Introduction
The job of a pilot is among the prestigious, interesting, and romanticized occupations. It requires extensive education, high-quality professional skills, and exceptional personal qualities. A pilot is responsible for the millions of dollars an aircraft costs not to mention the value of cargo transported, so this person has to meet the highest quality standards to be allowed to fly. However, the utmost importance in the lives of passengers in case of a passenger airline piloting. A highly professional pilot is the asset of an airline, so the retention of pilots is an important task for any HR department. Considering the specifics of the job of a pilot, the paper is aimed at exploring it and the required qualifications, evaluating the role of HR practices in the retention of employees, and the assessment of HR practices’ role in the pilots’ retention.
The Job of a Pilot
Piloting an aircraft is not just about takeoff, keeping the plane steady during the flight, and landing it. The job of a pilot requires professional skills and qualifications in various spheres from physics to psychology. A pilot has to have the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license, at least an associate’s degree or a graduate degree to pilot large aircraft, be over 23 years of age, 1,500 hours (minimum) of practical flight experience, and have knowledge in physics, meteorology, aircraft systems, navigation and geography, rules and regulations of air traffic control, and psychology (“Your Online Resource” par. 5-11). Additionally, a pilot has to be physically healthy and mentally stable.
The Role of HR Practices in the Employee Retention
HR practices have an utterly important place in the retention process of employees. The task of HR professionals is to provide the personnel with fair reward corresponding to the actual needs and contribution of employees to the success of a company. HR representatives must show employees the perspectives of growth in the company to assure the valuable personnel that their efforts and self-improvement are not meaningless, and they will be rewarded in full.
An organization should demonstrate a high level of interest in the employees’ services through the efforts of HR, using perceived organization support (POS) concept (Markos and Sridevi 90; Saleem and Affandi 112; Tangthong 2). The efforts of the HR department to keep the employee turnover low are aimed at providing the company with highly skilled and motivated personnel.
Pilots’ Retention through HR Practices
Pilots are unusual assets of a company involved in air transportation. Highly qualified pilots require special attention, and their needs have to be fulfilled in full to retain such valuable employees. HR professionals should provide the pilots with more benefits than other airline employees to show that the company values the pilots and their skills. The extent of such practice should be slightly bigger than the requirements of pilots to motivate them to grow professionally and personally. Pilots should want to develop to the next levels of their career in the company, so HR must be very professional and smart to motivate their company’s pilots.
Conclusion
Summing, the paper has explored the job of a pilot and the required qualifications evaluated the role of HR practices in the retention of employees and assessed the HR practices’ role in the pilots’ retention. Pilots’ retention requires additional efforts on HR’s side because qualified pilots are in high demand on the market. Another issue to consider is the peculiarities of the job itself because piloting an aircraft is the process involving high risk. The role of the HR department is very important in this case.
Works Cited
Markos, Solomon and M. Sandhya Sridevi. “Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance,” International Journal of Business and Management 5.12 (2010): 89-94. Web.
Saleem, Muhammad and Hina Affandi. “HR Practices and Employees Retention, an Empirical Analysis of Pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan,” IOSR Journal of Business and Management 16.6 (2014): 111-116. Print.
Tangthong, Sorasak. “The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Retention in Thailand’s Multinational Corporation,” International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management 2.10 (2014): 1-24. Print.
Your Online Resource for Becoming a Pilot 2016. Web.