Learning culture in an organisation: key to aviation business success

Aviation is a fast-changing industry, deeply focused on safety and professionalism, thus continuous training is a must to ensure the quality of operations as well as employee satisfaction. At least this is how Aviator Airport Alliance, a full-range provider of aviation services at 15 airports across the Nordics, sees training within their organisation.

“Creating continuous training and learning culture within the organisation is an important part of a successful business,” Kjell Mathisen, Head of Training at Aviator, believes. “From the initial training, required to safely do the tasks, to more complex courses, we believe that learning at work should never end and that such a learning culture is beneficial not only for the company as a whole but also to each individual team member as an opportunity to improve themselves.”

According to Kjell, quality of training depends not only on the materials provided. “By far, the best way to engage people in learning new things is with the help of passionate and experienced trainers. A well-versed, competent, and involved trainer can take courses to the next level and inspire trainees to continue improving even after the courses end.”

One of such inspiring training opportunities is Aviator Leadership program for supervisors. “Our goal is to develop the best conditions for Aviator to have as strong leadership as possible,” he explains. “Great leadership, as well as a passion for work, is contagious, and passionate leaders can make a huge difference. Getting others to grow and reach their goals and achievements is one of the leader's most important tasks. It's about guiding and helping others to see opportunities.”

Aviator Leadership program for supervisors began in late 2019, with plans to continue in 2020, but the global pandemic made some changes to these plans. “Recently, we were able to return to the program, with 2 training groups having already finished the training. Now we have 4 more training sessions planned for 2023 and hope to switch to an on-demand model once all our supervisors are trained.”

The Head of Training at Aviator shares, that leadership training is essential for building culture, retaining staff, and improving the overall morale in the departments and the company. “Our supervisors are experts in their fields who are looking to become leaders of their groups. Some are natural leaders who want to improve, and some grow into the role with training. While the functional part of being a supervisor remains a major focus, strong leadership is also extremely important. Through this training, we can purely focus on the leadership role and strengthen their security in this part of their role as a supervisor.”

According to Kjell, Aviator Leadership Model builds on the company’s Values, Responsibility, Respect, Customer Focus, Flexibility and Passion. “The Model is used throughout the training and is promoted as a tool. Several of the participants used the Values back home in between the training and feedback was that this approach made their life easier while communicating with the staff. My experience is that many companies have values, but they are not actively used or worked with. It is a great tool to set and promote the culture you want in a company.”

So far, Aviator Leadership program has been a great success, therefore Kjell believes that such program could be beneficial to other companies. “As part of Avia Solutions Group, leaders in end-to-end capacity solutions for passenger and cargo airlines worldwide, we see a lot of potential for cooperation between our group companies. There are countless possibilities to further nurture training and learning culture in our group and we are excited to be a part of this journey.”