Last week was all about Akasa Air escalating the issue of 40+ pilots leaving the airline without the mandatory notice period being served. The case reached the courts with the airline asking for huge compensation for loss of reputation and flight cancellations. Strangely, the slide started after the airline talked about occupying the number two position in Bengaluru, pushing AirAsia India out of that. Instead of closing in the gap, it has widened and if the current operations are anything to go by – Akasa Air is many months away from being number two at Bengaluru.
Everything seemed well up to the legal notices, but when the media reported the arguments in the court with one talking about “may shut down”, things spiralled out of control. It may have been a great argument for a lawyer to show the importance of pilots and the merits of the case, but it can potentially have an impact on travellers, travel agents and existing employees of the airline. This led to more questions than answers. Anybody following the industry would tell you that the airline won’t shut down, and this looks like the creativity of lawyers to press the issue. Did anyone think of its implications?
A step back into this and one wonders what is the real reason for these resignations? A sizable number for the small airline leaving just for greener pastures or is there more than what meets the eye? Pilot discontent is all over social media, but social media is always rife with speculations and if at all one has to take information from there, it better be with a pinch of salt.
That gets us to the real issue – human resource management. A look at other industries shows that the highest of salaries can’t hold back employees in toxic cultures or unhappy environs. The high churn is often normalised as the norm for high growth companies, in industries like IT/ITeS. Airlines may not have seen such a huge churn due to lack of options but a sudden churn can get them to their knees.
The mature Human Resource does not need any management but what is needed is Human Response management. Sometimes, the same process and policy when applied in a way whìch looks consultative has higher approval ratings than being implemented overnight. While everyone keeps talking about pay not being the only criteria, seeing another person do the same work at higher pay hurts like no other and matching these in tough demand and supply metrics can lead to catastrophe. What if more pilots resign and serve the notice period? Instead of immediate cancellations, the impact may be after 6 months or a year but the airline may have to pay disproportional money to attract the same skill set – which will upset its finances.
The real need now for airlines to have Human Response management in place and automation, AI, ML and the other such buzzwords are least useful and would take people to extreme ends instead of a resolution. This case against the pilots by Akasa Air will set a precedent for many things in future in Indian aviation and courts for sure will factor in the Human Response in each of these issues.
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.