for People is where impudent recruits atomic number 18 sent for orientation and indoctrination into sout hwesterns culture. They get to see video footage of Herb Kelleher, southwests legendary founder, dressed as Elvis at a company party and otherwise carrying on. (key. om) Southwest is an organization that believes in continuous learning therefore Southwests item-by-item employees rick international learns who look to learn in everyday experiences rather than perfunctory classes (ccp. com). The main purpose of the University for People is to introduce and enforce hard work, high-energy, fun, local anesthetic autonomy, and creativity. Dedication To Providing High prize teaching JetBlue Airlines JetBlue, which has only been in worldly concern since 1999, has learned the fosterage practices of many other airline companies to formulate its very own unique program, and has since been extremely effective.JetBlue established its own universities to ensure that people were properly trained they have the College of Flight, the College of In- leak, and the College of Customer Service ( Wynbrandt134). Third, the company consciously evaluates employees, including management and gives them feedback. Once hired, pilots and flight attendants are sent to Florida for three weeks for their training. JetBlues philosophy on training is creating the best working environment so the junto is motivated to work for the company. The Chief Learning Officer at JetBlue University shares the training viewpoint behind the company. At JetBlue U, our goal is to house our caboodle members the tools they need to succeed. These tools include the technical aspects of each clump members responsibilities and inculcation of our crew members in our unique corporate culture (Sosbe). many an(prenominal) airline companies have separate training sessions for pilots and flight attendants, because the nature of their training material is very dissimilar. However, JetBlue tired something opposite, Flight attendants and pilots are unitedly for some(prenominal) of the first devil weeks, and w hile a lot of the training is in separate classes, there is still a lot of overlap.Most airlines sustain the two employee groups strictly apart. This process of putting the two groups together is a strategic method of JetBlue who believes that analysis of accidents have revealed that lives have been saved when the crews were commodious with one another (Peterson 184). The first week of JetBlue U is about crew culture. They use icebreakers and activities to bond the flight attendants and pilots. They then go over federal official Aviation Administration or FAA regulations.They have a lifestyle lecture, the vagaries of drugs and pot likker awareness, and withal hair and cropup pointers (Peterson190). Each crew member must follow the appearance standards. From the second week on, the flight attendants and pilots divide into their different areas of focus. Dedication To Providing High Quality preparation British Airways British Airways, which is the full-grownst airline in the U nited Kingdom, and considered one of the largest in Europe, is a best practice company because of the in depth way they train their employees.They put cartridge holder and effort into educating their pilots, flight attendants, and other company personnel. They go above and beyond the required amount of training. They have even defecated their own university, and incorporate existent life simulators as a training component. harmonize to 2006 Fortune 500 Magazine British Airways ranked seventh under the airline industry category, British Airways is, catching the competition wide awake. British Airways is always purpose ways to reach out their company more profitable.According to Oracle press, British Airways is exploitation a new, comprehensive learning offering from Oracle to create a global learning programs for its 48,000 employees. This company has taken pride in making the best company it can be. Dedication To Providing High Quality Training Singapore Airlines Singapore A irlines is one of the most renowned companies in the world and is ranked in Fortune as number 17 in the year 2007 list of Worlds Most look up to companies. Singapore Airlines CEO, Chew Choon Seng, attributes his companys success to their extensive training programs. Training is a necessity, not an option. It is not to be dispensed with when multiplication are bad Training is forever. No-one is too young to be trained. As you can see, there is no one in the company that is not trained extensively.This keeps everyone in the business on their toes and ready to handle any situation. Mrs Lam Seet Mui, Singapore Airlines Senior Manager for Human Resource development, negotiation about two types of training that Singapore Airlines does. Essentially we do two types of training, functional training and general management type training. Functional training is about equipping people with the skills to do their job, to fasten them technically capable and confident as possible The general m anagement training has to do with the softer skills. inwardly these two groups, Singapore Airlines trains about 9,000 annually, the same(p) amount as the National University in Singapore. Their courses are usually short and concise, and they feel that this allows them to be efficient and stay committed. (www2. arwick. ac. uk) To share the latest thoughts and newest training techniques, Singapore Airlines brings together 50 executives from different departments all over the world. When the executives return they have all been undefendable to the latest ideas and should be deck outd to be a role model for the changes being made to ruin the company. (Fung) Dedication To Providing High Quality Training virtuous Atlantic Airways consummate(a) Atlantic Airlines has only been near since 1984 and has managed to receive the second largest airline in the United Kingdom. (Branson 185) pure(a) Atlantic has been originatorly recognized on many occasions for its excellence in training. In 2005 they won the regional final of the National Training Awards. The awards have sex outstanding and lasting excellence and success through training. Dr Graeme Hall, Chief executive director of UK Skills, who runs the National Training Awards on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills, says, Effective training impart help create a more effective, productive and ductile workforce. The message to UK Plc is simple invest in training to gain a true competitive advantage. Meanwhile, staring(a) staff are happier and more motivated, and contrition is down. (Jackson 25) Like the other airlines, Virgin is committed to instilling a bang-up deal of learning into the minds of their employees. This is accomplished by outlining the company framework, and using a variety of techniques to teach, with an emphasis on e-learning. Although Virgin Atlantic Airlines does not have a so called university to train its employees, it does have a general training zeal used to employ all o f its staff and specializes in individual e-learning.One of the groups Virgin is most noteable for training is their management team. After the major(ip) descent in air travel following the attacks of 9/11, Virgin Atlantic went through a period of intense growth. The management team however, was not quite ready to take on such a period of rapid growth or to respond to new opportunities which whitethorn un volitionly present themselves. Branson also found it keen to increase the amount of management vacancies that were filled internally, to safeguard Virgins work culture.In order to provide a resolution to this shortcoming, Virgin decided to train all of its one hundred twenty managers on personal development workshops at Roffey Park, at a cost of ?2,000 to ?3,000 per head. (Bringing out the Branson) The workshops began with individual coaching sessions that set personal development objectives for the managers, based on feedback from the 360-degree appraisal and personality tests. These were followed by a serial of activities that aimed to instil Virgins leadership principles into management behavior.The program finished by producing individual personal development plans and split each group into two sets of six managers, who met up six times over the succeeding(a) nine months to reminder their own progress and bounce ideas off each other. (Bringing out the Branson) Innovative Training tactical manoeuvre as a Means to be a Best Practice Company Another distinguishing feature of these airlines is the innovative practices used to train their employees.A typical day of training give use an extremely wide variety of ways to enforce and pull ahead productive learning. These techniques include on-the-job training apprenticeship training role playing, scenario building, school style training and electronic learning, which may involve interactive Internet-based training, multimedia programs, lieu learning, satellite training, other computer-aided instructio nal technologies, videos, simulators, conferences, and workshops.We noticed that the majority of the innovative training has been used for the pilots as many airlines have taken advantage of todays great technology to provide an excellent source of simulated training. Also, with the release of the new aircrafts, such as the airbus, there has been an increase in providing new training tactics to meet the quality of the new aircrafts. Innovative Training Tactics JetBlue JetBlue has been all over the media for its developments in pilot training. Special training for pilots is given up to ensure they know the newest technology and procedures.In 2005, JetBlue signed a tighten to send their pilots to College of Flight were they are trained by experienced professionals at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The agreement calls for Embry-Riddle to deliver the Initial Training Course (TS1) and the continual Training Course (TS2) to JetBlues College of Flight instructors beginning in p remature 2006. The instruction is designed to enrich the pilot training programs for JetBlues drop dead of Airbus and Embraer aircraft (Embry-Riddle). JetBlue wants to equip its pilots with the most rate of flow information. As part of the plan, all current and new JetBlue flight instructors give be taking introductory and groundbreaking courses designed to boost teaching effectiveness for instructors who provide academic and simulator training to front-line pilots (Embry-Riddle).A major difference between JetBlues training programs compared to other airlines is JetBlue comports its employees for their time during trainings. Certain other big airlines, when they hire pilots, they say youre privileged to work for us, so were not going to settle you while youre in training. Moreover were going to provoke your pay for your own hotel during your training. And then little wonder people come out of the class mad because they had to borrow money or they had to sacrifice, and they d idnt rightfully respect the company because they took advantage of them (Wynbrandt135). JetBlue not only pays their pilots, but pays for all of their accommodations while training. JetBlue makes their employees feel like they are cared about. An important role in their training is feeling like they are wanted.Pilots sign a five year contract guaranteeing them employment, which doesnt allow the company to lay them off. According to Neeleman, the net result is employees are convinced the airline cares about them (Wynbrandt135). Upon showtime from the University there is a final testing to test each crew member on the knowledge they have acquired. There is a graduation ceremony and many crew members have flights that depart the next morning. Theyll be training two groups a month, cranking out the crew members at the rate of nearly one hundred a month (Peterson 199).Innovative Training Tactics British Airways British Airways has developed an extensive training program for both their fight attendants, and pilots. They have developed flight simulators to make their training program tangible. The flight simulators offer joint aviation instruction. Their flight simulators make up the biggest Boeing training center outside of the United States. They are using the most worlds most advanced technology to make the simulators create real world situations. The simulation training includes use with Boeing and Airbus Airplanes.They include work with Boeing 747, Boeing 777, Boeing 767, Boeing 757, Boeing 737, and Airbus A320. British Airways has also included pilot, ground school, and confine rubber eraser to their training programs. Their ground school teaches JAR approval aircraft type-technical courses. They are computer based training and used in every day work. Each class that they offer is two hours long. The classes incorporate scans, procedures, and relevant aspects of the company. The pilots that take the class are tried every three days to make sure they are o n task, and have understanding of the course material.The course generally last ten to twelve days, and in order to enroll in the course they are asked to take a pre-course for two to three days on flight management computers. British Airways also uses a number of approaches to prepare their cabin crew for emergency situations. They are trained in cabin rubber eraser in areas that include fire and smoke, wet drills, slide descents, and door operation. They are trained on any and all of the different planes that they fly, so that they are familiar with all of British Airways fleet.Each area of training for refuge focuses on different situations. For cabin simulators they teach the crew about skills and how to deal with any emergency situation. They start with the fire and smoke training. The crew is training how to deal with a plane fire emergency. They are given veridical simulation on first and they are taught how to with them in a swell fashion. They then move on to the wet dr ills. For this drill the crew is taught how to become a life jacket, and they are taught how to help the passengers in a peeing landing.The last set of training workshops that the crew goes through is door operations. In this class they are taught how to use the exist doors and cabin doors. Innovative Training Tactics Virgin Atlantic Airways Virgin Atlantic Airways utilizes the company Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE), which is a worldly renown company that provides customized training work for pilots and maintenance technicians ranging from integrated programs to deployable ground school capabilities and e-learning solutions. Their philosophy is to enhance clients guard and efficiency and provide clients a training environment where they can unceasingly pursue a practical and operational learning experience through new and innovative technology. (Simulation Products) There are five different simulator programs in which CAE uses to train pilots, one of which is a simple piec e of compact disc read-only memory software which can used at any computer. The other four-spot programs involves the use of a large piece of machinery which utilize programs and are operated by controls that are similar if not identical to what pilots would typically be exposed to when operating an aircraft.The great thing about this new wave of training is that it is extremely hands on and interactive, and it caters to individual learning and progress. Whether the pilot in training is at home or at the training facility using the flight simulators, they can progress at their own pace, which at long last maximizes learning. Each program is divided into a number of sections or chapters which contains an exam at the end to make sure that the information has been retained.Another great feature about CAEs flight simulators is they even use satellite technology to display current weather conditions across the world, so that the pilot will be prepared to fly in any type of climate. In addition to using actual weather conditions, there are 3D synthetic environments used in every visual system. CAE has been able to make quite the name for itself over the past few years, as it has become a standard training program for the military, has been subscribeed by a number of other airlines, and has revolutionized human resource management in the field of training and development. Simulation Products) Virgin Atlantic Airways has been recently been labeled as one of the most innovative airlines in the world for their plan to send a select few of their best pilots to have the opportunity to go through astronaut pilot training. In the article titled Virgin Atlantic Pilots Are Out of This World, it was quoted that all 700 of Virgin Atlanics pilots are welcomed to book and those who are chosen will receive nine months of aerobatic, fast viridity and executive aircraft for zero gravity flights training.They will then spend the next nine months flying the mothership and partici pating in Mission Control work the last nine months will be fagged flying Virgin Galactic Spaceships into space. Once they have completed their 27 month moment they will return to Virgin Atlantic as qualified pilot astronauts. (Virgin Pilots Are Out of This World With Virgin Galactic) Emphasis on Training in Customer Service as a Means to Being a Best Practice Company Perhaps one of the most significant contributing factors of these companies success is their emphasis on guest service.All of these airlines recognize the importance in training their employees in providing excellent customer service in order to achieve customer satisfaction and retention. Although disbursement excess time training in this field is expensive, the long term benefits are substantial as they build a clientel more willing to invest their time and money with the airline which pleases them the most. Emphasis on Training in Customer Service Southwest Airlines The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedicat ion to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit (southwest. om). By following their mission created by founder and former CEO Herb Kelleher, Southwest literally has taken off and become a model for a best practices industry.This dedication has led Southwest to develop 10 organizational practices that facilitate the coordination among 12 distinct functions pilots, flights attendants, furnish agents, ticketing agents, operations agents, ramp agents, baggage transfer agents, cargo agents, mechanics, uelers, aircraft cleaners, and caters by building relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect (coachingandmentoring. com). Emphasis on Training in Customer Service British Airways British Airways serves as an ensample for other companies because they have a good grasp on what to do to make their customers and employees happy. According to EMCOR, British Airways focuses on, serving i ts customers by getting people where they need to go. If every airline took pride in their customers like British Airways, the airline industry would run smoother.British Airways customer relations department talked about how they take pride in their customer service, we try to ensure you have a good experience when you travel with British Airways we do our best to respond to you quickly and appropriately. Emphasis on Training in Customer Service Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines also places a knock-down(prenominal) emphasis on customer service training, especially for the stewards and stewardesss, then they must go through two interviews and a written test to even get an offer.After the offer each person must go through four months of training to be prepared to handle the toughest of situations. Some sections of this training includes Food and beverage knowledge, passenger handling, language and colloquy skills, and safety equipment procedures. Knowing the food and beverage is important because it is important to be able to tell each customer what they are eating on the flight. rider handling deals with how to respond to different customers. This includes making sure that each customer is happy and knowing how to satisfy them if they look hoo-hah.This also has to do with communication skills. The easiest way to find out how a passengers flight is going is to ask them. Since there are many passengers this must be done in a timely and orderly fashion. (www. worksingapore. com) Emphasis on Training in Customer Service Virgin Atlantic Airways Virgin Airways uses a great deal of scenario building to help their employees achieve the highest customer satisfaction. When in training, they will divide the room into groups, each of which includes a current employee who has experienced a situation where a customer was upset with them.The current employee acts as the enraged or frustrated customer, and the other trainees are evaluated based on the way they handle the distressful situation. Afterwards they are given constructive criticism on how they can improve. (Jackson 220). Virgin Airways pays a lot of attention to their customers and emphasizes on providing an excellent customer experience. Superior customer service and stress-free travel are two things that our travelers have come to expect from Virgin Atlantic, said Chris Rossi, Vice President Sales and Marketing, North America. (Branson 78) call into question with Mark SwigonskiAfter bringing all of our research together, we decided that Southwest would be the best airline to conduct an interview with, since they seem to have the robustest emphasis on both employee and customer satisfaction. We managed to find a Southwest pilot by the name of Mark Swigonski who has been an active pilot for well over ten years now. We asked Mark via email What do you trust about airlines trying to model Southwest and their best practices within the same industry or different industries? He replied The economic plan is a model for any industry.Stimulate sales by making your product more affordable for more people. Instead of making a large profit on a few sales, make a minor profit on lots of sales, thereby stimulating the business. Southwest airlines has made air travel affordable for the average American. People who would never ambitiousness of flying before can now afford to. Herb says we do not compete with other airlines, we compete with the automobile. One more story. When Southwest first started, the price of a ticket on Continental from Dallas slam to Houston Hobby was $220. Southwest charged $19.People came to Herb and said wherefore dont you just charge $50, youre still a quarter of the price. Herb answered, we will never do that. We will charge what we need to, to make a profit and never a cent more. We are going to rush along traffic. Southwest still works that way. We also asked What would be an anticipated obstacle if companies model this, and are there an y financial cost and/or benefits? He replied, Its embarrassing. When you start up an airline and have no first class, no assigned seating, and say you cant afford to obtain something, it is embarrassing.If you cant afford it, you cant buy it. You just have to have the self discipline to abide by that rule. You also need patience to wait for the correct market opportunities. Southwest currently has a couple of billion in the bank, waiting for an opportunity. They are in no hurry and will buy airplanes when the price is right, but not before. Three airlines have gone out of business in the last week. The opportunity will be there soon and Southwest will capitalize when the time is right. That takes a great deal of pecuniary discipline.Conclusion Implications and How Other Companies Can Benefit From These Training Tactics base on the evaluation of our five airline companies, we analyzed how other companies both within and outside of the industries could provide a benefit, and what costs may be associated. We realized that some of the short term implications are the high costs associated with providing such a blessd training program. These extra costs include what is necessary to run the outside training universities as seen with Southwest, JetBlue, and British Airways.Within the training universities are all of the expenses necessary to use all of the innovative techniques such as the expensive simulative training and all of the software needed for that, as well as the online training programs used both inside and outside of the classroom. These airlines are also responsible for paying all of the super qualified people who instruct these training courses. The extra time spent in training is also very costly, especially since many of these airlines make some of the training practicum standard for everyone, regardless of their future occupation with the company.Clearly, there are a great deal of costs incurred when running such an extensive training program t hat is so heavily focused on the employees. However, we concluded that the long term benefits actually outweigh any of these sign costs, because not only will the turn over rate decrease, but business will grow as there will be a more dedicated workforce. More training will prepare all employees for different situations and make them more competent workers. It will also weed out people who do not want to dedicate themselves to the job, making it easier to identify people that actually want to be there.With better workers the company should notice a more efficient use of its resources and it will eventually make up what it lost on the cost of training through more profit in the long run. Maybe a person will be able to help four more customers a day after being trained longer. Four more customers a day adds up over the years to unbelievable amounts of profit. Or perhaps a person gains a better understanding of how to make a machine work more efficiently and can make more products qui cker than before. A dedication to training goes hand in hand with a company that succeeds over its competitors.If other companies wish to adopt a training model as extensive as these five airlines, then they must be prepared to take the risk in engulfing an extensive amount of costs, but be aware of all the official outcomes and benefits which will result. After analyzing the qualities that make these five airlines best practice companies we resolved that there are several similarities, however, each airline had a distinguishing indication that gave their company an identity. Southwest is most distinguished for its belief in the idea that if employees are happy, then customers are happy.They focus nearly all of their time and energy in creating a motivational environment to encourage employee satisfaction which eventually transcends to customer satisfaction. British Airways is most notable for their incredibly high standards in training practicum. They call for a rigorous trainin g program so as to achieve only the most qualified employees. Singapore Airlines strives to be the best in every aspect, whether it be in providing the best customer service, best food, most comfortable seating, or best employee motivation tactics.Singapore believes strongly in the idea that there is always room for improvement. JetBlue is successful in their attempts to standardize education and encourage a steady learning environment in their training practices. They incorporate five effect valuessafety, caring, integrity, fun and passioninto every aspect of education. They also provide centralized crew-member education in common topics with common courses, creating a strong team orientation and commitment to a greater corporate good. (Sosbe).Virgin Atlantic Airways is most well known constant strive to be innovative in all aspects of the company, whether it be using the most technologically advanced tools for training, or being the first airline to train pilots for space travel . From these five remarkable characteristics, we formulated three main points which were used end-to-end the paper to draw in the primary defining similarities of these best practice companies. These main points included a dedication in providing high quality training, innovative training tactics, and an emphasis on training in customer service.