Ground_Support_SeptemberP2019 - 22

Photo courtesy of Airport Terminal Services

COVER STORY

The key for a GHSP training program is
to engage and enable learning for the participant in an informative, effective and efficient
manner.
"Ensuring this approach can only help support employee retention and make it more likely
the participant is to stay in the company. It is
the 'Goldilocks' zone: not too much training
on topics the person will not be engaged in,
not too little training that the person feels less
than confident or may indeed not be competent.
Just the right training, to the right person, at
the right time, in the right way," says Rogers.
Menzies focuses on the reviews from
employees that have left the business to update
induction processes, as well as the after care and
management of the employees when they have
completed their training.
"We adopt a blended learning approach to
our inductions, to ensure they have a mixture
of classroom-based learning, digital learning,
multimedia and practical training. We also
recognize that the theoretical element of their
induction journey makes up only 10 percent
of their learning, so we work with our HR and
operational management to ensure we have a
supportive environment and development path
for our employees, once they are in their dayto-day environments," says Hall.
"We also have many people across the
business who started their career in ground
handling and have successfully moved up and
across leadership roles in the organization,"
she adds. "It is, therefore, critically important

22 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE

to invest in the development of our people -
not only to give them the skills to do their job
today, but to give them the skills to build their
career with us."
Training is subject to ongoing review at dnata
to ensure it keeps pace with the operational and
business demands.
"As improvements are made within our
operating procedures or as our customer
requirements change, these must be rapidly
reflected within the training system to ensure
continued alignment," says Clark. "We are constantly working to improve the effectiveness of
the training programs, moving more to pointof-need training and competence based assessment, along with establishing more consistent
coaching and mentoring for our new hires."
Hubbard of ATS points out that a learning
experience oriented at employee retentions
should not end with training.
"After our team members complete training,
they are paired with a 'mentor.' Observations are
conducted and follow-up surveys have begun to
help improve our training and rate the level of
comprehension of the training," he says.

SEPTEMBER 2019

The SMS Contribution
As a consequence of safety management system
(SMS) implementation, training programs for
GHSPs are being increasingly fed by SMS.
"We operate under a SSMS (safety and security management system). The auditing, risk
assessments and quality assurance part of it
all ties in and has an impact on how training
is delivered and what needs to be added," says
Hubbard.
"Safety is integrated within all of our training programs. However, our approach to safety
is not limited just to training. It is embedded
throughout all of our operational and management systems. All of our personnel, supervisors and leaders are regularly updated on the
safety initiatives in place across dnata as well
as their responsibilities within the overarching safety systems," says Clark. "In terms of
our safety programs, we are always working
to improve their effectiveness. Key initiatives
include the introduction of a STOP observation
program and more widespread incident management training for all levels of our leadership
and management teams.
"Over the past years we've also introduced
an Incident Investigators training program
which covers dnata's operations worldwide.
This will continue to develop as we mature
and grow."
At Menzies, safety management systems
and technical services underpin everything
that is provided in regards to training content.
"Although operational learning sits within
the people sector of our business, our training
is created against our ground handling manuals
and SMS and this theme is consistent across
all locations. The contributions that our SMS
provides is a standardized approach to how all
employees manage safety and security within
our locations," says Hall. "Our managers will
manage safety in a consistent way from the
top down and bottom up. This gives us the
insight and guidance we need to consistently
manage the risks within the business, through
our training."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mario Pierobon is a safety management consultant and content producer. He currently
is working on a research project investigating aircraft ground handling safety. You may
reach him at marioprbn@gmail.com.

Ground_Support_SeptemberP2019

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