May_2021 - 26

GROUND SERVICE
PROVIDERS

port personnel evaporated - and Hunt says she
doesn't foresee it returning quickly.
" For FBO ground support, we had a waiting list of potential candidates that virtually
disappeared. As much as we would like to get
people re-employed, we just do not see the
same level of interest generated as there was
prior to the pandemic. What changed and
where these candidates went still remains
somewhat of a mystery. Perhaps there is some
level of concern in working for an essential
business with potential front-line exposure, "
comments Hunt.
Aside from the concern of working in a
front-line role, Hunt suspects another factor
is driving the dwindling interest in group
support work.
She says that for some, collecting unemployment benefits higher than entry-level
starting pay is creating an unexpected challenge for employers like Advanced Air.
" This situation will likely change in the
coming months and we anticipate that qualified and available candidates will be ready
to get back to work. In the meantime, our top
priority is to ensure our pay structure and
benefit packages remain competitive in the
market, and we are focusing on safety training
and use of technology to increase efficiencies, "
Hunt adds.
Jason Sparks, director of field safety - west
at Signature Flight Support, notes the chal-

lenges around rehiring talent is a trend that
his company has seen, as well.
" Many businesses had to furlough employees while activity was down. In some cases, it
has been a challenge to bring them back and
now that many organizations are hiring, that
brings another challenge to recruit top level
talent and train them appropriately, " Sparks
points out.
Wages, turnover and other labor-centric
concerns have only been exacerbated by the
pandemic, Gamba adds.
" Obviously, it's always a holistic approach.
If one element of the value chain is going
through issues, then it tries to reverberate
these issues onto the rest of the value chain.
So obviously what we find out is that airlines
which are in a predicament, just as the rest
of the sector of, the industry are coming back
to us and saying we need to be in solidarity
with them.
" They argue that we should be able to perform the same job that we were doing before
the pandemic, but at a lower rate. Otherwise,
they threaten to not honour their commitments. So that has a very direct effect on the
workforce, on the salaries, on the margins,
on the profitability and then enhances on the
interest or the attractiveness of this industry, "
Gamba says.
France adds that pay is part of the equation for hiring and retaining employees, with

During the downturn in air traffic over the past year, many
organizations used the time to reinvest in their training programs.

26 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE

MAY 2021

the other side of the problem being creating a
workplace people want to be a part of.
" Pay is part of that, but it's not just about
pay it's about how do we provide people a
path moving forward so that this is not just a
job that they show up to and punch a clock,
because if you're setting yourself up as your
employees being a commodity, then the
employees are going to act like a commodity.
" They're going to look for the highest
dollar they can get with the easiest amount
of output. But if you create a culture where
they're seen as a valued member of a team
with an opportunity for their future, then
that's when, what we're seeing anyway, that's
when you see turnover begin to decline and
companies being successful at maintaining the
workforce, " France says.
Hunt says that Advanced Air is getting back
to pre-pandemic operations and is actively
hiring in multiple departments, with as many
as 10 new hires in the past month.
" We are optimistic that this trend will
continue for several years but understand
that the industry is cyclical and change will
come again. Each time this industry is significantly impacted by world events, it creates an opportunity to learn and adapt. What
we learn becomes part of a plan for the next
cycle, " Hunt says.

Training for Tomorrow
What exactly the post-pandemic world will
look like remains an unknown and it's one of
the major factors weighing on the industry.
" I think from a priority standpoint, FBOs
and business in general is trying to understand this post-pandemic world and all of
the uncertainty that is contained within it, "
France says. " I think we all find ourselves
having these discussions saying, 'How has
what's happened over the last year going to
impact the future going forward? Are we just
going to curve slowly back upward to right
where we were, or are we going to see some
fundamental changes in the way we travel, or
changes in the way we work?'
" We've seen a lot of investment in training
through the pandemic lull, if we want to call
it that. So, I think that kind of sets up where
we are and what's going through the minds of
these businesses right now. "
Sparks adds that a thoughtful evaluation of
the current training program update as nec-

May_2021

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