How to Motivate Your Airport Staff

Working in an airport can be a challenge for even the most professional employees. With frequently delayed flights, ever-changing security regulations, and busy baggage claims, disgruntled passengers can often take out their fury on staff who are just trying to do their jobs. If you want to make your airport a more productive place for employees, here are some ways to improve motivation.

Why is Employee Motivation Important?

Twenty percent of workers across all industries say encouragement from their peers is the biggest motivating factor at work, while 13 percent want to feel encouraged and recognized in their jobs. That's why it's essential to motivate all employees in your team, including technicians, ground staff, baggage operators, and maintenance staff.

Motivated employees tend to work harder, focus on their daily duties, and arrive on time. That means productivity levels across your airport could increase significantly. Another study reveals that motivated employees are 87 percent less likely to leave a company.

Offer Employee Rewards

Although money isn't necessarily a motivating factor for all employees, rewarding workers for their accomplishments can make them feel appreciated and recognized. This, in turn, can improve productivity and reduce staff attrition rates.

An incentive program is one idea to reward employees fairly. It involves giving workers specific benefits or privileges after achieving a pre-determined goal. An incentive might be a gift card for employees who excel at customer service in your terminal. Or it could be a paid day off work for employees who identify security risks in the airport. Whatever form your incentive program takes, make sure staff are aware of the program by advertising it on your internal web pages or in staff meetings.

Invest in Training

Training is one of the best ways to motivate airport employees because it provides life-long benefits. Teaching employees’ new soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving can also make workers feel valued. They can apply these skills to future job roles and progress their careers at your airport. Although employee training costs money, it can prove lucrative. One study suggests that every dollar spent on learning and development generates a $4.53 return. That's a return on investment of 353 percent.

Using an airport operations management system to manage your training programs makes it easier to organize learning content in one place and track employee progress. Over time, you can produce a more productive and motivated workplace by investing in skills development and other learning initiatives.

Provide Regular Feedback

Seventy-five percent of employees value the importance of feedback from their employers. That means more than just an annual performance review. Consider providing regular updates about performance and productivity to all employees in your airport so they can learn from their mistakes and harness their skills.

With regular feedback, you can motivate employees by proving you care about their career development and professional growth. You can also use these feedback opportunities to clarify employee expectations and guide them through their job roles.

"Constructive feedback is one of the most important things a manager can provide to their employees," says LinkedIn. "Feedback is not only essential to employee success and performance, but it is also important to the success of your organization or company."

How Can Software Help You Motivate Employees?

Using the right software can help you automate many of the tasks associated with personnel management in your airport. For example, you can track training outcomes, centralize employee data, and reduce paperwork. Instead of using several systems for airport operations, the correct software provides you with a single source of data, freeing up time and resources.

The best software expedites airport management workflows so you can focus on employee development and improve company culture. Aerosimple is a Part 139-approved system for personnel management that digitizes tasks such as operations, training, engagement, and compliance. Use it for documentation and reporting on your computer or smart device wherever you are in the world. Other features include real-time reports, no setup fees, unlimited users, mapping software, leasing management tools, an iOS/Android app, and excellent customer service.

Final Word

Motivating employees can result in better customer service, greater productivity, lower staff turnover, and a happier workforce. Consider providing employees with regular feedback, investing in learning and development, and incentivizing workers with benefits and privileges. Using software to manage these tasks reduces paperwork and improves data sharing, compliance, and performance.

Aerosimple Also Offers Data Migration Services

If you already manage personnel operations through an existing system, Aerosimple can help you migrate your data to its new platform. It's one of the only airport personnel management solutions that offer data migration services. Now you push critical information seamlessly from one location to another without data loss or lots of downtime.

Sign up now for a FREE 60-day trial

‍