Staff turnover in any ATS provider is a commonality that will never cease. The ratings are increasingly becoming seamless in their recognition, so if anything, staff turnover might even increase amongst ATS providers worldwide.
During the years which were viewed as ‘good’ years also saw that very phenomenon, so unusual it is most definitely not.
ATNS as a company is quite unique and already contrary to most perspectives, operates on the basis that it is in direct competition with other In-Country ATS providers. Aside from the taxation on revenue, salaries are in fact quite good. In relation to purchasing power, most staff from Aerdodrome qualified upwards are already earning larger packages than university graduates still working off their internship, so blaming income is somewhat flawed.
Increasing salaries will not stem the tide, yearly increments and two retention policy applications have failed at that.
However, a trend that I have noticed over the past 4/5 yrs is the increasing number of ATSA phase staff who want to get out either with just their qualification of ATSA or in the ATSA phase en-route to becoming a fully qualified controller. This I believe is a concern that should be addressed by ATNS. As a company ATNS provides innumerable career advancement opportunities, so seeing your future in the company during your early years as a dead-end is an issue that any corporate environment should look to rectifying.
It is this very issue that leads me to believe that the egalitarian work ethic of ATNS is starting to show cracks that are becoming more and more difficult to mend.
The one ATS provider in the world that has an almost 90% staff retention record and job satisfaction record is the Indian CAA. They have an extremely attractive career advancement policy that actually encourages employees to pursue their career within the CAA while providing regular goals and rewards that recognise not only input, but years of service and seniority. In addition to this they also have an incentive scheme that is void of all penalties. The indoctrination there being a total focus on achieving a specific goal and not focussing on what will transpire in the event of a failure to meet that goal……whatever it may be. The end result is that the support from management is such that everybody,…….everybody reaches their goal, irrespective of how long it takes. Discipline, punitive or otherwise is naturally part of the administration structure, but is never focussed on, all-be-its existence known.
This might sound familiar and does not mean that there-in lies the problem with ATNS, but what cannot be ignored is that staff early in their career (many only semi-qualified) are leaving ATNS, so undoubtedly there is a huge flaw that either is not being detected or is willingly being glossed over,……whichever of the two, it in my opinion is a sad reflection of a company that I and so many others still believe in.