Why Must Helicopter Operators Advertise Vacancies?
After staggering home from my local American Legion Hall and our Saturday afternoon Staff Meeting, I got on the net and hit a US based helicopter web site to look at the scantily clad ladies in their thongs (not footwear thongs) and read a few threads that reported some strife and ill feelings towards more than a few US Helicopter operators.
The Staff Meeting having stoked my intellectual curiosity, I began to question why Helicopter companies ever had to advertise openings for pilots.
It would seem to me, since they were all such happy places to work, with excellent pay, benefits, and the like...that those that work there would be spreading the word about how grand a life it was and all of their friends working other places would be clamouring for a good word with the bossfellah to ensure they got hired.
Now it comes to me...that I hear very little of that going on. I wonder, is it just me or does there seem to be Helicopter operators cannot rely upon the "Old Boy" network to recruit pilots for them and prevent the need for all that costly recruiting they do with outside Personnel firms? If the Old Boys are not selling their friends on the wisdom of jumping ship to join their own company....is there a problem?
If an operator has a 30% turnover rate in pilots each year....is it the pilots that are the problem? Is the operator not doing something they should to stop that loss of people and money or is it just a cost of doing business?
Are pilots just a bunch of Carnival workers that hop from job to job....show to show and in reality all we are doing is playing musical chairs? Why is it more than a few helicopter pilots have had more employers than they have types on their licenses?