IATA has revealed the results of a global survey of over 100 leading industry HR professionals at airlines, airports and ground service providers, carried out by Circle Research to learn more about how HR decision-makers were managing the retention, training and recruiting of skilled professionals to fill the anticipated job gaps.
In brief, the results of the report showed that:
More than 73% of respondents expect the major areas of job growth to be in ground operations, customer service and cabin crew.
48% reported that finding new talent is a challenge, through lack of availability of candidates with the right skill levels and qualifications, plus salary demands of new applicants.
In addition to the salary and benefits package of each employee, the HR professionals identified career progression opportunities (49%) and development and training (33%) as high priorities in job satisfaction and retention.
Only 28% of respondents reported that current training is effective, with many organizations seeking to complement their in-house training with external partners to improve the effectiveness of the training.
Safety and customer service skills are priorities for hiring managers across the industry. While technology is indeed changing the customer service role, it is not replacing it.
Approximately 75% of respondents expected an increase in customer service, ground operations and cabin crew jobs over the next two years.
That is higher than the 65% of respondents that expect growth in security jobs and 63% that expect growth in regulatory positions.
“It is an exciting time to be in this business,” said Guy Brazeau, IATA’s Director of Training and Consulting. “We were really looking forward to receiving the results of this industry survey and we hope it can be helpful to guide HR professionals in their decisions regarding staffing planning, training opportunities and areas to focus on as our industry grows to unprecedented levels.”
