Cabin Crew Induction Program

Business Air is an Irish Airline that provides five star travel experiences for commercial flights. Business Air offers a unique experience unlike the conventional flights that follows the transactional approach in terms of duration and service. In terms of service standards, the Business Air competes with Emirates in the market segment of business and corporate customers. The pricing mechanism follows the business leader such as British Airways, City Jet, and Air Lungus. The recruitment process has been successful in acquiring about 250 people in the cabin crew. It is necessary to ensure that the cabin crew members are well trained to ensure that they are conversant with the desired quality standards of the service. This is very important as the quality of service is the unique feature offering the competitive advantage to the company.

Learning Strategy

To understand the process of learning to be used for the induction program it is crucial to understand the information involved. The induction program involves general information regarding work routines and also a review of Business Air history, mission and the expected conduct. The induction program covers health and safety standards and procedures, and familiarization of the working environments. The induction program also includes an enlightenment of the crew about the benefits that the company offers to them such as assistance program, health options, and other discount programs.

The induction program for the cabin crew takes place in two major forms; using web-delivered program and simulation program. The 250 cabin crews who have been hired to serve the customers come from different geographic places. After the recruitment process, the crew is issued with credential to access the e-learning portal of the company through the broadband and dial up connections. The eLearning program offers an opportunity to the prospective crew to learn more about the organization before the in-house training. The induction program is aligned with the mission of Business Air. The e-learning program includes interactive segments with the Business Air CEO and an opportunity to give views. It also includes a detailed and informative content explaining the uniqueness of the company’s service. The reward and motivation scheme is elaborated within the course of the system. The program requires the cabin crew under training to successfully complete the online modules before the commencement of the in-house training. The e-learning program allows the crew to engage in a group discussion, collaboration and real-time application.

The in-house training program is carried out within the headquarter facilities of Business Air. The program is a three-week interactive course seeking to address the role of serving a flight attendant. It is comprised of theoretical and practical components. The practical portion of the training takes place in a simulated Airbus A320. This is essential in creating realistic learning environment under which the crew learns and gathers the confidence of serving under the first class service. The topics to be covered during the study are: general duties of the cabin crew members, the industry subjects including codes, regulators and terminology in the aviation sector; safety and emergency gadgets and standard practice, security measures, passenger handling techniques, first aid, resource management for the cabin crew, on-Board service, hygiene measure, interview skills, presentation techniques and the presentation of industry accepted certificates.

Learning Needs Analysis

The training needs analysis (TNA) which is carried to help recognize the gap that is present between the desired level of service performance and the current skills for the job. This offers a yard stick for measuring the shortfall that existing between the current knowledge, skills and attitudes and the desired level of performance. It is essential to carry out the training needs analysis to ensure that the company is on track for the desired Business Air services in offering five star travel experiences in the commercial flights.

The training needs analysis and seeks to point out the relevant skills required to offer the desired performance level in the organization and to have the priority of enhancing the performance level to bridge the gap. The process of training needs assessment to clearly understand the strategy goals of Business Air. The training analysis should also seek to match the specific objectives and performance (IATA, 2003).

Learning Objectives

Business Air learning and development department aims to offer an induction to the new cabin crew members. The induction program is one of the tools that are meant to ensure that the personnel is experienced and committed to offer the quality service that the organization desires. It is therefore important for the organization management to understand the importance and objectives of the induction process. The induction program developed for Business Air aims at achieving the following objectives.

Performance and Productivity

It is acknowledgeable that the core purpose of the induction program is to help the new members integrate into the organization and turn them into effective workers as soon as possible. This inductive program aims at ensuring that new cabin crew performs effectively in offering professional five star experiences to the passengers. The program also helps the crew to understand that the nature of service is what sets apart Business Air from its competitors. This prompts the crew to be enlightened on methods of relating with the business and corporate customers. The program is structured in a way that helps the crew to understand the behavioral patterns of the co-workers which is crucial in formation of a cohesive team. The induction program is geared towards helping the organization hit the productivity mark quicker.

Job Description and Labor Relations Issue

The induction program is geared towards helping the cabin crew members under the nature of expected relationships at work. These include the need for creating relationship with co-workers such as supervisors and subordinates. The program seeks to ensure that the new cabin crew gets integrated within the organization thereby creating a sense of belonging.  This makes the employees to understand how their roles fit within the structures of Business Air. It sets out how the goals can be achieved and thereby makes the employees focus on the achievement of these goals. Through the induction process, the cabin crew members brings on light concerning the procedures, policies, goals, and intrinsic value of the organization. The induction ensures that the crew members understand the formal and informal management practices. This includes making the employees understand the procedures of handling grievances and acquiring a solution.

Culture of The Organization

The induction program offers a perfect opportunity to set pace of the culture of the organization. During the period of induction, the employees understand how operations are carried out within the organization and how issues are approached. The induction program offers an opportunity for the management to make the cabin crew understand that it’s intended to operate an environment that does not tolerate any forms of discrimination and harassment as well as steps to deal with such cases must be in order. Business Air aims to set up an exemplary culture that makes it a unique airline.

Employee Health and Safety

The process of induction is crucial in helping to reassure the crew members thereby helping them reduce fear and become more productive. It is a normal experience for new employees to fear the first experience at work. The major fear is whether they will succeed in their new profession. Induction, therefore, plays an important role in creating a positive attitude. This implies that induction is essential in helping to reduce the rate of labor turnover.  The major turnover of employees occurs in the first stages of the engagement period. During this period, the lesson instilled during induction comes in handy as a means of reassurance to the new cabin crew members.

Source of Motivation

The induction program is geared toward creating job satisfaction and positive attitude in the organization. The program engages various learning techniques to offer a window of opportunity for the participants to share their experience with themselves. It is a perfect chance to create networks. The induction program presents a chance for the management to offer a formal welcome to the new employees and teach them more about the company’s mission and expected performance goals (Mlindazwa, 2010, p. 19).

Learning Design

The Business Air e-learning Induction Program

The first part of the induction program carries out through an online portal one week before the commencement of the in-house residential training for the cabin crew. The induction module for the e-learning platform simplifies procedures to orient the cabin crew on the performance of their roles. The program is developed with an aim of helping the cabin crew understand some diverse concepts concerning the airline. The eLearning program is built in a way that brings the personality of Business Air and gives more information about the brand identity and the specific niche that the company aims to fill. The content is delivered by use of video that visually represents the brand of Business Air.  The content and method taken is suitable for use by new cabin crew. The module has stories from prospective customer and the management of the organization. In this program, the cabin crew undergoing the training is allowed to do it on a personal pace as the process is an open and a non-linear design. The learning portal allows an interactive session where the crew can engage with each other or with the management on matters of importance.

The In-House Residential Induction Program

This is a three-week in-house training program that takes place before the commencement of operations. The management of Business Air is very sensitive on the need for this program as the airline wishes to have a competitive advantage based on the quality of service. The program is carried in two session involving the theory and practical sessions. The practical lesson that takes place is a simulated Airbus. It follows a recommendation for induction programs that suggest that the training should be carried out with groups heterogeneous in job function but homogenous in job level. This is very crucial as bringing together participants of high and low job authority creates uncomfortable feelings.  The tone to be depicted on the induction process is celebratory as opposed to the propagandistic (Hendricks & Potgieter, 2012. p. 3).

The program covers topic such;

• Serving as a crew; this deals with elaborating the responsibilities, roles and chain of command of the cabin crew.
• Airline health, safety, and security; this helps the crew members come to terms with International Air Transport Association (IATA) code, understand the vital industry terms, and description of the types of duty which the crew may be scheduled to.
• Handling emergency events in the airplane; the program addresses the onboard emergency procedures and basic principles for survival after an airline emergency.
• Relating with client on board; this tackles exemplary service offer, serving people with special requirements, conflict handling, and relationship with passengers.
• Cabin service techniques; this is based on the improvement of selling techniques, knowledge on techniques for creating rapport with passengers, understand products that are onboard, and manage the currency calculations.
• Techniques for making passenger announcement;
• Employment terms, rights and responsibilities.

The training program is structured in a way that ensures adherence to policies by regulatory bodies such as IATF. On top of this, it adds in the specific qualities that Business Air desires in order for its services to be exemplary (City & Guild, 2012, p 17).

Learning Evaluation

There are two surveys that are carried out to assess the effectiveness of the induction program. The first program is conducted before the commencement of the online program to gather the baseline data that is used to verify the impact of the program. After the completion of the study, another survey is carried to measure the changes in acquisition of knowledge and attitude with the intended level of service.

The evaluation includes a mock-up cabin crew safety behavior evaluation form. The form seeks to identify the level of progress and understanding of the cabin crew on major topics such as situation awareness, information feedback, self-awareness and analysis, operational understanding, Pax & crew management, negotiation skills and workplace safety. For all these major thematic topics, there are four skills upon which the cabin crew is evaluated. These measures are ineffective, marginal, effective, and highly effective. The skill marked as ineffective indicated that it may lead to an uncorrected error and it is one sector that is in dire need of improvement. The marginal skills represent the behavior that may impair the crew from attaining their goal but cannot cause an uncorrected error. More training on this area is essential. The behavior considered as important indicated are the ones that help the crew to effectively accomplish their task with no significant error. The skill that is highly effective indicates that the cabin crew successfully accomplishes their tasks with efficiency that surpassed the set levels. (Edkins, Simpson, & Owens, 2002).

References

City and Guilds. (2012). Level 2 Certificate in Introduction to Cabin Crew.

Daskalaki, M. (2000). Induction Programs. Business and Professional Ethics Journal.

Edkins, G., Simpson, P., & Owens, C. (2002). Development and Evalaution of Cabin Crew Expected Safety Behaviours. Human Error Safety System Development Workshop. Newcastle.

Hendrincks, K., & Potgieter, J. (2012). A Theory Evaluation of an Induction Programme. Journal of Human Resource Management.

Mlindazwe, T. (2010). Guidelines for the Developemnt of an Induction Program for the Education Management Development Centre. Stellenbosch University.