Dear Captain WU, Welcome to HKE and thanks for the slight pay rise today.
Not a bad effort on your first day on the job.
There is still a long way to go to get this package right.
First of all allow me to make a few suggestions. Taking on even half of them would have a huge impact on pilot morale, which was beaten to a pulp this year.
• ROSTERING ROSTERING ROSTERING. Get it right. Use it as a tool for free morale boosting. Roster requests. Some guys want hours and money, some want to get hours done in 3 weeks, and then have a week off in Thailand.
• Commuting Roster. Again with just a “little” effort you could roster people to do the average hours a month say… 60 or 70, then give them a week or 11 days off. Costs NOTHING but a little effort.
• Free upgrade to business class when on we are on i.d travel. Why is it such a big issue? Hell just give us a economy meal and we will be happy.
• How about just paying us a package to put us level with our Shenzhen cousins. Or even better pay us the Hainan expat contract. We are Hainan right? This Hainan package recognizes that WE ARE EXPATS and pays for yearly flights home, not to mention the Annual bonuses and far superior package in the lower cost of living mainland. Hong Kong pilots with its high cost of living should be paid more.
• The $50,000 usd non-reducible bond for 5 years, is unfair and excessive. Why not make it reducible?
• Annual leave. As we are not repaid for working public holidays, how about 6 weeks annual leave? This is what most airline companies do. Giving us a DDO on a day of your choosing which is also a mandatory DDO (due to CAD legal rest requirements) is not really fair. Give us 6 weeks off and we are all happy to work any public holiday.
• Annual leave pay. In order to avoid unnecessary court cases and bad publicity, just pay us what is legally required under Hong Kong Law. Paying us base salary for annual leave is not correct. Besides why is it so hard to “do the right thing”?
• Overhaul your HR policy. It is sub standard. Start by “trying” to make staff happy, not “trying” to do anything in your power to make us unhappy.
Most of these things I just thought of on the spot, and they cost the company NOTHING, yet would greatly motivate and reduce pilot turnover. The items such as pay increases actually cost the company less if you LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE. I realize it is not typical for Asian culture but think outside the square. Lowering the pay down and reducing conditions of service does not save you a thing long term. Did you know every pilot that was either fired or leaves of their own accord costs the company in excess of usd $250,000 usd +. Now you have to hire and train another guy with less experience.
The financial crisis will end eventually. Now is the time to regroup and regain some of the trust you lost last time. If the company made some steps in a positive way, they would be paid back 4 fold in morale and productivity increases.
Here are some free lessons from the masters. Southwest Airlines.
Southwest employees were among the highest paid in the industry and the company enjoyed low employee turnover relative to the airline industry. Southwest Airlines is one of the world’s most profitable airlines, posted a profit for the 36th consecutive year in January 2009.
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http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2002-2-0012.pdf
HKE should try it.
The Philosophy. (1) leading with credibility and caring, (2) investing in frontline leadership, (3) hiring and training for relational competence, (4) using conflicts to build relationships, (5) bridging the work/family divide, (6) creating boundary spanners, (7) measuring performance broadly, (8) keeping jobs flexible at the boundaries, (9) establishing partnerships with the unions, and (10) building relationships with suppliers. Each of these practices is designed to build relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect within the company and with its external partners, and together they have enabled Southwest to achieve industry-leading levels of both quality and efficiency. Thus, the primary lesson is that relationships are not just a nice addition to the hard factors, but are powerful drivers of organizational performance, if they are consistently integrated into organizational practices over the long term.
Perhaps this should be mandatory reading for all your upper management.
The Southwest Airlines way: using the power of relationships to achieve high performance
The Southwest Airlines way: using ... - Google Books
So I guess it proves that screwing everyone over does not get results and profit, but looking after your staff does. Hainan, you have a lot to learn. I hope you choose the tried and tested method and look after us a little better.
Regards