The Flipside of Failure and Upside of Downturns

And nowhere more so than in the pre-pandemic hiring criteria of some of our most well know airline brands. 

Post-pandemic, the ‘how we work’ shift, one I have championed for many years, goes further. Our new employment market place finally takes those things that matter to us as human beings seriously. Recognising that everyone’s situation differs and that flexibility in ‘how you work’ is a major part of keeping a workforce motivated, happy and functioning. It recognises that work/life balance is a myth and that work and life is one entity that is impossible to separate – sharing our whole life experiences in the work environment helps us to connect, care and move teams towards their shared goals.

‘Employment cultures being ‘humancentric’ is just one of the upsides to come out of this downturn’

Upside #2 – The entrepreneurial mindset 

I listened to a podcast with Eric Mosley on my weekend dog jog, he is a data driven researcher and founder of the ‘Workhuman’ movement, challenging organisations to create a more human-centric workforce – and he has the data to prove the benefits. Get ready to hear much of this as it takes over the world.

Employment cultures being ‘human-centric’ is just one of the upsides to come out of this downturn. While aviation employees are among some of the hardest hit, when we do all return to business it won’t be business as usual. Remember the standard aviation employer, you know the one, they wanted your focus and commitment 100 per cent, side hustles and secondary business interests were often interpreted as a conflict of interest. Now, the ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ is a core hiring criteria. Employees who bring this mindset will be highly regarded in their ability to solve problems, consider the greater good and bring ideas. Sounds like a no brainer but often an entrepreneurial mindset was not seen as a ‘team player’ when it comes to larger employers. 

Upside #3 – Youth’s healthy disrespect for limitations 

The youth market covers anyone from age 16-24. They are concerned about entry level jobs and for good reason, as they’ve seen those jobs taken by senior redundant job seekers over the last 12 months. Youth, however, has benefits employers are now realising how to embrace. Our youth come into organisations with fewer preconceptions and a healthy disrespect for limitations, in fact I urge you to present a problem to a work experience student or young staff member and ask them to have a go at fixing it. Don’t confuse the situation by telling them too much about how hard it has been to solve, let them run – you might be surprised. 

Upside #4 – Innovation and ideas 

For aviation businesses the upside is hard fought. Forced to think outside what we know, to reimagine how we do business or reinvent what we thought was ‘our business model’ sometimes takes a shove in the backside. If the pandemic didn’t do that for your business, then perhaps you have missed the opportunity. It certainly did that for me. I’m talking of course about innovation and cultural rebirthing. A message not everyone has taken on board yet, I saw a post today from an HR provider celebrating how well they and the airline they worked with managed a massive redundancy process. If anything misses the ‘empathy’ mark it might be this type of pre-pandemic thinking when PR was all about your success rather than the greater good. I doubt the thousands of redundant staff still striving to pivot and pay the mortgage feel their sense of success.

In the same breath, I have been witness to, and in fact played a small part in, aviation staff launching new ideas/products into the market in, dare I say, the worst aviation crises in history. Crazy? I don’t think so, employers have been forced into or stepped up to the invitation to change. 

After several years of silence, one such game changer has emerged with a new pilot recruitment platform called ‘Pilot Path’. I met founder and pilot Alex Baldwin back in 2015 when he was in development phase and was immediately interested in his concept. Pilot Path is an online recruitment platform, built exclusively for aviation. Put simply, it takes a database of pilots and with a unique matchmaking search engine, instantly pairs employer’s requirements with suitable candidates. Doing away with the inefficiency of manually filtering resumes it is 80 per cent faster than anything currently on offer. With huge personal investment and the help of two timely government innovation grants, it hit the market this year and I think his timing is perfect!

While employers are finally seeing the value in the entrepreneurial mindset, what about ancillary providers such as myself, part of the industry yet aside from it? Our business models are intrinsically linked to the success of the aviation industry. I fell into contact last week with another interesting case. That of DG Train Online. Bryan, owner of DG Train Online, tells me he was about to give it all away. He had reinvented his business in an online model that re-launched in March 2020 – timing! You can imagine what it took to keep going during 2020. But, as entrepreneurs do, he backed himself against the naysayers because he knew he had something different and valuable to offer the industry. I asked Bryan, “What makes your online course different?”

‘Join me in championing this humancentric HR movement for the betterment of us all’

He said: “I have trained over 1,000 students; I am a qualified IATA DGR instructor. I ran my own hazardous packing company and I have used this knowledge and experience to design ‘interactive DG courses’. My pilot clients love it – in fact it was they who pushed me to keep going.”

Still on this crusade around the ‘human-centric workforce’ I would like to propose that employers and employees reconsider the concept of mentoring. Mentor is such a passive term; they are there if you, the mentee has a question or needs advice but sit in a holding pattern until contacted. How about we change the term to ‘champions?’ A champion after all pushes a cause, raises a profile and connects interested parties. They are part of the movement for those job seekers and employees seeking new opportunities and adventures. So, if you think I have championed the causes of Pilot Path and DG Train Online in this piece, you would be correct. In my thrust towards encouraging more human-centric HR departments, I must also be that. So championing, connecting and acknowledging great ideas within my team or within our industry, is now a more prominent part of the Pinstripe Solutions business model. 

I take a leaf from my own clients, who have continued to champion me and my business just because they could. Join me in championing this human-centric HR movement for the betterment of us all, aviation employees and employers alike.