Chief People Officer, Jo Rival, explains how AerFin’s people, culture, and organisational plans are aligned to the company’s core values.
According to recent research conducted by Oxford Economics, the aviation industry is said to be operating with 21 per cent fewer aviation professionals than pre-pandemic levels.
Employee value propositions and overall employee experience is becoming a critical focus for organisations. A report from McKinsey & Co. (March 2023) found that the Aerospace and Defence industry lags behind its technology and automotive peers on many touchstone perceptions of what potential employees value. The industry trails on culture and values, diversity and inclusion, leadership, and speed. It only leads in motivation.
I believe that the way to achieving success is through co-creation. Developing and embedding a set of organisational values that truly define a company and its culture is key to creating an environment where people can deliver their potential and out-perform. The only way to truly do this is to involve your people, and that’s what we’ve done; we cocreated four values – inclusivity, respect, determination, and integrity – which guide our actions and decisions.
Through dialogue and involvement, we are on a journey to create an amazing experience across the whole employee lifecycle; from the moment someone is interested in joining, to when they leave.
The investment in our ‘People Strategy’ and value proposition is positively impacting on attraction and retention. In a recent employee survey, we learned that 86 per cent of employees would recommend AerFin as a great place to work, with encouraging overall engagement score of 80 per cent.
We have improved the company’s value proposition by bringing to life the promises we have made to our people. We have enriched our suite of benefits to include a greater pension provision, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, increased annual leave, among others. Along with an increased individual training and development fund, we are not only enhancing our value proposition but increasing morale, improving efficiency and productivity whilst making AerFin a great place to work – retaining some of the best talent the industry has to offer.
I firmly believe that cultivating a diverse workforce is key to unlocking innovation and creating an environment where ‘out of the box’ ideas are heard, helping an employer gain a competitive edge. This ideology is deeply embedded within our company; we are proud to have an almost 200-strong workforce, comprising of 16 nationalities, across six generations.
Staff shortages and retention are going to be turbulent for some time but to mitigate any sudden movements on our journey, we are not only committed to building an inclusive workplace, but also strengthen our ability to adapt and react to industry changes quickly and efficiently.