Professional Pilot, January 2019

tomakers so infamously rode their jets to Washington to beg for a handout our industry just stopped talking about itself Our silent approach has been so successful that today many of the students at Embry Riddle North Dakota and the other big flight schools simply dont know we exist because the media doesnt talk about us anymore As a result were losing a lot of good potential employees because a whole generation of new pilots dont know about careers in corporate aviation Maybe its time for us to blow our own horns a little bit Another factor that the pilot shortage brings into play is compensation Its natural enough that a pilot shortage will put upward pressure on compensation When anything is in short supply the price invariably goes up Certainly no corporate flight department manager wants to have to tell his boss that its going to cost 30 more to run the flight department next year because if salaries dont go up the pilots are going to leave But compensation is just one leg of a multi leg stool that supports corporate aviation so putting too much focus on compensation alone is a mistake Most of the great corporate flight department leaders I talk to regularly seem to grasp this almost intuitively but in times like these its important both to say and understand it The other legs of the stool are quality of life and culture and for most pilots these 2 factors are more important than compensation Over the years during my job of recruiting pilots for corporate flight departments Ive found that compensation historically falls to the bottom of the priorities for prospective employees So when it comes time to try to defend against your pilots being poached by another flight department compensation isnt where Id recommend you begin to build your case Instead lets think about factors that will improve the pilots quality of life that can also be accomplished without incurring a lot of extra cost One area where this can frequently be accomplished is in scheduling As a flight department manager you need to be looking at how many people are manned per aircraft factored against the total number of hours the department typically flies In a pilots world even if you 18 PROFESSIONAL PILOT January 2019 have a good schedule one factor that is highly valued is a hard day off A hard day off means you are not working are not on call and will never be called Most flight departments dont regularly have hard days off mostly because they operate on demand 24 7 For a small department with just 1 or 2 airplanes having hard days off might not be practical but in my experience of working with departments that have 3 or more aircraft this can often be arranged Usually the reason its not done is because it was never a priority in the past but when youre looking for ways to keep your pilots happy a little creativity can go a long way But why is this hard day off so important to keep pilots happy Well just consider a pilot at home on a Friday afternoon with his family in town He cant have a glass of wine with them even if hes not on the schedule because he must be available if hes called Contrast that scenario with an airline job where each pilot has a fixed schedule They know exactly whats happening and they know with certainty when its their time off For many older corporate pilots that have lived this on call life throughout their careers its what theyve become used to But for younger people coming into the industry some type of fixed time off is more important today Based on my experience in interviewing corporate pilots I know that having as few as 2 hard days off per month is considered a huge benefit As flight department managers trying to attract and retain good people we need to be sensitive to this particularly when we can provide some of these benefits with a little accommodation And its a lot easier than trying to raise everybodys salary by 30 in order to stay competitive Another approach some companies are using to retain employees is Restricted Stock Units RSUs These typically have a vesting period of around 3 years which means you have to stay around to take advantage of them If Im a chief pilot and I give you a certain amount of RSUs that will motivate you to stick around for at least the next 3 years And beyond that now youve got a fully vested plan that you would leave on the table if you go somewhere else And again from the chief pilots standpoint its easier than raising salaries Another element to consider is that corporate and airline jobs are fundamentally very different and so are the pilots attracted to them An airline pilot just flies Its all he or she does A corporate pilot does much more including attending to passengers loading baggage and keeping the airplane clean and stocked There are also ground duties including things like maintaining the SMS handling scheduling and perhaps moving up to executive leadership Someone who just wants to fly isnt likely to do well in a corporate environment A pilot who enjoys the added elements of corporate aviation is likely to find the airlines a bore Those are important factors that pilots thinking of changing jobs need to consider Bottom line in dealing with this overall pilot shortage situation Ive found its very important that the people in a flight department know and understand that their leadership acknowledges whats happening and is looking for creative ways to do something about it Understanding that their leadership is aware is critical in maintaining morale Thats a key element in keeping people happy and keeping your flight crews happy is really what its all about Educating some pilots to look beyond their flying skills at broader industry and management opportunities is but one of a number of solutions for flight department management